Mimo's approach to Innovation in AV
Innovation and staying not only on top of but ahead of market trends is paramount to market success. Since Mimo’s top priority is our customer service (in addition to our premium products), we also approach any new products or innovations we create from a customer-centric lens. Here we’re going to walk through our approach to innovation, share some products that we believe are some of our most innovative over the last year, and provide some tips for others looking to up their innovation game.
When we’re thinking about a new product innovation, before we even get to the prototype phase, we begin by hearing what our customers are saying they need or want and what’s at the forefront of their minds. Then, before we take any next steps and allocate any more substantial resources, we talk with marketing, engineering, and sales to see if they all think it’s a good idea and would meet customer demand. If so, we also typically enlist a lead customer to ensure that our innovations are aligned with what they're looking for or what they would ideally like to see. This is typically a good market to gauge overarching pain points and to understand what would make the product a success from a customer perspective. We also rely on our market experience and expertise to tell us if we think that there’s a healthy balance between cost, resources, feasibility, and viability before forging ahead with making the actual product.
Timing is also a major part of any innovation. We know that by the time something is top of mind for everyone, it’s too late-- the market is too saturated, and the product is no longer really innovative. That’s why we try to forecast and predict up to three years out and ensure we’re always ahead of the curve.
In the last several years we’ve seen the overarching landscape evolve greatly, mostly as a result of Covid, the fallout afterwards, and the need to adapt as a result. Pre-Covid, most companies were in the office most of the time, and many did not collaborate over video. Now, we’ve seen an explosion of video conferencing and although many are returning to the office, hybrid work and video conferencing as an essential tool for the work environment isn’t going anywhere. Collaboration spaces in offices now must be numerous and all must contain video conferencing at the forefront to accommodate those working in the office, remotely, and adhering to some kind of hybrid schedule.
Since Covid really shifted the way people work and communicate, we saw this as an opportunity to leverage our expertise in the video conferencing space and create some new innovations in the market. As we saw this shift beginning to unfold, we started immediately working on the Mimo Myst Link, the first-to-market AV-over-IP display with HDMI capture. Because this display works via an Ethernet cable it provides a lot of tangible benefits for offices and is ideal for the new working landscape.
The Mimo Myst Link was specifically designed with flexibility in mind. With it being so simple and intuitive to set up (no complicated IT required) and power never required at the conference room table, it can accommodate changing furniture configurations, or be easily moved around depending on how many folks are actually in the room. The seamless setup allows for it to also be utilized easier in small conference rooms or huddle rooms, which there are more and more of today. Because of our foresight and upfront understanding of how Covid may impact the market, we were able to roll out the Mimo Myst Link very swiftly to capitalize on this new market need.
In addition, we’ve recently announced our latest product: The FlashCast Visual Alert Overlay. This groundbreaking and powerful hardware allows for seamless sending of real-time alert and time sensitive information quickly and efficiently to HDMI-connected displays via the cloud. It is also compatible with Common Alert Protocol, 3rd party alerting software, as well as custom message overlays and allows for takeovers of every display with HDMI to communicate effectively and quickly without hassle.
In today’s world, sometimes things change in a flash, which is why this hardware was so needed. It’s impossible to predict when there will be an emergency or things that need to be communicated very quickly. Until now, there has never been an efficient and turnkey way for all displays to be controlled by a single interface. That’s why we decided to leverage our hardware expertise and create a way to disseminate information quickly and at scale. Always thinking one step ahead, we saw this as a market need and knew we had the skills, knowledge, and ability to fill this void. We’re always assessing the market need and what unique capabilities we have to innovate in unique and compelling ways.
Throughout our years, we’ve learned a lot about the best innovation pipeline and what it takes for something to be truly innovative in the market. Our advice to other companies and entrepreneurs who are looking to stay on top of innovation is to first and foremost, always listen to your customers. Most of the time, they’ll tell you exactly what they need, and your job essentially is how to coalesce that specific need with an innovative solution that fits a wider market need. Most customers understandably are focused on their specific needs so to truly make something a success, it’s important to apply their need to the wider marketplace at-hand.
Also, if you’re truly innovating, that means you’re forging a path that no one has gone down before. Keep in mind that not every idea needs to cost a trillion dollars, it really just needs to justify the development costs so that consideration should be key.
It’s also important to be agile, flexible, and able to adapt efficiently and quickly. In order to know if you’re heading down the right road, get feedback and it’s okay if that feedback is still on a half-baked product. Feedback at different points in the product development process is important. Lastly, remember that innovation requires discomfort. If it’s too comfortable, then you’re not innovating.
