Innovating Through Uncertain Times: 5 Tips from Intuit Co-founder, Scott Cook

As a tech community, how can we collectively accelerate financial prosperity solutions and play a greater role in helping chart the path to economic recovery in response to COVID-19? 

At the recent Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Demo Day, Scott Cook was joined by David Marquis, Country Manager at Intuit Canada in a fireside session to share insights around the founding of Intuit, the inception of the Design for Delight (D4D) process, and how today’s environment has spurred innovative and collaborative programs like Intuit Aid Assist and the Intuit Prosperity Accelerator.

The following outlines the five key takeaways from the session:

Great innovators begin with customer empathy. Walk in your customers’ shoes to design experiments, iterate, learn and change – with agility and resilience. At Intuit, we have a set of methods – D4D, which helps us to identify problems that are grounded in customer insights and create bold new ideas through the process of rapid experimentation.   

Highly-engaged teams are mission-driven. Have a company mission that is so compelling that it motivates everyone to make an impact on the world, and that will always attract the top talent. 

When your playbook isn’t working, you’ve got to find a new play. Resilience and adversity are opportunities if you have the courage to learn something new. Find the best expert you can find and have them teach you. 

Be more local than the locals. There is a natural tendency to extrapolate your own experiences and say, “well that must be the experience for everyone else.” However, it’s important to consider unique viewpoints and local challenges when expanding globally. Find the biggest unsolved customer pain that hasn’t been solved in multiple countries, and take an unbiased approach to understanding what’s most important in each geography.

Collaboration works best when there is alignment on shared purpose. We all aspire to belong to a greater cause and make a positive impact. Once this is achieved, innovation then becomes your catalyst for moving with purpose and velocity. 

Uncertainty breeds innovation. Through Intuit’s D4D principles, we can accelerate and play a greater role in helping chart the path to economic recovery.

Watch the full fireside chat with Scott Cook here. 

Learn more about the principles of Design for Delight here.