Accelerating Innovation through Graph Thinking

Accelerating Innovation Through Graph Thinking
Neo4j Innovation Lab

Alessandro Svensson
Head of Neo4j Innovation Lab
San Mateo, California

INNOVATION
/ɪnəˈveɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

Innovation is a "new idea, creative thoughts, new imaginations in form of device or method".
However, innovation is often also viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new
requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs. Wikipedia

Accelerate Innovation
Through Graph Thinking
Purpose of the Neo4j Innovation Lab

Innovation

Innovation
Mitigate Disruption
Applied
Technology Shift Time to Adoption

Business Value in
the Paradigm of
Connected Data
Context

1960 1980 2000 2020
S&P 500 Average Company Lifespan
65 years
35 years
30 years
15 years
• They had the technology, or
could have had the technology
• Failed to play two games
simultaneously
What the majority have
in common?
• They did too little, too late

202019’18’17’16’15’14’13’12’11’10’‘09‘08‘07
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
The Exponential Growth of Data
1960 1980 2000 2020
S&P 500 Average Company Lifespan
65 years
35 years
30 years
15 years

202019’18’17’16’15’14’13’12’11’10’‘09‘08‘07
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
The Exponential Growth of Data
• Data is the raw material upon
which products and services
are built
• ‘Learning’ Algorithms and
Network Eﬀects
The Competitive Game
has a new Logic
• Capture of data and leverage
of data connections

Case Study: The Consumer Web
C
34,3%B
38,4%A
3,3%
D
3,8%
1,8%
1,8%
1,8%
1,8%
1,8%
E
8,1%
F
3,9%

Opportunities
With Getting It
Right

UNLEARN
Unlearning is not about forgetting.
It’s about the ability to choose an alternative mental model or paradigm.
LEARN: We add new skills or knowledge to what we already know.

How Graphs Gives
You Access to New
Knowledge What you also know
You don’t know
that you know
What you know

Hierarchies
On Stage
Business
Processes
Linear Supply Chain Information
Behind the Scene
Data
Structure

Organizations
On Stage
Business
Processes
Behind the Scene
Data
Structure
KnowledgeDynamic Supply Chain

3
Innovation & Digital
Transformation
“Connected Data is Part of
Strategic Future”
1
Developers
A Known Problem to
Solve with Graphs
2
LoB
Use Cases are a
Proven Fit
Innovation
Paths

Digital
Transformation
Business Analyst Problem
User Experience & Design Problem
Engineering Problem
Talent Problem
Organisation Culture Problem

Business Analyst Problem
User Experience & Design Problem
Engineering Problem
Talent Problem
Organisation Culture Problem
Connected Data
Narrative

Innovation Lab Sprint, March 4-March 7, 2019
Innovation &
Organisational
Complexity

Silos
Potential Raw
Data to Capture
Innovation &
Organisational
Complexity
Data Warehouse

Data Lakes

Silos
Potential Raw
Data to Capture
Innovation &
Organisational
Complexity
Data Warehouse

Data Lakes
This makes
sense!
💡

How Do We Solve
This? 🤔

Innovation is Not an Event

Innovation is a Process

Innovation is a Process(Design)
This is what we do within the Neo4j
Innovation Lab

A 3.5 day workshop — The Innovation Lab Sprint

Guaranteed

Viability/Value
Proposition
Discovery
Ideation
Using design thinking to
understanding the underlying
needs for what to innovate
What?
Technology/
Data Science
Understanding technical limitations and
how they affect product and services,
and deﬁning the requirements to
capture and connect your data
How? Why?
Will this affect cost and revenue for
an existing business logic, or set
your organizing up for executing on a
new business logic?
Three Focus Areas

Viability/Value
Proposition
Discovery
Ideation
Technology/
Data Science
The Innovation Lab
Sweet Spot
Three Focus Areas

Value
“Graph Thinking” is about
considering connections in
data as important as the
data itself.
Graph Platform
Neo4j is a native graph platform which
executes connected workloads faster than
any other database management system.
Prototyping
The use cases, products and
services that will be available as
a possibility for your company
Methodology

Neo4j is a native graph platform which
executes connected workloads faster than
any other database management system.
Prototyping
Value Graph Platform
Methodology

Prototyping
Value Graph Platform
Methodology

PrototypingValue Graph Platform
Methodology

Checkin/Planning (30 min)
Room setup
Complete presentation (1h 30min)
Dress Rehearsal (30 min)
Team Lunch
Recap Day 3, Checkin (30 min)
Room setup
Lunch + E-mail Break
Room setup
9
19
8.30
13
17
Introductions & Lab Setup (45min)
Room setup
World of Graphs (30min)
Use Case Generation (1h 35min)

• “Get into your world”
• List Key Entities
• How everything is related
10
11
12
14
15
16
18
20
21
Choose Target Use Case (20min)
Establish Case for Graphs (45min)

• Key Graph Questions
• Whiteboard modeling
Checkout (30 min)
Synthesize:

• Use Case Generation-segment
• Target Use Case
• Key Graph Questions
• Clean up model with arrows
Recap Day 1, Checkin (30 min)
Storyboarding/Personas (45min)
Technical deep dive (30 min)
Reﬁne model/ Identify Data-
sources (1h)
• Sketch Mockups • Neo4j-modeling
Synthesize:

• Data-sources slide
• Storyboarding/mockups exercise
• Evolved model in Neo4j
• Setup wireframes
Checkout (30 min)
• Ingest/simulate data• Wireframes
Track 1 Track 2
Feedback / Next Steps
3 Tracks:
1) Modeling/Queries/Architecture
2) Wireframes
3) Final Presentation
3 Tracks, continues:
1) Match model/queries with…
2) …wireframes.
3) Final Presentation
Checkin (30 min)
Checkout (30 min)
Final presentation crunch-mode:

• Cover-page
• Participants page
• Purpose with sprint
• Present (Challenges, Opportunities, North Stars)
• Explain Target Use Case
• Data Model/Data Sources
• Result of Sprint (Scenario+Prototypes)
• Looking under the hood
• Example Architecture
• Conclusions/What to further validate during POC
• Thank you page
Executive Presentation (1h)
Innovation Lab Sprint Outline (3,5 day)

The Lab in A Nutshell 🥜
Neo4j Innovation Lab Playbook, 2019

Identify Target
Use Case
Generate
Data Model
Related “Graph
Questions”
Executive Feedback
Presentation
Build Prototype/
Wireframes

Key entitiesNorth StarOpportunitiesChallenges Identify Target
Use Case
Generate Data
Model
Related “Graph
Questions” Executive Feedback
Presentation
Build Prototype/Wireframes
Use Case Generation
Day 1
Whiteboard Model
Day 1

Executive Feedback
Presentation
Executive Feedback
Presentation
Use Case
Generate Data
Model
Related “Graph
Questions”
Source data to
populate model
Build QueryImport Data
Materialize Model
Day 2

Executive Feedback
Presentation
Executive Feedback
Presentation
Use Case
Generate Data
Model
Related “Graph
Questions”
Source data to
populate model
Storyboarding/
Mockups
Identify Stakeholders /
Personas / Synopsis
Craft Scenario
Day 2
Materialize Model
Day 2

Executive Feedback
Presentation
Executive Feedback
Presentation
Use Case
Generate Data
Model
Related “Graph
Questions”
Source data to
populate model
Storyboarding/
Mockups
Personas / Synopsis
Build Prototype
Day 3

Executive Feedback
Presentation
Executive Feedback
Presentation
Use Case
Generate Data
Model
Related “Graph
Questions”
Source data to
populate model
Storyboarding/
Mockups
Personas / Synopsis
Finalize & Present
Day 3.5

The Neo4j Innovation
Lab Experience

Generating
Use Cases

CIO
BI Analysts
Chief Architect

Head of Digital Innovation
UX Designer
Lead Developer
Machine Learning/
Data Scientist

Data Modeling

Adam Cowley, Neo4j
Field Engineer
Data Modeling

Data Modeling
Eric Monk, Neo4j PS-
consultantData Scientist
Director of AI
Data Scientist
Innovation Lab
Leader

“If you build a polished prototype,
others will see flaws.

— Baba Shiv
Stanford Graduate School of Business
“If you build a polished prototype,
others will see flaws. If you build a
rough prototype, others will see
potential”

Building
Prototypes

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Executive
Presentations
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Innovation Lab
Impact 🚀

Innovation
Lab Impact
30+ Projects so far…

Innovation
Lab Impact
30+ Projects so far…
Dramatically Decreased
Time to Validation
2
Develop
3
Proof of
ConceptUnderstand 1
Validate
4Time
Money

30+ Projects so far
Dramatically Decreased
Time to Validation
Increase in Use Case
Accuracy
Innovation
Lab Impact
Viability/Value
Proposition
Discovery
Ideation
Technology/
Data Science

Software Companies
Heavy Industry
FMCG
Cruising Companies
Logistics
Financial Services
Media
Health Care
Energy
Telco
Industries Use Cases
Recommendation Engines
Smart Cities
Personalization
Fraud Detection
Data Lineage
Construction Planning
Regulatory Compliance
Media Advertising Systems
Supply Chain
Preventive Health Care Tools
Churn Prediction
Customer Service
Automation
Customer Journey Mapping
Retail Bill of Materials
Churn Prediction

Feedback
Received
“The productivity and output enabled by
how the days were structure and the
exercises within the sessions has been an
eye-opener.”
— Procter & Gamble
“Very impressed. Intense and fun! We
got a lot done in just a week. Great
experience and super eﬀective.”
— Santander Consumer Bank
“Unexpected and pretty incredible that
it’s possible to achieve such relevant and
applicable results in such a limited time
period.”
— Schibsted Media Group
“Involving. Knowledge building. Fun!
Extremely valuable and mind opening”
— Alfa Laval

How to
Participate?

“Strategy”
Customer’s Team
(Between 3-8 participants)
+
“IT”
“Digitization” “Sales”
“Operations” “R&D/Innovation”
Who should participate in a sprint?
Neo4j Field Engineer
• Facilitates graph-modeling exercises
• Expert in Neo4j/Architecture & Data Science
• Cypher-queries for prototype
UX-designer
• Facilitates storyboarding/wireframing
• Builds UI-tool for prototype
Labs Leader
• Head facilitator & Team Leader
• Facilitates the use case generation-segment
• Project manages prototyping
Neo4j Innovation Lab Team

alessandro.svensson@neo4j.com
Email
Linkedin
Alessandro Svensson, Neo4j

Thank you! &

Accelerating Innovation through Graph Thinking

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