Innovation is really hard — which is why so few get it right. Defining your purpose and having a vision is so important.
To innovate and push ideas forwards, being aligned on a design vision helps give focus and direction, it makes sure you are aiming for something with a purpose.
Getting team alignment on the vision is as equally important.
Without a strategy to align towards you’ll end up with something that is essentially a site map of features. What I like to call the “Microsoft Word effect”—keep cramming in features until the interface is unusable, then cram some more.