Innovation doesn’t always come from disruption; in many cases, it comes from a fresh look at something familiar. I was listening to an interview with Eric Ryan, the serial entrepreneur behind Method and Olly, and I was struck by his approach to innovation. He didn’t create billion-dollar brands by inventing entirely new categories. He did it by noticing what everyone else overlooked and making inspired tweaks in existing categories.
Source: https://www.olly.com/products/laser-focus
Ryan’s best-known ventures are great examples of his approach:
Method: Reinventing cleaning supplies. In the early 2000s, cleaning products were toxic, industrial, and hidden under sinks. Meanwhile, consumers were embracing design, wellness, and sustainability elsewhere in their homes. Ryan and his co-founder borrowed from personal care and housewares – fragrances, silhouettes, color – and brought them into cleaning supplies.
Olly: Turning vitamins into lifestyle products. Vitamins were treated like supplements for sick people – clinical, cluttered, and hidden in the cupboard. Olly flipped a couple conventions: ingredients were replaced with benefits (“Sleep,” “Beauty,” “Immunity”), packaging was designed to sit proudly on the counter, not hide in a cupboard. No new science, just new framing.
Wellie: Bandages with personality. Bandages used to hide. Wellie turned them into something fun, visible, and expressive, borrowing from fashion and kids’ products, not first aid.
Each brand succeeded not by inventing something new, but by reframing something old through a cultural lens.
How you can apply Ryan’s innovation principles:
- Look for sameness. If every brand in a category makes the same aesthetic and language choices, people are ripe for change.
- Find the cultural shift the category missed. Ask: What’s changed in people’s attitudes, aesthetics, wellness habits, design expectations, or values, and why hasn’t this category caught up? For example, Method caught the sustainability + design wave that personal care absorbed but cleaning supplies ignored.
- Steal ideas from faraway places. Don’t look at competitors. Look at food, architecture, children’s products, beauty, travel, digital culture – and translate what you see. Ryan once turned the texture of a building he saw in Tokyo into packaging inspiration. The farther the source, the fresher the translation.
- Change one big thing, not everything. Instead of layering small innovations, he picks one dramatic shift that creates instant contrast. Olly changed the shape and messaging on vitamin packaging – and instantly stood out. They didn’t make many changes to the category all at once, but rather started with one bold move.
- Pair the familiar with the unexpected. People need enough recognition to trust the product, and enough novelty to notice it. Method didn’t invent cleaning spray. They used the same function but redesigned the bottle, colors, and scent experience to feel more like personal care. Familiar product + unexpected execution = approachability and attention.
Using travel as a creative engine
One of the most distinctive parts of Eric Ryan’s process is how he uses travel, not as escape, but as stimulation. When he takes a “trend trip,” he brings designers with him. Everyone has something to hunt for: a color story, a display format, a materials idea, a scent, a tone of voice. They walk the stores, pay attention to what’s normal in that culture, and look for moments that surprise them.
At the end of the day, they meet – usually somewhere informal, like a pub – and compare what they spotted. But the key is what happens next: instead of filing photos away “for later,” they immediately send inspiration and notes to a creative team back home. While the travelers sleep, the team turns those observations into mockups and product concepts. By breakfast the next morning, they’re reviewing tangible ideas, not just impressions. In some cases, those concepts are pitched to retailers before the flight home.
It’s research, ideation, and prototyping collapsed into a 24-hour cycle. And it works because travel puts you back into a state of noticing.
While many believe innovation requires a blank slate, a lab, or a breakthrough technology, Ryan’s approach proves the opposite: you can create something meaningfully new by re-seeing what already exists. When we learn to spot sameness, listen for the cultural moment, steal from the right places, and make bold changes, innovation becomes practical rather than mystical. That’s how I like to work with clients: spotting overlooked signals, mapping cultural shifts and turning them into concepts quickly.
The raw materials for innovation are already in front of us, we just have to look with different eyes. If your team could use a fresh set of eyes or a structured way to spot the opportunities hiding in plain sight, I facilitate innovation sprints and co-creation sessions built around this kind of thinking. And if the idea of a curated trend trip sparks something for you, let’s explore that too. Contact me at info at bureauwest.com .
Source: “Brainstorming $100M Ideas with the $1B+ King of Brands,” My First Million, Oct. 8, 2025
