The Innovation Process

By Jeffrey Baumgartner

The innovation process, in the business context, is a structured action that is remarkably easy to implement. It begins with a problem and ends with profit. As such, it is the ideal business process. So it is remarkable that so few businesses have actually implemented this structured innovation process. Fortunately, all you have to do is read this and implement it in your firm!

Step by Step
1. Begin with a problem The innovation process starts with a problem or possibly a goal. However, the fact that the business has not already achieved the goal might be considered a problem. So, we can safely say the process begins with a problem. All businesses have problems. Sales could be better, products could be better, processes could be more efficient, costs could be reduced and so on. 2. Convert the problem into a challenge Once a problem has been identified, it needs to be converted into a challenge. A challenge is a short, terse question that invites creative solutions. Example challenges include: "In what ways might we improve product X?" and "How might we reduce wastage in our manufacturing process?" A challenge may also be in the form of a call to action: "Sketch design ideas for product X" or "Use building blocks to demonstrate ways in which we might combine processes in manufacturing." Formulating a good challenge that addresses your problem is critical to the innovation process. If your challenge does not properly address the underlying problem, you may get a lot of ideas -- but they won't solve your problem and therefore are unlikely to become innovations! 3. Challenge colleagues to suggest creative solutions Once you have a terrific innovation challenge, you need to communicate it to colleagues -- or others such as business partners, customers or even the public -- so that they can generate ideas.

How you communicate depends on the method of idea generation you will use for each instance of the innovation process. 4. Collaborative idea generation Idea generation might be in the form of a brainstorming activity, through the use of real idea management software (one like our Jenni, which uses ideas campaigns based around innovation challenges) or a team may be assigned to devise and develop ideas. You could even generate ideas yourself, but as a general rule, diverse teams generate more creative (both in terms of quantity and quality) than individuals -- at least in the right circumstances. Whatever method of idea generation you use, it should ideally be in a collaborative environment in which people can work together to develop ideas. Ideally, there should be no criticism, censorship or destruction of ideas during this phase. You want to encourage people to think creatively and be unafraid to suggest ideas. Early criticism of any kind will only make people reluctant to share ideas, especially their most outlandishly creative ideas (in other words, the best ideas), for fear of also being criticised. Note: lots of people think that idea generation is the most important element of the innovation process. It's not. A great idea, unimplemented, is worthless to business. Nevertheless, you do need ideas to keep the process going and creating an environment for generating creative ideas means that the resulting innovations will be more.. innovative! 5. Combine and evaluate ideas With lots of ideas in the pot, the next step is to combine similar ideas into idea clusters or big ideas. Each idea cluster can be processed as a single idea, thus making the next steps of the process more efficient. This done, you can then evaluate ideas with an evaluation matrix in which promising ideas are compared to relevant business criteria. The better the idea meets each criterion, the higher its score. In the end, those ideas with the highest evaluation scores are taken to the next step. Note: evaluators tend to be overly critical of ideas. Hence it is important to ask them not only what does not work with an idea, but also to ask them how these problems might be dealt with in order to improve the idea. 6. Develop ideas How you develop ideas depends on the innovation challenge and the kind of ideas generated. New product ideas might be developed into prototypes. Process efficiency ideas may be modeled. Marketing ideas may be evaluated in consumer surveys and so on. The purpose of developing ideas is to test them in the business environment and, if no insoluble problems are discovered, prepare them for implementation. In the case of highly creative ideas, it is usually best to create a prototype if at all possible. A prototype makes it easier to sell a radical idea to managers, committees and other dingalings who will be tempted to kill it off.

7. Implement ideas Finally, you are now ready to manufacture your new product, restructure your processes or do whatever is necessary to turn the evaluated and developed ideas into implementations that generate value for the organisation. It is at this step that creative ideas grow up and become innovations. If ideas are radically different to business as usual or if they require substantial investment, it is wise to implement them with a series of milestones along the way. This enables you to review the implementation of the idea in order to ensure it is either delivering value or retains the potential to deliver value at a future milestone. Although many organisations today make it difficult to implement radical ideas, once those ideas are launched as projects, the responsible teams are often remarkably reluctant to stop the implementation for fear of reprisals, losses or other consequences. You need to minimise those consequences so under-performing ideas can be killed and resources can rapidly be reinvested in promising new ideas.

A Scalable, Repeatable and Effective Process

There are three terrific qualities of the innovation process. Firstly, it is scalable. An individual freelancer can use it to innovate in her business, small teams can use it for innovative projects, business units and even entire companies can use it. Although, with large groups, specialised idea management software is needed to capture and facilitate the processing of the ideas efficiently. Secondly, the process is repeatable. A company can have numerous instances of the innovation process in action at all times. A team leader can launch new challenges once the ideas from old challenges have been implemented (or even sooner in some instances). Thirdly, the process is effective. It is based on a combination of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) and standard business processes. It has been proven again and again. Indeed, it should be clear that the innovation process enables you to align innovation with strategy, focus creative thinking on current business needs and combine multiple ideas in order to develop comprehensive solutions to all kinds of business problems. And, as we stated in the beginning, it is a simple process; one that can readily be implemented in most companies. Although, you will also need to have something of a culture of innovation in place in your firm in order for the process to work. If new ideas are routinely criticised from conception and committees are so risk adverse they are afraid to cross the street (as is typically the case without a culture of innovation), there is little hope for the innovation process. On the other hand, if new ideas are always welcome, the CEO really believes in innovation (rather than just makes bland statements about it) and the company is willing to invest resources not only in innovation, but also the implementation of radical ideas, the innovation process will perform wonderfully!

Implementing the Process in Your Company

If you are interested in implementing the innovation process in your company, contact us and tell us a little about your firm. If you would like the world's best innovation process management software to support your process, take a look at Jenni. Better still, contact your nearest representative for a demo so you can

see how well Jenni complements the innovation process and enables you to align your idea generation with corporate strategy! n innovation process cycle combines creative problem solving (CPS) with scientific peer review evaluation and some typical business tools. 1) The Challenge The cycle starts with a problem or goal which needs to be formulated into an innovation challenge. Once this is done, the challenge is presented to the problem solving group. This may be done in the form of a brainstorming event, ideas campaign or other activity. The group problem solving group may be a team, all employees in the firm, the public or any other group of people. 2) Collaboration In order to maximise the creative potential of the problem solving group, the idea generation activity should be collaborative in nature. This can be accomplished in many ways. Idea management and innovation process management software often provides on-line collaboration tools, while facilitators of brainstorming and other ideation events should promote collaborative idea development. 3) Combination Because an innovation process cycle starts with a challenge, ideas tend to be interrelated and many are complementary. Hence, before going further, it is best to combine such complementary ideas into larger, more sophisticated ideas so that they can be handled as a single package. This makes the next steps in the cycle more efficient. 4) Scientific Peer Review Evaluation Here is where a lot of innovation initiatives break down: choosing the best ideas. Many poorly thought out approaches use voting, which is a good way to identify the most popular idea, but an appallingly ineffective method for identifying the most potentially innovative idea. I have also seen organisations put a great deal of effort into idea generation, leaving the final decision to a manager who basically picks out her favourite idea. Assuming the manager has suitable business expertise, such an approach is better than voting as it is based on expertise rather than popularity but it is typically far from perfect. The scientific approach of peer review by expert, on the other hand, is ideally suited for identifying the most promising ideas in a cycle. Instead of basing selection on popularity (can you imagine Einstein sending his special theory of relativity to the public for a vote in order to determine its validity?) or the whim of a manager, you apply a set of business criteria to the idea and rank how well the idea meets each criterion. If an idea achieves a sufficiently high ranking, either as is or through additional modification, it should be developed further. 5) Testing and Development Ideas identified as being potential innovations are now ready to be tested and developed. Here is where typical business tools come in useful. A business case is a useful means of hypothetically implementing an innovative idea and projecting the potential results. Of course it is not perfect, but it indicates possible issues in the implementation of the idea, as well as benefits that may not have been obvious to the original idea developers. Prototypes are an excellent means for testing ideas. Not only do they allow you, your colleagues, customers and others to see how an idea would actually look in implementation, but building and playing with a prototype is a good method of further improving upon the core idea. Prototypes are, of course, ideally suited towards material ideas such as new products. But more abstract ideas,

such as new services, process improvements and other concepts can often be prototyped through role-play, building structural models and making diagrams. 6) Implementation Ideas that make it through testing and development are ready to be implemented. Unless the idea is a radical change from your usual activities, you dont need me to tell you how to do this! 7) Review Once ideas have been implemented, they need to be reviewed, probably against an ongoing series of milestones. If an implementation does not achieve a milestone, it needs to modified or killed. Moreover, even the most spectacularly effective and profitable breakthrough innovations need to be improved on a regular basis. 8) New Needs and Inspiration Hence, reviewing the implementation of new ideas should indicate new needs which can be transformed into challenges which, in turn, start a new innovation process cycle. Likewise, implementations can inspire new corporate goals. Again, these can be turned into new challenges and new cycles. Integrated Innovation Process Management An innovative company, however, should not have a single innovation process cycle in operation. Rather it should have many of them! Large cycles are suitable for enterprise-wide innovation. Meanwhile, business units can run somewhat smaller innovation process cycles in order to manage their own ideas (although it should be noted, collaborative groups need not be limited to employees of that business unit). Teams, departments and any other group can also run their own innovation process cycles.

Multiple innovation process cycles create the process However, these innovation process cycles should not be in isolation. Rather they should inspire and feed other cycles elsewhere in the organisation. For instance, the implementation of a new product idea should inspire innovation cycles in the marketing, sales and customer service divisions as well as at the enterprise level.

Managers should watch their colleagues innovation process cycles and ruthlessly copy ideas as inspirations for their own cycles. The Result: a Highly Innovative Organisation By applying innovation process management across your entire organisation, you can transform it into one which is innovation driven. And that is a sure way to keep well ahead of the competition, survive this financial crisis and make your firm a great place to work. Is there anything more you could possibly want from work?