#5: Three Keys to Innovation Opportunity identification: Strategy, Space & Time

There are lots of opportunities out there, waiting to be developed. Choosing which are the right ones for YOU and your enterprise to invest in is a critical early stage consideration.

Not all opportunities are worth the chase. Too often, innovators get caught up in exciting but unsustainable ideas that don’t align with long-term success. To make smarter bets, you need to employ three key dimensions or opportunity identification: Strategy, Space, and Time. Does it fit your future vision? Can you truly own the space? And will your advantage last long enough to make it worthwhile? In this post, I break down how to identify strategically valuable, ownable spaces for a useful period of time—so you can focus on innovation that actually matters.

Once you have Clarity of Purpose for your innovation efforts (see Post #1), the next phase is Discovery. This phase focuses on identifying future opportunities and prioritizing them for deeper exploration in further Discovery.

Too often, innovators chase “shiny objects” – exciting but ultimately unprofitable or strategically distracting opportunities. Not all ideas are worth the investment. To help prioritize, consider three key dimensions: Strategy, Space, and Time. If an opportunity doesn’t align across all three, it might be exciting or even worthwhile — but not for your business (unless you are prepared to create a new, separate business and brand).

While working on a project several years ago that was designed to identify ways to extend a market leader’s key competencies into new businesses adjacencies for growth, I had the pleasure of meeting Milind Lele, strategy consultant, Adjunct Professor of Chicago Booth School of business and author of “Monopoly Rules”. While his book uses the concept of a monopoly to illustrate the power of being alone in a marketplace in order to drive worthwhile profits, I found the principles to be valuable considerations for innovators making choices of which opportunities to pursue and have used a slightly modified version of it with all my clients since then.

The Three Dimensions of Prioritization

Strategically valuable, Ownable Spaces for a Useful Period of Time

1. Strategy: Does This Opportunity Align with Your Future Success?

Innovation is costly and time-consuming, so it must directly support your long-term strategy. If cracking this Opportunity Space moves you toward where you need to be, it’s worth pursuing. If not, keep looking.

2. Space: Is This a Worthwhile, Ownable Space?

A fact of innovation is that if it is truly new, truly Breakthrough, there are lots of unknowns. Guessing the revenue opportunity at this stage is an exercise in futility. I like to call them “Imaginary Numbers”... not useful in prioritizing opportunities.  New opportunities often lack clear market benchmarks. To assess worthiness and ownability, consider:

• Is it unclaimed? Does the solution, geography, product, or service currently lack ownership? Breakthrough innovation creates new value for new users, markets, or occasions.

• Is it worth owning? Evaluate this without traditional sales data:

• Are there enough potential customers?

• Are the unmet needs significant and worthwhile?

• Do these potential customers have the means to pay for a solution?

3. Time: Can You Maintain Ownership for a Meaningful Period?

No innovation remains unchallenged forever. Consider:

• Will you be the only player—for a while? Are there technological, business model, or regulatory barriers that give you an advantage?

• Do you have a legitimate “right of way” to enter this space? Does your brand, competencies, or business model support your credibility in this market?

• Can you charge a premium to justify the investment? Early movers set pricing, but competitors often copy at lower costs. Ensure your pricing and margins support long-term profitability.

The Takeaway

When prioritizing innovation opportunity spaces, ask yourself three key questions:

1. Strategic Fit – Is this crucial for our future?

2. Ownable Space – Can we claim and defend this opportunity?

3. Useful Timeframe – Can we maintain an advantage long enough to make it worthwhile?

Keeping these dimensions in mind will help you focus on innovation that truly matters. Stay tuned for more prioritization tools in future posts!