**Abstract**

Most service innovation attempts end in failure. Systematic e-Service Innovation is the result of a twenty-year program of research to reveal the 'DNA' of the successful attempts. The research shows: 1. Most service innovation attempts fail on their first day because they begin from a false understanding of what customers want. Organisations know they are supposed to listen to the 'voice of the customer', but, despite massive amounts of digital data capture, they still have little idea what to listen for. 2. The number of service challenges is very finite, and guaranteed that someone, somewhere has already solved your service problem. 3. The most powerful solutions are the ones that successfully eliminate the compromises and trade-offs conventionally viewed as inherent to service operations. 4. There are only a small number of possible strategies for overcoming such contradictions. 5. Service industry strategy, business and market evolution trends follow highly predictable paths.

**Keywords:** first-principles, big data, TRIZ, intangibles, experience economy, contradiction, s-curve, Hero's Journey
