Cristina Quinones, a consumer insights researcher at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, lists nine types of insights: Customer, Cultural, Future, Product, Brand, Market, Purchase, Usage, and Owner Insights. Her list speaks to the fact that insights for innovation may vary depending on their context.

Kraft Foods marketers say that an insight is a discovery that “keeps the consumer at the center of the decision-making process.” The people at General Mills are even more mercantile, saying simply, “Insights are something you know that your competitors don’t.” But I think insights go deeper than these statements would imply.

Over many years of design thinking and gathering insights for innovation, I’ve collected dozens of “insight” definitions. These are my seven favorites:

1. Moving a subconscious motivation to a level of consciousness.
2. Recognition of a person’s aspiration, their current situation, and the gap between the two.
3. Discerning the significance and meaning behind a particular human behavior…spotting the moment that presents a revelation.
4. The discovery of a truth that suggests a hidden need.
5. An understanding that forces you to see your product, brand, or market in a fresh and unexpected way.
6. Uncovering a shared meaning, a shared value, or a shared need that can be translated into action.
7. Aha! K-Ching!  Discerning an underlying consumer motivation that drives behavior … and leads to innovation and value.

How do you know when you’ve got an insight? How do you filter through data to separate the wheat from the chaff? Too often we reject potential insights because they seem obvious. Carol Phillips, at the University of Notre Dame, created a helpful list for recognizing insights. Before rejecting a potential insight, she suggests we first ask these five questions:

1. Does it reveal something about the consumer (not just about the product or service)?
2. Does it capture how consumers want to feel (not just what they think)?
3. Does it relate to the drivers of the category (not just a particular brand)?
4. Does it speak to an enduring value (not just to what’s new)?
5. Does it challenge the company or brand to act in new ways (not just maintain the status quo)?

Has the innovation business really changed the meaning of “insight?” Maybe not. Insights come from observing human behavior, just like me watching my kids. And, like the revelation of a novelist’s personal values, insights are about revealing the shared values of a group. Like those of our earliest ancestors, the insights we uncover today point to innovations that help us grow, prosper…and survive.