Many of the most impactful innovative changes happen in the seemingly mundane moments of everyday life. Activities like eating or sleeping may not seem as exciting or newsworthy as the latest tech advance, but these are the kinds of activities that affect everyone. Here are practical tools and methods to help: Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) Framework. Ask not what the customer is using, but what job they are trying to get done. Casper used JTBD to learn they were hired to do the job of “effortlessly getting a comfortable bed into my home without the hassle of a showroom.” They innovated the entire product and business model by focusing on the job, not just the product. Customer Safari. Dyson famously found inspiration for its hand dryers in high-speed jet engines. Make customer observation part of onboarding. Let new hires shadow users for a day. Fresh eyes spot what insiders miss. The potential and power of observation are tremendous. Annoyance Audit Practice mindful noticing. Have team members make lists of small annoyances, minor frustrations, inconveniences. It could be tangled cords, awkward backpacks, ineffective gardening tools or grocery bags that tip over. Annoyances and pain points are innovation prompts in disguise. Reverse Innovation. Also known as trickle-up innovation. This is where the process or service is developed in a low-cost, resource-constrained environment, like an emerging market, and then introduced to a developed market. An example is GE’s $800 portable ultrasound. It was developed for rural China and is now widely used in the U.S.