15/5/2019 A Taxonomy of Innovation

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

A Taxonomy of Innovation
by Luma Institute
FROM THE JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2014 ISSUE

START FULL TAXONOMY LOOKING UNDERSTANDING MAKING EXAMPLE CASE

Looking
Vision Statement

A Taxonomy of Innovation
Fast-changing markets demand rapid development of new products and
processes. Thousands of tools and methods are available to help
innovators discover what users want and how to deliver on their
expectations. The challenge is to figure out which ones to use when.

Understanding Luma Institute has created a framework to help you choose the best tool
for each step of the innovation process, based on the people you’re
designing for and the complexity of the systems in which you operate.
Luma distilled the portfolio down to 36 of the most effective tools for
innovation—the majority of them in common use—organized in three
categories: looking, understanding, and making. Each category contains three
subcategories, and each subcategory contains four innovation tools. This
hierarchical model makes it much easier to identify the tools you need
and then put them to use.

EXPLORE THE FRAMEWORK →

Making

The Daily Alert

A version of this article appeared in thenewsletter
A daily January–February
with links2014 issue
to all theofdigital
Harvard Business
articles Review.in the last 24 hours.
published
Sign up now 

https://hbr.org/2014/01/a-taxonomy-of-innovation 1/2
Luma
15/5/2019Institute is a global education company that teaches people
A Taxonomy of Innovation
how to be more innovative by applying the discipline of human-centered
design.

This article is about PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

 Follow This Topic

Related Topics: Innovation

Comments
Leave a Comment

Post Comment

0 COMMENTS

 Join The Conversation

POSTING GUIDELINES
We hope the conversations that take place on HBR.org will be energetic, constructive, and thought-provoking. To comment, readers must sign in or register. And to ensure
the quality of the discussion, our moderating team will review all comments and may edit them for clarity, length, and relevance. Comments that are overly promotional,
mean-spirited, or off-topic may be deleted per the moderators' judgment. All postings become the property of Harvard Business Publishing.

The Daily Alert

A daily newsletter with links to all the digital articles published in the last 24 hours.
Sign up now 

https://hbr.org/2014/01/a-taxonomy-of-innovation 2/2