In The Power of Little Ideas, written with Kent Lineback, David Robertson introduces a low-risk, high-reward approach to innovation he characterizes as the “Third Way.” In essence, this approach is “neither incremental improvement in current products nor revolutionary [radical] disruption of those products…[an approach that is] not bound by the binary thinking that says innovators have only two choices: innovate small or innovate big. There is another option.”

According to Robertson, answering these four questions will guide and inform decisions with regard to HOW to pursue a low-risk, high-reward approach to innovation:

1. What is your core product?
2. What is your business promise?
3. How will you innovate?
4. How will you deliver your innovations?

“The goal of these four decisions is to bring to market a family of innovations that will deliver on the promise. Doing so will challenge the Third Way team in new and unfamiliar ways, and will require changes in the innovation process, team composition, and leadership roles for the team.”

Robertson thoroughly explains all this in the book.

In Sprint, Jake Knapp with John Zeratsky and Braden Kowitz explain “how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days.” Note to use of “test” rather than “solve.” The primary purpose of the Sprint approach is to determine yes/no/maybe in a timely manner. To develop one “insanely great idea,” you’ll need to generate hundreds of ideas. More often than not, you can make that determination in five or fewer days of rigorous scrutiny.

In another book I also highly recommend, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, Peter Sims explains an experimental approach to innovation that involves a lot of little bets and certain creative methods to identify possibilities and build up to great outcomes eventually, after frequent failures.

Actually, experimental innovation has no failures; rather, there are initiatives that have not as yet succeeded, each of which is a precious learning opportunity.

“At the core of this experimental approach, little bets are concrete actions taken to discover, test, and develop ideas that are achievable and affordable. They begin as creative possibilities that get iterated and refined over time, and they are particularly valuable when trying to navigate amid uncertainty, create something new, or attend to open-ended problems.”

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David Robertson is a Professor of Practice at the Wharton School where he teaches Innovation and Product Development in Wharton’s undergraduate, MBA, and executive education programs. To learn more about him and his work, please click here.

The Power of Little Ideas was published by Harvard Business Review Press (May 2017).