Is there a Recipe for Innovation?

How can we make today’s new homes more efficient, resilient, and valuable? Especially in a complex landscape where margins are tight, materials are volatile, labor is hard to find and retain, and codes are evolving faster than ever. And homebuyers? They’re expecting homes that are smarter, more efficient, and more comfortable… all while assuming faster timelines and greater affordability.

For decades, innovation in housing has been fueled by outside pressure – changing regulations, government-backed programs, and shifting policy landscapes. But do we have to wait for these catalysts to start innovating? No. Innovation shouldn’t come from compliance. It should come from conviction. A shared conviction in the value of consistently delivering a better home.

But once you have the vision and the conviction, is there a deliberate process for getting it done? 

Let’s consider this through a “lens” by which prospective innovations can be evaluated. This lens is focused on the balance of three P’s: performance, productivity, and pricing. These principles can shape how an innovation is viewed, tested, manufactured, marketed, and priced. Examining innovations in this way could help ensure that new solutions deliver meaningful value to homeowners, builders, and trades.

Performance: Will it work — and work better? Performance means testing how a product performs under real-world conditions. In includes going beyond code compliance to deliver measurable improvements in comfort, energy efficiency, durability, and indoor health in the context of actual job sites and full system integration. If it doesn’t perform in the real world, it doesn’t make the cut.

Productivity: Can it streamline construction? Labor challenges and managing change are some of the biggest obstacles facing builders today. To address this, the productivity lense looks for solutions that reduce steps, simplify complexity, and make the job easier and faster for crews in the field… helping field teams deliver more with less. For innovation to scale, it must fit into the realities of how homes are built today.

Pricing: Is the value clear and justifiable?

Cost matters but so does return. Pricing ensures that every solution is economically viable – not just conceptually, but in the day-to-day reality of production-scale homebuilding. Can a solution offset costs elsewhere in the build process, reduce callbacks, or deliver long-term savings for homeowners? The goal isn’t to justify price, it’s to quantify the real economic value and impact across the chain.

Partnering with Purpose Innovation isn’t just about the product, it’s about the process. Introducing a new idea into a builder’s operation is rarely just ‘plug-and-play.’ It requires rethinking, retraining, and often reshaping how work gets done across divisions, trades, and leadership. Lasting innovation requires true partnershios in the process of change management – validating in the field, refining the system, and supporting scale across regions. The way change is managed is the difference between an idea that sticks and one that stalls.

Yet, for all of this to matter, it takes more than vision. It takes investment. If we want real change, the drive for innovation must come from within the industry. Builders, manufacturers, and partners must be willing to put skin in the game: to fund the ideas, test the systems, train the people, and fully support the adoption needed to shift this industry forward. Because innovation isn’t free. And it isn’t theoretical. It’s a commitment… one that pays off only when we align resources with ambition.

So, let’s have the collective conviction to make innovation matter, because innovation isn’t an experiment. It’s a responsibility.