Innovation Types that Will Surprise You (With Examples)

While many focus on disruptive innovation, there are other types of innovation that can also be game-changers. Product innovation involves making changes to a product and can include improving performance or adding new features. Process innovation involves improving the production process to increase productivity or reduce costs. Incremental innovation is about improving existing products and services, while disruptive innovation is about creating something entirely new. Architectural innovation involves applying existing technology to a different market, and component innovation involves making changes within a product. Closed innovation, where a company relies solely on internal employees for ideas, is becoming less popular in favor of open innovation that involves working with outside stakeholders to reinvent parts of the business.