Jeff Winter

Is innovation becoming synonymous with disruption?
I hope not... 😬

Somewhere along the way, we started using “innovation” as if it has to mean something massive, disruptive, AI-powered, headline-worthy, or wrapped in a keynote with dramatic music (FYI, if I had to choose, my preference would be the Imperial March 🤣). But a lot of the best innovation is much less glamorous than that. It is making something easier. Making something work better. Removing friction from a process that people have learned to tolerate.

Helping someone make a better decision faster. Taking something painful and making it usable.

That is why the classic three lenses of human-centered design still hold up so well: desirability, feasibility, and viability.

𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲asks whether people actually want it. Does it solve a real problem for a real person in a real context?

𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 asks whether we can actually build it, support it, integrate it, operate it, and scale it.

𝐕𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 asks whether it makes business sense. Can it create value, capture value, and survive beyond the pilot, demo, or executive offsite?

The problem today is that a lot of companies, especially with AI, are getting overly excited by feasibility.

Can we build a chatbot? Yes. Can we automate that workflow? Probably. Can we summarize documents, generate dashboards, suggest actions, predict failures, or create agents? Sure.

But “can we?” is not the same as “should we?”
And it is definitely not the same as “will people use it, trust it, and change how they work because of it?”

That is why desirability feels like the lens that matters most. Not because feasibility and viability are less important. They still matter a lot. But the technical possibilities are expanding faster than most organizations can absorb them. The bottleneck is shifting from what technology can do to what humans will actually adopt.

So no, innovation does not have to be disruptive. But it does have to be desirable, feasible, and viable. Otherwise...it is just a clever idea looking for a reason to exist.

Remember that! 😎

Everyone is sprinting into AI right now. And honestly, that makes sense. The pressure is real, the technology is evolving weekly, and nobody wants to be the company explaining in 5 years why they waited on the sidelines.

But two things jumped out at me from this data:

First... 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 was the clear leader.

That is interesting because when I ran similar polls around digital transformation in the past, 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 was often one of the smallest struggles.

Companies usually had a decent sense of what they wanted to do. The hard part was how to execute, where to start, or who owned it. With AI, that seems different. A lot of companies are still wrestling with what AI actually means for the business.

Second... the rest of the numbers are fairly evenly spread.

That tells me there is no universal AI struggle.
Some companies need vision.
Some need a strategy.
Some need buy-in.
Some need prioritization.
Some need ownership.

And that might be the bigger point: AI maturity is not one journey.
It is a lot of companies trying to solve very different problems under the same very big label.

Is innovation becoming synonymous with disruption?

I hope not.

Somewhere along the way, we started acting like innovation has to be massive, AI-powered, industry-shaking, and worthy of a keynote presentation.

But some of the best innovation is much less glamorous.

It’s making something easier.

Removing friction.

Helping someone make a better decision.

Taking something painful and making it usable.

That’s why I still love the three classic lenses of human-centered design:

Desirability.
Do people actually want it?

Feasibility.
Can we realistically build, support, and scale it?

Viability.
Does it create sustainable business value?

The challenge today—especially with AI—is that many organizations are becoming obsessed with feasibility.

Can we build it?

Probably.

Can we automate it?

Most likely.

Can we create an agent, assistant, copilot, dashboard, predictor, or chatbot?

Sure.

But “can we?” is not the same as “should we?”

And it’s definitely not the same as:

“Will people actually use it?”

The bottleneck is no longer technology.

Technology is advancing faster than most organizations can absorb.

The real challenge is adoption.

Trust.

Behavior change.

That’s why desirability may be the most important lens right now.

Because innovation doesn’t have to be disruptive.

But it does have to be desirable, feasible, and viable.

Otherwise, it’s just a clever idea looking for a reason to exist.

I love listening to AI conversations in real time.

Because everyone is technically talking about the same thing...

While also talking about completely different things. 😅

One person is talking about GPUs and inference speeds.

Another is talking about whether AI will eliminate entire job functions.

Someone else is calling their dashboard “AI-powered” because it has a search bar now.

And somehow everyone leaves the meeting convinced they aligned.

That’s what makes AI such a fascinating topic.

It’s simultaneously:

• A technology shift
• A business strategy
• A marketing term
• A societal experiment

All happening at the same time.

And the funny part?

The moment an AI capability becomes reliable, useful, and boring...

We stop calling it AI.

It becomes a feature.

A tool.

An expectation.

We’ve been doing this for decades.

Yesterday’s artificial intelligence becomes today’s software.

Which is why I think future generations are going to find our AI conversations hilarious.

We used the same term to describe everything from autonomous agents making decisions...

To autocomplete finishing a sentence.

No wonder half the room is confused.

The technology isn’t always the problem.

Sometimes it’s the vocabulary.

A lot of leaders don’t lose their ability.

They lose the nerve to use it.

That thought hit me today after doing a front flip for the first time in nearly 20 years.

And before anyone asks...

No, this is not AI. 😂

I was genuinely nervous.

Could I still do it?

Would my body remember?

Or was I about to turn a fun afternoon into a very expensive conversation with my doctor?

But something interesting happened.

The moment I committed, my body remembered more than my fear wanted me to believe.

And honestly, leadership feels a lot like that.

Sometimes we already know what needs to be done.

The challenge isn’t capability.

It’s courage.

Making the hard decision.

Changing direction.

Admitting the old approach isn’t working.

Trying something before it feels perfectly safe.

We spend so much time waiting to feel confident that we forget confidence is often the result, not the prerequisite.

Sometimes you have to take the leap first.

Maybe you land perfectly.

Maybe you land awkwardly.

Either way, you remember you’re still capable of more than you thought.

Still got it. 😉

What’s something you’ve been hesitating to do, even though deep down you know you probably still can?