4. Reduce diversity, but don't do it at the customer's expense!

Even before we think about mitigating the consequences of diversity, i.e. at the very heart of the innovation design process, it's vital to do everything possible to limit this diversity! Of course, it's not a question of eliminating the competitive advantage that diversity represents, which enables us to occupy large market segments or even niches, but of limiting the part of diversity that is "invisible to the customer".

The first response is standardization. This can be achieved in three major ways, and should be considered as early as possible in the introduction of the innovation:

• Standardization of raw materials or components: the idea is to build new products using as many existing components or raw materials as possible, or those already in the catalog. This idea is taken to its extreme in the concept of "differentiation...