Lack of innovation

I recently had a work meeting regarding my semestral retrospective. This meeting covers topics related to my performance and areas of opportunity.

I deservedly received a positive review, but the innovation section did not make sense. The manager informed me that I needed to contribute to the project in a innovative way.

I immediately began remembering the features that I had implemented in the previous six months. One minute later, I remember a feature that was created from scratch, was unique within the whole app, and had a significant beneficial impact on the users.

When I brought up that feature, my manager said that he expected another innovation with a greater impact on the company.

I didn’t comprehend the answer, so I asked for examples. He added that another developer suggested implementing (using) an external service to cut costs in some technical process for notifications. With the innovative idea, the company reduced operating costs. This example, in my opinion, only occurs once in a thousand.

After the meeting, I wondered how demanding we have become when it comes to evaluating or assessing innovations. When did innovation become synonymous with decreasing time and costs? Is it possible that my work that I thought was innovative is not?