Product Development without a sound commercial footing is just play. Play can be good and at times is vital, but the ultimate test of how great a product you have is how much people are prepared to pay for it.
Only with a really thorough understanding of the technology can you hope to understand what it could do and grasp the reasons why your customers might want them to use it.
Why would customers pay for products? Because they satisfy some need. That need may be explicit (in which case your competitors can see it) or maybe it is implicit and ready for you to uncover it by really understanding your customers.
Innovation links the two; no long baths, no retreats, no drugs, no Budhist chants, just energetic, creative thinking and problem solving informed by a deep understanding of the technology, the market and commercial reality.
