Ask a person what an Innovation Strategist does and they usually give you blank stares or buzz words. So who are you and what would you say you do here? Here’s a quick list of responsibilities from the inside of an innovation firm.

For Idea Couture, Social Innovation means using social impact as a business strategy. It’s about creating real, tangible value for organizations through tackling social problems. It’s hard to read that and not feel a little more optimistic about the future of business.

I’m not trying to discount the capabilities of industrial designers, researchers, or architects who’ve found their way into the innovation space, but the qualities of digital innovators put them in a unique position to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.

Please, stop calling your company “innovative”. Innovation is about your organizations culture, not what you say in commercials or your annual report.

Innovation and Design Thinking are inherently linked. A night on Quora led me to try and make a tangible connection between the two.