Bob Gamgort, CEO of Keurig Dr Pepper, learned a valuable lesson when his team set out to develop a fully recyclable coffee pod. The challenge wasn’t just about creating a new material. It was about aligning technology, supply chains, and consumer expectations. Rushing the process could have led to compromises, but by prioritizing the right solution over a fast one, they ultimately delivered a successful, sustainable product. Reflecting on the experience, Gamgort summed it up simply:
"I've learned that you can't schedule innovation... We didn't need a timetable; we needed the best idea." — Bob Gamgort
Too many teams treat innovation like a project with a delivery date. They assume that if you set a deadline, great ideas will magically appear on cue. But real breakthroughs don’t work that way. Innovation happens when the right conditions align—not because of a looming deadline.
Some of the biggest product successes weren’t rushed to market; they were nurtured, tested, and introduced at the right moment. Others failed not because the idea was bad, but because the technology wasn’t there or people simply weren’t ready for it.
Three Elements of Innovation
These aren’t the only factors to consider in innovation, but they are three critical elements to consider:
- The Idea – The inspiration and creative spark.
- The Materials – The tools and technology to make it real.
- The Social Context – A world that’s ready to adopt it.
If any of these are missing, forcing a deadline won’t help. It’ll just push out something unfinished or doomed to fail. Let’s look at each in a little more detail.
The Idea – More Than a Spark
Ideas are easy. The hard part is making them work. That takes time, exploration, iteration, and patience.
Take the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard. Ken Kocienda, in Creative Selection, describes how Apple prototyped countless versions before landing on one that felt natural. The keyboard had to feel right—not just functional but fluid and intuitive. If Apple had rushed this process, the iPhone would have been a flop among the PDA-dominated market.
As ideas are created, be careful not to pursue a single version of it. Avoid early lock-in. Instead, create an environment where ideas can evolve and get better over time. Allow for time to experiment and try new things.
The best ideas aren’t just thought up—they’re grown over time. Like a fine wine, they need time to mature into something amazing.
The Materials – Waiting for the Right Tools
Ideas don’t stand alone, though. Even the best idea is worthless if the technology isn’t there to support it. Many breakthroughs only became possible when the right materials emerged.
Let’s look at Kevlar and bulletproof vests as an example. Before Kevlar, body armor was heavy, bulky, and made of metal plates—limiting mobility and practicality. Kevlar, an ultra-strong synthetic fiber developed by DuPont, came along and changed everything. It was lightweight, flexible, and five times stronger than steel. Suddenly, bulletproof vests became practical for law enforcement and military use, saving countless lives.
Kevlar wasn’t created with bulletproof vests in mind—it was initially a lab discovery for tire reinforcement. But once its properties were understood, it enabled an entirely new category of protective gear that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. The material unlocked a new kind of value.
At times, we need to slow down and identify what’s missing to bring our ideas into reality. Sometimes we try to force an idea that isn’t technologically feasible yet. If that’s the case, then make note of it and see if there are industry-adjacent options, or possibly an opportunity to create a strategic advantage by creating a new kind of “material”. It’s important to foster an environment without the pressure of committing too soon.
Sometimes, novel ideas need to wait for the right tools or technology to catch up. Or, sometimes novel materials shine a light on opportunities.
The Social Context – The Market Has to Be Ready
Even if you have the idea and the materials, the world (and your context) has to be ready for it.
QR codes are a fantastic case study. Originally developed in the 1990s, they were a clever way to store and share information, but they never fully caught on. I remember an ad campaign I worked on back in the early 2010s. We were trying to use QR codes to enable people to quickly get information on the web. But despite lots of different attempts over a decade ago, they didn’t really catch on. That is until 2021.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most people preferred physical menus, tickets, and printed materials. Almost overnight, the need for touchless interactions skyrocketed, and QR codes became the go-to solution for accessing menus, check-ins, and contactless payments. The technology didn’t change, but the social context did. Fortunately, the technology of QR codes was ready, and the world had smartphones to decode them. This made QR codes invaluable almost overnight.
People range from early adopters to change resistors. If an idea feels too early, look for niche markets where people are eager to adopt early. Build traction in small areas before going mainstream. Of course, this takes research and conceptual testing to understand whether ideas are ahead of their social time. But you can overcome that friction with small, steady technological introductions over time.
Innovation isn’t just about what’s possible. It’s also about what people are willing to accept.
Deadlines Can Still Be Helpful…
…at the Right Time.
When you bring ideas, materials, and social context together, you realize quickly how timelines simply can’t be dictated to produce deep innovation. Ideas might just be the easiest part. New materials take time to discover and manufacture. Social context requires thoughtful engagement and/or long-term planning.
Rigid timelines don’t create breakthroughs. They create pressure to ship something, whether it’s ready or not. Google Glass is a great example of what happens when a company forces a product into the market before its time.
Timelines are still helpful though, when used at the right time. They should emerge after innovation has begun to mature, not before. Great ideas need the right timing to succeed. Too soon, and it will be rejected.
What can we do then?
So, what can designers and leaders of design do to foster transformative innovation? The most important thing is patience (something that might go against traditional business management philosophy). Rather than focusing on process and deadlines, focus on the people that can bring ideas and materials to reality.
- Apple’s iPhone Keyboard: They didn’t commit to a final design until they had tested multiple versions, created by multiple different people.
- QR Codes: Sometimes developing an idea is a long-term investment that may not be immediately useful. It requires courageous people to create ideas and look for opportunities to make them successful.
- 3M Sticky Notes: When an accidental discovery of a new kind of (failed) adhesive, passionate people explored alternative uses, which led to an incredibly simple invention. You probably have some hanging somewhere in your office or stacked on your desk.
Each of these ideas matured in their own time with passionate people behind the ideas. Were timelines involved? Yes, at the right time. But timelines could never have produced the kind of change necessary to make any of these concepts successful.
What are designers and design leaders to do?
- First, always make it a priority to be exploring something new. Maybe it’s only a small side-project (a “10% time” thing).
- Second, curiosity about new possibilities and technologies is a good thing. It leads to a broader understanding of what’s possible. Spend time reading and exploring scientific breakthroughs and shifts in the technological landscape.
- Third, keep an eye on the social context. The world is always changing. As we’ve seen with the pandemic, the world can change dramatically in just a few weeks. Test out and try new ideas regularly. Regularly, put things out into the world to see what sticks.
Onward toward innovation
In 1961, Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the Moon before the decade’s end. That deadline worked because the foundations of spaceflight were already in place. What remained was the immense challenge of engineering execution.
If he had set the same goal in 1940 (prior to the V2 rocket), it would have been impossible. The necessary technology simply didn’t exist yet, nor had the long-range rocketry groundwork been laid. NASA could not have skipped ahead to the Saturn V without the technological advances before.
The same is true for innovation today. Deadlines can drive execution when conditions are right, but when they aren’t, forcing a schedule just leads to failure. The best breakthroughs don’t come from arbitrary deadlines. They come with tending through patience and persistence.
One Last Thought
After working on this article for the past few days, it has dawned on me. Innovation is a lot like farming.
You can’t force a harvest, no matter how badly you want one. You can till the soil, plant seeds, take care of weeds, feed and nurture the plants, but you can’t control the weather. Some ideas will sprout quickly, others may take years, and some won’t grow at all. That’s the reality of innovation. It requires patience, perseverance, and the right resources. But when everything aligns, the results can be transformative. So keep planting, keep tending, and trust that the right ideas will take root when the time is right.
