A Model for Writing Innovation

"Indeed, it was outsiders … who were most likely to find answers and do so quickly."

-- Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge

Like most freelance technology writers, I’m often asked by prospective clients whether I have writing experience in this or that subject matter area. If I don’t, my answer usually goes something like this:

“No, but if we talk, you’ll see I have a working knowledge of your field. More importantly, you’ll see that I can help you encapsulate your value proposition in a way that other people will really understand much faster.”

It’s a hard sell -- one that many people find counterintuitive. How can a relative outsider solve a marketing communications problem that people within the field so far have not?

Maybe this will help explain. Recently I ran across an article in Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge newsletter about open source innovation. This is where people from all over the world offer solutions to problems posted on websites like that of Waltham-based InnoCentive. (Solvers are motivated by cash awards and the intellectual challenge, among other incentives.) HBS Assistant Professor Karim R. Lakhani conducted the research, which surveyed 166 problems posted by scientific organizations.

A key finding: That most solutions came from people outside the field in which the problem was presented -- often after the people working in that field have certified the problem as unsolvable. As Professor Lakhani states:

… most of these scientists were highly skeptical about this method because they considered themselves to be at the top of their discipline. However, they had never thought about the possibility of scientists in other disciplines looking at their problem, reconceptualizing it, and coming up with a solution that could be off-the-shelf. So when they actually see solutions from this type of method, they're blown away.

The moral here is that you don’t need deep experience in a field to come up with great solutions. Indeed the opposite is often true, because you can bring a fresh perspective and be more creative.