Recently someone described to me an idea for a financial payments startup and asked how it may be possible to implement. After thinking about it, I realized that it may not have been the right question; instead, we should have been wondering why it hasn’t been done before — in fact, it turned out WePay had done it. It wasn’t the most perfect implementation but it went a long way in thinking through the ideal versus practical implementation. 

As we sat on the BART rail talking, I realized “why” was sometimes the most important question to ask. BART is one of the few if any public subways that don’t use hard plastic seats and instead use cloth. I’m sure the designer at the time thought he or she was being clever and original to be offering a softer surface for seating, but in fact, there was a good reason why people use hard seats — they don’t get moldy or dirty easily. 

I think in cases of business innovation or design innovation rather than technological innovation, why trumps how as the primary focus. Why hasn’t someone else done it? Why didn’t they do it a certain way?

In contrast, technology innovation is about how something impossible can be made possible. So the next time you come up with an idea, ask yourself what sort of innovation it is so you know what to focus on.