Something Really New: Three Simple Steps to Creating Truly Innovative Products

Chapter 8. Spotlight on Services

UP UNTIL NOW, WE HAVE LARGELY BEEN TALKING ABOUT goods—products in the sense of tangible things that people buy and use. But everything that has been discussed thus far applies to services as well. We just need to understand that services either are single tasks or connect related tasks. In either case, services are increasingly important.

The world economy is rapidly changing from one that produces hard goods to one that produces digital goods as well as services of all sorts. In 2006, three-quarters of the U.S. workforce was employed in the services industry. The services industry itself is enormously complex. My corner automobile repair shop is performing a service. But so is Verizon.

Some services are very ...