CInP® Exam Preparation Course

Course Workbook

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 Course Introduction
This course is designed for the working professional.

It starts at the beginning, and teaches a practical, hands-on approach to business innovation – explaining clearly
what it is, and how to go about pursuing it within a business enterprise.

It also presents a number of key concepts relating to Innovation Management – the work that Innovation
Project Leaders and Program Leaders do within the business to help drive and sustain a program of ongoing
innovation therein.

When finished, participants should walk away knowing exactly how to pursue and drive new innovation within
their business, so that the business can produce a large number of new innovation outputs – and so that you
can have the fun of defining, developing, and launching those innovations!.

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 Course Introduction (cont.)
The course covers twelve (12) main topics:
• The Fundamentals of Business Innovation & Its Many Different Forms
• Innovator Profiles
• Creativity & Creativity Methods + Ideation & Brainstorming + The Breakthrough Innovation Method
• Running Innovation Projects in the Business Over Three Phases – FEI / MZI / BEI
• The Role of Research in Innovation
• Design Thinking & Human-Centered Design
• Innovation Managers & Their Different Roles
• Innovation Managers as Project Leader to Drive Focused Innovation Work
• Leading & Building Core Innovation Teams
• The Innovation Management Process for Driving Innovation Throughput in the Business
• Storytelling in Innovation
• Selecting Winning Ideas for the Business to Pursue

You will be introduced to some new nomenclature that is unique to the practice of Innovation –
the so-called la guage of i o atio . It is important for you to learn this language so that your organization
can use it effectively to bring everyone onto the same page.

The course uses a series of intertwined lessons and exercises.

For the exercises, you will be divided into teams. Each team is given a business challenge to work on.

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 LESSON 1
The Innovation Professional

World Changers of the Business World

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 The Innovation Professional
Congratulations!

You are beginning your journey to

becoming an Innovation Professional!

And potentially a Certified Innovation

Professional – the formal recognition for
those who have mastered a solid
knowledge of business innovation.

In your role as an innovation professional, you will be afforded many opportunities to identify both present and
emerging market needs that represent windows of opportunity for your business to deliver new innovation,
and to help define, develop, and deliver those new innovations.

You may also be afforded the opportunity to serve as an Innovation Manager – either a Program Leader to drive
the usi ess i o atio p og a , o a Project Leader to help lead individual innovation projects for the
business.

Throughout all of these roles, you will become a primary contributor to a program of sustained innovation
output in your business, constantly feeding its Innovation Pipeline with new projects that allow it to achieve
strategically important growth initiatives.

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 What Does an Innovation Professional Do?
So what exactly does an Innovation Professional do?

Innovation Professionals serve businesses by carrying out a wide array of innovation tasks, including:

• Uncovering unmet or underserved needs in markets that represent potential opportunities for delivering
new innovation.

• Undertaking focused research to qualify and quantify the scope and details of each new innovation
opportunity.

• Developing informed hypotheses about these unmet or underserved needs.

• Conducting business experiments to test hypotheses and establish the most accurate hypothesis, resulting in
a correct problem statement – a Point of View.

• Establishing core design principles for what a solution must do in order to solve for that need.

• Ideating and brainstorming potential solutions to the (correctly stated) need, in accordance with the
established Design Principles.

• Prototyping and testing different potential solutions to a need in order to isolate the best solution.

• Developing commercialization strategies for each new innovation, including branding, marketing channels,
sales channels, and distribution channels.

• Developing business plans to document each new opportunity, including their backstory, needs, proposed
solution, commercialization strategy, and financial investment / payback.

• Actually carrying out the work of defining, designing, and developing detailed innovation solutions.

• Running pilot tests to validate each new opportunity.

• Implementing or commercializing the new innovations.

• Ru i g a ious aspe ts of the usi ess Innovation Management process, including driving bottom-up
engagement and evaluation / selection processes.

• Leading innovation teams and innovation projects.

Welcome to this brave new world of Innovation!

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 The I o atio P ofessio al’s Roles
Some of the formal roles that an Innovation Professional might hold include:

As an Individual Contributor

• Team Member – Front End Innovation Team – research, qualification, quantification, initial definition.

• Team Member – Mid Zone Innovation Team – strategizing, modeling, justification, defense.

• Team Member – Back End Innovation Team – execution / implementation / commercialization – design,
development, production, delivery, sales, marketing, service, etc.

As a Manager

• Innovation Team / Project Leader – manages project and its teams from start to finish.

• Innovation Program Leader – d i es a d a ages the usi ess I o atio Ma age e t p o ess.

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 The Value of Certification
as an Innovation Professional
So as to be able to validate that you possess demonstrated knowledge, skill, and experience as an Innovation
Professional, every Innovation Professional should seek and secure professional certification as such.

The appropriate certification for this is the GInI Certified Innovation Professional®, or CInP®.

This certification can be obtained by successfully completing this course and then completing the
CInP® examination. Details of the examination will be presented at the end of Day 4.

You can learn more about CInP® certification at: www.gini.org/cinp.

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 LESSON 2
Fundamentals of Innovation

Getting to Know Business Innovation

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 Why Innovation?
The ulti ate f eedo fo eati e g oups is the f eedo to
experiment with new ideas.

Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive.

In the long run, innovation is cheap.

Mediocrity is expensive – a d auto o a e the a tidote.

Tom Kelly, General Manager, IDEO

The Purpose of a Business

Why do businesses exist? What is their purpose?

Is it to ake o e ? Do we operate businesses purely for the sake of profits?

NO!

While p ofits a e the e essa life lood of a usi ess…

The purpose of a business is to create value, and to do so for all stakeholders…

• Value for markets & customers (the ultimate stakeholders) – measured by the value they are able to
extract from what we deliver and their experiences in using or receiving that.

• Value for its workers (who are investing their lives in the effort) – measured both by the extrinsic
wages and benefits they receive and, just as importantly, the intrinsic sense of purpose and mission
their work gives them.

• Value for investors / shareholders (who are investing their money in the effort) – measured both in
terms of short-term dividends they earn and long-term capitalization growth the business accrues.

• And value for society at large – measured by how a business improves the quality of life for everyone
it touches.

This is the real purpose of a business!

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 The Real Point of Innovation
Like ise, the … why do we pursue innovation?

Is it to ei o ati e ? Do we pursue innovation for the sake of innovation?

NO!

The real point – and purpose – of innovation is to enable our business to remain relevant
to its markets – in terms of the value and experiences it delivers – so that it can constantly advance its
cause in the marketplace and by so doing, remain resilient to the
long-term changes that will inevitably take place.

This ause a i ol e a of se e al st ategi o je ti es… usto e satisfa tio , brand-building, revenue &
profit growth, market cap growth, and so on.

Our business must constantly remain relevant to each successive generation of the market so that it will be
resilient to the long-term changes that it must inevitably weather.

Innovation Defined
What exactly is i o atio ?

Fi st off… the e a e different forms of i o atio … the e s business

i o atio , the e s urban i o atio , the e s social i o atio , the e s
workplace innovation, and so on.

So, on a very philosophical level, i o atio is eall a out…

… Co e ti g t o thi gs on a deeper and a more meaningful level.

Whethe it s a usi ess a d its a kets usi ess i o atio , a it a d its people u a i o atio , a atio
and its citizens (social innovation), or a workplace and its workers (workplace innovation), the end game is
always the same… to o e t the t o i a deeper, more meaningful, more powerful, and more impactful way.

What this means is that business organizations have to constantly strive to reconnect to their markets and
customers in increasingly more meaningful ways.

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 Innovation Defined (cont.)
As the i age he e depi ts… o e ti e markets evolve and their needs escalate , such that, over that same
period of time, business organizations also have to evolve. Spe ifi all … the ha e to e ol e thei capabilities
so that they can also escalate the value they bring to the market.

In this way, there is this successive progression of meeting points wherein the organization connects with the
market through unique value offerings all along the way, following this diagonal line.

Now… even though in practice these tend to happen in discrete spurts, that fact is that all along the way, market
needs and organizational capabilities never actually stop evolving and increasing.

It s just that e a o l eet at elati el dis eet poi ts alo g this t aje to . A d that t pi all has to do ith
product development cycles. The shorter these cycles, the more often we intersect, and typically the faster we
learn and evolve.

No … hat e are really focused on here is business innovation.

So, on a more practical level – but still keeping the preceding in mind – business innovation is defi ed as…

Doing something in a new or novel way… that deli e s more value and/or better experiences to
usto e s a d a kets… i a a that is profitable to the business.

That is the definition of business innovation, and that is hat e e he e to o k o i this ou se.

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 Is It an Innovation?
The question of what constitutes an innovation, and whether or not an invention counts as innovation is one
that goes back for many decades.

In an attempt to answer this question, the Venn diagram shown

here, first introduced by Peter Drucker, asks three important
questions about the concept of i te est…

1. Is it desirable to users? This is the Human element.

2. Is it viable to the business? This is the Business element.

3. Is it feasible technologically? This is the Technical element.

In order for something to be considered a legitimate innovation, the

answer to all three of these uestio s ust e es .

If an idea is proposed but it is not desirable, then there is no point in pursuing it. If an idea is proposed but it is
not technologically within the reach of the business and its network of partners, then it would be foolhardy to
expend effort on it. And if an idea is proposed but no way can be found to make it financially viable for the
business, then it would be imprudent to pursue it.

Notwithstanding any of these, of course, is the ability to develop new technological capabilities and new
business models that change these answers, as innovation often demands that we do. But otherwise, if the
answer to any one of these questions is o , the the idea cannot be considered a business innovation,
regardless of how novel it is otherwise.

Finally, in order for a new idea to actually be an innovation, it must get executed. Otherwise, it is just an idea,
and ideas are not innovations, only executed ideas meet the definition of an innovation.

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 Innovation Vs Invention
The e t uestio is, hat is the difference between an invention and an innovation?

To a s e that, the follo i g defi itio of the o d i e tio is offe ed:

Invention: The creation of something new (anything) that is capable of producing certain effects either in a new
way, to a new extent, or with a new outcome, as compared to preceding means.

As is perhaps apparent, the criteria for something to be counted as an invention are much less stringent than
for something to be counted as an innovation. It need only do something new or in a new way or to a new
extent to be considered an invention.

This means that inventions need not have any particular value to users, businesses, or society.
It is about what they do, rather than what value they create.

This means the universe of inventions is far more vast than is the universe of innovations.

An invention can become an innovation if – and only if – there is some way to

put it into use to create more value for users, the business, or society.
And it is a business innovation if – and only if – it can be put to use in a way that
is profitable and beneficial to the business.

That is the difference between an invention and an innovation, and is why

not all inventions count as innovations.

Is Innovation Absolute or Relative?

A othe i po ta t uestio is… Is i o atio absolute or relative?

The correct answer is that innovation is always relative to the customers and
markets receiving it. If those customers and markets perceive an offering to be
innovative relative to their needs and relative to whatever other solutions they can
avail themselves to, then the offering is considered to be innovative in that context.

This means that innovations can be recycled.

Businesses should keep this mind when hunting for new innovation opportunities. The answer may lie in finding
something already out there, but in a place or situation that it is currently not available to their markets. By
making it available and accessible, they may be able to cash in on a market innovation that rewards them well,
all with relatively little effort.

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 The Four Types of Innovation + Examples
Broadly speaking, there are four (4) general types of business innovation.

Each of these has a particular scope associated with it. They are:

• Incremental Innovation
Incremental improvements in existing offerings, whether in terms of
performance, price, accessibility, or other key dimensions of value.
These often result from things like new technologies being integrated,
new features and capabilities being added, changes that reduce cost and
thus enable price reductions, and new sales channels being leveraged.
Example: Various generations of the Apple iPhone – perpetuating the platform.

• Breakthrough Innovation
Completely new offerings, or new ways of offering – inside of existing
categories – that substantially raise the bar on the value and/or experiences
delivered. These often result from major changes in technology platforms,
and new configurations that extend an offering into new market applications.
Example: Apple Watch – additional value beyond the mobile, but no threat.

• Disruptive Innovation
Entirely new categories of offerings that displace previous categories
on account of a significant change in the value proposition.
These often result from redefining customer needs, and often involve
entirely new business models that rethink how capital is deployed to
accomplish a particular end goal. They can also arise out of breakthrough new product technologies and
service methods being applied to define solutions that work substantially better than previous solutions
had, rendering the previous way of approaching a problem obsolete. Disruptive Innovation tends to disrupt
entire industries and often results in the demise of certain organizations while preceding the rise of others.
Example: Apple iPad – awakened the nascent tablet computing market, which disrupted the laptop market.

• Transformative Innovation
Such radically new offerings and experiences that they transform society
and how it operates. These often result from massive new capabilities.
They often bring with them a major structural change in a market and in the
relationships between society, government, and other institutions.
They often create the need for new areas of government regulation.
Example: The Internet.

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 The Four Types of Innovation (cont.)
Other Definitions

In addition to these labels, one often hears references made to the following:

• Sustaining Innovation
• Derivative Innovation
• Moderate Innovation
• Radical Innovation

These are simply alternative labels given to the different types of innovation.

In general, Sustaining Innovation, Derivative Innovation, and Moderate Innovation, are all alternative names for
Incremental Innovation, whereas Radical Innovation is a catchall phrase used to refer to either Breakthrough,
Disruptive, or Transformative Innovation.

One should thus be able to understand what is meant by each of these phrases.

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 Scales of Innovation
There are three (3) Scales of Innovation:

1. Mega Innovation
2. Macro Innovation
3. Micro Innovation.

Mega Innovation refers to innovation happening at the largest of scales – nations,

regions, societies, and occasionally the world as a whole. It is usually used in a
comparative context. It seeks to talk about how one nation, region, or society is
more or less innovative than are other nations, regions, or societies. At other
times, it is used in a more holistic, historical context to talk about how society at large in one particular era is
more or less innovative than is (or was) society at large in a different era.

See, for example, the Global Innovation Index at: www.globalinnovationindex.org.

Macro Innovation refers to innovation happening at the strategic level within business
organizations. It is where topics such as Innovation Strategy, Strategic Innovation
Portfolios, and Enterprise Innovation Programs reside. Innovation at this level is
concerned with how to make a given business increasingly more innovative with respect
to its markets, and sometimes to discuss how one business is comparatively more or less
innovative than is another business. Whenever one speaks of the o ld’s ost
innovative companies, they are talking of innovation at the macro innovation level.

See, for example, Fast Co pa y’s Wo ld s Most I o ati e Co pa ies :

http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies.

Micro Innovation refers to the individual innovation projects and the many
innovation activities that take place within those projects. When one speaks of
things like needfinding, Design Thinking, and individual patents, they are typically
speaking of innovation at the micro scale. Or if they are speaking of a particular
innovation project, such as the work that went into developing FlyKnit fabric at
the Nike Innovation Kitchen, then they are also speaking of innovation at the
micro scale. Most of the time, whenever one brings up the subject of innovations, or of a
particular innovation, they are thinking on this scale.

See, for example, Nike (Corvalis, OR, USA):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWWHICvjl4.

Innovation Professionals will find it helpful to understand all three of these Scales of Innovation.

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 Why Innovation?
I o atio has othi g to do ith ho a R&D dolla s ou ha e.

When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100
times more on R&D. It's not about money.

It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you
get it.

Innovation Distinguishes Between a Leader and a Follower.

Steve Jobs, former CEO, Apple

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 LESSON 3
The Three Phases of
Innovation Project Work

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 Three Phases of Innovation Project Work –
Front End / Mid Zone / Back End
Innovation Project Work is characteristically broken up into three (3) distinct phases, known commonly as:

• The Front End of Innovation, or FEI

• The Mid Zone of Innovation, or MZI

• The Back End of Innovation, or BEI.

MZI
This concept is a work categorization framework for how innovation projects are carried out.

Each of these represents a certain phase, or segment, of the work associated with innovation projects.

This concept has evolved over many years through the contributions of several different thought leaders in the
innovation space.

The Front End of Innovation

The Front End of Innovation – originally called the fuzzy front end – refers to the early upfront discovery and
observation needed to develop and test hypotheses so as to formulate correct problem statements, and also
the early upfront ideation, prototyping, and experimentation required to validate the usefulness of proposed
solutions.

The point of the Front End is ultimately to:

• correctly understand problems and

• optimally generate viable solutions to those problems.

It is i o atio ’s first mile.

The Front End is where the creativity lives that

so many associate with innovation, yet is only
one-third of what it takes to innovate.

Without the Mid Zone and Back End,

no innovations will ever see the light of day.

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 The Mid Zone of Innovation
The Mid Zone of Innovation refers to the work that takes place in between the Front End and the Back End,
and specifically deals with undertaking various types of market research studies, user studies, design studies,
branding studies, and all of the strategic planning work associated with go-to-market (commercialization)
strategies.

The point of the Mid Zone is to develop effective GTM strategies – including:

MZI
• design and branding themes
• sales and marketing strategies
• production strategies
• distribution strategies
• and so on

…that all have associated with them a very high

confidence in their ability to produce success
in commercializing the offering.

The Mid Zone exists specifically to increase

the chances of commercial success with new types of
offerings the business has never offered before.

It is i o atio ’s second mile.

The Back End of Innovation

The Back End of Innovation – sometimes called the messy back end – is where one pulls the trigger and
executes all of the steps required to actually take an offering to market. It includes:
• Designing and developing the product or service.
• Creating the branding, advertising, marketing, and sales collateral.
• Establishing supply chains and supplier partnerships.
• Establishing distribution channels and channel partnerships.
• Setting up / ramping up production.

The point of the Back End is to be able to

produce and sell an offering.

It represents all of the hard work required to

actually make a new innovation a real thing that can be
sold and delivered to customers, bringing new value to
them and to the business.

It is i o atio ’s last mile.

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 Three Phases of Innovation Project Work –
Front End / Mid Zone / Back End
Those are the three phases of innovation project work – the Front End, the Mid Zone, and the Back End…
i o atio s fi st, se o d, a d last iles.

Successfully understanding problems and market needs and ultimately producing and selling innovative new
solutions to those needs and problems, with successful commercial results, requires executing all three phases
with equal care and precision.

Skimping on any of them will harm the outcome and the commercial success of the effort.

Businesses must therefore learn how to master each one.

MZI

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 LESSON 4
I o atio ’s Desig Outputs

The Ma Fo s of What’s Ne

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 Innovation's Design Outputs –
The Many Forms of What's Ne
Innovation can produce any number of Design Outputs, representing the various different forms of i o atio …
of hat’s e .

These are the ultimate synthesis aspe t of a usi ess i o atio effo ts.

In this context, we define nine (9) forms of Innovation Design Output.

These are:

• Technology Innovation
• Design Innovation
• Product Innovation
• Service Innovation
• Brand Innovation
• Marketing Innovation
• Package Innovation
• Customer Experience Innovation
• Business Model Innovation

The next sections explore each of these in further detail.

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 Technology Innovation
Technology Innovation is any new innovation in which the underlying value proposition derives from
measurably improved technological capability, producing greater value and/or a better customer experience as
a direct consequence of this change in technology.

Generally speaking, Technology Innovation is the domain of Science, Engineering,

Technology, and Mathematics, and is typically the work product of scientists, engineers, and
technologists.

It may involve physical hardware, software only, or – more often than not – a hybrid of both.
With digitization and automation of so many products now, software has become an
increasingly greater percentage of that content. Or as investor Marc Andreessen once famously remarked,
Soft a e is eati g the o ld!

The example shown here is that of a smart watch.

Design Innovation
Design Innovation is any new innovation in which the underlying value proposition derives from measurably
changed design, producing greater value and/or a better customer experience as a direct consequence of this
change in design.

The new value is often expressed in the form of new visual and/or stylistic value.

Generally speaking, Design Innovation is the domain of Industrial, Graphic, and Fashion
Design, as well as sometimes Architecture, and is the work product of Designers trained in
these fields. It typically involves some form of physical manifestation.

There are several esteemed design awards given each year.

• The iF Design Award is awarded by iF International Forum Design GmbH (iF) – an organization
providing design-related services based in Hanover, Germany.

• The Red Dot Design Award (an international product design and communication design prize)
is awarded by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen based in Essen, Germany.

• The A Prime Design Award comes out of Italy.

The example shown here is that of a fashion watch.

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 Product Innovation
Product Innovation is any new innovation in which the underlying value proposition derives from a measurably
improved product, producing greater value and/or a better customer experience as a direct consequence of this
change in the physical product.

Product Innovation often involves new levels of product performance being

developed and delivered to the market, typically relating to the functional
attributes of the product, and the value those produce for users.

Generally speaking, Product Innovation is the combined domain of Product

Designers, Product Engineers, and Manufacturing Engineers. Its core innovation may derive from any of these
fields, but is at its zenith when it involves some combination of all of these, as do most new models of feature-
dense consumer electronics products like smart phones.

The example shown here is that of a flexible smartphone from Designer Jonas-Daehnert, and which are in
development at LG and Samsung.

Service Innovation
Service Innovation is any new innovation in which the underlying value proposition derives from a measurably
improved service, producing greater value and/or a better customer experience as a direct consequence of this
change in the delivered service.

Generally speaking, Service Innovation is the domain of Service and Customer

Experience Designers.

Service Innovation often involves new levels of service performance being

developed and delivered to the market, typically relating to the service quality and
other delivery attributes (speed, timeliness, cost, effort, etc.) that recipients value.

Its core innovation will generally involve some new method for delivering a measurably better service, resulting
in better customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and brand equity.

The example referenced here is that of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service that BankDhofar (Oman)
launched for its round-the-clock call center.

Reference: http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/BankDhofar-launches-innovative-new-services-at-its-call-centre-
33e0#ixzz4Sm2U7wzK.

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 Brand Innovation
Brand Innovation is the creation of a new brand, or application (leveraging) of an existing brand to bring new
value and/or experiences to a market (or market segment) which the business was not previously in.

It may involve an existing (repurposed) offering, or an entirely new offering appropriately suited for that
market.

Whichever is the case, it delivers better perceived value and/or experiences to that market than what it
previously had access to, particularly given that certain values (brand promises) are generally associated with
certain brands.

Both cases (new brand and existing brand) therefore rely upon a combination of Marketing and actual
Customer Experience to preserve that perceived value.

Brand Innovation builds upon three important constituent elements:

• The Brand Promise – What does the brand promise?

• The Brand Message – How does the business message its brand promise?
• The Brand Language – What is the Descriptive BL / Visual BL / eXperiential BL?

Generally speaking, Brand Innovation is often the domain of Brand Designers and/or Marketing Strategists.

Its core innovation will generally involve a product or service that is new to the market of interest, though not
necessarily new to the world or even new to the business (depending).

It produces increased brand value and new sources of revenue (by taking share away from other incumbents
and/or increasing the size of a market).

The example shown here (left) is that of the Apple Titan smart/autonomous vehicle project.

Also shown (right) is the KitchenAid black stainless steel kitchen set as an example of coherent print and visual
brand language.

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 Marketing Innovation
Marketing Innovation is an attempt to deliver new value and/or better experiences to a market the business is
not currently in – not by leveraging a particular brand per se, and not by developing a new offering per se – but
by developing and delivering a new message to that market capable of creating real or perceived new value in
the market by making customers more aware than they previously were of the value of a particular offering.

Such customer awareness often drives new customers to gain access to an innovation that they previously could
not, or would not, have accessed.

It results in an expanded market presence for a business using an existing value proposition.

Note that the new message must be specifically tuned to resonate with the needs and motivations of this
market.

The example referenced here is that of Century 21 Global attempting to appeal

to global real estate sellers such as those selling vacation properties to foreign
buyers.

Package Innovation
Package Innovation is the use of a new package design to create perceived new value and appeal to certain
consumer preferences.

The package design plays a vital role in the brand messaging being conveyed to would-be consumers. It can
sometimes create the so-called Zero Moment of Truth – the su p ise a d delight that o u s he see fo
the very first time.

There is a leading Package Design Award issued each year known as

the Die-Line Awards.

The examples shown here are those of bottling – both plastic and aluminum – a plastic dispenser box, and a
display-case package arranging the contents in a compelling circular pattern.

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 Customer Experience Innovation
Customer Experience Innovation is the staging of a purposefully-designed and orchestrated new customer
experience for a particular market, producing a greater sense of value by those encountering it.

CX Innovation relies heavily upon the field of Experience Psychology to understand the visceral, cognitive, and
behavioral psychology of those consumers who will engage with the experience.

CX Design uses CX Journey Mapping as the tool of choice for designing the execution of each touchpoint to
have maximum impact (particularly at the most important touchpoints, where the level of expectation is
highest) and to make the Moments of Truth come off as WOWs a d ot BOOMS … to ake the Mo e ts of
Magi .

The example referenced here is that of a digitally-enhanced retail

environment to create a better overall shopping experience for the
customer.

Business Model Innovation

Business Model Innovation employs a new business model in a particular market to change some combination
of what it offers, how it offers it, to whom it offers, and where it offers, all in an effort to deliver more real or
perceived value in that market. Very often it involves radically changing how the business leverages assets and
monetizes what is being delivered.

A key concept in BM Innovation is that of business ecosystems – how a business leverages its
ecosystem of partners (and expands it where needed) to rebalance certain activities,
particularly as they relate to the deployment of assets within that ecosystem.

Business Model Innovation employs specific tools such as the GInI Business Model Innovation
Framework, books with surveys of new business models, business model canvases, and so
forth.

The example referenced here is that of Sharing Economy business models – that of Airbnb and
Uber.

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 Recap – Innovation's Design Outputs –
The Many Forms of What's Ne
To e ap, these a e all the diffe e t fo s of I o atio s Design Outputs… the eal synthesis part of our
innovation work.

They can involve any of these nine (9) forms of innovation

• Technology Innovation
• Design Innovation
• Product Innovation
• Service Innovation
• Brand Innovation
• Marketing Innovation
• Package Innovation
• Customer Experience Innovation
• Business Model Innovation

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 LESSON 5
The Effective Innovator

Einstein, Edison, Jobs, and You

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 Why Innovation?
You see thi gs; a d ou sa , Wh ?

But I d ea thi gs that e e e e; a d I sa , Wh ot?

- George Bernard Shaw

What Makes One an Effective Innovator?

We egi ith the uestio of…
What makes one an effective innovator?

As will be seen in the numerous points made herein, there

are many things that go into making an individual an effective
innovator.

These include:

• Having a sense of, and love for, innovation nurtured within us throughout our lives.
• U de sta di g ou I o ato P ofile … the spe ifi propensities we have for
experimentation, discovery, strategizing, and execution that make us the unique innovator we are.
• The mastery of the 5 key Discovery Skills, a el …
Observing / Questioning / Experimenting / Networking / Associating.
• Our Imagination Skills and the Imagination Methods we have mastered.
• Our Creativity Skills and the Creativity Methods we have mastered.
• Our particular brain dominance pattern and personality type, including how best to
le e age these a d ho to effe ti el o pli e t the ith othe s patte s and types.
• A sense of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship… the so-called entrepreneurial spirit.
• A compulsive drive fo The Ne .
• An ability to work productively on Core Innovation (X-Works) Teams to deliver radical new innovations for
the business.

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 Is Being Innovative Nature Or Nurture?
Is Being Innovative Nature or Nurture?

Innovation is an acquirable skillset and mentality, both at the individual level and the organizational level.
Anyone can become an innovator.

Being innovative at the individual level is therefore largely nurture, and less so nature.

That being said however, just because anyone can become an innovator does not necessarily mean that
everyone desires to become an innovator. Some people will desire to do so, and others will not. Some are
predisposed to enjoying the exploration of the unknown while others are predisposed to retreating into the
presumed safety of the known. The problem with the latter disposition is that our world has come to be
changing at such a rapid pace that such a disposition has been slowly fading away, as there is simply less and
less k o to et eat a k to… i di iduals a e ei g i easi gl forced to confront constant change in their
worlds.

This means, in turn, that most people are becoming increasingly comfortable with innovation and are
increasingly having to adopt a disposition that is favorable to innovation.

Therefore, most anyone who today is exposed to this sort of reality will find it not so difficult to step into an
Innovation Professional role.

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 I o ato s’ Profiles
Innovation is not contingent upon certain personality types, physiological
factors, or professional backgrounds. Innovators come in all shapes and sizes…
men, women, introverts, extroverts, intellectuals, dreamers, and so on.

What is true, however, is that certain dispositions and traits make one suitable
for certain types of roles within innovation and for certain phases of innovation
work.

Overarching above these individual dispositions however is a general desire or

willingness to be a part of something new… to willingly abandon the known
and pursue the unknown.

The series of lists that are to follow next attempt to explain:

1. Those characteristics which all Innovation Professionals need to possess.

2. Those characteristics which distinguish people as being suited for certain roles and activities.

In the latter case, what one finds is that some roles are best suited for the Front End of Innovation, some for the
Mid Zone of Innovation, and some for the Back End of Innovation. For each of those three zones of innovation
work, therefore, there are several specific types of roles that will be explored.

Some individuals, coincidentally, possess very broad characteristics that make them capable of spanning
multiple roles, a d a e the efo e a le to shift gea s a d take o diffe e t oles at diffe e t ti es as eeded i
a given innovation project.

The I o ato s’ P ofiles

• All – A Disdain for the Status Quo / A Hunger to Create the New / A Curiosity to Drive Questions

• Front-Enders – Maverick / Questioner / Experimenter / Socializer / Dreamer / Synthesizer

• Mid-Zoners – Researcher / Strategist / Analyst

• Back-Enders – Manager / Designer / Engineer / Producer / Marketer / Supporter

Each of these are examined in further detail.

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 I o ato s’ P ofiles – All Innovators
The following list attempts to explain those characteristics which all Innovation Professionals need to possess.

Characteristics of All Good Innovation Professionals

The following are characteristics (attitudes and propensities) of those predisposed to working in Innovation in
general.

1. A realization that the world around us is constantly in a state of change and flux, and a willingness therefore
to go off and wrestle with the unknowns that this forces us to confront.

2. An acceptance of the need – when the time is right – to abandon toda s alue p opositio s a d e a e
different ones for tomorrow. Sometimes this means a genuine disdain for the status quo.

3. A general enjoyment of trying new things. A hunger to create the new and a curiosity to drive questions to
that end. The more e pe ie tial one is, the more they will typically enjoy innovation.

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 I o ato s’ P ofiles – Front-Enders
The following are characteristic profiles of types of professionals who are predisposed to
(and valuable for) working in the Front End of Innovation, which involves exploring needs,
challenging current situations, esea hi g the e i o e t , and conceiving new
possibilities – the land of the imagination.

Characteristic Profiles of Those Predisposed to the Front End of Innovation

• The Maverick – Generally dissatisfied with the current situation, this person is constantly
challenging the status quo. They have a natural hunger to be a part of creating the new, and
often tend to be very driven.

• The Questioner – This person has a natural curiosity about the world and/or particular
situations. This drives them to step back and ask lots of probing questions about a situation
and about the assumptions underlying it, often allowing them to uncover insights that others
will have skimmed over.

• The Experimenter – This person is constantly experimenting and trying new things out to see
how they will work and, just as importantly, how they will be received by users. This person
may also be very driven. They also are very likely a highly experiential person.

• The Socializer – This person has a propensity to network broadly, comparing observations,
questions, and ideas with countless other people having a wide variety of backgrounds in
order to see how those observations, questions, and ideas square up against othe people s
experiences and world views.

• The Dreamer – This person has an innate ability to conceptualize various ideal future states
and articulate those to others. They may have a vivid imagination, but this is not necessary.
This role is often very useful when attempting to conceive new solutions.

• The Synthesizer – This person is able to take the insights produced by all these other roles,
together with a broadly-exposed world view, and synthesis something entirely new out of it
all. This is called associating… o e ti g the dots. This is he e a e i o atio s get
their start.

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 I o ato s’ P ofiles – Mid-Zoners
The following are characteristic profiles of types of professionals who are predisposed to
(and valuable for) working in the Mid Zone of Innovation, which involves strategizing a
plan for implementing or commercializing a new innovation.

Characteristic Profiles of Those Predisposed to the Mid Zone of Innovation

• The Researcher – This person has a propensity to want to research all of the various possible
options for taking something to market. They may be adept as Business Model Innovation –
exploring different possibilities and gathering the intelligence they need to support a good
strategy.

• The Strategist – This person is more driven and has a propensity to drive toward a defined
strategy for taking a new innovation to market, or otherwise implementing it. They often are
able to synthesize new strategies that bring innovations to life in much better ways than have
been done in the past. They will need a lot of latitude with the strategies they develop,
which may challenge the organization to stretch itself and develop new capabilities and/or
new partnerships.

• The Analyst – Often a financial or strategy professional, this person will carry out the detailed
analysis of the endeavor from a financial standpoint, including expected adoption models,
sales models, cost models, profitability models, and all the associated P&L / Cash Flow
statements associated with these. This is necessary to ensure there is high confidence in the
financial return of the project.

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 I o ato s’ P ofiles – Back-Enders
The following are characteristic profiles of types of professionals who are predisposed to
(and valuable for) working in the Back End of Innovation, which largely involves a series of
execution tasks, such as detailed design and development, documentation, and
commercialization readiness, required to actually take a new innovation live and into the
market.

Characteristic Profiles of Those Predisposed to the Back End of Innovation

• The Manager – This person may be like a Product Manager or Project Manager, or both.
They will champion the definition of the offering – its features, attributes, pricing, and so
forth.

• The Designer – This person will spearhead the design of the offering – its configuration,
proportions, aesthetics, etc.

• The Engineer – This person will spearhead the detailed development of the offering, using a
variety of technical disciplines.

• The Planner – This person will plan and coordinate the production and delivery of the
offering, getting everything and all parties required lined up prior to launch.

• The Marketer – This person will coordinate all of the marketing work and marketing
communications required to drive awareness of the offering and engagement with the
brand.

• The Supporter – This person will take on numerous different tasks that fill in the gaps
between other roles.

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 I o ato s’ P ofiles
With these different roles outlined – certain ones aligning to FEI, MZI, & BEI respectively – it becomes
increasingly clear how that Innovation requires many different types of professionals to be successful. It
cannot function on just one or two of these types of individuals; it requires all of them.

This is often where organizations fall down. They may carry out the Front End quite well but then be incapable
of executing on the Back End, and so none of their innovations ever see the light of day (sometimes common in
very Marketing-oriented organizations). Or they may be quite capable at the Back End but incompetent on the
Front End, meaning that they bring lots of new things to market, but most of them fail (sometimes common in
very Engineering-oriented organizations). Or they may fail in the Mid Zone, meaning the idea is right and the
offering is good, but how it is commercialized is wrong, and may in fact lose money.

If a business is to succeed at innovation, it must develop competency in all these areas.

Thus it takes all of these of professionals to make innovation happen, which is why almost any person can be a
part of their busi ess i o atio effo t.

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 The Innovato ’s DNA – Five Discovery Skills
Every Successful Innovation Program Needs
In 2011, Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton Christensen put forth a book reflecting an 8 year collaborative
study they had conducted in which they made observations of leading, well-regarding innovation executives
from around the United States.

Published by Harvard Business School Publishing, The I o ato ’s DNA

as i sea h of the se et sau e that ade these leaders such effective
innovators and innovation leaders.

Some of the well-known executives they studied included:

• A.G. Lafley of P&G

• Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com
• Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com
• Meg Whitman and Pierre Omidyar, both of eBay
• Orit Gadiesh of Bain & Company, and
• Mike Lazaridis of Research in Motion (RIM).

After distilling their research down and subjecting it to careful analysis,

these researchers concluded that there were five critical behavioral skills that made these individuals the
effective innovation leaders they are.

These Five Discovery Skills Are:

1. Observing
2. Questioning
3. Experimenting
4. Networking This is literally
5. Associating what is meant by
connecting the dots!

The last – associating – is what is meant by the phrase o e ti g the dots .

For reference, these behavioral skills are referred to here as the 5 Discovery Skills, and are referenced numerous
times throughout this course.

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The Innovato ’s DNA – Five Discovery Skills (cont.)
The following is a brief synopsis of the esea he s fi di gs a d of these fi e eha io al skills.

The Five Discovery Skills

• Observing – This is the natural tendency to spend time observing the world around us, looking for oddities,
o li ea ities, o t adi tio s, a d ofte hat s issi g alled Absence Thinking). It is the product of a very
a so pti e i d as he people a e alled spo ges … soaki g up e e thi g tha a a so . Probably
the o ld s est stude ts a e O se e s.

• Questioning – This is the natural tendency to unabashedly question things… so eti es e e thi g, all i the
search for deeper truth and meaning. Wh is it this a ? Wh ot that a ? Wh do people do this?
Wh ot that? Whe ? Whe e? Ho u h? A d of ou se… Wh ? a d Wh Not? It is a atu al
curiosity given a deep mind. It often annoys those who do not understand from where it is coming.

• Experimenting – This is the natural tendency to want to try out new things… experiment… see hat happe s…
look fo ea tio s to o el thi gs… test people s espo ses… see hat o ks a d does t o k. It is a atu al
u iosit gi e ha ds a d feet. Ma of the o ld s est i e to s ha e ee p olific experimenters (think of,
for example, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison).

• Networking – This is the natural tendency to build up large networks of trusted peers whom one then engages
to share observations, questions, and ideas to see what others think of them and to see if perhaps those
others can somehow synergistically build on top of these observations, questions, and ideas to take them even
fu the , ad a i g o e s i o atio s fu the ahead tha the ould ha e ee othe ise. Ma of the
o ld s greatest innovations have come about because two or three people networked with one another.

• Associating – This is the natural tendency to synthesize i o e s i d entirely new relationships between
otherwise completely unrelated pieces of information and insight, resulting in some entirely new idea or
concept that had never been conceived previously. It uses what has come to be known as Associative Thinking
– associating unrelated things to create something new. It is also what has been referred to colloquially as
o e ti g the dots.

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The Innovato ’s DNA – Five Discovery Skills (cont.)
These five skills must be applied in a very intentional and focused manner to every
new innovation challenge. There is a need, therefore, for good diversity in the skills,
particularly within Innovation Teams, he e e e s eall eed o e a othe s
contributions. They must therefore strive to build out a mix of strengths in these skills
within teams.

Better Innovation Teams (specifically Front End teams) therefore tend to be made up of
individuals having different innovator profiles, and thus a complimentary mix of skills.
One may be a strong Observer, another a strong Questioner, another a strong
Associator, and so on.

In this way, as a team they are more likely to be able to leverage all five of the skills and reap the fruit in their
team endeavor that generally only comes from being able to integrate all five skills.

This research finding also has important implications for Innovation Professionals…

1. Most innovative individuals will possess a mix of all five of these, but be strongest in one or two of them – not
an equal strength of all five.

2. Each professional should seek to ascertain which of these skills they are naturally stronger at.

3. Each professional should seek to strengthen their skills in all five of these areas (the authors speak to how to
do that).

4. That information should be shared ith o e s a age s if ot al ead e ide t o k o su h that the
Professional can be teamed with others having complimentary Discovery Skills.
This ill a i ize tea s effe ti e ess at le e agi g ea h P ofessio al s pa ti ula Dis o e Skill i .

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 Imagination & Imagination Skills
The Innovation Professional, in the course of his or her innovation career, will be called upon to use their
imagination. Hopefully this should come as no major surprise.

The primary context in which the Innovation Professional will engage their imagination is in the Front End of
Innovation – prior to ever starting to tear apart a problem or ideate specific solutions around it – to imagine
Ideal Future States relating to the problem.

This has othi g hatsoe e to do ith ei g a le to a a ge e isti g thi gs to get to that poi t that s hat
Creativity is for); it is pu el a out fi i g these poi ts i o e s i d ithout o e fo ho o e is to get the e

Bei g a le to o ei e i o e s i d a Ideal Futu e State – whether believed to be possible or not – is a key

skill and capability for the Front End Innovator. Professionals who work in this area must strive to master this
skill and capability.

Interestingly, those who have been formally trained in Design by and large have had to learn this skill (however
gradually), as they will have been asked many times over to picture the end arrangement of how things are to
be before having a plan yet for getting there. This is why a Designer will tend to have more of a solution-
focused approach to problem-solving as opposed to the problem-focused approach that most Scientists and
Engineers will have.

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 Imagination & Imagination Skills (cont.)
There are numerous methods and exercises for
spa ki g the i agi atio while engaged in an
innovation project.

One approach requires the Professional to remove

themselves from the situation (though their
su o s ious i d ill o ti ue to o k the
p o le , immerse themselves into a radically
different environment or experience – perhaps read
a fiction book, watch a science fiction movie, go to a concert, go to an ideas festival even, or go for a walk or
bike ride – and let the various stimuli see if they can spark some connection back to what the subconscious
mind is doing. Often, without even being aware of it, the lightbulb will go on and an a-ha! o e t will
happen.

Another approach has one spend time intentionally imagining all manner of unrealistic scenarios (generally
positi e o es i o de to get o e s i d i that rhythm and mode, and then to switch over to imagining
different scenarios about the challenge at hand. This will often help to start coalescing a new Ideal Future State
i o e s i d – often quite a different one than the mind might have produced under more stressful conditions.

Yet another approach has one spend time asking a series of questions a out a situatio … uestio s like Wh ? ,
Wh Not? , What if… ? , a d What ould it look like if… ? . These uestio s – particularly the absence
thi ki g o es like Wh ot? – can be incredibly powerful for opening up new insights about a situation.

With any of these exercises, the trick with imagination is to stimulate the mind and then to let the
subconscious mind do its share of the heavy lifting. Imagination is not an activity that can be driven solely out
of the rational conscious mind.

When used properly, imagination can be the key to unlocking all manner of hidden insights and ideas.

Imagination is particularly powerful when used in the Problem Reframing phase of Design Thinking. Here,
different Ideal Future States will be conceived as ways of generating different hypotheses about the problem at
hand (a divergent exercise). Each unique Ideal Future State will say something different about what the real
problem is, thus leading to a certain hypothesis about the problem. These hypotheses can then be tested via
business experimentation to converge on the one best hypothesis. After one has converged on the right
hypothesis and from this established their Point of View and Design Principles, they will largely be leaving
imagination behind to move on to creativity. Creativity is used to synthesize new solutions.

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 Creativity & Creativity Skills
Unlike Imagination, creativity is largely about being able to arrange existing things in order to arrive at a desired
end point. It is akin to resourcefulness… ho o e a use a d a a ge the esou es at thei disposal to est
accomplish a particular aim. But like imagination, creativity is an incredibly important and powerful aspect of
effective innovation. Thus, just as with imagination, the Innovation Professional will be called upon to apply
creativity in the course of their career. Hopefully this also should come as no surprise.

The contexts in which the Innovation Professional will be called upon to use creativity actually span the entire
spectrum of innovation work… f o the Front End to the Mid Zone to the Back End.

• In the Front End, they will be using creativity to conceive as many different solutions to a problem as they can
possibly come up with (a divergent exercise). This will require an incredible amount of creativity amongst a
team to think up so many different ways to tackle the problem. These potential solutions can then be tested
via prototyping and user testing to converge on the one best solution.

• In the Mid Zone, they will be using creativity to conceive a large number of potential business models and go-
to-market strategies that they can then consider and analyze against the relevant external realities.

• And in the Back End, they will be using creativity to come up with all sorts of new pieces to the puzzle they
need to build in order to bring the innovation to life – new manufacturing processes, new supply chain
models, new customer service models, and so forth.

Thus, ei g a le to e gage o e s eati it fo these p odu ti e uses is a key skill and capability for the
Innovation Professional regardless of where in the process they happen to work. Therefore all Innovation
P ofessio als ust st i e to aste this skill a d apa ilit if the a e to help thei usi ess i o atio projects
be successful.

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 Creativity & Creativity Skills (cont.)
There are numerous methods for stimulating
creativity while engaged in an innovation
project.

Creativity methods include those such as

Lateral Thinking, Question Storming, Hypothesis
Forming, Hypothesis Testing, Brainstorming,
and more.

They also include a long list of methods that fall

under the heading of Design Methods, covered in The GInI Handbook of Applied Innovation. This would include,
for example, methods such as Personas, Empathy Maps, 5 Whys, Piggybacking, Brandcasting, Backcasting,
Customer Co-Creation, Ho Might We… ? uestio s, a d so fo th… lite all s o es of diffe e t ethods, all of
which are capable of engaging creativity in quite unique ways (some ways are more useful for certain purposes,
while other ways are more useful for yet other purposes).

The Innovation Professional needs to learn and master as broad of a portfolio of creativity methods as possible,
including where each method is best used and why. This will allow them to have a complete toolbox to draw
from and the ability to know which tool to use in a particular situation, so that they can always have confidence
in using the most effective tool(s) for whatever situation they are presented with.

In addition to Creativity Methods like those mentioned above, which get used for actually doing work, there are
also exercises which the Innovation Professional can engage in that will help them to uild thei eati it
us le .

This includes any constructive play like puzzle-building, LEGO® building,

or similar building game, including digital games like Minecraft where
one gets to use their creativity to build whole new worlds.

It also includes more artistic pursuits such as creative writing, painting,

adult- olo i g , and woodwork.

Essentially any activity that challenges one to take basic building blocks
a d eate so ethi g hole out of it a e used to uild a d
sha pe o e s eati e apa ilities. I o atio P ofessio als a e
usually well-served therefore to spend time doing these things as they can fit them in to their lives.

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 Creativity & Creativity Skills (cont.)
When used effectively, creativity can be the key to coming up with incredibly novel new ways of solving
problems, whether they be a Front End problem (what), a Mid Zone problem (when, where, and who), or a Back
End problem (how).

All of these situations benefit from the effective use of creativity.

Creativity, therefore, plays an incredibly important supporting role in any and all innovation work.

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 The Role of Brain Dominance
There was a growing interest throughout much of the latter half of the
Twentieth Century in the concepts of thinking styles and brain dominance,
particularly as they related to creativity. Two important models came out
of this.

The original and simplest models was that of left-brain versus right-brain
dominance. In this model, people with a left-brain dominance were
purportedly more logical, objective, and analytical in their thinking, while
people with a right-brain dominance were purportedly more intuitive,
subjective, and artistic in their thinking. This construct is based on the
Lateralization of Brain Function Theory, originated by American
neuroscientist Dr. Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913 – 1994) while a professor at
California Institute of Technology in the 1950s and 60s. Today, much of this
theory has been debunked, with more contemporary research in
neuroscience showing that the two halves of the brain very much work in
concert with one another in order to accomplish tasks with a high degree of quality.
They do not work in a dichotomous fashion.

A similar model was published by Dr. Paul McLean while head of the Laboratory for Brain Evolution and Behavior
at the National Institute for Mental Health. M Lea s odel as k o as the Triune Brain Theory, and
involved an ancient brain (primitive, reptilian), a limbic brain (mammalian), and a neocortex (the so-called
thi ki g ap . M Lea s T iu e B ai Theo did ot see a p a tical use inside of business.

The next model that came along – and which has managed to stick – was developed by Ned Hermann (1922 –
1999) while helping to lead the Management Education program at General Electric in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.
He a s odel, which he came to call Whole Brain Thinking, was based purely on psychological observation
a d did ot i ol e ph siologi al e pe i e tatio as did Spe s. He a as fas i ated ith the o ki gs of
the brain and how this related to thinking styles and to creativity.

While at GE, he assessed u e ous su je ts thi ki g patte s i o de to uild the fou datio fo the odel,
and in 1978 created the Hermann Participant Survey Form to p ofile su je ts thinking styles and learning
preference in accordance ith the p e aili g ai do i a e thi ki g of the da la gel i flue ed Spe s
o k . F o this e e ged He a s o ept of four stable quadrants of the brain, each with its own
particular ge ius .

This model was purely conceptual and had no relationship whatsoever with the physiology of the brain.
He a s assess e t i st u e t e ol ed i to hat is toda k o as the Hermann Brain Dominance
Instrument®, or HBDI, hi h a e used to assess i di iduals thi ki g st les.

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 The Role of Brain Dominance (cont.)
The Whole Brain / Four Quadrant Model divides the brain in the following way:

Cerebral Half

• Upper Left – Colored Blue – Logical, analytical, technical, quantitative, problem-solving.

• Lower Left – Colored Green – Controlled, organized, planned, detailed, sequential, conservative,
administrative.

Limbic Half

• Lower Right – Colored Red – Interpersonal, emotional, intuitive, team-oriented, communicative, spiritual.
• Upper Right – Colored – Imaginative, creative, conceptual, synthesizing, artistic, holistic.

When one takes the HBDI, it reveals a certain profile showing how strong and weak one is in each of these areas.

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 The Role of Brain Dominance (cont.)
So, how does such a model relate to business innovation and to the Innovation Professional?

The answer is that there are certain ways in which a brain dominance model relates, and other ways in which it
does not.

Each quadrant of this model has something to say about how people like to work, how they like to communicate
(and be communicated to), how they approach teamwork, and their management style in general.

That being the case, there are four (4) relevant points the Innovation Professional needs to be aware of.

Those are:

1. Individuals with a certain brain dominance profile are not inherently ette i o ato s than those with
some other profile. Stated otherwise, there is o o e ideal ai do i a e p ofile for innovators.

2. Individuals with a Limbic orientation may be well suited to the very early Front End of Innovation (conceptual
work).

3. Individuals with a Cerebral orientation may be well suited to the Back End of Innovation
(execution work).

4. All in all, being able to innovate successfully within a business requires its teams to have a balance of brain-
dominance styles, with certain styles assigned to certain roles. The business will likely not succeed at
innovation without this balance. Thus teams should be built with this in mind.

Whole Brain® and The Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument® (HBDI) are registered trademarks of Herrmann
Global, LLC.

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 The Role of Personality Type
Just as with the existence of brain dominance models,
there are also similar models of personality types.

Perhaps the two most common of these are:

1. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBT) based on the work of

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875 – 1961).

2. The DiSC profile based on the work of American psychologist William Moulton Marston (1893 – 1947) (with
the assessment tool being developed by industrial psychologist Walter Vernon Clarke).

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator defines 16 unique personality types, denoted

by four identifying letters – E-I / S-N / T-F / J-P.

The DiSC profile defines four predominant personality types –

Dominance / Influence / Steadiness / Conscientiousness.

A third model similar to these was the Keirsey Temperaments

model developed by American psychologist David Keirsey (1921 –
2013). The Keirsey model never saw the commercial success that
the other two experienced. Both the MBT and DISC remain in
widespread usage today.

In relation to personality profiles, the same four points can largely

be made as were made in relation to brain-dominance profiles.

Na el …

1. Individuals with a certain personality type are not i he e tl ette i o ato s than those with some other
type. Stated otherwise, there is o o e ideal pe so alit t pe for innovators.

2. Individuals with a more subjective orientation may be well suited to the early Front End of Innovation
(though not always).

3. Individuals with a more objective orientation may be well suited to the Back End of Innovation (though,
again, not always).

4. All in all, being able to innovate successfully within a business requires its teams to have a balance of
personality types, however in the case of personality types, there is no one-to-one correlation with specific
roles. Teams should thus be built with this in mind.

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 Intrapreneur vs. Entrepreneur
Most are familiar with the concept of the entrepreneur as being someone
who launches a new business venture. These individuals are often required
to be driven, visionary people with tremendous persistence, as starting a
new business is always such a demanding undertaking, one that typically
brings with it a high level of risk. It can, however, be an equally rewarding
one, particularly for people who place a high value on independence and
autonomy in their lives.

Gi e toda s le el of new venture activity, it is not uncommon for the

Innovation Professional to personally know entrepreneurs, or to have even
been one themselves at one point.

Certainly having an entrepreneurial spirit is a major aid in carrying out any

innovation work.

A very similar concept to that of entrepreneurship has come

to be used inside of larger, established businesses. It is the
concept of the intrapreneur and of intrapreneurship.

This typically refers to individuals within an established

business who demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit to, of
their own initiative, take hands-on responsibility for creating
and driving a new innovation through the business. In contrast to one who passively follows instructions
regarding what to do, this is one who actively and assertively engages in their own level of risk-taking and
sometimes unsanctioned efforts to make a new innovation come to life.

The archetypal intrapreneur is one who toils away in a secret garage or skunkworks lab somewhere in the
business to develop a new innovation for the business which they are passionate about. This generally requires
a very a tuated pe so … thus someone with very high EQ.

The central essence of intrapreneurship is that the Intrapreneur chooses to act more or less independently in
order to pursue a particular innovation in the business that they are passionate about, whether or not they have
formal sanction and resources from the business for doing so. Sometimes it even involves pursuing endeavors in
secrecy and using a certain level of resourcefulness and relationships to get access to what is needed to move
the project forward. This can require a lot of informal leadership. It can also happen at any level in the
organization, with executives sometimes setting up secret skunkworks operations away from the rest of the
business. Generally speaking, the larger the organization, the easier it is to hide such a secret endeavor away
somewhere.

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 Intrapreneur vs. Entrepreneur (cont.)
At some point, perhaps after a proof-of-concept prototype has demonstrated the technical feasibility of an idea,
or an alpha customer has been signed up to prove the commercial viability of a concept, the endeavor will have
to come to light and become integrated into the formal portfolio of business activities the organization is
formally managing.

The benefit to businesses of allowing and even encouraging intrapreneurship is that they often end up with
breakthrough new innovations that they would never have otherwise had. This tends to have a significant
financial impact on the business that far outweighs the cost of people s time that gets invested into the
endeavors. Thus, most businesses would do well to encourage intrapreneurialism within their ranks.

Depending on the culture of the business – whether it is more open and forward-thinking or more closed and
anchored – intrapreneuring may or may not be welcomed there. Where it is welcomed, the experience will
generally be much more positive, rewarding, and potentially career-enhancing. Where it is not welcomed…
where there are numerous corporate antibodies trying to kill if off at every turn (perhaps because it is seen as a
threat to the current business), then the experience will generally be much more difficult, challenging, and likely
frustrating. It can, in some cases, even become career-limiting. The Innovation Professional should therefore
seek to find out where their business lies on this spectrum and then engage accordingly.

Businesses that are open to this will often have formal programs of engagement designed to drive bottom-up
innovation, including the driven, sometimes maverick-like, behavior that intrapreneurs demonstrate.

Historically the term intrapreneur was first introduced in a 1978 paper by

husband and wife Gifford Pinchot III and Elizabeth Pinchot, where they
defined intrapreneurs as d ea e s ho do .

The term saw expanded usage in the early 1980s with a 1982 article in The
Economist and the well-read 1985 TIME agazi e a ti le He e o e the
I t ap e eu s .

Also in 1985 a Newsweek article credited Steve Jobs with using the term in
elatio to Apple s Macintosh team.

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 Compulsive Innovators – What Drives Them?
Within the world of innovation, there is a certain subculture of
individuals who one might refer to as o pulsi e i o ato s .
They feel incessantly compelled to pursue innovation… to e
o sta tl d i i g thi gs fo a d… a insatiable appetite for
always being a part of the e .

This is the same incessant compulsion that has driven many

inventors and entrepreneurs over the centuries – individuals like
Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, Charles Babbage, James Watt, and Thomas Edison.
These people developed transformative innovations, built lucrative new businesses around them, and left
behind a legacy of innovation that the world remembers to this day.

Even today, we find individuals whom we refer to as se ial e t ep e eu s . They start a business, scale it to a
certain point, and then sell it. Then they go out and do it all over again – repeatedly time after time.

This pe haps aises a uestio i so e people s i ds as to why

this is. What is it about these people that drives them to
compulsively be always pursuing something new?

While o e hausti e stud has ee ade of these i di idual s

particular psychological, physiological, or lifestyle profiles (the
closest this is perhaps The I o ato s DNA), what has been
observed are two things.

First, most of these individuals have – either as a product of birth, circumstances, or both – an insatiable
curiosity about the world and a desire to not only know it better, but to unlock its secrets for the sake of
advancement. Their inherent curiosity and desire drives them to study, experiment, and learn, and then to
apply these things to the new and novel. The e is a e tai ush the get f o su essfull i gi g e thi gs
to life, and sometimes a significant financial payback.

Second, many of these individuals have – perhaps mostly as a product of their circumstances and upbringing –
an inherent drive to change the world and to make it a better place. For many of them even, this arises out of a
sense of spiritual purpose – why they were put here on Earth, and what they are supposed to do with their lives
while here. Certainly this has been the case with many social innovators and with certain business innovators
who saw a deeper purpose to business than simply converting goods and services into revenue and profit.

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 Compulsive Innovators (cont.)
Consider the following quotes from these famous innovators:

• The Greek philosopher and epistemology innovator Socrates:

The u e a i ed life is ot o th li i g .

• The Hindu social innovator Mahatma Gandhi:

You ust e the ha ge ou a t to see i the o ld.

• The Christian social innovator Mother Teresa:

We k o o l too ell that hat e a e doi g is othi g o e tha
a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would
e issi g so ethi g.

• The Zen practitioner and business innovator Steve Jobs:

We e he e to put a de t i the u i e se. Othe ise h else e e e he e?

These i di iduals see to ha e hea d a e tai d u eat that d o e them forward in trying to change the
world, typically in quite an innovative or unconventional fashion for the challenge they were dealing with.

One thing that many of them have in common is that they have had a particular life- ha gi g e pe ie e… ofte
something dramatic, traumatic even, that has forced them to step back and develop a deeper, more spiritual
perspective on their lives and then conclude that they had to pursue a deeper and more meaningful purpose
while here on Earth.

One might conclude then that several possible things potentially conspire to transform certain individuals into
compulsive innovators. Perhaps it was being born with a natural curiosity of the world. Perhaps it was a
childhood influence to constantly experience new things and learn, or to constantly experiment. Perhaps it was
a traumatic life-changing experience that forced them to take a deeper and more spiritual perspective on life,
which in turn led them to pursue some means of impacting the world. Or perhaps it was some combination of
all three of these. Either way, it will always be true that, for whatever reason, the world will continue to have
those individuals who are compulsively driven to change things and to make them better – to deliver new
innovation to the world. They are, in the words of the now-famous 1984 Apple ad conceived by Rob Siltanen
while working at ad agency Chiat-Day… the az o es… the isfits… the e els… the t ou le ake s… the
ou d pegs i the s ua e holes… the o es ho see thi gs diffe e tl . These people still exist, and probably
forever will.

If a business is able to find people who fit this mold, they would do well to put them in a role where they have
the freedom, latitude, and resources to pursue bold new innovations for the business, perhaps breakthrough,
disruptive, or even transformative innovations. This will allow the individual to flourish and the business to
potentially realize a substantial return on their investment. The caveat, however, is that these individuals are
not always the easiest to o k ith. The a e, as Silta e s op e t o to e i d us… ot fo d of ules …
the ha e o espe t fo the status uo. This should e take i to o side atio he aki g a pla e fo
them. They will likely not fit well within established business units.

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 Becoming an Innovator
In order to become an innovator and fulfill
the role of Innovation Professional, an individual
must embrace:

• a disdain for stasis and the status quo

• an openness to change

• a sense of entrepreneurialism

• an eagerness for exploration, experimenting, and

experiencing.

They must also master the 5 Discovery Skills – observing / questioning / experimenting / networking /
associating.

Finally they must be in touch with their personality type and

brain dominance pattern, and know both how to best
leverage these and how to compliment them with their
tea ates o skills, so that togethe the a dis o e
bold new opportunities and deliver radical new innovations
that move their business and their markets meaningfully
forward.

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 Working on Core Innovation Teams
The concept of the Core Innovation Team involves all of those individuals who are either assigned
full-time to a centralized innovation function within the business, or who are assigned full-time to executing
only innovation projects within decentralized innovation groups of various functions or business units.

The key point for these individuals is that they are focused exclusively on carrying out innovation projects and
endeavors fo the usi ess. Colle ti el the ake up the usi ess Core Innovation Team.

With their shared focus, even when they are assigned to a decentralized group, they often still have a matrix-
style report-in relationship to a centralized innovation function, typically led by a Chief Innovation Officer (or
equivalent). This ensures they all remain in sync ith o e a othe a d ith the usi ess o e a hi g
Innovation Strategy.

For the Innovation Professional, the primary team role will typically be serving on what are called
X-Works Innovation Teams, o just I o atio Tea s fo sho t. The a e X-Wo ks denotes the fact that
these teams are focused on true innovation endeavors, and not simply extensions of current products and
services. This distinguishes such a team from a standard New Product Development (NPD) team who may be
developing an iteration of an existing product platform, according to a product roadmap established by a
Product Manager.

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 Working on Core Innovation Teams (cont.)
Innovation Teams are typically in search of bold new opportunities to deliver real innovation that can have a
major impact on the business and the market, which means that what they are pursuing may in fact be a
departure from what the business is currently doing, or at least a major extension to what it is doing in some
area. The work of these teams is therefore much more exploratory, experimental, and fuzzy in nature, and
much of their efforts will be aimed at longer term opportunities for the business. The members of these teams
need to be highly creative and entrepreneurial, which is precisely why that are staffed with Innovation
Professionals.

The Innovation Professional will want to learn how to operate most effectively and productively within these
teams. Thus, while they may view themselves as a maverick of sort, they will still require good interpersonal
and teamwork skills so that they can help their teams be as effective as possible at achieving new innovations.
While invention is something that can be done by the lone genius, innovation rarely can. Innovation almost
always requires a carefully coordinated team effort in order to succeed.

The Innovation Professional must therefore understand that they will be expected to be a team player and do
everything they can to make their teams successful and not just themselves. They will not realize overall
success until they learn to pursue true team successes. The mantra they should keep in mind therefore is:
o od i s u til e all i . If they do this, then they are sure to help their teams achieve great success and
generate numerous new innovations that make it all the way through to implementation, which is always the
ultimate reward.

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 LESSON 6
Creativity &
Creativity Methods
Tapping into I o atio ’s Sou e of Life

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 Creativity – What Is It?
Creativity is the use of the human mental faculty to conceive new solutions to specific challenges – arranging
existing things in novel new ways to arrive at a particular desired end point.

As mentioned previously, it is akin to resourcefulness… ho o e a use a d a a ge the esou es at thei

disposal to best accomplish a particular aim. The more unique and novel the way one arranges these things, the
more creative is said to be their concept.

As also oted p e iousl , eati it is used th ough i o atio p oje ts…

• In the Front End of Innovation to conceive as many different solutions to a problem as possible – solutions
that will subsequently be prototyped and tested.

• In the Mid Zone of Innovation to conceive a large number of potential business models and go-to-market
strategies to consider.

• In the Back End of Innovation to come up with all the many pieces needed to bring the innovation to life.

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 Creativity Methods
Creativity Methods are defined methods used to stimulate individual and team creativity while engaged in
innovation projects together.

We recognize two types of Creativity Methods.

The first are procedural methods that allow teams to engage collectively in creative work, such as, for
example, brainwriting, brainstorming, question-storming, hypothesis forming, hypothesis testing, and more.

The second are mental techniques that work at the individual mind level. They are used to help focus
people s i ds toward framing an issue in a very particular type of mental construct, so that they think about
it in an entirely different way.

These mental techniques are used within some of the methods presented herein, such as Lateral Thinking and
the Breakthrough Innovation Method, as well as within other methods like TRIZ which are not covered in this
course.

There are numerous useful methods to stimulate both individual and team creativity.

A few of these are highlighted here.

We will notice as we go through these that a lot of them actually focus on the art of asking questions.

This is important, e ause so e of the o ld s best innovations happened because someone asked a
really good question that no one before them had ever asked.

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 Creativity – Question-Storming
This is a team thinking exercise similar to brainstorming except that
instead of spending their time trying to create new ideas, they instead
spend their time trying to craft really good questions to ask.

Sometimes this exercise is called Thinking Like a 4 Year Old or

Assu e a Begi er’s Mi dset because it requires us to abandon
all of our preconceived notions about why things are the way they
are and why the world works the way it does, and begin at the
beginning… aski g h is this? , a d h is that? .

Yes… it can get a lot of strange stares, but it also forces us to question
the underlying orthodoxies that once held true but may no longer
need to.

Ultimately, what we are looking for is the eta uestio behind it all!

A very good book that is relevant to this exercise is A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger.

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 Creativity – Hypothesis Forming
All good innovations begin their life with new hypotheses – or beliefs – about why a
situation is the way it is (causalities).

In this exercise therefore, individuals and teams are challenged to go out into the world
and observe, question, network, and associate. They do this in order that they might
formulate as many potential hypotheses as they possibly can around why a particular
situation (need, pain, etc.) is what it is.

Thus, it is hypotheses about problems, not ideas about solutions, that are the
starting point for all relevant innovation… the genesis of new value!

This is not unlike the Scientific Method, in which one first makes an observation of a
situation, asks various questions about the situation in order to clarify their observations, and then formulates a
hypothesis about what is going on in the situation.

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 Creativity – Hypothesis Testing
Once we have formulated as many hypotheses as we possibly can around why a
particular situation is what it is, we next need to test these hypotheses to see which
ones prove true.

This exercise has us employ various types of business experimentation methods to

develop experiments in which we can test a hypothesis.

For example, we might build a quick mock-up and test it with would-be users to see
whether or not their reaction to it verifies the hypothesis.

This is again not unlike the Scientific Method, in which one devises and conducts one or
more experiments by which to test their hypothesis, draws various conclusions from the
results of those experiments, and then reports the results of their experiments so that
they can share the insights they have learned with others.

Once we have tested out all of the hypotheses, we discard those that did not prove true, and retain those that
did, potentially combining them, and ultimately use them to start thinking about possible new solutions.

A very good book that is relevant to this exercise is

The I o ato s H pothesis by Michael Schrage.

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 Creativity – Lateral Thinking
Lateral Thinking is an approach to creative thinking and problem solving introduced by
Dr. Edward de Bono in 1967.

Lateral Thinking intentionally seeks to distance itself from more conventional approaches to creativity,
classifying these as either e ti al logi (classic problem solving where a solution is worked out step-by-step
from known data) or ho izo tal i agi atio (having lots of ideas but ignoring the realities of how to
implement them).

By comparison, Lateral Thinking attempts to spark new ideas and solutions through
indirect reasoning. The exercise of so doing inherently forces a highly creative and nonlinear approach that
tends to yield ideas which might not otherwise be reached through traditional linear logic.

One uses Lateral Thinking to move from a known idea to creating entirely new ideas.

Lateral Thinking is also – like brainstorming in general – concerned more with the o e e t alue of claims
and ideas – the willingness to move forward in a positive exploring way without stopping to judge whether
something is right or wrong.

This contrasts with Critical Thinking, which is concerned more with judging the correctness of claims and
exposing errors.

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 Creativity – Lateral Thinking (cont.)
de Bono defined a large number of Thinking Tools fo Late al Thi ki g…

Focus – a deliberate effort to pick out a new focal point.

Creative Challenge – simply refuses to accept that the current way is necessarily the best way.

Sensitizing Techniques – The purpose of sensitizing techniques is to feed ideas into the mind in order to allow
our thinking to take new and creative lines. A st atal is a u e of u o e ted state e ts put togethe
solely to form a stratal. The purpose of a stratal is to sensitive the mind so that new ideas can come forward.
Alternatives – Is there another way? What are the alternatives?
Concepts – In general, it is difficult to work at the concept level. So it makes sense to work at the idea level and
the keep pulli g a k to fi d the o ept. What is the o ept he e? What o ept is ei g a ied out
the idea?
The Concept Fan – Go from an idea to a concept which becomes the fixed point for other ideas. Also go from
the o ept to a oade o ept , hi h the e o es the fi ed poi t fo alte ati e o epts.
Movement – The ge e al se se of o e e t ea s the illi g ess to o e fo a d i a positive exploring
way rather than stopping to judge whether something is right or wrong.

Creative Pause – the illi g ess to pause du i g so e thi ki g o dis ussio to pa eati e atte tio to hat
is going on.

Random Input – Obtain a word which has no connection whatsoever with the situation and hold the two
together. From this juxtaposition we seek to develop new ideas.

Treatment of Ideas – multiple ways of evaluating ideas include: quick rejection of ideas, shaping ideas, tailoring
ideas, strengthening ideas, reinforcing ideas, take-up of ideas, comparison, faults and defects, consequences,
testability, and evaluation.
Harvesting – In any creative thinking session, there are at least three purposes: 1. To find the magic idea; 2. To
produce new ideas that can be shaped into usable ideas; 3. To stock the mind with a repertoire of concepts and
ideas that may not be useful at the moment but that will enrich any future thinking on the same or related
matters (and even on other matters). With poor harvesting, the second and third of these purposes is ignored.
Formal Output – suggests the disciplined use of time, focus, and technique enhances creativity sessions. In
addition, the output of the session should be formalized into writing that includes the focus, concept, and idea
for all the output in the sessions.

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 Creativity – Lateral Thinking (cont.)
Six Thinking Hats was a system designed by de Bono to help people apply
lateral thinking / parallel thinking. It involves a tool for group discussion and
individual thinking using six colored hats, providing a means for groups to
plan the thinking processes in a detailed, cohesive way so that they can think
together more effectively.

The Six Thinking Hats are as follows:

1. The White Hat – factual, objective, data-oriented

2. The Yellow Hat – optimistic, cheerful, benefit-oriented

3. The Green Hat – creative, exploratory, idea-oriented

4. The Red Hat – emotional, feeling, intuition-oriented

5. The Blue Hat – controlling, managing, planning-oriented

6. The Black Hat – careful, caution, judgment-oriented

By looking at a matter through each of these six different hats (lenses) in succession, a team is able to examine
an issue from multiple different perspectives so that they can spark new ideas they otherwise would never have
considered. That is the power of Lateral Thinking.

Because this method / process is so similar to proper generic brainstorming, it is not taught or used further in
this course. Instead, proper brainstorming is taught and used.

Those wishing to lear o e should o sult de Bo o s ooks o Late al Thi ki g a d Si Thi ki g Hats.

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 Creativity – The SCAMPER Method
SCAMPER is an organized creativity / brainstorming technique that challenges teams to reapply ordinary things
– often discarded things – in totally new ways to define a new form of value.

The acronym stands for:

• Substitute
• Combine
• Adapt
• Modify, magnify, maximize
• Put to other Purposes
• Eliminate, elaborate, minimize
• Rearrange, reverse.

In using this method, workshop participants are instructed to consider any number of things that alone are
typically considered to be of little or no value – commodities, leftovers, and/or discarded items.

They are then challenged to consider all the different ways in which they might take these items and recombine
their attributes in ways that yield totally new forms of value – substitute them for something else, combine
them with something else, adapt them to some other purpose, minimize or maximize aspects of them, elaborate
upon or eliminate aspects of them, reuse them elsewhere, rearrange them or turn them around, and so forth.

Teams can often use this method to find new value for things like:

• Leftover / scrap manufacturing materials

• Excess service capacity
• Nonreturnable shipping containers
• Retired capital equipment.
• Volunteer opportunities for retirees.

The SCAMPER method is a classic and proven method. Teams are often able to use this method to come up
with a large number of novel uses of such things and create new forms of value where none existed previously,
or greater forms of value than existed previously.

It is an excellent method when attempting to find new ways of extracting more value than is currently extracted
i a gi e s ste s desig .

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 Further Down the Road on Creativity Methods
Very closely allied to general Creativity Methods are what are known in the context of Design Thinking as
Design Methods – generally Creativity Methods used for the purpose of facilitating Design Thinking.

Well over one hundred such methods are presented in the GInI Applied Innovation Master Book.

These are categorized into four chapters that focus on the four key types of Design Research, namely:

1. Observing – The Observe Methods

2. Questioning – The Question Methods
3. Experimenting – The Experiment Methods
4. Studying – The Study Methods.

The Innovation Professional is encouraged to refer to that book and examine these Design Methods in detail for
a broader appreciation of more Creativity Methods.

We will discuss these again, with a few examples, later on when we review the Design Thinking process.

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LESSON 7
Ideation &
Brainstorming
Bringing New Ideas to Life

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 Ideation – What Is It?
Ideation is the generation of new ideas.

These can be ideas about just about anything dealing with

an innovation opportunity…

• The problem or challenge itself (also known as hypotheses).

• Ways in which to test those hypotheses (to arrive at the best one).

• Solutions to a properly framed problem.

• Ways to in which to test those solutions (to arrive at the best one).

• Ways in which to design, develop, brand, position, and otherwise go to market with a new solution.

Ideation is done in both the individual setting and the group setting.

As such, ideation is the work product of systems and processes like brainstorming.

Brainstorming – What Is it?

Brainstorming – also knowns as Structured Ideation – is a process – executed at both the individual and group
levels – in which teams of individuals pool their collective intelligence together to ideate and conceive novel
new answers to a particular question.

It can involve numerous steps and techniques, including verbal suggestions with dialogue, written suggestions
with piggybacking, fast and dirty prototyping, customer co-creation, and improv, amongst others. All of these
are intended to stimulate individual and group thinking around novel new answers to a particular challenge
question.

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 Brainstorming – Avoiding Misuse
Brainstorming has often been misused. These are some of the ways that has happened.

• Usi g ai sto i g sessio s fo posturing, to create the appearance of ei g eati e i oga da .

• Tu i g ai sto i g sessio s i to elaborate off-sites with too many stakeholders, each with a hidden
agenda… o eal p odu ti e out o es a e a hie ed / ge ui e eati it is s uel hed.

• Allo i g ai sto i g sessio s to e o e feel-good happ pla es where people throw out ideas based
on fantasy rather than realities, generating no useful ideas the business can act on.

• Poor leadership / premature judgments and critique are allowed to inappropriately constrain ideas to
become very weak increments of existing solutions – nothing truly new, novel, or creative.

Businesses must work hard to ensure this is not the case.

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 Brainstorming – Facilitation Process
Good brainstorming must be capable of producing a large
number of wide-ranging ideas – ideas that on the one hand
are truly novel, creative, and insightful, and on the other
hand, are viable for, and actionable by, the business.

This dual mandate presents a tall order, one that demands a

well-designed, well-structured, and well-run facilitation
process.

Being able to conduct effective brainstorming sessions thus requires the leader to use an effective facilitation
process that addresses eight (8) distinct matters, namely:

1. The choice of people who will participate in the session.

2. The establishment of a sense of o eptual spa e for the group.

3. The designation of specific roles for facilitating the session, and the skills of the people who fill those roles.

4. The choice and arrangement of the physical space that will be used to host the session.

5. The provision of select materials and supplies for enabling the group to capture and play with ideas.

6. The rules the leader establishes and requires participants to each pledge adherence to.

7. The direction-setting and constraints that will be used to properly focus the group and the effort.

8. The energy the leader is able to build inside the effort.

9. The ways in which the leader actually conducts the session.

Some of these are explored in more detail further on.

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 Brainstorming – Rules Of Engagement
Rules of Engagement for Brainstorming

The Facilitator must establish certain rules by which this group will engage with one another, and each
participant must genuinely pledge to abide by these rules.

Prototypical brainstorming rules would include the following:

1. Have only one leader / facilitator, and only one conversation going at a time.

2. Establish the context and scope at the beginning, and from there on, stay on topic as a group
– using the prescribed constraints as guardrails for maintaining an appropriate focus.

3. Start with a warm-up exercise like mind-mapping to get the group into the topic.

4. Be as visual as possible – sketch, diagram, model, a d so fo th… Sho us, do t just tell us.

5. Use thought-stimulators wherever useful.

6. Encourage and entertain novel ideas, even the seemingly crazy ones.

7. Suspend disbelief. Defer judgment. Do not block ideas.

8. Let the ideas build upon each other to create organic streams of thought.

9. Aim for quantity – the more ideas the better.

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 Brainstorming – Conducting the Sessions
Guidelines & Practices for Conducting the Session

Having properly prepared for a brainstorming session by selecting the people and the
space and establishing the direction, constraints, and seed questions / exercises, the
time comes for a Facilitator to conduct the session with their chosen group of
participants. For doing this most effectively, there are a number of prototypical
guidelines and practices the Facilitator will use.

Some of the more well-known and widely accepted guidelines and practices are the following:

1. One person – the Facilitator – will lead the session.

2. The size of the group should be kept to a manageable number – at maximum no more than 20 people, but
smaller groups of 8 - 12 are often optimal.

3. It is usually beneficial to keep participants at nearly the same level in the organization. Otherwise, more
senior participants are expected to abandon several things at the door, amongst these, their titles, their
egos, and any allegiance they may have to a particular way of doing things.

4. The overall time allotted for any one brainstorming session should be limited to what is reasonable for
people to be able to maintain their mental energy levels. This may be anywhere from two to four hours, but
likely not longer. If, owing to the scope of the issue being addressed, more time is needed, then the issue
should be broken up into smaller segments and each segment addressed individually through their own
(independent) sessions run either sequentially with the same group, or in parallel with different groups.
Otherwise, people will likely not be able to sustain the level of energy needed to produce good results.

5. Establish the context for the session. Frame it by providing a short and simple explanation of the associated
endeavor. Usually a five-minute explanation will be more than adequate. If needed, allow for two to three
clarifying questions so that everyone can be on the same starting page.

6. Esta lish the sessio s scope and intent at its beginning. Also establish any constraints that are to be used at
the start of the session. These can be business, market, technological, or any other type of constraint. This
s ope a d i te t, a d these o st ai ts, se e as the g oup s f a i g guideli es the ill use i fo usi g
their effort on the real problem of interest. These should all be established at the start since introducing
them during the session would cause them to be perceived as judgments on ideas that had already been
generated.

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 Brainstorming – Conducting Sessions (cont.)
7. Sessions often benefit from starting with a warm-up exercise. Often a rapid, informal Collective Mind Map
o si ila tool a se e to get the g oup s thoughts flo i g. Su h ethods a e a le the g oup to ide tif
the key facets of the issue they are addressing and then note the various constituents of each facet. This
can also help to further frame out the effort as they work through these different facets and constituents
over the course of the session.

8. After an initial Collective Mind Map warmup, sessions also often benefit from giving each individual some
personal time (about 10 minutes or so) to reflect on the model and collect their own thoughts, perhaps
about the whole thing or perhaps about a particular part of it the Facilitator has asked them to focus on.
They would record these thoughts in their respective notebooks, or on shared posters to pass around if the
intention is to piggyback. This exercise is called brainwriting, and it gives participants a baseline foundation
from which to launch into collective brainstorming, usually lending significant early momentum to the effort.

9. Next, the group would launch headlong into the collective brainstorming work. The Facilitator will lead
them through this using a flow of different open-end questions that serve to continually frame and reframe
the stream of thought as it morphs into some greater collective idea. There can be open-ended discussion
around any of the points involved, but no judgments.

10. Different types of thought stimulators and provokers will prove helpful and the Facilitator should use these
everywhere they are helpful.

11. The collective brainstorming work should be highly visual, with lots of sketching, diagramming, and
storyboarding. This tends to bring the ideas to life in a way that words never can.

12. In being visual, the group can use concept sheets – la ge sheets the post o the g oup s o kspa e that
captures a picture of the concept, a very brief description of it, and perhaps a list of key attributes it is
intended to have.

13. The aim in the initial phase is to generate as many ideas as possible, quantity being more important that
absolute quality. To this end, the group must push themselves to generate as many ideas as possible and
should capture every idea put forth, including the really crazy ones. They should also never stop to refine an
idea, as that is a job to be left for the Innovation Team later on, and trying to do it here would bring all
momentum to a halt.

14. Peoples ideas should uild o o e a othe – piggybacking and leapfrogging to build out each stream of
thought as far and as wide as it can go. The Facilitator can help this to happen by drawing out each stream
with an ongoing series of leading open-ended questions.

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 Brainstorming – Conducting Sessions (cont.)
15. Given the intent to generate as many ideas as possible, all participants must suspend judgment until later
o , he a e aluatio is alled fo . U til the , judg e ts a e ot allo ed, as hat o e o side s a du
idea a i fa t e the o e idea that e ds up spa ki g the a tual winning idea (such is the nature of the
piggybacking effect).

16. Sessions often benefit from being run as a series of discrete high-energy sprints, in which the group
collectively brainstorms a particular area for anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes (depending on how rich the
ideation space for it is), then winds that down and clusters it, perhaps takes a break, and subsequently dives
into a next area.

17. Afte the i itial ai sto i g o a i di idual sp i t is o plete, the g oup s e t step ill e to cluster
like ideas and concepts together. The method they would use for doing this is affinity analysis – the search
for affinity between different ideas and concepts so as to group and cluster them together. Affinity can
often be found along any number of different criteria, so the group will usually have to decide which criteria
they will use in searching for affinity between ideas. If the group has used individual concept sheets, they
can move these around to reflect these clusters (in this context sometimes referred to as meta-concepts).

18. Once the group has clustered like ideas and concepts, the Facilitator will lead them in further re-examining
each cluster to see if they can draw out ways in which clusters can complement or otherwise reinforce other
clusters (an additional layer of synergy). Arising out of this whole exercise will usually be a series of themes.

19. Once themes have been established and the initial exercise is complete, participants may then be asked to
evaluate and/or critique the ideas. That is the subject of the next section – Harvesting Ideas.

20. Throughout the session, a Recorder should be assigned to recording all key ideas / themes / assessments
and final outcomes of the session (this is not the same person as the Illustrator). This is true whether an
Illust ato is used to aptu e people s ideas, people a e e ui ed to go all i a d post thei ideas
themselves, or a combination of both of these was used. These outcomes should subsequently be
documented and shared with affected stakeholders.

When these types of guidelines and practices are applied and used with good discipline, it typically results in
highly effective brainstorming sessions that produce highly useful ideas for the innovation challenge being
addressed. Note that the use of brainwriting and piggybacking in Steps 8 and 14 borrows from what is known as
Nominal Group Technique – NGT.

Brainstorming is therefore a crucial method for being able to conceive innovative solutions.

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 Brainstorming – Harvesting
Harvesting Ideas – The Brainstorm Evaluation & Selection Process

A good brainstorming session will have generated a large number of wide-ranging ideas, themes, concepts, and
meta-concepts. As the session nears it completion, the time will come for the group to harvest its brainstorm –
turning all the ideas generated into useful and actionable takeaways the Innovation Team can work on further.

For harvesting, the Facilitator will often engage the group in collectively evaluating the different ideas and
themes that were generated over the course of the session and selecting certain ones to move forward with
(alternatively, they can leave this for the Innovation Team to do in isolation later on, or they can do it both
ways).

This is where the group will finally be allowed to shift gears and engage the
evaluative area of their respective minds, applying appropriate judgments and
reasoning in the evaluation of ideas and idea clusters (meta-concepts).

The harvesting process would generally look something like the following:

1. The Facilitator will ask the group to evaluate and critique each respective idea / concept.
In each case, the underlying logic should be explained and articulated.

2. A o je tio like e t ied that efo e a d it did ot o k is ge e all not an acceptable objection. This
can be because the way in which it was tried previously may have been the reason for its failure, and there
may now be a new way for trying that same thing that will in fact work. Alternatively, it may be that
previously the timing was not right owing to external circumstances and now the timing is in fact right for
that solution.

3. Once the team has critiqued, evaluated, and otherwise discussed and debated the various ideas and
concepts, the Facilitator will ask them to select a set of ideas to proceed forward with. For doing this, the
Facilitator can employ any number of different group-selection techniques. The technique used may
depend on the type of solution being sought, but in any case the Facilitator must give some thought to the
technique they decide to use.

Examples of group-selection techniques include:

1. Sticker Voting – each participant is given three stickers of three differing colors (for example, blue,
green, and yellow) and asked to use them to vote on three of the concepts, using the respective colors
to indicate their first, second, and third choices respectively. Thereafter, the group would look for
concepts with a large number of votes.

2. Four Categories – establish four categories – the rational choice, the most likely to delight, the darling,
and the long shot – and ask each participant to select one concept for each category. This allows the
group to not lose touch with the crazier but sometimes more meaningful ideas that may ultimately
inspire some aspect of a final solution.

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 Brainstorming – Harvesting (cont.)
3. Bingo Selection – Similar to Four Categories, the group establishes three categories in which they select
an idea that in each case inspires them to prototype. The three categories are typically physical
prototype, digital prototype, and experience prototype. This can be useful for the concepts vary widely
in their potential manifestations.

4. In carrying out this selection process, the group should be careful not to narrow down the options too
quickly. In particular, they should not be overly concerned with plausibility or feasibility at this point (that
will be for the Innovation Team to hammer out later on). Instead, they should hold on to the ideas which
they are genuinely excited about, amused by, or intrigued by. An idea or concept that at this point does not
seem plausible may still contain elements that are useful and meaningful to the final solution. If the group
allows itself to get hung up on plausibility or feasibility at this point, they will likely end up with very
incremental, me-too types of concepts, rather than the more breakthrough types of ideas they most likely
need.

5. After all voting / selection is complete, the Facilitator can have the group to step back and collectively
identify the winners. They can use giant-sized colored stickers or sticky notes to designate these if so
desired.

6. The group should carry forward a wide range of different ideas for subsequent evaluation and potential
prototyping. This allows them to preserve the full breadth of concepts they generated and not revert back
to the o ious safe hoi es. If a pa ti ula idea o o ept see s so i plausi le that it is poi tless to
evaluate further, the group should still collectively ask themselves what it was about that idea or concept
that was so compelling to them, and then try to figure out some way in which they can take that particular
aspect and develop and evaluate it further, perhaps integrating it into some other concept as a new hybrid
concept.

While the preceding evaluation and selection process is

not entirely definitive (which is why it may need to be
repeated again by the Innovation Team alone), it does
serve to surface out the clear winners from the session.

Some of these may be such obvious choices that the

Innovation Team will take them and start working on
them immediately without further evaluation or vetting.

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 The Role of Constraints in Creativity
There is an errant historical thinking around creativity that in order for
people to be most creative all constraints should be removed. Numerous
contemporary studies on creativity, however, and on what makes for the
most productive and fruitful creative outcomes, have proven otherwise.

Renowned furniture designer Charles Eames liked to asse t that Desig …

depe ds la gel o o st ai ts , a d that o e s illi g ess a d
e thusias fo o ki g ithi a d a ou d those u ha gea le ele e ts
of the situation will be what determines their success or failure in the endeavor. Thus, it is not a question of
whether or not there should be constraints, rather it is a question of whether or not the innovator will have the
skill and willingness to transform those constraints into useful attributes.

What most contemporary research on creativity has thus demonstrated is that more, not less, constraints make
for better creativity, and for more creative outcomes.

The easo fo this is that eati it a e thought of i the follo i g a …

• A creative outcome is like a fluid medium with a limited amount of volume.

• Our objective is to raise the level of that fluid to its highest possible level
(the highest caliber of outcome).

• If we allow the fluid to remain in a broad container, we will never force it higher.

• By forcing the fluid into an increasingly narrower container, we force it to reach higher, until it has finally
reached the height we desire.

I this se se, hat is fou d is that he people s options are limited in

certain areas, they tend to generate more, rather than less, varied
solutions because they become more focused on creating options
around the areas they are left to work with. The key here is focus on
the few key areas that can be varied. This sort of focus drives
innovators to come up with better solutions than when left to having
to work on every possible area.

Therefore, within business innovation, the business should choose those areas that it does wish to constrain in
order that its innovators can then focus all of their attention on those areas where they should innovate. This
will tend to yield the most creative outcomes for the endeavor. Businesses will do well to always keep this in
mind whenever planning creativity and/or brainstorming sessions.

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 LESSON 8
The Breakthrough
Innovation Method

Oblique Examination Put to Work

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Oblique Examination Put to Work
Oftentimes a business – as part of its broader hunt for Value Creation opportunities
– will be in search of new ways to deliver radical new breakthrough, disruptive, and
even transformative innovations.

When this is the case, the methods typically used for incremental innovation
will not work. The business will need a broader method that has been
purpose-built for uncovering such radical new innovation opportunities.

This lesson introduces the Innovation Professional to such a broader

innovation method. This method – the GInI Breakthrough Innovation
Method, or BrInM – has been designed to allow Innovation Teams to
explore many possible options for a particular need or opportunity and
successfully arrive at a point where the best, most radical, option gets
realized.

BrInM is the Global Innovation Institute's proprietary method for

generating and proving out radical new innovation ideas. It incorporates select concepts from both Discovery-
Driven Innovation (DDI) and Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI).

The methodology behind BrInM seeks to uncover how one might

depart from an existing means of delivering value (or the absence of
such a means), and arrive at some new means for delivering more
value or a better experience. Similar to both Lateral Thinking and
Design Thinking, it uses a divergent and convergent thinking process to
arrive at this new means.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method
BrInM is structured as a six-step process involving the following steps:

1. Context
2. Discovery
3. Oblique Examination
4. Synthesis & Capture
5. Incubation & Selection
6. Realization

The first four of these steps belong to the Front End of Innovation, while the last two steps belong to the Mid
Zone of Innovation.

Whereas Lateral Thinking and Design Thinking are focused only on the Front End of Innovation, BrInM – because
of these latter two steps – goes further to capture most of the Mid Zone of Innovation work.

BrInM allows an organization to step through this structured process for discovering relevant new innovation
opportunities in their business.

Executing the method typically happens within teams in a workshop setting.

Specifically, Step 1 typically happens in a half-day or full-day think tank.

The upfront research work of Step 2 is carried out ahead of time outside of
the workshops, such that during the workshops one is focused only on
unpacking the findings and examining them to uncover their insights.

Steps 3 and 4 typically take place in intense deep-dive workshops or extended working sessions.

Steps 5 and 6 are executed over extended periods of time usi g the usi ess formal development processes.

Each of these steps are explored in further detail.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Set the Context
Step 1 of BrInM is to establish the necessary context.

This is done by defining the business objective of concern. Understanding this

objective allows the Innovation Team to know what exactly what it is they are trying
to accomplish, thus giving them a proper sense of direction for the endeavor.

In so doing, the context frames their opportunity imperative.

All subsequent activities will be framed within this context.

Fo e a ple…

• Is the team being asked to conceive a new business, a new brand, a new product, a new technology, a new
process, a new sales channel, or what?

• Or perhaps even that is unknown. Perhaps it is open-ended and they are simply being asked for ideas on how
better to connect with their markets… ho to deli e more value and from that grow increased revenue.

• And how broad is their scope? Is the team free to propose ideas that will completely cannibalize other
business, or are there constraints within which they must work?

The context must define all of these things.

By placing a clear point of focus at the center of the effort, and desired boundaries around
the perimeter of the effort, the team is able to properly channel their thoughts at solving
the correct business objective.

That being said, this business objective should be stated in the broadest possible of terms.
And to the extent possible, it should only be about the value that is to be delivered... not
how that value is to be delivered. In other words, it must be descriptive of a need, and not prescriptive of a
method. At this point, it should avoid over-constraining the pool of potential solutions (that will come later).

This o te t should also tie i ith the usi ess broader growth and innovation strategies, as well as with any
specific market intent it is to be associated with (market strategy / brand strategy / product strategy).

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Engage In Discovery – M / U / B / T
Step 2 of BrInM involves undertaking a wide variety of discovery work.

Here, the team is seeking to mine deep insights into what is happening both in the
greater world around them and also inside of their own business – both in their
current states and, of particular interest, in the anticipated future states.

This work is divided into four subsets reflecting four environments of concern:
M Discovery (Markets), U Discovery (Users), B Discovery (Business), and T Discovery (Technology).

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Engage In Discovery – M / U / B / T (cont.)
STEP 2A: M DISCOVERY: Market Discovery Activity
Characterization of the Market Environment & Evolution (Assessment & Visioning): 1 – 10 years on.

Step 2A is an exploration of the current market environment and its expected

evolution over a select period of time… t pi all a he e f o to ea s he e.
This evolution is based on trends as they are currently observed, plus how other,
broader trends are expected to influence these trends over that period of time
(which may, in fact, shift, accelerate, or decelerate certain of these trends).

This can be thought of as the teles ope activity.

Some of the market factors that are to be considered would include:

• Base Value Propositions

• The Attribute Space
• Competitive Attribute Evolution
• Adaptations to Date (Technological, Logistical, Anthropological, Psychological etc.)
• Known Market Trends and Their Underlying Drivers
• External Trends – Societal, Political, Economic, Legal, Environmental – and Their Fundamental Drivers

In this exercise, the team unpacks and explores these market factors in adequate detail to develop a believable
picture of the evolving market. If need be, multiple scenarios can be developed and given consideration when it
is felt that each has a (near) equally high probability of manifesting.

The important question the Innovation Team is seeking to answer here is – both now and for the coming market
– what really matters in terms of the value that must be delivered to constantly secure the usi ess right to
win i this a ket… i.e. hat is eall most important to the market and actionable for the business? This
further sets the context for the oblique examination that is to follow later on in Step 6.

STEP 2B: U DISCOVERY: User Discovery Activity

Characterization of The User Space (Assessment & Visioning): Now – 10 years on.

Step 2B is a deep exploration of the user space, with the aim of trying to unearth the
deep, underlying and fundamentally human needs and motivations that have
heretofore gone unmet or even unarticulated, and which – given persistent
technology and process deficiencies – may continue to go unmet for some time.
Much of this User Research work borrows heavily from the world of Design Methods.

This can be thought of as the i os ope activity.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Engage In Discovery – M / U / B / T (cont.)
Based on what is known of markets and technologies (see M Discovery & T Discovery), it can be reasonably
assumed that user needs will continue to evolve over the time period of interest. Thus the challenge here is to
plot the trajectory of how these user needs are expected to change and evolve over that time, and how the
solution space may potentially fail to continue to satisfy these changing needs. Very often the foundational
values and beliefs that underpin users' needs and motivations will not change markedly from one year to the
next, but what will change is the environment into which they are thrust, and that will tend to change the needs
and motivations that get evoked as a result.

Some of the user considerations that are to be examined include:

• Prevailing values in a particular society/culture, and the expected evolution of those values –
often influenced by sociopolitical climates.

• Prevailing beliefs in a particular society/culture, and the expected evolution of those beliefs –
often influenced by sociopolitical climates.

• Enduring minority pockets of values and beliefs, where those are relevant to the situation at hand and the
timeframe of interest.

• Current and changing user motivations, and how evolving values and beliefs are expected to impact these.

• The current user/customer value-deficit space – the unmet and unarticulated needs that are currently
understood

• The anticipated evolution of the value-deficit space – how unmet needs are likely to change over the
timeframe of interest.

• The Jobs-To-Be-Done in order to deliver enduring value against this changing user space.

In this exercise, the team will unpack and explore these user considerations in adequate detail to develop a
believable picture of the evolving user space. If need be, multiple user scenarios can be developed and given
consideration when it is felt that they each have a (near) equally high probability of manifesting.

The important question the Innovation Team is seeking to answer here is – for both the current and the future
user space – what really matters in terms of the value that needs to be delivered and the jo s that eed to e
done… i.e. hat is eall important to today's and tomorrow's users? This further sets the context for the
oblique examination that is to follow later on in Step 6.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Engage In Discovery – M / U / B / T (cont.)
STEP 2C: B DISCOVERY: Business Discovery Activity
Characterization of The Business State & Its Evolution (Assessment & Visioning): 1 – 10 years on.

Step 2C is an exploration of the usi ess current business state and how that is
expected to evolve o e a sele t pe iod of ti e… ge e all o e the e sui g to
years. This includes its strengths, weaknesses, challenges, barriers, opportunities,
and threats as they are currently understood, as well as how these are expected to
shift and change over this period of time. This can be thought of as the i o activity.

Some of the business factors to be considered include:

• Strengths, both internally and available through the broader business ecosystem (partnerships).
• Weaknesses, both internally and within the available business ecosystem.
• Opportunities & Threats.
• Challenges & Barriers.
• Organizational Structures & Operational Procedures.
• Operational Pain Points – Frustrations and Impediments in How the Company Operates.

In this exercise, the team will unpack and explore the internal workings of the business, including, most
importantly, the current struggles and challenges it finds itself dealing with. They would consider how prevailing
trends in the external business environment might impact these one way or the other... either ameliorating
them or exacerbating them. As needed, multiple scenarios can be evaluated to understand their potential
impact on the business' operational trajectory.

The important question the Innovation Team is seeking to answer here is what are the internal challenges and
struggles the business needs to solve as it looks at the other facets of the opportunity space around it. Are
there ways to tackle these concurrently with innovations that solve both external problems in its markets and
internal problems in its business? This work helps set the stage for the oblique examination that is to follow.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Engage In Discovery – M / U / B / T (cont.)
STEP 2D: T DISCOVERY: Technology Discovery Activity
Characterization of the Tech Environment & Its Evolution (Assessment & Visioning): 1 – 10 years on.

Step 2D is an exploration of the current technology space and its expected

evolution o e a sele t pe iod of ti e… t pi all a he e f o to ea s he e.
This evolution is based on technology trends as they are currently observed, plus
how other, related technology trends are expected to influence this technology
space over that period of time (these may shift, accelerate, or decelerate some of these trends). This can be
thought of as the ulti ete activity.

Some of the technology factors that are to be considered include:

• Current Technologies Employed in this Market.

• Nascent Technologies Being Explored in this Market.
• Possible Technology Evolutions around this Market.
• Current Technologies Being Used in Adjacent Markets.
• Nascent Technologies Being Explored in Adjacent Markets.
• Possible Technology Evolutions around Adjacent Markets.
• All Other Current Technologies.
• All Other Nascent Technologies.
• All Other Possible Technology Evolutions.
• Classi Te h ologies.

In this exercise, the team will unpack and explore the applicable technology spaces in adequate detail to develop
a believable picture of the evolving technologies – and how these might possibly be combined in new ways to
create new channels of value delivery. As with market trends, multiple scenarios can be set up and given equal
consideration if it is felt that they each have (near) equally high probability of occurring.

The important question the Innovation Team is seeking to answer here is – with both the current and the
expected technologies – what will be possible in terms of the technological capability the business will be able
to deli e , as the elate to the jo s that ill eed to e do e. O , put o e si pl … hat new forms of value
will be possible? This too sets the context for the oblique examination that is to follow in the next step.

It is i po ta t to u de sta d that hat is ea t te h olog he e is ot just p odu t te h olog , ut also

usi ess te h olog . I this se se, te h olog is a u h oade o ept that i ludes e and/or
different business models, processes, and methods. This is particularly relevant with service offerings, where
te h olog e ists i the fo of ethods a d p o esses . Ofte , the g eatest leaps i alue o u he
one combines new business models, new product technologies, and new service methods all into something
new, creating entirely new value propositions that sometimes flip categories on their head.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Engage In Discovery – M / U / B / T (cont.)
STEP 2E: DISCOVERY INTEGRATION: Discovery Integration
Synthesizing the Characterization of the Four Environments: 1 – 10 years on.

Step 2E is the all-important integration of the four prior exploration spaces.

It is often at this intersection of Market, User, Business, and Technology trajectories

that each business will find its most fertile hunting grounds… those scenarios
offering the greatest potential fo the usi ess. The usi ess I o atio Tea s should o k f o this
common space in order to point their efforts toward specific areas of promise.

Even with this clarified and narrowed zone of focus, one will still find that there are scores of possible market /
user / business / technology combinations that each carry their own particular risk / reward profile. Certain of
these will have to be selected as the key scenarios of focus so that subsequent work can proceed. This choice
will often be based on judgment as to what will work best for the business and the markets.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination
Step 3 of BrInM represents the heart of the innovation process.

In the case of existing business models and offerings, it is about completely

deconstructing the current business model or offering, carefully examining and
testing the assumptions underlying each and every aspect of it, and then reconstructing these in entirely new
ways based on fresh, new insights into how value and experiences can best be delivered for current and
emerging markets.

In the case of breaking entirely new ground, it is about imagining many new possible business models and/or
offerings, and subjecting each one to this same evaluative and constructive process.

Oblique examination is the application of appreciative inquiry – a process of critical questioning and
examination – to o e s business model and its supporting ecosystems and infrastructures, o to o e s value
proposition. As the name implies, the team will look at the value-delivery space from multiple oblique angles
(points of view) rather than from a direct point of view, since the direct point of view often blinds us to what is
missing, whereas oblique points of view often open our eyes to see what is missing.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
The act of oblique examination requires one to depart… to step outside of the existing modes of looking at the
value-deficit space (divergent thinking), and arrive… o te plate entirely new paradigms of value-delivery
(convergent thinking). The process ultimately holds the key to unlocking the much sought-after a-ha s that are
at the core of innovation.

This process is called oblique examination because it requires one to look at things from entirely new
perspectives… f o oblique points of view, rather than from direct points of view.

Using this approach, the team will step through each piece of the business model or value proposition and test
them individually for new opportunities. Thus, right up front, oblique examination mandates the rejection of
prevailing orthodoxies about what the markets need and want, about how these needs and wants are to be
satisfied, a d a out hat offe i gs a e to e p o ided to a o plish this all of hi h a e toda s dots .

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
Within Oblique Examination, we must reexamine both the problem space and the solution space, in each case
from these completely new angles – the oblique perspectives.

As we do this, we specifically examine and test all of the assumptions and orthodoxies underlying a particular
situatio …

• Are all of the prevailing assumptions underlying the problem still as they once were?
• Are all of the prevailing orthodoxies about how the problem should be solved still true and relevant today?

Often the answer to either or both of these is No! In which case, this opens us up to the opportunity to truly
examine the problem and solution space in greater depth to figure why they are not, and what alternative
assumptions and orthodoxies might be more correct and relevant given newer circumstances.

This allows one to then conceive and define breakthrough new innovations.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
The first part of Oblique Examination is therefore a deconstruction and reconstruction of the
problem space.

This begins by asking one simple question…

What alue a d/o esult is the a ket looki g fo ?

B alue a d esult , hat is ea t he e is a all-encompassing outcome thus the a e out o e-driven

i o atio . What jobs are to be done? What problem is to be solved? What experience is to be had? It is
those things which are to be accomplished by the offering on behalf it its user (product) or recipient (service).

Attempting to answer this question is what thus drives us to deconstruct the problem space. Answering the
question properly demands that prevailing assumptions about the problem (customer need) not only be
completely abandoned, but that they be deconstructed, carefully scrutinized, and then reconstructed into
something new – perhaps with an entirely new and different set of assumptions.

The process probes into as many levels of h as are needed until it finally arrives at a satisfactory
understanding of what is the real result ei g sought the a ket… the so-called p o le ehi d the
p o le (problem reframing).

This yields the new Point of View from which the team will continue their work into the solution space.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
The second part of Oblique Examination is a similar deconstruction and reconstruction of the
solution space.

It involves stepping through the systematic identification of the underlying orthodoxies of current solutions and
making a careful examination of each one, asking very pointed and probing questions about them, including
most importantly, h ? and h ot? This exercise asks (tests) what is right and what is wrong with each
of these prevailing orthodoxies, and why that is so.

One of the key outcomes of this exercise is deconstructing the value model into the jo s to e do e . This
takes the business model, product, and/or service and breaks it down into its core fundamental constituents,
enabling a team to test each constituent and the assumptions behind it against these jo s . By eliminating
those orthodoxies which no longer hold true for the outcome to be delivered, the stage is set for building
entirely new models of value delivery. The testing activity will involve asking a series of questions around
What if... ? and Ho ight e... ?

In the end, this exercise provides the set of actionable insights necessary for defining new means of value-
delivery, in that it allows a team to define new orthodoxies to use, around which to build the new solution they
intend to deliver.

In the world of Design Thinking, these new orthodoxies are captured as Design Principals. It is akin to saying
that former Design Principles have now passed away (become irrelevant) and new Design Principles are needed
to remain relevant to how the problem space has since evolved.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
So as to ensure a completely 360° holistic view of the opportunity space, Oblique Examination is undertaken
from two perspectives – one using the customer's story, and one using the usi ess’ sto .

The first provides an external perspective, looking from the outside in.
It asks, What is i po ta t to the a ket?

The second provides an internal perspective, looking from the inside out.
It asks two questions… What is important to the usi ess? , a d
What so ts of thi gs do the usi ess esou es ake possi le?

These two perspectives produce two different sets of challenges that must be solved for concurrently, and two
different sets of insights that must serve to inform the final solution.

Oblique examination finishes with a thoughtful consideration of how to marry M Discovery, U Discovery, B
Discovery, and T Discovery in ways different from how existing technologies and methods have been applied to
past market and business needs. Many new arrangements can be examined for the opportunity they hold,
including, most powerfully, the combination of two or more of these for radically new value models. In this
hunt for new value models, "T" often provides the push, while "M", "U", and "B" provide the pull.

The final outcome of this process is the selection of several new value / experience-delivery concepts that will
be explored further in Step 4, 5, and 6.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
The model shown below clearly illustrates the process of Oblique Examination.

The left-hand side of the model represents the Problem Space, whereas the right-hand side represents the
Solution Space.

Likewise, the lower half of the model represents the Business Perspective, or Inside Out, whereas the top half
represents the Market Perspective, or Outside In.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Conduct the Oblique Examination (cont.)
One can thus work their way around these areas in a procedural manner, in the following order, asking the
following questions, and applying the following approaches:

Viewpoint 1: The Inside-Out Business Perspective on the Problem Space – the realm of
Insights Mining – it asks the uestio Is ou u de sta di g of the a ket s eed still o a k?

Viewpoint 2: The Outside-In Market Perspective on the Problem Space – the realm of
Problem Reframing – it asks the uestio Is the a ket s p o le still as t aditio all elie ed?

Viewpoint 3: The Outside-In Market Perspective on the Solution Space – the realm of
Breakthrough Innovation – it asks the uestio A e u e t solutio s still ele a t a d opti al?

Viewpoint 4: The Inside-Out Business Perspective on the Solution Space – the realm of
Open Innovation – it asks the uestio Is ou a ilit to sol e the ight p o le still o a k?

For each of these, the business must constantly ask the same set of three (3) fundamental questions, namely:

1. What has changed?

2. Are the underlying assumptions - on both the problem and the solution side - still valid?
Or do we need to let go of the prevailing paradigm and business model?

3. Can we reframe the problem to disrupt the market with a 10X breakthrough or disruptive innovation?

As they are doing this, the business must at all times be examining
the Innovation Challenge / Opportunity before them from multiple
oblique angles, turning over every possible stone until they finally
find fresh new ways of looking at the a ket s eeds and the
related problem, as well as breakthrough new solution concepts for
that reframed problem.

This has the potential to yield the breakthrough and disruptive

innovations that will allow the business to lead their markets.

Indeed, taking these four perspectives forces a business to look at

both the problem and solution space from multiple perspectives to
unearth new insights that allow it to tune into evolutions in both
spaces and continue to define new 10X breakthrough and
disruptive innovations on a recurring basis.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Facilitate Synthesis & Capture
Having used Oblique Examination to uncover the a-ha s , in Step 4 of BrInM the team
egi s to put so e meat o the o es of each concept selected in the prior step.

In this step, the team attempts to define conceptually the new business model and/or
product or service that will attack the value-deficit space in a new and different way, including any particular
technologies that it may rely upon.

This is an exercise in synthesizing new value models. In the initial capture of these models, each main concept
and as many supporting details as are known at the time are captured and documented.
At this point, hard details of the value model will not generally be developed in full.

As many unique and different value models as makes sense should be generated during this step.

Some preliminary filtering may be done to select the most promising models; how much depends upon the
situational objectives that have been prescribed.

Value models selected for further evaluation move onto the next step – Incubation & Selection.
The remaining value models can be revisited at a later point as desired.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Undertake Incubation & Selection
During a more extended period of time (typically on the order of 3 - 6 months),
further work will be undertaken to build out select value models captured in Step 4.

This work – Step 5 of BrInM – includes a variety of research, studies, and analyses,
including additional market research, technology research, design studies, and financial analyses, amongst
others.

The objective is to collect all the necessary information and build the necessary structure around each value
model so as to adequately refine its business, product, or service concept and make a compelling business case
for it. This will include developing an appropriate go-to-market strategy for the concept. It will also include
undertaking a more detailed financial analysis of the opportunity.

For each value model examined in this step, the resultant findings are compiled and documented into a working
straw-man business plan. This straw-man business plan is to be used in making a decision around whether or
not to invest more deeply into defining brand, product, and design strategies for the concept, work that would
be required to construct a detailed, formal business plan.

Thus there will be a vetting event that takes place at the end of this step, based on the findings of the research.
Having gone through this incubation and vetting process, each value model will either be selected to move into
Realization or set aside for possible future consideration.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Achieve Realization
The final step – Step 6 – of BrInM – Realization - entails building a
formal, detailed business plan for the concept.

In order to do this, the business will need to invest

additional time and effort into defining brand, product, and design strategies at a deeper level.

The resultant formal business plan is the actual tool that will then be used in making the decision to invest in
full development and commercialization of the concept.

Achieving realization typically means completing the mid zone work for the project and having it approved for
formal design, development, and commercialization in the back end.

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 The Breakthrough Innovation Method –
Summary
Using the Breakthrough Innovation Method as described herein can allow Innovation Teams to develop radical
new innovations – many breakthrough, disruptive, or even transformational in nature.

It is therefore a highly powerful approach whenever a team is looking to go beyond incremental innovation…
beyond Value Capture, to realize new Value Creation.

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 LESSON 9a
Getting Innovation Done

Running Innovation Projects

in the Business - Overview

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 Getting Innovation Done –
Running Innovation Projects in the Business
This lesson explores how – as an Innovation Professional – one actually executes an innovation project within a
business.

The way in which this is unpacked is to walk through:

• the activities one will carry out in the Front End of the project,
• the activities one will carry out in the Mid Zone of the project, and
• the activities one will carry out in the Back End of the project.

This should provide a clear understanding of how to execute innovation projects inside of a business and
accomplish the intended final outcome of getting the new innovation implemented in the business and/or
commercialized in the marketplace.

MZI

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 Getting Innovation Done –
Running Inno Projects in the Business (cont.)
This image below depicts pictorially the exact flow of steps that one would generally follow in undertaking new
innovation projects within a business enterprise. As can be seen, the work can be broken down into a discrete
series of steps and then clustered into the three projects (3) zones – Front End, Mid Zone, and Back End.

By following this series of steps, Innovation Teams are able to get new innovation projects identified, defined,
scoped, justified, approved, developed, and ultimately launched, allowing the business to realize the outcomes
it needs from its overall innovation program.

Each step of this process will be explored in further detail in the ensuing sub-lessons.

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 LESSON 9b
Getting Innovation Done

Running Innovation Projects

in the Business - FEI

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 Begin At the Beginning –
Start with the Strategy / Charter
Whether or not the Innovation Professional gets to be the one
who selects the project at hand, or it is selected by a member of
management, the project must align to the usi ess u de l i g
Innovation Strategy.

The first step therefore is to ensure that this alignment does

exist, and to understand all of the ways in which it does so,
i ludi g the usi ess needs, desires, intentions, and so forth
around the part of the strategy under which this project
will be chartered.

The reason it is important for Innovation Professionals to understand this alignment is so that – in the course of
executing the project – they can work to ensure the project progresses in a way that remains true to the
strategy and does not veer away from it. Ensuring this happens is very important, as it is quite possible for
innovation projects to steer off course and lose their alignment to the part of the strategy under which they
were chartered. When that happens, while the project may produce results with an impact, those will likely not
be the particular results and impact the business was aiming for. By keeping the project aligned to the
Innovation Strategy, there can be high confidence in its likelihood of delivering the precise results and impacts
the business is aiming for, so that it can continue moving forward with that strategy.

Strategic alignment notwithstanding, there is an opportunistic side to needfinding (the hunt for unmet or
underserved needs in the market). This means there may at times be situations in which an Innovation Team
comes across a previously unforeseen opportunity to deliver a major new innovation to their market – one
that was not previously called for, at least in an explicit top-down fashion, by the Innovation Strategy, but
which represents a significant new opportunity for the business, perhaps even one that will take the business
down a different path and in a new direction. When this happens – when such an opportunity is recognized –
the opportunity should be diligently brought to the attention of the usi ess’ leade s so that they can then
evaluate the opportunity in full, and thereafter make a decision as to whether or not to pursue the opportunity,
including how doing so may require them to amend the Innovation Strategy (the Innovation Strategy, after all,
should e ie ed i so e hat of a fluid light a d ot e essa il as o e l igid . In this sense, the Innovation
Strategy would be brought into alignment with the new opportunity rather than the other way around, as is
generally the case.

Either way, the end result is strategic alignment, so that the team is now back to understanding how the
endeavor aligns to the strategy, and can work to maintain that alignment throughout the life of the project.

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 Engage in Exploration & Discovery
To the extent that further exploration and discovery are needed for the project (which it typically is), this step
should be undertaken next, but may also be ongoing as needed in the different stages of the project to develop
the insights it needs for the endeavor.

On the problem understanding side, this can include any of the following tasks:

• Needfinding – clarifying, refining, and otherwise fine-tuning the (unmet or underserved) market need being
addressed.

• User Research – conducting relevant research studies (business ethnography, contextual inquiry, etc.) to
better understand the user needs involved. This is where deep empathy for the user will play an important
role.

• Market Research – o du ti g a ele a t ual o ua t esea h studies e ui ed to fu the the tea s

understanding of the need at hand.

• Trend Scouting – Looking for pertinent trends (STEEPL Analysis) that may impact upon and/or otherwise relate
to the need being addressed.

On the solution definition side, this can include any of the following tasks:

• Internal Examination – Taking a thorough look inward at the business to understand what a best fit approach
to tackling this need might look like for it.

• Design Research – conducting relevant research studies into how the related products are used or services are
received to help the team better understand the human-machine interactions involved and the best ways to
improve on those.

• Tech Scouting – studying new or emerging technology trends and capabilities in the hunt for those that may
aid in delivering a cutting edge new solution.

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 Engage in Exploration & Discovery (cont.)
In addition to those approaches, there are a number of other approaches the project can take to either develop
deeper insights into a need or find potentially novel solutions to it. These can include:

• Internal opportunity crowdsourcing – he e a halle ge is put fo th to the usi ess staff to ide tif e
opportunities for delivering innovations in a specific area of the business.

• Internal solution crowdsourcing – he e a halle ge is put fo th to the usi ess staff to o e up ith
innovative new solutions to a specific problem or opportunity the business has identified.

• External opportunity crowdsourcing – the same as internal opportunity crowdsourcing, except open to a
broader outside group, up to and including the general public.

• External solution crowdsourcing – the same as internal solution crowdsourcing, except open to a broader
outside group, up to and including the general public.

• Open Innovation Partnerships – the pursuit of curated partnerships to find new partners with the
technological capabilities to deliver an innovative new solution the business otherwise does not have the
capability to deliver.

• Other forms of Internal Engagement / Intrapreneuring – typically more involved and hands-on opportunities
fo the usi ess staff to fu the the i sights i to a eed o to de o st ate a pote tiall i i g e solutio
to it.

As required, the project may circle back to any of these tasks throughout its duration to ensure the team has
converged on the right problem to solve, established appropriate design principles, and is converging on the
right solution, business model, and go-to-market strategy necessary to deliver the customer and brand
experience they wish to deliver.

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 Apply Key Innovation Methods to
Framing the Problem or Clarifying the Need
As the p oje t s dis o e a d e plo atio o k egi s to ield new insights, the project team will need to
engage in a process of clearly defining – at the user level – what the problem is that they ultimately need to go
about solving. This is important because most challenges and problems will not be presented to the Innovation
Team at the level at which they need to solve it. It will be presented at a higher level and in the form of
symptomatic desires.

Fo e a ple, a usto e a sa , I eed this, this, a d this e featu e added to the p odu t. Whe e e a
customer speaks in terms of features, one can be assured that they are not speaking of their needs, rather they
are speaking about how they think a problem should be resolved, without ever revealing what their real need is.

The i o ato s job is to ignore what customers initially ask them for, and instead get down to what their real
need is – why they are asking for those features. More often than not, what a team will find is that by
understanding the real problem involved (and thus the custo e s real motivations), they can actually solve
that problem in a much better way than by simply adding more features to an existing offering as the customer
had asked.

This is why teams must first frame the problem correctly – to ensure that they are solving the right problem, at
the right level, and that the solution they will ultimately deliver is in fact the best solution for that problem.

To this end, the Innovation Team needs to be able to apply certain Innovation Methods to the task of correctly
understanding and framing the problem. This will require that they both fully understand the method and have
developed a certain level of skill in using it for this purpose.

The following highlight how th ee ke i o atio ethods…

• Outcome-Driven Innovation,
• Discovery-Driven Innovation, and
• Design Thinking

… can be used for this purpose.

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 Apply Key Innovation Methods to
Framing the Problem or Clarifying the Need (cont.)
Outcome-Driven Innovation – For improving on existing Foundations of Value
This course does not unpack ODI in detail.
For a sound understanding of ODI, reference the book What Customers Want
by Anthony Ulwick.

1. Parameter Identification – In this mapping exercise, the team will map out the flow of the product usage /
service receipt and for each step identify the relevant outcomes, jobs, and constraints involved.

2. ODI Customer Survey – In this market research study, a large, statistically representative panel of
experienced customers will be surveyed to ascertain which outcomes, jobs, and constraints they deem most
important.

3. ODI Segmentation Analysis – Through a statistical analysis of the prior findings, the panel of respondents
will be divided into clusters (segments) according to which outcomes each segment considers most
important.

4. ODI Target Area Analysis – For each market segment identified, the team will thereafter establish which
outcomes, jobs, and constraints represent the most underserved areas. From this, it will identify key areas
to target for new innovation, as this is where new innovation will have the greatest impact for this existing
solution.

5. ODI Opportunity Assessment – Sometimes the findings of an ODI research study, when combined with a
tea s k o ledge a e e gi g te h olog a ea o a e e gi g usi ess odel, an reveal the opportunity
to deliver a breakthrough new innovation by addressing the underserved area in a fundamentally better
way.

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 Apply Key Innovation Methods to
Framing the Problem or Clarifying the Need (cont.)
Discovery-Driven Innovation – for finding opportunities to deliver
new Foundations of Value

This is reference to innovation based on needfinding (both current

and future), thus extensive discovery work must precede the actual
innovation work.

1. Futuring Research – Of all the forms of Futuring research

available to them, the team selects those most relevant to the emerging customer need or market
opportunity as it is understood and seeks to use these to synthesize relevant new insights about the need.

2. New Problem Statement – From this, the team establishes a complete New Problem Statement that clearly
articulates and documents their understanding of this emerging customer need and/or market opportunity.

3. New Opportunity Statement – From this, the team looks for new opportunities to intersect evolving
customer / market needs with emerging organizational capabilities and technologies.

Design Thinking – For Conceiving and Vetting Hypotheses to Arrive at a Correct

Problem Statement

1. Problem Exploration – In this divergent step, numerous hypothesis will be

formulated regarding what the real problem could possibly be.

2. Business Experimentation – is this vetting step, numerous business experiments

will be conceived and designed that can be put to effective use for testing the
preceding hypotheses in a time-effective and cost-effective manner.

3. Problem Clarification – In this convergent step, the preceding business experiments will be conducted in
order to test out each of the preceding hypotheses in order for the team to reach convergence on the one
most correct hypothesis, weeding out all others. The one best hypothesis may involve multiple interrelated
causalities. Upon reaching this point of convergence, the team will then document its formal Problem
Statement.

Design Thinking will explored in greater detail further on.

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 Establish the Point of View / Set Design Principles
Having properly defined and clarified a problem, homed in on an
underserved area, and/or articulated an opportunity around an
e e gi g a ea of eed, the tea s e t step is to fo all defi e its
Point of View.

The Point of View reframes the problem in terms the most

fundamental needs the business is capable of addressing. This then
becomes the businesses new way of seeing and understanding the problem – a way that is actionable toward
new innovations. The Point of View thus sets the stage for the business being able to define a solution that is in
keeping with the true need, and also in keeping with the brand experience it has to deliver.

The PoV the team establishes then leads to their establishing appropriate Design Principles.

Design Principles are a set of guidelines the Innovation Team will use
in guiding them toward an effective solution for this problem or
opportunity. They represent a set of beliefs the team holds as true
around what the solution must do in order to properly solve the
problem, whatever that solution ends up being.

Fo e a ple, the Desig P i iples ight i lude, ou solutio ust

e a le ou usto e s to do X , ou usto e s ust ha e a ess to apa ilit Y , a d ou solutio ust ot
i u Z . These Desig Principles therefore create constraints around what the solution must be and do. This is
a good thing when trying to come up with the one best solution for the problem or need at hand. Violating the
Design Principles would result in a suboptimal solution, as it would not fully satisfy the problem or need.

I additio to aptu i g the Poi t of Vie , the othe thi g the tea s Design Principles must capture is the
unique brand experience the solution has to deliver. For example, one can think of how Disney, Starbucks, or
BMW creates a particular brand experience in everything they sell – one that uniquely distinguishes them from
other options. Each brand, therefore, has a particular feel to its brand experience, the result of certain
attributes always being built into the delivery of the brand. And even for organizations that may think of
themselves as unbranded, such as, for example, certain government agencies, the truth is that the cause they
are attempting to further in the world represents thei a d , a d usto e s ill thi k of hat the do
around that cause as, in effect, being their brand. Thus, they should also strive to think in this context.

So whereas the core Design Principles may apply to only this particular solution, the brand experience applies
more broadly to the entire brand under which this solution will be delivered. The brand experience therefore
adds yet another layer of constraints to how the solution must be delivered.

The tea s Design Principles must therefore be comprehensive by capturing both the Point of View and the
brand experience.

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 Apply Key Innovation Methods to
Finding the Best Solution
Having established a comprehensive set of Design Principles, the team must next turn its attention to figuring
out the best possible solution for addressing that problem or need.

Their objective will be to consider, test, and settle on the one solution that has the highest probability of being
the most optimal solution for that problem or need.

Just as in the previous step, the Innovation Team needs to be able to apply select Innovation Methods to the
task of finding the one best solution for the challenge at hand. This will require that they both fully understand
the method and have developed a certain level of skill in using it for this purpose.

The following highlight how the same three key Innovation

Methods…

• Outcome-Driven Innovation,
• Discovery-Driven Innovation, and
• Design Thinking

… can be used for this purpose.

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 Apply Key Innovation Methods to
Finding the Best Solution (cont.)
Outcome-Driven Innovation – For delivering improved Foundations of Value
This course does not unpack ODI in detail.
For a sound understanding of ODI, reference the book What Customers Want
by Anthony Ulwick.

1. ODI Target Area Synthesis – For each area targeted for new innovation (for
example, an ill-met outcome), the team will use the Design Thinking approach
below to conceive the broadest possible collection of ideas, develop appropriate
early-stage test plans and prototypes, and then test each idea so as to arrive at the
one best solution for this area.

2. ODI Opportunity Synthesis – For each new opportunity identified for delivering breakthrough new
innovation, the team will use the Design Thinking approach below to conceive the broadest possible
collection of ideas (around addressing the underserved area in a fundamentally better way), develop
appropriate early-stage test plans and prototypes, and then test each idea so as to arrive at the one best
solution for this new opportunity.

Discovery-Driven Innovation – for delivering

new Foundations of Value
This is reference to innovation based on needfinding (both current
and future), thus extensive discovery work must precede the actual
innovation work.

1. New Opportunity Synthesis – For each new opportunity

identified around an emerging customer or market need,
the team will select a path to follow by defining what they believe will be the best new type of solution for
this emerging need.

2. Solution Development – Wherever internal R&D or partnering work is required to develop this new type of
solution that will be pursued accordingly.

3. Solution Refinement – Subsequently, and so as to further refine this new type of solution, the team will
apply the Design Thinking approach below to conceive the broadest possible collection of ideas around this
new type of solution, develop appropriate early-stage test plans and prototypes for the solutions, and then
test each idea so as to arrive at the one best solution for this new opportunity.

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 Apply Key Innovation Methods to
Finding the Best Solution (cont.)
Design Thinking – For Conceiving and Testing New Solution Ideas to Arrive at
the One Best Solution

1. Solution Ideation – In this divergent step, the team uses any number of creativity methods – brainstorming,
lateral thinking sessions, and/or select Design Methods – to conceive a large number of potential solutions
for the problem or need being addressed. Certain constraints may be used upfront to focus the ideation,
while other constraints may be applied after the fact to narrow down the final list of solutions to be
evaluated.

2. Solution Prototyping – is this vetting step, two things will happen. First, an early-stage test plan will be
developed to use in evaluating each of the potential solutions brought forward from the prior step. This test
plan must be designed to cull out the weakest solutions and isolate the best solution. It therefore has to
establish relevant user testing and any functional testing needed to make comparisons between the
competi g pote tial solutio s, a d ust esta lish the p e ise ite ia to e used i assig i g pass , fail ,
or a score for each potential solution. Second, various types of prototypes will be constructed for each
proposed solution. These prototypes must be of a nature that they can be used properly for the above test
plan, so that the team has high confidence in the results they obtain.

3. Solution Selection – In this convergent step, the preceding test plan will be carried out so as to evaluate
each of the potential solutions in order for the team to reach convergence on the one best solution,
eedi g out all othe s. The fi al o e est solutio a ulti atel e d up ei g so e fo of h id that
incorporates elements from other solutions. Upon reaching this point of convergence, the team will
formally document its solution selection.

4. Regardless of which of these methods – or perhaps some hybrid of them – the Innovation Teams ends up
using, they will need to synthesize their work into a final solution definition – the innovation intent.

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 Define the Innovation Intent
At this point, the Innovation Team will have:

• Correctly framed the problem, homed in on the

underserved area, and/or articulated the opportunity.

• Established a Point of View and a complete set of Design

Principles.

• Considered a broad array of potential solutions and

selected the one best solution through relevant testing.

Having thus done this, the team will document these i hat is k o as the p oje t s innovation intent.

The innovation intent will establish in clear detail the following six elements:

1. The general market environment this innovation is operating in, or expects to be operating in at the point of
introduction.

2. The Point of View this innovation addresses – a statement of the precise problem (user need) the
innovation seeks to resolve, be it a pain or friction point, or a new need arising out of an emerging trend.

3. The Design Principles this innovation must deliver on.

4. The brand experience this innovation must deliver in order to conform to a particular brand strategy.

5. The precise solution this innovation intends to deliver, be it:

• A new business (built).
• A new brand (communicated).
• A new product (made).
• A new service (delivered).
• A new customer experience (staged).

6. An explanation, with evidence, of why this represents an opportunity to deliver new innovation that the
usi ess should pu sue… h this is a p o le o th sol i g fo the usi ess.

Together, these six elements defi e the p oje t s innovation intent.

As will be seen further on, the actual innovation that gets delivered to the market or otherwise implemented
will have to ultimately satisfy not only this innovation intent, but possibly also a market intent and a design
intent.

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 Validate the Need & Scope of the Opportunity
At this point the Innovation Team will have defined its innovation intent. Its next step will be to carry out an
intermediate vetting process.

In this process, the team will undertake a careful analysis of where they are in the endeavor, in terms of fully
understanding this opportunity to deliver new innovation, the scale and scope of the opportunity, and the
expected financial return for pursuing the opportunity.

The team should be in a good position to do this at this point given that they have correctly framed the problem
or need, established the necessary Point of View, and determined the most optimal solution for it (though they
will not have designed and developed this solutio i detail et… that o es late o i the Ba k E d of
Innovation).

The purpose and aim of this intermediate step is to ensure that pursuing this opportunity makes both strategic
and financial sense for the business. One can think of this step as a sa it he k against blindly plowing
forward with what may end up being errant assumptions about the market.

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 Validate the Need & Scope of Opportunity (cont.)
This analysis will involve the following steps:

A. Establish the expected scale of the need at the point of introduction.

This should be based on sound market research.

B. Construct an adoption model for the solution based on the expected

scale of the need.
This will involve an analysis of the Total Accessible Market (TAM), the
Serviceable Accessible Market (SAM), and Share of Market (SOM) that
this solution is expected to achieve each year over its lifecycle.
Typically the SOM will also be influenced by how much the business can allocate to marketing the solution
in order to drive awareness of it. The adoption model will likely follow the classic S-Curve pattern.

C. Based on the preceding adoption model and the intended pricing structures, construct a detailed revenue
model.

D. Based on expected cost structures for delivering this solution, construct a detailed cost model.

E. Based on the preceding revenue and cost models, construct a detailed profit model.

F. From all of the preceding financial models, conduct the standard battery of financial return analyses the
business has selected to use.
These may include Total Lifetime Profit, Return on Investment (ROI), Return on Assets (ROA), Return on
Sales (ROS), Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), or any other financial metric the
organization feels comfortable using in its vetting process.
Be aware however that certain of these will drive different selection decisions than others, and so it is
generally good to use multiple metrics and consider the ensuing decision process from multiple points of
view.

G. Compare this opportunity against other opportunities that will compete for the same downstream
execution resources and determine whether or not this opportunity should be one of the ones chosen for
the next stage of execution.

Going back to needfinding, one of the i po ta t uestio s the usi ess ill e aski g he e is… Is this a
p o le o th sol i g? If the a s e is es, the the p oje t ill likel o e fo a d. If the a s e is o, the
the project will either be shelved, modified, or possibly combined with another project and reevaluated.

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 Sizing Whitespace Markets –
A Method for New Whitespace Opportunities
Most business organizations – lacking an ability to predict the future in any reliable way
– find it particularly challenging to try to size up the market demand for completely
new innovations for which there is no existing market. This is typically the case when
considering entirely new product or service categories and any other true whitespace
opportunities associated with breakthrough innovation. This being the case, the
following four-step approach is recommended.

Step 1 – Establish the Foundation via Research

This will typically involve conducting an extensive amount of Secondary Research to gather as much relevant
information as possible – wherever these pieces of information may exist. For this, businesses can turn to
industry trade groups, industry publications, and syndicated research providers (who conduct detailed market
analyses). All of these sources tend to conduct their own very industry-specific market research and then
publish it either publicly or to subscribers. One can also enlist private information researchers to conduct an
exhaustive Secondary Research study for them.

After the Secondary Research has been completed, or perhaps in conjunction with it, the business would
typically also have to conduct its own customized Primary Quantitative Research in order to get at the level of
granular detail it needs, and focus in on the specific questions it needs. This type of research would generally
egi ith the ge e al populatio Ge Pop a d the ask a se ies of ele a t etti g uestio s to statisti all
segment the entire panel of respondents according to definitions that are meaningful to the prevailing Point of
View. Having segmented the panel, the business can then identify which segment(s) will resonate with the type
of solution they intend to deliver. They can then compare the size of this cohort to the size of the general
population of interest, and scale accordingly. This step should involve judgment however, and not just blind
scaling. To be conservatives, businesses will often wish to include a scale-down factor to discount what this
otherwise tells them, so as to account for other, uncontrolled, factors that the research is unable to take into
account (no Primary Quantitative Research is ever able to fully take into account all possible affecting factors).

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 Sizing Whitespace Markets –
A Method for Whitespace Opportunities (cont.)
Step 2 – Establish the Total Pie and Its Slice of It

Between the original Secondary Research and the additional Primary Research that was
conducted, the business should be able to piece together a total estimate for the
overall size of the Total Accessible Market, or TAM. If the type of solution they intend
to deliver will address the needs of this entire market, then they can use this as their
starting market size. If, however, the type of solution they intend to deliver addresses
the needs of only some portion (sub-segment) of this market, then they will need to isolate and size that sub-
segment in their research. For example, the total market may be the market for shoes in a country, by they
intend to offer a general running shoe. In this case, their Serviceable Accessible Market, or SAM, is that portion
of the Total Accessible Market (the entire shoe market) that they can address with their type of shoe. The SAM
will thus be some portion of the TAM – a e tai sli e of the pie .

Next, to the extent that the business is able to capture a first-mover advantage in the market with this new
category, their (initial) Share of the Market, or SOM, would be 100%. However, to the extent that there are
competing options the business is up against (either older, more well-accepted types of solutions, or a fast-
follower), the business will have to divvy up the market and will only be able to take some portion of it. This is
their Share of the Market, or SOM, a d ill e a e e s alle sli e of the pie .

Even when businesses capture a first-mover advantage and 100% SOM, if the category is successful, as tablet
computers were, then first-mover advantages can be very short-lived, and very quickly two things will happen –
the overall size of the market (TAM/SAM) will grow proportionately larger, while their share of that market
(SOM) will grow proportionately smaller. The cumulative result however is typically a growing revenue base for
each business.

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 Sizing Whitespace Markets –
A Method for Whitespace Opportunities (cont.)
Step 3 – Overlay and Shape the Cumulative Adoption Curve

The market sizing estimated above would be for the market at some stage of maturity.
Since: a) no one will know about the new category on Day 1 and the business will have
to actuate market demand via marketing (to drive both awareness and demand), and b)
new innovations inherently require time to be adopted, the pattern for which will
follow the characteristic Cumulative Adoption Curve (refer to Chapter 4 of the GInI
Applied Innovation Master Book), the business must overlay on top of this an S-shaped adoption curve.

The S Curve would start from zero, ramp up slowly and gradually, then later ramp up faster as it moves from
Early Adopters to Early Majority, and then some day reach saturation as it begins to deplete the Late Majority
and tap in to the Laggards. On this curve, the business will eventually reach the market size estimated in Step 2,
but it will not have that on Day 1. Instead, it will have to grow the new market via marketing. This is known as
Market Development. The art here lies in being able to estimate how quickly the market will develop.

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 Sizing Whitespace Markets –
A Method for Whitespace Opportunities (cont.)
Step 4 – Consider the Marketing Strategy and Other Market-Growth Factors

How quickly a new market develops will actually hinge on a number of factors, some of
hi h a e ithi the usi ess o t ol a d so e of hi h a e ot.

The first thing market growth will hinge on is how deeply the problem being addressed
is felt and acknowledged by would-be customers. The more deeply they feel and
acknowledge the need, the faster they will be to adopt this solution. The business can help this along by helping
these people to become very aware of their need and of this solution (thus the essence of marketing). But how
fast the business is able to do this will depend on what its marketing budget is for this solution. In general, the
larger the budget, the faster it can actuate demand, but as with most things there is some point of diminishing
return. The other consideration is that if competitors will be bringing similar solutions to market in this same
atego at a out the sa e ti e, the o e s sha e of the a ket ill ofte e affe ted thei relative
a keti g spe d; that is… ho u h they invest in marketing relative to that of competitors. Generally
speaking, the ones who spend the most on marketing will take the largest slices of the pie, assuming the
competing solutions are otherwise comparable to one another.

The second thing market growth will hinge on is how accessible the solution is, in terms of pricing and sales and
distribution channels. The more within reach it is for would-be customers, typically the faster they will adopt it.
This is where pricing analysis and pricing strategies come into play – particularly challenging in this scenario
because the business likely has no historical basis for establishing the price elasticity for this product or service
category (though it may choose to apply a surrogate if a close enough one exists).

The third thing market growth will hinge on is how well the solution solves would- e usto e s p o le .
Generally the better it solves their problem, the faster they will adopt it, particularly if it involves a need they are
acutely aware of (per the first item). This is where good solution design and execution come into play.

Finally, the fourth thing that market growth will hinge on is how much and how fast other providers get into the
market with competing solutions. Although this tends to dilute o e s o a ket sha e, it is ofte a good thi g
because it serves to further validate people s eed a d this solutio atego . That so t of alidatio t pi all
helps to spur the growth of a new market more quickly.

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 Sizing Whitespace Markets –
A Method for Whitespace Opportunities (cont.)
Step 5 - Integration

In the end, the business must take all of the above things into consideration and try to think through both its
own marketing strategy as well as how that and all these other factors will play out in some sort of intricate
dance, and what that ultimately means for how fast the market will scale up. While the research above provides
the starting foundation that is needed, and the S Curve provides the governing adoption pattern that will apply,
the speed of market growth remains the biggest unknown, and will hinge on all the factors explained above.
The business must therefore integrate all of this research and analysis together and at the end of the day, apply
some form of judgment to how fast it believes the market will ramp up.

Ultimately, this market should hit the overall estimated market size, but when that happens, and what share of
the market the business ultimately claims, will only be known as that future actually unfolds. The busi ess jo
therefore is to constantly strategize and restrategize as this market take shape, taking whatever actions it deems
as most appropriate to both grow it and secure and keep as much of it as possible, until this category is itself
ready to be replaced with the next new category.

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 Moving Forward – Transitioning
From the Front End to the Mid Zone
Should this project be selected to move forward for further execution, it will pass from the Front End of
Innovation into the Mid Zone of Innovation.

The Mid Zone will entail a different set of activities, primarily around establishing a sound commercialization
strategy. Depending on how the organization has structured to operate its innovation projects, this transition
may involve:

• the same Innovation Team

• a partially modified version of the team

(retaining certain members, omitting others, and perhaps adding new members)

• an expanded version of the team (only adding additional members)

• or an entirely different team altogether, which therefore means a handoff would need to occur.

Handoffs require a certain amount of time and overlap in meetings and tasks as ownership of the project
transitions from one team to another. Keeping certain members on the team can aid in this transition, making it
smoother, but this may also take them away from critical front end work needed on other projects.

The optimal approach for this transition will be different for each organization, and should be established based
on a number of considerations, including organizational structures, available resources, and executional
priorities.

Organizations can also handle this on a case-by-case basis, but doing so runs the risk of creating confusion and
possibly discord amongst different business leaders with competing priorities. A set, established process can
avoid that problem, but may make it more challenging for the business to achieve overall success in getting new
innovations to market. The business should therefore consider its choice of approach carefully.

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 LESSON 9c
Getting Innovation Done

Running Innovation Projects

in the Business - MZI

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 Running the Mid Zone of Innovation – Intro
At this point, the project of interest has been selected to move forward for further execution and will now
enter into the Mid Zone of Innovation.

The primary objectives of the Mid Zone of Innovation are to develop an

optimal commercialization strategy and to develop a thorough business
case for proceeding into final execution of the project, which would mean
implementing the innovation and – where an offering is involved –
commercializing the offering in the marketplace.

The project may at this point continue on with the same team who owned it in the Front End of Innovation, may
pass to a modified or expanded version of this team, or may pass to an entirely different team altogether. In
the last scenario, there will need to be a handoff process, spanning a period of time, tasks, and meetings, so
that the project can proceed onto Mid Zone activities effectively.

This lesson walks through several of the key activities associated with driving new innovation projects in the
Mid Zone of Innovation. It is aimed at helping the Innovation Professional develop a clear sense for what needs
to be done to set up projects for success and to execute them well in this phase.

Within the Mid Zone of Innovation, there will be five primary tasks which the Innovation Team must complete.

These are:

1. Applying the market intent – relevant market strategies, brand strategies, and offering strategies.
2. Developing an appropriate brand playbook.
3. Developing the best possible commercialization (go-to-market) strategy, including the right business model.
4. Developing a formal business case to allow the project to pass from Mid Zone to Back End of Innovation.
5. Formally pitching the oppo tu it to the usi ess Selection Panel for conversion into a real innovation
project with the ultimate intention of eventually implementing or commercializing it.
Each of these are examined in greater detail.

The individuals who undertake these tasks must have solid business and marketing
experience, understanding all of the relevant sales, marketing, branding, positioning,
pricing, distribution, and production factors involved. They must also have the skills
needed to analyze in detail the financial aspects of each of these, so that they can develop
a comprehensive and detailed business case that presents the most accurate financial
and strategic picture of the opportunity.

This business case will typically be used for the final go/no-go gating milestone, where the decision will be
made on whether or not the business will actually take this new innovation to market, or – should it not involve
an offering in the market – actually implement it.

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 Apply Market Intent –
Market, Brand, & Offering Strategies
Prior to being able to develop the right commercialization
strategy for this project, the business will first need to have
established appropriate market strategies, brand strategies,
and product or service strategies for this area of the market
– what is known as market intent. An overriding market
intent is necessary to ensure the successful introduction and
lifecycle of new innovations like the one of this project.

There is a flow-down hierarchy within market intent that

actually begins two levels higher at business goals. Business goals serve to establish the business strategy, and
the business strategy in turn plays a strong role in shaping the particular market strategy that is to be used.
Arising out of an aggregate market strategy, each brand will have its own unique brand strategy. And likewise,
arising out of the governing brand strategy, each product or service will have a particular product or service
strategy. Optimum business performance occurs when there is good orchestration between these strategies.

Market strategy add esses uestio s su h as… What a ds does the usi ess o ? What is thei elati e
a ket positio i g? I hat a s is this i po ta t? What i pa t does this ha e o the broader business
a d the o po ate ide tit ? Is the a ket st ateg good e ough, o is the usi ess lea i g so ethi g o the
ta le? The usi ess ust a s e these uestio s i o de to esta lish a effe ti e a ket st ateg . Mo i g
downstream, the market strategy sets the stage for defining appropriate brand strategies and the brand
language and experience that go along with those.

Brand strategy add esses uestio s su h as… What is the a d? Ho is it defi ed? Who defi es it?
What is the a d essage that goes alo g ith it? What e pe ie e is asso iated ith this a d? Is
the e ohe e t la guage ei fo i g that essage? Is it e e the ight essage? O do a ket t e ds
a a ta e essage? What o te t is the usi ess p o idi g to uild this a d? The usi ess ust
answer these questions in order to establish an effective brand strategy. The brand strategy inherits certain
mandates from the overriding market strategy.

It should be noted that brand experience involves several different types of brand language – descriptive brand
language (words, slogans, etc.), visual brand language (styling, aesthetics, colors, finishes, etc.), and
experiential brand language (the experiences made to happen). All of these forms of brand language must be
harmonized in order to deliver a coherent brand experience. Moving downstream, the brand strategy sets the
foundation for effective product and service strategies and the related design attributes these need to ensure
coherence across the market intent.

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 Apply Market Intent –
Market, Brand, & Offering Strategies (cont.)
Product / service strategy add esses uestio s su h as… What a e the usi ess p odu ts a d se i es? Ho
well do they succeed in reinforcing the message of thei a d? Do the ha e the ight isual a d e pe ie tial
a d la guage ele e ts? Do the ha e the ight att i ute i to li e up to thei a d p o ise? The
business must answer these questions in order to establish an effective product or service strategy. They inherit
certain mandates from the overriding brand strategy.

Defining a market intent means that the business will either have made or be making certain strategic decisions
around how it wishes to address the market environment it believes will be prevailing at the point of
introduction (based on its best understanding of such, as informed by all insights gathered to date).

The decisions around the three market intent strategies will define the primary path for how the business
intends to approach the market, how it will position and posture its brand(s) within the market, and the nature
of the offerings it hooses to suppo t those positio s. Togethe these st ategies ake up the usi ess g a d
scheme of attack for this particular area of the market. Since this work is above and beyond the scope of the
current project, it can be thought of as a macro exercise providing overarching direction to a sequenced
portfolio of such projects. Each independent business unit of a given business may have its own particular
market intent.

To the extent that this project represents an entirely new market platform versus integrating into an existing
market platform, and to the extent that it will be commercialized under its own (new) brand versus under an
existing brand, it will either be the subject of its own market, brand, and offering strategies, or will need to
integrate into another (preexisting) set of market, brand, and offering strategies. In either case, these
strategies and the market intent they represent will need to be established by a particular business group who
will then own them and have responsibility for executing them.

Thus, if the overriding market intent has not yet been defined, then the Innovation Team will need to work with
the necessary business leaders (perhaps those representing a particular business unit or brand) to ensure these
are satisfactorily established and documented. Doing this requires the business to understand and characterize
the market environment it will be dealing with at the expected point of introduction.

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 Apply Market Intent –
Market, Brand, & Offering Strategies (cont.)
The key consideration for the Innovation Team here is to ensure or otherwise establish absolute alignment
between the governing product or service strategy and the solution this team is proposing for the new
opportunity. Alignment is necessary in order to deliver the solution in a way that conforms to this strategy. This
places yet another level of constraint on the solution (recall, however, that this solution was defined under the
guise of a particular Point of View, which would have included a related brand experience, which itself should
have been driven by a governing brand strategy).

If the solution as it has thus far been conceived is in some way not in alignment with the governing product or
service strategy, then the team will need to either: a) modify the solution so that it is in alignment, b) have the
business modify the governing product or service strategy to accommodate the solution, or c) obtain a waiver
from the business allowing for certain areas of misalignment to exist. Whichever approach is taken, in the end
there has to be agreement on it between the Innovation Team and the sponsoring business group.

The final point that the Innovation Professional needs to be aware of in relation to defining market intent is that
throughout the Mid Zone of the project it should be thought of as a li i g a ti it . In organizations that
understand the fluidity necessary for optimizing new innovations, these will remain open and subject to
modification as the project progresses. Thus the three strategies – and in particular the product or service
strategy – will be constantly revisited and refined throughout the duration of the Mid Zone of the project. This
can allow alignment to emerge across a series of iterative steps.

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 Develop the Brand Playbook
As part of the general commercialization plan, the business may also ask the Innovation Team to develop a more
detailed brand playbook.

This can occur when launching a new brand with the new innovation, or when launching a major new offering
that will play a significant role in shifting and otherwise perpetuating a brand.

The business is looking to develop high confidence that the specific actions undertaken in relation to branding –
positioning, pricing, brand language, features, attributes, performance characteristics, quality targets, etc. –
are all in alignment with what is intended for this brand.

Developing a detailed brand playbook requires the Innovation Team (or at least a person on the Innovation
Team) to have a deep understanding of this brand…

• the brand persona

• how the brand is perceived (or to be perceived) in the market (perhaps in comparison to competing brands)

• the offerings that live (or are to live) under this brand

• and how the brand relates to the business.

These must all be well-understood and well-coordinated if the business is to deliver the intended
brand experience.

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 Develop the Brand Playbook (cont.)
The Brand Playbook addresses such fundamental questions as…

• Is the market we are going after a new or existing market for the business?

• Who are the target customers, either in terms of an aggregate persona

(typical for B2C) or in terms of actual customers (common for B2B)?

• What existing market channels do we have to these customers and what

yet needs to be developed?

• Whi h arketi g e ues are est suited for rea hi g this arket… dire t, pri t edia, digital edia,
broadcast media, content marketing, event marketing, etc.?

• Does a brand in our existing portfolio fit this play, or is a new brand a better fit (the latter requiring new brand
development work)?

• What investments are required, and what is the expected payback?

The Brand Playbook also examines some of the more existential brand questions as well
– the brand persona. Questio s like…

• What story are we trying to tell with our brand?

• Is that story coherent with the rest of who we are (or want to be)?

• Can we deliver on the brand promise and the brand experience?

• What's that going to take?

Finally, the Brand Playbook must consider and answer certain project-related questions – su h as…

• How will this particular offering reflect the brand identity and persona?

• Is it the flagship offering of this brand, or an satellite offering?

• Are there any unique product-line differentiators that layer on top of the brand strategy?

Ultimately, the brand playbook will establish appropriate strategies and principles for brand positioning, brand
design, and brand messaging, as well as the necessary activation tactics to achieve successful brand
penetration in the market.

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 Develop the Commercialization / GTM Strategy
Whethe this p oje t s i te t is to ope atio alize a new business unit, launch a new brand, or commercialize a
new offering, or perhaps all of the above, there will be numerous challenges in figuring out the best way to
take the e i to the a ket, pa ti ula l he the o ga izatio is ostl a usto ed to deli e i g the old .
The more new, the more daunting. If it is new to the business but not new to the world or market, then there
may be precedence elsewhere to benchmark. If it is new to the world however, then there will be little
precedence to look to, in which case the business will be breaking new ground all the way.

The I o atio Tea s jo , the efo e, is to aft a

winning commercialization strategy, also known as
the go-to-market, or GTM, strategy.

The go-to-market strategy has to be able to ensure

this new innovation – as well as the brand and
positioning it is going to market under – connects
with a clear need in the market – one the market is
either aware of or can be easily made aware of – so
that it resonates with customers and thereby scales
in the marketplace. These will be the types of results the business expects from the GTM strategy so that its
investment in this new innovation has the intended impact in the market and on the business.

Developing this strategy therefore lies at the heart of moving this new innovation from being just an idea to
being a reality that gets the a ket’s atte tio .

In order to craft a winning go-to-market strategy, the Innovation Team will have to analyze the situation
involved in a holistic manner and with a certain level of precision. They have to look at the business, the brand,
the offering, the users, the market, their ecosystem (of partners and so forth), as well as the general business
and social environment in which they will be operating, and based on all of this, develop the best possible go-to-
market strategy for that situation. This includes defining the right business model for the situation (of which the
go-to-market strategy is a part). The actual step-by-step plan the team will ultimately develop is referred to as
the GTM playbook.

Some of tools the team will use here (its GTM toolbox) can include the relevant user and market research tools
explored earlier, select historical analyses of business and brand performance results, emerging trends in this
area of the market (from the prior discovery research), and some financial analyses. Ultimately this team must
figure out a solid, usable plan that will take the new innovation to market in a way that allows it to have
maximum connection with the market and significant engagement with a large community of users.

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 Develop the GTM Strategy (cont.)
Some of the possible questions that the go-to-market strategy may need to address include the follo i g…

• Who is the target customer / market?

• What market and sales channels have they most recently started to tune into?

• How does our new offering deliver a value or experience they will want?

• What problem is it solving for them, and why is this, in their minds, a problem worth solving?

• What is a brand message we can send that will resonate with a real need they have?

• Where and how do we send that message?

• How do we leverage the delivery of customer experience to connect these customers with our brand in a
differentiating way?

• How do we produce and deliver the offering in a cost effective way that fits with our own footprint and
ecosystem?

• How do we structure the new business to consistently deliver this offering and this brand?

• What is the roll–out pla a d ti eli e… hat eeds to happe he ?

If the go-to-market strategy currently being developed is to be successful, the Innovation Team will have to find
the right answers to each of these critical questions, and it will have to ensure that the business is capable of
executing this strategy in all domains across the board – technical, operational, and commercial. This will be
crucial to achieving maximum success.

To enable this, their GTM playbook will have to lay out the detailed Operations, Marketing, Sales, and Service
plans needed to get the innovation into market, as well as all of the "what must be true" scenarios required for
the innovation to realize its expected adoption, and thus revenues and profits.

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 Develop the GTM Strategy (cont.)
Below is an example GTM Distribution Strategy for an Enterprise Data Software product involving a direct B2B
sales cycle. This would be just one piece of an overall, comprehensive Go-To-Market Strategy.

Courtesy of:

Four Quadrant LLC

Tiburon, CA

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 Develop the Business Case
In most cases, one of the final major steps the Innovation Team will
need to undertake in the Mid Zone of Innovation will be to develop a
comprehensive and detailed business case for the project, which they
will ultimately present to the orga izatio s decision-makers. This
business case is intended to give the organization the most accurate
possible financial and strategic picture of the opportunity involved.

The business case will typically be used in the context of a phase-gate milestone ithi the usi ess i o atio
pipeline so that the business can make a final go/no-go gating decision on the project. This decision will be one
of hethe o ot the usi ess is to a tuall pull the t igge a d take this e i o atio to a ket o
otherwise implement it). This is a highly critical decision point in the life of the project. If the business decides
to move forward with the project, then from here on out the business will potentially be making a major
investment to fully develop the solution in the Back End and actually commercialize it. This is not only an
investment of money. It is equally an investment of time, effort, focus, and reputation.

This is why – amongst the various innovation projects competing for the opportunity to go to market – making
the best possible choices here for its innovation portfolio will be critical to the long term success of the business
and its innovation program.

The typical business case presented would include the following elements (and potentially more):

• The situation in the market; perhaps an emerging situation. This sets the context for the need.
• The unmet / ill-met need involved, be it a customer pain / friction, or a new need arising out of market
changes.
• The proposed solution to address this need, and why this solution is the best option to proceed with.
• Synopsis of the research conducted to validate the need and commercial viability of the chosen solution.
• Details of the solution, including its attributes and how it fits with a particular overriding market intent the
business has.
• An explanation of how this innovation is to merge with other product and technology roadmaps the business
may have.
• The development plan for fully defining, designing, and developing this new innovation.
• The commercialization strategy for taking this new innovation to market.
• Detailed financial analyses – investment, adoption, revenues / profits, financial return
(pay-back period, ROI, NPV, etc.)
• Future opportunities to build on this innovation in other ways, such as with a broader platform of offerings.
• The usi ess call-to-action for moving this project forward into development and commercialization.
• Any necessary appendices explaining things like market research or financial analyses in greater detail.

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 Pitch the Project
The final step prior to completing the Mid Zone of Innovation is to
formally pitch the project to the Selection Panel in order to have it
selected and converted into an actual innovation project.

Here, the team will turn their well-developed business plan into a
winning Pitch Deck and then pitch it to the appropriate panel of
decision-makers. The decision-makers must thereafter – for each
such project – decide whether or not they are going to invest the
people, time, money, and other resources into turning this endeavor into a real innovation project with the
intent to ultimately implement or commercialize it.

If the de isio fo this is es , the the effo t ill pass o to the Back End of Innovation for execution.

The Innovation Team must be able to pitch the oppo tu it to the o ga izatio s decision-makers in a
convincing way. It is their job to play the evangelist for the project and sell it to the business as best they can.
The individuals on the Innovation Team who will develop the business case and ultimately pitch it must
therefore have incredibly strong business acumen.

They will need to be able to convincingly articulate:

• Why this opportunity is one the business should go after (why it s a p o le o th sol i g .

• Why the solution the team has chosen is the best possible solution for both the market and the business –
does it give the business both the Right to Play and the Right to Win?

• How this new innovation will in fact address the underlying need in an effective way that captures market
attention,

• How the proposed development, production, sales, and marketing strategies will enable the business to both
actuate and meet demand for this new innovation.

They will also need to be able to speak intelligently to the financial aspects of the project – the investment it
requires, the adoption, revenues, and profits it will generate, and the financial return the business will realize
from the project.

Finally, they will need to be able to articulate any other strategic reasons why the business should pursue this
opportunity, such as perhaps strong alignment with a particular element of the Innovation Strategy or with
some other initiative the business is pursuing.

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 Iterations on the Business Case
It is not uncommon for the business to ask the Innovation Team to undertake an iteration, in which any number
of steps may need to be repeated, such as additional market research or user research, redefining the solution
with additional constraints placed on it, modifying the commercialization strategy, or restating financial
analyses with different assumptions.

When this is requested, the Innovation Team will need to circle back, complete this additional work, modify the
business case accordingly, and then re-present it to the usi ess de isio -makers. If they are satisfied with
what has then been presented, they may proceed with making the go/no-go decision.

Thus, Innovation Teams should be prepared for these types of requests to iterate their work and change certain
aspects of it. This is often for reasons of higher level business strategy. Whatever the reason, it generally aids
decision-makers in having higher confidence in the decisions they are making, which is important to the
business o e all su ess ith e i o atio . O je ti e o plia e is the efo e i po ta t.

O e the usi ess pla has ee de eloped a d p ese ted to the usi ess de isio ake s, a d a go/ o-go
decision made, this will generally mark the end of the Mid Zone of the project. The project will thereafter pass
on to its Back End, where the new innovation will be developed and implemented (commercialized).

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 Moving Forward – Transitioning
From the Mid Zone to the Back End
Should this project pass its final Mid Zone decision point, it will be resourced accordingly and transitioned from
the Mid Zone of Innovation into the Back End of Innovation. The Back End will entail a different set of
activities, primarily around executing the project to implement or commercialize this new innovation.

Just as in the previous transition from the Front End to the Mid Zone, depending on how the organization has
structured to operate its innovation projects, this transition may involve:

• the same Innovation Team

• a partially modified version of the team (retaining certain members, omitting others, and perhaps adding
new members)

• an expanded version of the team (only adding additional members)

• or an entirely different team altogether, which therefore means a handoff would need to occur.

Handoffs require a certain amount of time and overlap in meetings and tasks as ownership of the project
transitions from one team to another. Keeping certain members on the team can aid in this transition, making it
smoother, but this may also take them away from critical mid zone work needed on other projects.

The optimal approach for this transition will be different for each organization, and should be established based
on a number of considerations, including organizational structures, available resources, and executional
priorities.

As with the prior transition, organizations can also handle this on a case-by-case basis, but doing so runs the
same risk of creating confusion and possibly discord amongst different business leaders with competing
priorities. A set, established process can, again, avoid that problem, but may make it more challenging for the
business to achieve overall success in getting new innovations to market. The business should therefore
consider its choice of approach carefully.

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 LESSON 9d
Getting Innovation Done

Running Innovation Projects

in the Business - BEI

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 Running the Back End of Innovation – Intro
The Back End of Innovation is primarily about execution.

Projects that reach this point will have been green-lighted for
development and commercialization, and will inherit all of the
o k p odu ts f o the p oje t s Front End and Mid Zone.

From the Front End, this will include:

• All new insights developed from User Research, Market Research, and Futuring Research.
• A clear understanding of the opportunity in the marketplace and the underlying problem or need it seeks to
address.

• A clear understanding of the chosen solution and of the new innovation it represents.

From the Mid Zone, this will include:

• The proposed development plan for the new innovation (business, brand, and/or offering).
• The go-to-market strategy developed for the new innovation, including its associated business model & brand
playbook.

• The budgets and timelines set for the development and commercialization of the new innovation.

This lesson walks through several of the key activities associated with driving new innovation projects in the
Back End of Innovation. It is aimed at helping the Innovation Professional develop a clear sense for what needs
to be done to set up projects for success and to execute them well in this phase.

There are generally eight (8) key steps that need to be undertaken in this phase, namely:

1. Finalize the development plan, including its budget and timeline.

2. Undertake any final research needed to adequately define the new innovation
(business, brand, and/or offering).

3. Where a new offering is involved, establish the necessary design strategy.

4. Where a new offering is involved, undertake formal design and development of the new offering.

5. Ready production or delivery of the new offering, including supply chains and support systems.

6. Where intended, run pilots to further prove out the innovation and refine the go-to-market strategy.
7. When ready, ramp up production / delivery, sales, service, and marketing.

8. Monitor thereafter.

This lesson examines each of these steps in more detail.

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 Finalize the Development Plan
Before the Innovation Team can dive in and actually start executing the development and commercialization of
this new innovation, it first needs to finalize its development plan. This plan will detail out all of the steps the
business has to undertake in order to develop this new innovation in such a way as to produce a final design
that accurately captures the original intent of the innovation.

The development plan can include any additional research that needs to be completed (technical or market), all
technical steps (design and development), all initial operational steps (production, supply chains, quality plans,
etc.), and all initial commercial steps (sales, marketing, customer service, etc.). In this sense, it should be
comprehensive.

The de elop e t pla ill also la out the p oje t timeline in detail showing which steps need to be taken,
when, and in what order so as to eet the p oje t s p es i ed deadline (this timeline will likely include certain
buffers to account for project unknowns, particularly since the project involves a new innovation). The other
thing the development plan will establish in detail is the budget for the development portion of the Back End.
This budget should be sized according to the scope and newness of the innovation, and should be adequate to
ensure the project can reach its final milestone successfully, while not allowing the team to burn through money
in lieu of being thoughtful.

Establishing detailed project timelines and budgets is clearly the domain of professional
Project Managers, and at this stage, the project will benefit from having a professional
Project Manager on the team. Not only will this person help finalize the detailed
development plan, they will also lead the project throughout its Back End.

The final development plan will typically require the approval of a senior manager. This is to
ensure it o fo s to the usi ess expectations and otherwise properly merges with the
overall flow of other business activities that will be going on. It also allows certain areas of
the business to establish other related plans where needed, such as product roadmaps and
broader marketing campaigns.

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 Undertake Final Research
In any area of the project where the business or the Innovation Team feels there is inadequate business
intelligence, market insight, or technological insight to execute the project, the Innovation Team will need to
first see that this research gets carried out and that the needed insights are in fact produced.

The team will of course need to drive this work in accordance with the established project timeline, so that this
point the sense of urgency may need to be higher and the work may have to be expedited in order to keep the
project on track to its timeline.

Assuming this research is completed and the insights needed are in fact produced, the project can then proceed
on to its next steps, with the Innovation Team applying these new insights wherever they are needed (such as in
fine-tuning the new innovation and its associated business, brand, and offering attributes).

This should allow the team to be able to execute the project with full confidence in the steps it is taking and in
the design it ultimately produces.

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 Establish the Design Strategy
Whenever the new innovation involves a new offering,
the Innovation Team must establish its design strategy.

The design strategy will capture those attributes of the

offe i g s design that:

a) properly reflect the form, functions, and features

necessary to deliver the innovative intent

b) communicate the intended brand language, and

c) deliver the intended brand experience (which will have been defined within the market intent).

The design strategy is the birthplace of ho i o atio … fi di g o el a d i o ati e a s of e e uti g the

offe i g s desig .

The act of establishing a design strategy begins the

formal development process. It defines a clear and
concrete plan of attack fo the offe i g s design,
answering such questions as…

• What features will it have and not have?

• How should those features be arranged and presented?

• What will the user interface look and act like?

• What should the underlying technologies be?

• How do these relate to the offering's real or perceived value?

• Qualitatively, how should these features operate, and what are the key functional performance attributes of
the offering, and what metrics are to be used to measure those?

• How do these rank against one another in terms of importance and priority?

The Innovation Team will need to explore the possible design space and from this develop a sound design
strategy. A sound design strategy will give them the needed confidence that the offering they deliver will
achieve its objectives in addressing the need at hand and in delivering the desired experiences. In other
o ds… i a hie i g the innovation intent.

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 Establish the Design Strategy (cont.)
For developing this strategy, it is suggested that the Innovation Team
follow a defined process and apply various design methods where
needed. Specifically, it is suggested that their process involve three
key activities, namely research, concepting, and distillation.

The research activity can involve up to five forms of Design Research,

used according to project needs. These are:
• Technology Audit – A survey of relevant technologies and selection of those that are to be embedded into
the offering.

• IP Landscape Review – A review to ensure freedom to operate (non-infringement) and to look for new IP
opportunities.

• Regulatory Review – A high-level review of the relevant regulatory environment and likely regulations that
will apply.
• Usability & Performance Testing – Focused testing of surrogate prototypes to establish performance and use
factors.

• User Science Research – Conducting necessary tests to validate any marketing claims that are to be made.

The concepting activity can involve up to six concepting methods, used according to project needs. These are:

• Attribute Model – A detailed e o di g of the offe i g s att i utes featu es, pe fo a e, p i e, et . a oss
models.

• Brand Language Model – Exploration & establishment of descriptive, visual, and experiential brand language
elements.

• Concept Development – Development & critique of numerous concepts and architectures to arrive at the
best concept.

• BOM / Costing Study – Evaluation of different potential BOMs to understand the COGS & capital expenses
each drives.

• Human Factors / Ergonomics / UI – Study and design of the pertinent human-machine interface details.

• Concept Prototyping – Use of visual, digital, and physical prototypes to evaluate different competing options.

Distillation is the final activity and is focused on distilling down the preceding research and concepting work so
as to select the winning design concept. Each concept is evaluated against the various attribute requirements
and any brand experience metrics previously established, and the winning concept is then selected out of this.
The winning design concept will be carried forward and will represent the final design strategy that is to be
applied. This is how the Innovation Team should thus go about establishing the final design strategy to use.
Note that there may also be any number of external stakeholders involved in this decision process.

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 Undertake Formal Design & Development
Whenever the new innovation involves a new offering, the Innovation Team must at this point engage in its
formal design and development.

If the offering is a product, this is where the team will work toward creating an engineering design that is both
readily manufacturable and results in a product capable of consistently delivering on the design and innovation
intents.

If the offering is a service, this is where the team will work toward creating a service design that is both
consistently deliverable and results in the intended customer and brand experiences happening (in keeping
with the innovation and market intents).

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 Undertake Formal Design & Development (cont.)
For products, the Innovation Team must pull together a potentially large number of key design and technical
disciplines for the technical development work. At the core, this typically includes Industrial Design,
Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and/or Software Engineering. At the periphery, it may include a
broad range of specialized technology partners having unique skills in niche technologies, such as, for example,
materials, photonics, fluidics, and advanced RF electronics, to name just a few.

To the extent that it does not possess these capabilities internally, the business will need to establish a broad
ecosystem and network of technology partners to deliver these types of capabilities. The business will also
need to establish a broad network of prototype shops capable of prototyping these types of product, as well as
a broad network of test labs capable of conducting the necessary types of validation testing, again, to the extent
that it does not possess these prototyping and test capabilities internally.

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 Undertake Formal Design & Development (cont.)
The following list highlights in more detail the actual tasks that may need to be carried out in this stage:

• Industrial Design – Applying good ID skills to translate the design strategy into an actual product
manifestation.

• Embedded Graphic Design – Using graphic design to create those parts of the product bearing UIs and
communication.

• Mechanical Engineering – Developing the needed mechanical, structural, fluidic, and/or thermal aspects of
the design.

• Electrical Engineering – Developing the needed electrical and/or electronic aspects of the design.

• Software Engineering – Developing embedded software needed for the design, such as for controls and UIs.

• Materials Engineering – Selecting and applying the most appropriate materials for the offering (at a high
level of detail).

• Color, Material, & Finish Strategy – Establishing the best choice of colors, materials, and finishes to convey
the brand.

• Design Deficiency Risk Mitigation – Applying Failure Modes & Effects Analyses to drive deficiencies out of the
design.

• Regulatory Compliance – Ensuring the design will conform to and satisfy each and every regulation it is
subject to.

• Design for Manufacturability / Assembly – Ensuring the design adheres to optimal manufacture / assembly
principles.

• Design for Sustainability / Reclamation – Ensuring the design adheres to optimal sustainability / reclamation
principles.
• Technology Partnerships – Finding and securing all of the technology partners needed to deliver this new
innovation.

• Physical Prototyping – Producing prototypes quickly and cost-effectively for various stages of performance
evaluation.

• Design and Product Validation – Undertaking a detailed test plan to prove out the design & the
manufactured product.

• Technical Documentation & Illustrations – Producing needed technical documentation with appropriate
illustrations.

• Collateral Graphic Design – Using graphic design to create the necessary marketing communications
collateral.

• Package Design – Using package design to create a package for the offering that conveys the desired brand
message.

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 Undertake Formal Design & Development (cont.)
Generally speaking, the Innovation Team will want to
pursue a design philosophy of robustness and high
reliability. This is so that the business can consistently
deliver offerings with the performance needed for
building and preserving brand value.

This means the Innovation Team will need to charge

their engineering teams with such a philosophy, in
keeping with particular reliability targets, which
themselves would derive in part from the overriding
brand and offering strategies.

The Innovation Team will also want to ensure their design and engineering teams have broad expertise and
employ state-of-the-art practices in their work. This is important since in any development project there will
always be the need for various trade-off decisions to be made, and the more qualified this team, the more
expertly they can facilitate such decisions. This generally leads to optimal designs in terms of capabilities,
robustness, reliability, cost, and other important parameters.

Finally, the Innovation Team will need to employ various creative specialists to put the finishing touches on the
endeavor. This can include such work as Technical Documentation, Technical Illustrations, Graphic Design for
marketing collateral, and Package Design.

The Innovation Team must strive to ensure that all

these tasks get orchestrated in a smooth and coherent
fashion so that they can deliver the intended
outcomes for the project and the offering. Throughout
this entire process, the team will need to keep the
market intent, innovation intent, and design intent
before them at all times.

Ultimately the Innovation Team must take all of the

hard upfront work they did to define this offering, and through a carefully managed development process, turn
that into a well-designed product or service that delivers on the design and innovation intents. They cannot
afford to fail in this phase of the work if they are to deliver the new innovation in a manner that is true to how it
was originally conceived. Failure at this stage would mean that all of the time, effort, and expense invested in
the prior stages will have been wasted. This is why execution is so critically important to the project.

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 Ready Production / Delivery
Once design and development has been kicked off, the
Innovation Team will also engage an Operations Team
to work collaboratively alongside the design and
engineering teams. This is so as to ready production
and delivery of the offering.

The Operations Team will plan out all of the details

around manufacturing, assembly, supply chains, and
quality assurance. They will design the manufacturing
flows and the assembly line lay-outs. They will also
engage various Manufacturing Engineers and Technicians in designing the necessary production equipment,
and will procure whatever capital equipment is needed to produce the offering. They will further engage
various Quality Engineers and Technicians in establishing appropriate Quality Control Plans and in designing
and securing appropriate quality check fixtures and gauges.

All of this work should begin commensurate with the product design work and proceed in parallel with it, such
that by the time the product design is complete, the manufacturing and assembly lay-outs and equipment
designs are also completed, all in concurrent fashion.

In those cases where the new offering is a service,

instead of the above actions, the Operations Team will
ensure that training materials get developed for both
trainers and deliverers, and that the trainers
thereafter go out into the field and train all the
necessary deliverers in how to properly and
consistently deliver the new service. In this way,
when the business is ready to go live with the new
service, all the affected deliverers are ready and
prepared to do so.

One other thing the operations team may take up at this point is establishing a plan for delivering post-launch
customer support to customers of the new offering. This may relate to usage of the offering and any potential
issues customers are likely to encounter. This will require establishing the necessary support personnel and
thereafter training them on the new offering and how to address specific inquiries. In this way, when the
offering is ready to go into market, the customer support function will be ready to turn on.

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 Run a Pilot for Final Proof
Ultimately, the pilot will prove or disprove both the underlying hypothesis that was selected and the final
solution that was delivered against that hypothesis.

Success in this case looks like the pilot run experiencing an adoption rate that is at or above what had been
projected. This is usually a good indicator that the new innovation will be able to scale in the marketplace and
reach its full potential.

Pilots are yet one more instrument for risk management – a practice already seen to be critical when pushing
the envelope with new innovations. By running a pilot, the business is able to manage its level of risk exposure
by avoiding losing any more than it needs to should the innovation not work out in the market. Given that full-
scale production of an offering – depending on the nature of the offering – may entail major capital
investments and the establishment of large-scale supply chains and distribution channels, and/or broad-scale
service infrastructures with their associated training and preparation, the pilot allows the business to prove
that these investments are in fact justified prior to making them.

It is, in essence, a safer and more cost-effective approach to learning the market's response to an offering prior
to going full-scale with it.

• If the offering fails, it at least fails faster and with the least amount of fall-out.

• If it succeeds, then the business learns quickly why it is succeeding, and how it can best leverage that.

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 Example – Pilot Test
In 2013, Whirlpool Corporation (Benton Harbor, MI) – the o ld s la gest o su e applia e a ufa tu e –
and Proctor & Gamble (Cincinnati, OH) – o e of the o ld s la gest o su e goods o pa ies – jointly
launched a new product platform called Swash. Swash is an in-home clothes freshener system – intended to be
housed i o e s loset. I so e ases, it a a oid the eed fo d -cleaning. This was done through a joint
venture the businesses created.

Since this was considered a pilot, P&G opted to not invest in the large capital outlay they would need to set up
profitable manufacture of the Swash Pods (marketed under the Tide brand). They wanted to ensure the
platform was going to achieve sound traction prior to doing that, to ensure the investment would be worthwhile
and would pay back for them. This meant that, during this pilot / trial period, P&G was actually losing money on
each Swash Pod, but that was acceptable since it was the primary means by which they could learn the market
for this new platform. Thus, it was considered more of a form of research than as a direct loss.

After about 18 months on the market, P&G decided that the numbers of Swash units sold were too low to justify
making this investment, and they subsequently pulled out of the JV, but still agreed to provide the Pods to
Whirlpool, albeit at a higher price.

As such, this pilot exercise allowed P&G to avoid making a major investment error – one that may have led to
massive sunk cost further down the road.

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 Run a Pilot for Final Proof (cont.)
In this regard, pilots provide valuable feedback from the
market that helps the business to fine-tune the value
proposition and the go-to-market strategy prior to
scaling them. The pilot will also help to ensure the offering
will merge as intended with the rest of its brand portfolio.

Once the pilot has demonstrated that the new innovation is

in fact commercially viable, it is then passed on to the next
stage, where it is ramped up to full-scale production,
including finally making the necessary capital investments.

The a tual fla o and scale of pilots will vary greatly depending on the size and age of the business and the
industry it is in. In the case of startup software companies for example, the pilot may take on the flavor of a
minimum viable product (MVP). However in the case of large, established brands, the pilot will generally be a
more well-developed offering. Pilot maturity and scale are always relative to these factors.

The I o atio Tea s ole i u i g the pilot p oje t ill

most likely be a collaborative one, where actual day-to-day
commercialization activities are managed and overseen by
staff assigned to such roles, such as Sales staff, Marketing
staff, Production Staff, Quality staff, and so on.

The I o atio Tea s ai jo ill e to help oversee this

effort, steer the Operations staff appropriately if and where
needed, and otherwise monitor the results.

The Innovation Team will be the ones who will have to report out at the end of the planned pilot phase
(typically 6 – 12 months) regarding what the results of the pilot were – good, bad, or otherwise.

The Innovation Team will also be expected – based on these results – to make its own recommendation as to
whether the new innovation should be scaled up to full production, shut down, or perhaps pivoted into some
sort of small-scale niche application. The ultimate decision, however, for this final action will generally rest with
an executive decision-making body… those ho ill ha e to elease the balance of funds needed to finish
ramping up the new innovation.

The Innovation Professional should therefore understand their role in this phase and be prepared to execute it
well. This will require a certain amount of objectivity on their part, not allowing their attachment to the project
to bias either their ability to observe objectively or to make an objective recommendation.

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 Ramp Up Production & Delivery
For those new innovations that either:

• successfully pass their pilot phase by demonstrating the level

of traction needed to scale up to full production; OR…

• skip the pilot phase on account of surrogate data that

produces a
high confidence level (as decided by executives),

… the project will proceed into the final production ramp-up stage.

This stage is all about scaling the new innovation from concept or pilot to full-scale, allowing it to eventually
realize its full potential. This completes the process of taking new business ideas from concept to reality, and
reflects the point in the project where the business can start to realize a return on its investment.

As indicated in the discussion on pilot runs, this stage involves

making major capital investments…

• Setting up large-scale production capabilities.

• Establishing large-scale supply chains and broad-reach

distribution channels.

• Making major sales and marketing investments.

It also involves establishing a broad-scale service infrastructure with its associated training and preparation.

To reemphasize, this is only done for those new innovations that have either demonstrated their commercial
viability via a pilot or that bring inherently high market confidence based on surrogate market insights.

Since successfully reaching this point on any project is the only

way a business will ever realize the return on its innovation
investment, it is critically important that Innovation Teams work
hard to get as many projects to this point as possible. It is the
point of innovation payback. Projects that reach full scale here
tend to pay back tens, and even hundreds, of times their
investment.

These are the new innovations that make all the hard work
involved (and many of the failed attempts) worthwhile. They are what will ultimately accelerate the growth of
the business forward.

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 Ramp Up Production & Delivery (cont.)
As ith pilots, the I o atio Tea s ole in this stage will be a collaborative one, where actual day-to-day
commercialization activities are managed and overseen by staff assigned to such roles, such as Sales staff,
Marketing staff, Production Staff, Quality staff, and so on.

The I o atio Tea s main job will be to help mentor this effort, steer the Operations staff appropriately if and
where needed, and otherwise monitor the outcomes.

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 Monitor the Outcomes
Once a new innovation is in full-scale commercialization mode, the I o atio Tea s primary job will be to
monitor its outcomes for some period of time. They may do this collaboratively with other business leaders,
and in some cases, may even hand it off to those parties altogether.

It is not all that uncommon for a business to keep certain members of the Innovation Team on a post-launch
team whose responsibilities include (amongst other things) precisely this monitoring. Depending on the needs
of the business and those business units now owning the innovation, such a post-launch team may be kept in
place for up to a year or more after the innovation goes into full-scale production.

The purpose of this monitoring is to understand more fully the actual commercial results the new innovation is
experiencing, in terms of adoption, revenues, profits, brand uplift, and whatever other outcomes are pertinent
to it. In some cases these will be impacted by the size and placement of the marketing invested in the effort.

The post-launch team will periodically report out to the usi ess se io leade ship o these performance
outcomes. The important point here will be for the business to compare the e dea o s actual results to those
that had been originally forecasted for it – both at the end of the Front End and the end of the Mid Zone.

The organization can then learn from its own history about:

• How well it is doing in terms of original forecast accuracy (should it make adjustments to how it does this?).
• How its ability to execute from Front End to Mid Zone to Back End to final commercialization is impacting the
outcomes.

• Whether or not, on a broader basis, the business is seeing the overall results from its innovation program
that it needs.

The Innovation Professional should therefore understand their role in this monitoring phase and be prepared to
execute it with due diligence. This will once again require a certain amount of objectivity on their part, not
allowing any prior attachment to the project to bias either their ability to observe it objectively or to make
objective recommendations for any future projects.

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 LESSON 9e
Getting Innovation Done

Running Innovation Projects

in the Business – Final Thoughts

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 Getting Innovation Done – Running Innovation
Projects in the Business – Final Thoughts
The preceding has been the long list of activities that
Innovation Teams need to undertake in order to take new
innovations from the point of initial conception –
opportunities around unmet / under-met market needs – all
the way out to the very end of the process where a new
offering is realized and implemented and becomes a reality.

As can be seen, there is often an incredible amount of work

that goes into realizing a new innovation – research, study,
analysis, strategizing, documenting, defending, then more research, more study, more analysis, more
strategizing, more documenting, more defending, and so on the cycle goes.

Eventually, there is enough confidence in both the opportunity and the solution the team has defined for it that
the business may decide to try to develop and pilot it. At some point, if everything goes in the right direction,
the business will decide to pull the trigger and fully implement it.

In the end, the business has to drive enough such projects

through its Innovation Management process that at the end
of that process it achieves its targeted number of
implemented projects. This will require a number of
Innovation Teams running projects like these to achieve,
considering that some number of the endeavors will
eventually prove to be dead-ends and get shelved.

As time goes on and Innovation Professionals execute more

and more such projects through the process, they will
become increasingly skilled at this process and will be able
to execute a greater number of projects each year and carry
out each one with greater ease and expertise. Many such
professionals will eventually go on to become Innovation
Project Managers leading the projects and/or Innovation
Program Managers helpi g to d i e the usi ess Innovation
Management process… a topi o e ed fu the o i this ou se.

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 LESSON 10a
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

Core Concepts

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 The Concept of Insights Mining
Insights Mining is a concept encountered routinely in innovation circles. As its name would suggest, it refers to
any effort – regardless of what it is – intended to allow an organization to i e useful i sights from the
universe of observable information, actions, behaviors, outcomes, results, and so forth all around them –
anything they can observe, assess (measure), catalogue, and study for useful effect in conceiving new
innovations.

The main idea is that innovators – or those attempting to collect insights on their behalf (as often very
specialized skills are required) – will do 3 things:

• First, they will establish what types of insights they need for what they are trying to accomplish.

• Second, they will go about undertaking all manner of research studies in order to uncover as much relevant
information as they can about the matter.

• Third, they will distill all that information down to see what it is trying to tell them (hopefully something) so
as to finally arrive at a useful understanding of the situation.

Ea h it of this u de sta di g of the situatio is hat is the alled a i sight , su h that a series of insights
are what begin to tell the whole story about the situation. And this process for arriving at these insights is called
i i g … thus i sights i i g .

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 The Concept of Insights Mining (cont.)
Really good innovation demands really good insights. There is even a competitive element to it in that one
would like to think that they have been able to unearth better insights than have their competitors, though
such is not necessarily the point of insights mining.

The main point is to be able to move the business closer to its markets – to allow it to reconnect with its
markets at discrete points in the most powerful and impactful ways possible, by deeply understanding its real
needs. If they can succeed at doing that, then what their competitors are doing will often become irrelevant.

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 Looking For Signals –
Strong Signals and Weak Signals
After having conducted research studies and collected relevant information, what one is doing when they distill
the information down is they are searching for certain patterns to emerge that will tell them something useful.

Often two types of patterns emerge out of the oise a ou d the o ga izatio …

• The strong signals, which more or less tell them the obvious (that which they could probably deduce without
having to undertake extensive research), and which typically relate to the current state of a situation.

• The weak signals, which reveal things to them that probably would not be obvious (and thus only proper
research can reveal), and which typically say something about the emerging or future state of a situation.

It is the weak signals that innovators need when discerning opportunities for breakthrough innovation.

The strong signals a e al ead the e fo e e o e to see… the see the , thei o petito s see the , a d thei
customers see them. Trying to address strong signals will only lead to more of the same – incremental
innovation at best.

But it is the weak signals – signals that perhaps they had never seen before, and which their competitors are
likely not seeing – that e eal o e u de l i g, fu da e tal t uth a out a situatio … o e i sights a out the
causalities and customer motivations involved. These are the types of signals that open the eyes of an innovator
to the a-has the eed to deli e t ul eakth ough, a d pote tiall e e t a sfo ati e, i o atio .

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 Example – Strong Signals Vs Weak Signals
For example, consider a hypothetical public transportation industry situation. Everyone in that industry may be
aware – through observation – that their customers are trying to get from Point A to Point B in the fastest
manner possible. That is the strong signal. But not everyone may understand that the reason they are trying to
do so is that they fear the people they are traveling with. That is the eak sig al… the o e that e eals
underlying psychology and motivations.

Whereas an innovator without this insight may be inclined to deliver faster transportation, and innovator with
this insight may be inclined to instead deliver a better means of ensuring their security during transportation,
thus improving their overall enjoyment of the transportation and their tendency to use it more frequently,
resulting in greater revenue not just faster trips. Such weak signals therefore tell us more than do the strong
signals and are the fodder necessary for breakthrough innovation.

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 Primary vs Secondary Research
Before going any further, a pause is first made in order to define Primary and Secondary Research, and to ensure
the difference between these is understood.

Primary Research is any research study the business itself undertakes, customized for developing a very specific
insight the business is looking for. The insight they are looking for does not exist elsewhere (at least not in a
manner that they can access and use it), and they will not be able to have this insight until they undertake this
research.

Secondary Research is any research study conducted by another party which the business can access and use.
Sources of such research studies include syndicated market research firms, industry trade associations,
publishers, and so forth.

In general, businesses will use both types of research when attempting

to piece together the insights they need.

Because accessing Secondary Research is typically far more cost

effective tha is ge e ati g o e s o P i a Resea h, usi esses
will seek to leverage Secondary Research as much as they possibly can,
reserving Primary Research to only the most pressing and significant
questions they need to answer (given its cost).

Businesses pursuing innovation should allocate a certain amount of budget to Primary Research if they are to be
able to pursue the overall caliber of insights they need to effectively de-risk their innovation efforts.

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 LESSON 10b
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

Problem & Solution
People Research Methods

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 Problem / Solution People Research Methods
Here we want to introduce two key types of research used to study the he e a d o of business and
market situations, particularly the nature and scope of problems identified, and the efficacy of solutions
proposed. Collectively, these can be referred to as Problem / Solution People Research.

Specifically, the two types of research are:

1. User Research

2. Design Research

Each of these contain their own respective collections of

methods which can be used to study a particular situation, each
such method being particularly suited to answering a specific
type of question. Furthermore, both of these can be used to
both analyze the nature and causes of problems, as well as
study the efficacy of proposed solutions to those problems,
making them extremely useful for delivering new innovations
capable of resonating with a particular market need. Businesses
seeking to deliver new innovation must therefore strive to master and use both of these.

This lesson undertakes a detailed examination of each one of these areas of research.

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 User Research
User Research, as the name would suggest, is research aimed
at better understanding the users of a particular product,
service, or experience.

What User Research attempts to uncover are relevant

ha a te isti s of these use s olle ti e behaviors and the
various psychological mechanisms at work during usage,
both personal and social types of psychology. User Research
can be thought of as the anthropological aspect of
innovation.

User Research involves such research methods as:

• Business Ethnography – Following customers and

observing / recording their behaviors and then attempting
to infer motivations from those.

• Contextual Inquiry – Engaging closely with customers

while they are using a product, service, or experience in
context and attempting to understand in great detail what
the a e e pe ie i g at ea h step i the p o ess… thei
likes and dislikes, frustrations and delights, and so forth, including why they take certain workarounds
(compensatory behaviors) to deal with the shortcomings of an offering (good fodder for new innovation).
The observer can ask questions for clarification as needed, while trying not to impede the normal flow of
usage. This can also include methods like Customer Video Journals, where customers record themselves
using a product, service, or experience, and note their reactions to each step. This method can be useful for
comparing reactions to different competing models of a product, so long as both are used in normal context.

• Simulated User Scenarios – The construction of Experience & Behavioral Prototypes / Environments so as to
study Users engaging with a simulated situation to observe and study their behaviors (Build to Learn / Build
to Empathize). This allows researchers to test out proposed solutions to a particular need or problem area.

• Focus Groups – Gatherings of multiple users (usually not in full context) to explore and discuss their
perceptions of different offerings, including their likes / dislikes, frustrations / delights, and so forth, all of
which is based on past history. Depending on the offering, there may or may not be sample products
present. These a e ofte useful he e the p odu t is too expansive or abstract to observe in usage, such as
for example a customer loyalty program. Focus Groups are limited by the fact that customers can only relate
the context that they know (their past history); they usually will not tell you the real problem these
customers need to solve. They also run the risk of groupthink and social pressure biases if people are not
comfortable disagreeing with others.

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 User Research (cont.)
User Research owes much of its existence to the Design community, who, through
the practices of Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design, have brought to light
the significance of understanding human behavior and psychology in the context of
consuming products, services, and experiences.

Design has largely been responsible for turning innovation from being something
solely about products to being something about people and how they use products,
infusing such fields as psychology, sociology, and anthropology into the mix of
innovation work.

Whenever a business is working toward innovations that involve heavy interaction

between human users and their offering, User Research is paramount for getting down to the psychology of
behaviors and motivations involved.

The goal must always be to deliver innovations that are in harmony with people s needs, motivations, and
psychological drivers, and that easily facilitate the behaviors users wish to have.

Doing so will result in innovations that are much more successful in the marketplace than would happen
otherwise, yielding a much higher return for the business and its brands.

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 Example – User Research
The following study of low-income mobile phone users in China illustrates a good example of User Research.
Here, researcher Tricia Wang, PhD, concluded that Nokia needed to replace their current product development
strategy from making expensive smartphones for elite users to affordable smartphones for low-income users

She reported her findings and recommendations to Nokia headquarters. But Nokia apparently did not know
what to do with her findings. They told Wang that her sample size of 100 was weak and small compared to their
sample size of several million data points. In addition, they told Wang that there were no signs of her insights in
their existing datasets.

Everyone now knows what became of the Nokia situation. Nokia sold their mobile phone business to Microsoft
in 2013, which by that time had shrunk to only 3% of the global smartphone market. There were many reasons
fo Nokia s do fall, ut o e of the big reasons that Wang witnessed was that the company over-relied on
numbers. They put a higher value on quantitative data, and did not know how to handle data that was not
easily measurable, and which did not show up in existing reports. What could have been their competitive
intelligence wound up being a beacon of their eventual downfall.

Wang thus points out that what is measurable is not the same as what is valuable. And thus she highlights the
big divide between an over-reliance on quantitative data (Big Data) and discounting high-quality qualitative data
(what Wang and others refer to as Thick Data).

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 Design Research
Design Research is in some ways similar to User Research, except that Design Research is much more intensely
focused on the actual interactions between people and offerings (the products, services, and experiences they
are to consume). Its aim is to understand these human-machine interactions in great detail and to use those
i sights to shape the desig of the offe i g i su h a a as to a i ize use s satisfaction and delight with it,
while eliminating or reducing any aspects of the design that might detract from that goal. Design Research can
thought of as the anthropometric aspect of innovation.

Furthermore, this research falls within the realm of what is often known as Interaction Design – the design of
the interactions between people and products or services, and the various interfaces that enable those
interactions.

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 Design Research (cont.)
Design Research involves such research methods as:

• User Experience Studies – a detailed examination of

the interactions between a person and a device.
Particularly common with electronic devices, in
which the user must be able to observe the device,
discern expected behaviors, engage with it to give
directions, receive and comprehend feedback from
the device, and take additional actions based on
that feedback. One can think of, for example, the many interactions that take place between an ATM
machine and the individual using it.
Designing the interface properly will produce a pleasant experience; designing it improperly will produce an
unpleasant one.
This same principal applies to any place a user must have detailed interaction with a device.

• User Interface / Human-Machine Interface Studies – Often focused on digital interfaces (web and mobile),
such as the layout and navigation of web sites, but also applies to any human-machine interface, such as
those of an automobile or clothes washer.
The aim is to make the interface designs as intuitive and easy to use as possi le hile ieldi g the use s
desired outcomes.
As with Human Factors, there has come to be a known body of knowledge within the UX community
involving certain guidelines to follow to ensure this end result. In the process of designing a digital interface
however, designers and researchers will need to try different variants and study them all with actual users in
order to collect their feedback and discover which one produces the best result.

• Ergonomics & Human Factors Studies – an examination of how the human body and mind physically interact
with an offering, and how the offering can be so designed as to work in positive harmony with these.
There is known body of knowledge within the Human Factors community involving clear guidelines to follow
to ensure such an end result.

• Customer Experience Studies – CX research seeks to understand, very broadly, how customers experience
the whole lifecycle of considering, shopping for, purchasing, receiving, using, maintaining, and retiring
products and services. Thus CX research seeks to observe and otherwise engage users during this lifecycle,
but may also go further to involving users in a co-creative process using Customer Experience Journey
Mappi g to ap out usto e s pe ei ed p og essio of this life le and the highs and lows of each of its
touchpoints, allowing them to pinpoint opportunities for new innovation in the experience. CX research also
has its own set of tools for driving toward better customer experiences.

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 Design Research (cont.)
One of the things that several of these methods involve – aside from the hard mechanics of the human body – is
a significant amount of human psychology – both cognitive / rational psychology and visceral / subconscious
psychology. Psychology plays a significant role in how users interact with products, services, and experiences.

Just as with User Research, Design Research owes much of its existence to the Design community, who again,
through the practices of Design Thinking and Human-Centered Design, have brought to light the significance of
understanding human behavior and psychology in the context of interacting with products, services, and
experiences.

Whenever a business is working toward innovations that involve heavy interaction between human users and
their offering, Design Research is therefore critical for being able to evaluate different design options and home
in on those designs which produce the most positive interactions between the user and this innovation. Here,
the goal must always be to deliver innovations that are in harmony ith people s physical bodies and
psychological capabilities, such that one delivers highly positive customer experiences. Doing so will produce
innovations that are more successful in the marketplace and that, again, yield a higher return for the business
and its brands .

A classic book in the field that is highly recommended is The Design of Everyday Things
by Don Norman. There are also numerous other books available on Design Research
and Interaction Design, such as, for example, Design Research Through Practice: From
the Lab, Field, and Showroom by Ilpo Koskinen, John Zimmerman, Thomas Binder,
Johan Redstrom, Stephan Wensveen.

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 Example – Design Research
The image below illustrates a study conducted for the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) of seat designs, with the aim
of finding a design with optimal comfort.

This is a classic example of Design Research, illustrating that the key consideration under study is the interaction
between the human user and the artifact of concern, and how that interaction produces both a physiological
and psychological experience fo the use … a e pe ie e that a e opti ized th ough a eful attention to
design details.

Courtesy of Peter Vink, Professor of Industrial Design at TU-Delft / TNO.

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 LESSON 10c
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

Problem & Solution
Market Research Methods

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 Problem / Solution Market Research Methods
Here we want to introduce yet another key type of research used to study the he e a d o of business and
market situations, particularly the nature and scope of problems identified, and the efficacy of solutions
proposed. Specifically, this type of research is Market Research, or more specifically, Problem / Solution Market
Research.

Market Research seeks to study markets in the aggregate and to extract useful insights from that.

As with User and Design Research, Market Research also contains its own respective collections of methods
which can be used to study a particular situation, each such method being particularly suited to answering a
specific type of question.

Furthermore, market research can likewise be used to both analyze the nature and causes of problems, as well
as study the efficacy of proposed solutions to those problems, making it equally useful for delivering new
innovations capable of resonating with a particular market need.

Market Research includes a broad array of types – general quantitative research, general qualitative research,
specialized research methods, and so forth.

Businesses seeking to deliver new innovation must therefore strive to master and use market research.

Market Research

• A Bit of History
• Qualitative Studies
• Quantitative Studies
• Other – Sentiment Analysis / Social Media Listening / Brand Tracking / Eye Tracking
Studies

This lesson undertakes a detailed examination of this area of research. Several of the
types most important to innovators are examined in the lesson.

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 Market Research – A Bit of History
Market research as we know it today got its start primarily in the United States and Europe after World War II,
when such a large number of producers entered into markets that consumers began to have a substantially
larger pool of choices to select from than they ever had in the past. This shifted power away from producers
and more toward consumers (with considerable power still in the hands of retailers for a period of time, but no
so much any longer, owing to e-commerce).

With greater consumer choice and power came the need for producers to better understand the likings and
dislikings of their markets. Thus the Market Research Industry was born. This was a period also when focus
shifted away from individual consumers to mass markets. Today however that pendulum has shifted back some
with the advent of automated content marketing and engagement marketing, where businesses are now
attempting to build communities around their brands.

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 Market Research – Qualitative Studies
Qualitative Market Research – also known as Qual Studies – involves a broad array of studies designed to
collect qualitative customer feedback on any manner of things, such as:

• Lifestyles.

• Attitudes about events happening in the world.

• Past history using certain products and services and perceptions of those products and services.

• What people believe would be their perceptions of using a new product or service you described to them.

One can collect feedback from as many or as few respondents as they wish (known as The Panel), but in general
the desire will be to have as many as possible so as to, again, try to find certain patterns or consensus amongst
the panel.

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 Market Research – Qualitative Studies (cont.)
Qual Studies are typically conducted in one of two ways – online or via fieldwork. Both can produce useful
inputs.

Online Qual Studies allow for easy collection of consumer input – not unlike on the comments sections of a blog
site. These studies a e desig ed su h that pa ti ipa ts a see o e a othe s a s e s, o so that the a ot
see those answers, depending on whether or not the researcher wants to allow for social influence in the
process. Once the researcher has collected all the inputs they desire (typically over a predefined time window),
they can then aggregate and attempt to summarize the input.

With fieldwork, researchers go out and collect feedback directly from consumers. This can include in-home
studies, focus groups, spurious surveys and interviews at public events, and so forth. These can be useful
e ause the te d to at h people o e i o te t of a situatio a d allo the esea he to olle t t ue
ea tio s i the o e t so that the a e less depe de t o people s e o ies. Furthermore, since these are
typically video-recorded, they also allow one to play back the interview discussions after the fact for a larger
group of individuals (typically back at their office) so that the insights being developed can emerge collectively
through watching these discussions.

Regardless of whether online or fieldwork methods are used, so long as one is

o fide t i the i te ded di e sit of thei pa el…

• Reaching a particular consensus can be a signal to innovators that they may

be able to put to use in guiding a new innovation.

• Not reaching a consensus, however, might tell them something different, such as perhaps that there is no
basis for the new innovation they have proposed, or perhaps something else.

It will be up to the researchers and those using the research to determine what insights these studies are telling
them.

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 Market Research – Quantitative Studies
Quantitative Market Research – also known as Quant Studies – employs specialized survey and sampling
techniques (many rooted in deep statistical methods) in an effort to uncover patterns in markets – patterns that
would prove useful to innovators and can tell them something important and useful about the market of
interest. These can include any array of different matters, such as, for example, consumer lifestyle
characteristics, attitudes about certain things, perceptions of particular products and services, and so on. It can
also be used to test customer resonance with a new value proposition, so long as respondents can be made to
properly understand the value proposition, all of the things it will do for them, and what would be required of
them to purchase and use the offering.

One of the key considerations when attempting to undertake quantitative market research is securing a high
quality panel of espo de ts ho ill e ep ese tati e of o e s ta get a ket. This can be straightforward if
one is simply stud i g the ge e al populatio Ge Pop , ut e o es i easi gl o e halle gi g the o e
niche o e s ta get a ket e o es.

There is also the concern over the fact of whether or not the sorts of people who are willing to participate in
market research are inherently different from the sorts of people who are not willing to engage in market
research. To this end, good market research agencies have means for attempting to filter out any noise that
might result from such biases.

Traditional quantitative market research involved in-person

surveys and surveys delivered via postal mail. All modern
qualitative research however is conducted online via web sites
and mobile devices, making for a faster response-collection
process (though not always a simpler process).

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 Market Research – Quantitative Studies (cont.)
Innovators can use quantitative market research to better understand the needs and motivations of a particular
aggregate market, as well as to test out potential customer response to any number of new innovation
concepts.

In any of these cases, it is very important that survey questions be designed and programmed carefully in order
to ensure things are being asked in the right ways and in the best sequence to correctly convey the intended
understanding between researchers and the panel. Poor survey design can produce misleading or unusable
results. It is also important that results be examined for statistical significance and possibly confidence
intervals, and that researchers not attempt to infer findings from the data that it cannot substantiate
statistically. If the research can yield reliable results, then its findings may produce precisely the insights an
innovator needs to properly configure the design of the new innovation.

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 Other Types of Market Research
In addition to the general qualitative and quantitative market research studies that are very commonly used,
there are also a broad array of specialized types of market research in use. Some of these may be useful to
innovators, but most of them are typically used more for marketing purposes than for defining new innovation
opportunities per se.

A few examples include the following (this is not comprehensive):

• Brand Tracking – attempting to track the impact of select advertising

placements on the front-of-mind recall of a given brand.

• Sentiment Analysis – attempting to ascertain consu e s pe eptio s of

brands and potentially their reactions to certain events taking place around
those brands.

• Social Media Listening – parsing through large volumes of recent social

media discussions in order to discover what patterns emerge around certain
brands (often used as part of a Sentiment Analysis study).

• Eye Tracking – usi g te h ologi al i st u e ts to t a k he e o su e s

eyes go while using a product or web site.

These and many more techniques exist within the broad domain of the Market Research industry.

Businesses would do well to retain a reputable market research agency and to engage them on their goals and
objectives and then let them educate the business on each type of research that can be conducted and where
each one may or may not be applicable to what the business is attempting to accomplish. Certain methods may
not be applicable, but other methods for certain will be. The business should employ whichever methods will
produce for them the insights they need to pursue a particular innovation with greater confidence.

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 The Value of Market Research
In the end, while conducting good market research does cost money, not conducting market research often
costs businesses more – much more. This is because the business ends up taking a new offering to market that
they felt would be innovative for its time, but which their markets ultimately end up rejecting, resulting in both
a substantial loss (from the sunk cost of developing that offering) and the major opportunity cost of not realizing
the positive impact of what they might otherwise have taken to market – something their markets would have
recognized as an innovation.

Thus, in this sense, investing in good market research is like buying insurance – it edu es o e s isk e posu e,
except that in this case it does so by allowing the business to avoid potential missteps and instead deliver a
market-winning new innovation. This is what most would consider to be a smart investment.

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 User + Market Research – Compliment
Researcher Tricia Wang and others thus point out that what is measurable is not always the same as what is
valuable.

She thus highlights the big divide between an over-reliance on quantitative data (Big Data) and discounting
high-quality qualitative data (what Wang and others call Thick Data), revealing that what is needed is a balance
between the two so that they can properly complement one another.

Wa g s o k i this a ea is hea il i flue ed that of Dr. Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist and
Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ, USA) –
remembered largely for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who
was considered "for three decades... the single ost i flue tial ultu al a th opologist i the U ited States.

Courtesy of Tricia Wang, PhD.

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 LESSON 10d
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

Forward-Looking Research Methods

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 Forward-Looking Research Methods
The previous types of research were used to study largely existing situations. This next set of research methods
are focused instead on studying emerging situations – those arising out of new trends impacting a situation.

There are a half-dozen methods primarily in use in this area, each of which will be explored a bit more.

This is the list of these ethods…

Forward-Looking Research Methods

• Trend Watching The domain of Market Strategists

• Trend Scouting The domain of Market Strategists

• STEEPL Analysis The domain of Market Strategists

• Trendcasting The domain of Futurists

• Scenario Planning The domain of Futurists

• Stress Testing The domain of Futurists

• Futuring The domain of Futurists

Together these are used to create what is known as Strategic Foresight in a business.

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 Trend Watching
Trend Watching involves monitoring and staying abreast of
currently emerging trends in a variety of different areas,
depending on which ones are of interest to the watcher and
their business. This can prove useful to the business in
understanding how new innovations it has planned for the
near future will be able to speak to evolving market needs.

The limitation of Trend Watching is that trends can only be

read in the present, not in the future. Thus they should not
be mistaken for a crystal ball.

However, given the natural time lag involved in the Diffusion of Innovations, what one can often get from
watching trends is weak signals… ea l leadi g i di ato s that eeds, desi es, tastes, alues (or at least
manifestations of values if not the actual values themselves) are all starting to change in certain ways. One can
then read these weak signals and attempt to interpret what they will mean for a given market situation as it
moves forward, and thus plan their Innovation Strategy accordingly.

Trend Watching is a very important activity in any innovation work. The most innovative businesses task their
entire teams (at least those focused on delivering innovation) with being routinely engaged in some amount of
Trend Watching activity.

Example – Trend Watching

An example of one of five major trends singled out for 2017 by TrendWatching.com. These sources often
consolidate trends insights from numerous other sources to create their overarching trends.

In this case of Big B othe a ds, where

e do t i d de i es a d s ste s at hi g
and monitoring us, such as Google Home,
Samsung Viv, and ROOBO Domgy.

Source: www.trendwatching.com.

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 Trend Scouting
Trend Scouting is similar to Trend Watching except that
whereas Trend Watching tends to be more passive, Trend
Scouting actively goes out and looks for certain trends.

Fo e a ple, the uestio a e, What is happe i g i the

field of urban transportation for cities under 1 million
people? The esea he ould the go out a d esea h the
specific trends around that particular question.

Trend Scouting is often initiated because a particular need has been identified or the business believes an
opportunity may exist or develop. And so it assigns a researcher (with the necessary skills) to go out and look
for specific trends happening in that area. The intent is to uncover those trends – regardless of what they are
saying – so as to learn of their directions and then develop insights around them that will further inform the
business regarding the need or opportunity of concern.

Trend Scouting can be particularly impactful for innovators, as it allows them to develop a more correct sense
for how things are evolving and thus better confidence in a particular direction for certain new innovations.

Example – Trend Scouting

Below is an example of commercially-available studies that one can secure of near-term emerging trends. In
this particular case of trends relating to Social Businesses. These reports are subscribed to by a number of
forward-looking clients who use their insights to plan certain of their Horizon 2 innovation strategies and
projects. There are several other similar sources, such as TrendWatching.com – www.trendwatching.com. This
is somewhat distinguished from the more long-term trendcasting.

Courtesy of TrendHunter / www.trendreports.com

– one of 80 such reports offered by this source in
their annual library of trend reports.

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 PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL is an acronym that stands for Political (including
Governmental), Economic, Societal, Technological,
Environmental (or Ecological), and Legal (or Legislative).
PESTEL Analysis entails undertaking a careful analysis of the
various societal, technological, economic, environmental,
political, legal, and other pertinent trends happening in the
world, or in a certain part of the world such as a certain
country or region.

In this practice, one studies recent and current events taking place in the region for each of these areas, and
then tries to understand what impact each trend is having, and will continue to have, on that region, particularly
as the various trends interact with one another (often in complex ways). And, at least for the situation
presented here, they are concerned with what this all means for businesses trying to deliver new innovations to
markets. It often helps if the individuals carrying out PESTEL Analysis have a strong grounding in history and
sociology, at least relative to the region(s) they are studying.

PESTEL Analysis also goes by a number of other acronyms resulting from different arrangements of the letters,
and depending on which types of trends are included. These include STEEP, STEEPL, PEST, PESTL, and forth.

Example – PESTEL Analysis

The following example is of a PEST Analysis relating to IKEA in India. In this case, for each of these four (4) key
areas, the author identified specific hurdles facing the company in India and along with those offered up several
possible solutions it could pursue.

Courtesy of Kripa Pattabiraman – Part of a brand analysis project undertaken for his Marketing Certificate.

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 Trendcasting
Trendcasting involves an attempt to extrapolate currently
emerging trends further out into the future, just as one
would with a weather forecast.

The limitation of trendcasting is that it is highly speculative.

Also, being able to trendcast with any amount of reliability
requires a certain level of skill on the part of the individual, in
terms of understanding how complex interactions between
the various PESTEL forces at work in the world might play out
with one another. This means that any given set of trends can only be extrapolated so far, and are otherwise
subject to the possibility of being in gross error. Trendcasting should therefore be used judiciously when
working toward different innovation plans.

Trendcasting can, however, be a useful tool for the imagining work associated with Horizon 3 innovations. It is
also partly the basis for Scenario Planning, which is similar but tries to be less prescriptive of a particular
direction and more open to various possibilities.

Often when trendcasting, one will also look at the significant Megatrends of the day, which are those massive,
sweeping world trends that tend to substantially influence any number of smaller trends standing in their paths.

Example – Trendcasting
This is an example of a service provider that travels the world and studies many different trends and then
integrates these and from them
forecasts where such trends will likely
go in the long-term.

They are retained by a number of

forward-looking clients who use this
insight and intelligence to plan their
Horizon 3 innovation strategies and
projects.

Courtesy of: Sphere Trending

(Waterford, MI, USA) –
www.spheretrending.com.

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 Scenario Planning
Scenario Planning is a perspective-expanding exercise in
which one lays out a number of potential future scenarios
that may play out and then tries to assess what each scenario
might mean for the business, especially regarding the
innovations that may be of value.

Often, Scenario Planning is done in a composite fashion,

where multiple different scenarios are envisioned, each based
on some extreme variation of the future (think trendcasting where one particular force is given far more weight
than the others). Then a final envisioned scenario is presented that is some juxtaposition of these extreme
scenarios, indicating that the future will most likely be influenced in one way or another by each of these
extremes, thus landing somewhere in the middle of all of them, given that in most typical situations no one
extreme force will outweigh all the others (save for extreme conditions such as world wars and global
recessions).

Scenario Planning can be a highly useful tool for helping businesses and their innovators better understand the
forces at play in the world and the different possible ways these might all play out to shape the future world. It
also provides the basis for a business to be able to conduct Stress Testing on potential future business and
innovation strategies.

Example – Scenario Planning

This was a Scenario Planning exercise conducted for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other
clients relating to energy usage. Here, the analyst developed four energy scenarios that hypothesize the global
energy market in 2050, focusing on the potential impacts of increased biofuels usage. These scenarios
ulti atel e a e pa t of the U.S. EPA s t ie ial assess e t of the impact of biofuels. Fo the a al st s othe
clients, these scenarios focused more on oil price concerns and the potential regulation of their respective
industries. The analyst guided those clients in
the use of these scenarios in comprehensive
strategic planning. For one client, they
de eloped a deplo e t kit to assist usi ess
units in using the scenarios to prepare for the
future.

Courtesy of: Elizabeth Kimball, Independent

Strategy & Design Consultant (at the time of this
study, Elizabeth was working for Apprio in
Washington, DC - www.apprioinc.com.

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 Stress Testing
Stress Testing is a simulation exercise. It involves putting
forth various competing business strategies and then
subjecting each one to testi g against any number of
possible future scenarios (thus Scenario Planning is a
necessary prerequisite).

The aim is to discover which ones of these competing

business or innovation strategies will end up being the most
robust against the greatest number of potential future
scenarios. The i te t ould the efo e e fo o e s actual
future business and innovation strategies (which the business
would be formulating right now – at least conceptually) to be
shaped and influenced by the findings of these tests.

Stress Testing can be useful for innovators, as it allows them to compare a number of different future options
against one another and select the best one, or otherwise combine elements of several to arrive at an even
better strategy yet.

Futuring
Futuring is quite simply any combination of the above
practices – Trend Watching, Trend Scouting, Trendcasting,
PESTEL Analysis, and Scenario Planning – undertaken to make
some assessment of the future – perhaps a multi-spectrum
view that a combination of these practices would yield – in
order to address a particular business challenge or
opportunity. Futuring is thus a holistic activity drawing from
this toolbox of methods.

Individuals who do this work professionally – often Industry

Analysts tasked with projecting trends in a particular industry
– are referred to as Futurists. Many Futurists go on to write
intriguing blogs and books about their prognostications.
Certain Futurists are retained by those interested in knowing the likely future of a particular industry for
investing purposes.

Futurists who parlay to this market and who use various mathematical and/or statistical predictive algorithms
are generally referred to as Quantitative Analysts.

Futuring is clearly, therefore, a highly valued activity in certain circles.

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 LESSON 10e
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

Hard Research

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 Hard Research
So-called Ha d Resea h involves any of the disciplines
traditionally associated with researching and developing – or
possibly defending – new technology. It primarily
encompasses:

• Technology Research & Development

– As the foundation of Technology Development

• IP Research

Hard Research is thus generally conducted by various types of Scientists and Engineers. They are the ones who
often make possible the ho for pursuing new innovations, in response to the new opportunities being
identified through User and Market Research. Both must thus work hand-in-hand to deliver innovation
effe ti el to the usi ess a kets.

Technology Research & Development –

The Foundation of Technology Development
Technology Research has as its aim the learning of new
technological insights that can then be leveraged for the
development of an actual manifestation of the technology.
Manifestations of the technology can then be embedded into
products and services and sold to customers.

Technology Research is typically the domain of scientists and

engineers, both of which come in a wide variety of specialties
(chemists, physicists, food scientists, mechanical engineers,
electrical engineers, and software engineers, for example). Technology Research is critical to all technology-
driven innovation.

Thus, if core technology (that to be developed and maintained organically in house rather than secured from the
outside) is to be a key element of a usi ess I o atio St ateg , the it ill ha e to i est i a d u de take
the necessary research to further advance its current technologies and from time to time invent new
technologies. This is typically the strategy taken by technology-driven businesses – those whose primary value
proposition derives directly and strongly from the key core technologies they possess, and which are typically
protected under various IP mechanisms or otherwise secured as Trade Secrets (another form of Intellectual
Property).

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 Intellectual Property Research
Intellectual Property Research e ists to suppo t a usi ess
efforts to secure new intellectual property (patents,
copyrights, trademarks, etc.), and to protect itself from
infringing someo e else s i telle tual p ope ty rights.

The research can involve a number of different

investigations. For example, when planning to file for a new
patent, it will typically involve environmental scanning for
other IP and for prior art so as to ensure that the claims the
business intends to make in the patent filing are defensible, and that it can so word them as to maximize their
chances of being defensible against violation, other claims, and prior art (should they ever be challenged).
Likewise, when considering a new product design or service method, one may undertake research to develop
confidence that their design is in fact novel and will not violate so eo e else s pate t lai s, gi i g the the
freedom to operate they need to pursue that design.

IP research is also be used to help businesses find specific IP to license or buy from other parties for use in their
offerings.

IP Research typically falls to research specialists working in IP

law firms, often those who have been trained and certified as
Registered Patent Agents. These individuals have access to
thorough databases of IP held globally and know how to
conduct effective landscape searches and other studies.

When needed, this will allow the law firm to issue an Opinion
Statement reflecting their interpretation of what they did
and did not find in such searches, helping businesses to be
able to proceed with greater confidence of not being litigated against for IP infringement.

IP Research is thus critical i suppo ti g a usi ess innovation efforts. It allows the business to:

• Secure patent protection for its new technologies, methods, and designs.

• Know how to proceed with confidence that it will not be challenged for violating so eo e else s IP rights.

• Identify third-party IP to license or buy.

All of these are situations that innovation has to address.

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 Example – Patent Landscape Study
The example shown below is taken from a patent landscape study conducted by Knowmade (France) in
December 2014 on Fully-Depleted Sili o o I sulato MOSFET transistors. This shows just a few of the types
of analyses that might be examined, including: Time Evolution of Patent Publications; Mapping of Current
Patent Holders; Leadership of Patent Applicants; Patent Applicant IP Network; and Patent Differentiation.
Numerous other factors can also be considered.

Courtesy of Knowmade SARL (France), © 2014 Copyrights Knowmade SARL, www.knowmade.com.

Patent and Technology Intelligence: IBM STMicroelectronics / IBM / CEA Global Foundries / TSMC / Intel / IBM
FD-SOI Patent Landscape Fully Depleted Transistors on SOI Substrate Global Foundries.

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 LESSON 10f
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

Opportunity Scouting & Needfinding

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 Market Profiling
Market Profiling involves research and analysis into specific markets,
generating a characteristic profile of that market at a particular point in time.
This includes any pertinent trends that are having an impact on that market.

The intent of a Market Profiling Study is to create a deep and detailed

understanding of a particular market, and to ideally reveal where new
opportunities may lie in that market. The findings of such a study can be used for a number of different
purposes, such as to decide on whether or not to e te a pa ti ula a ket as pa t of the usi ess highe -level
innovation (growth) strategy, or, if already in that market, to formulate a new or freshened market strategy
(when, where, and how to deliver new innovation to the market, and under what brand). Both of these are
useful for delivering smart innovation, and businesses are encouraged to engage in market profiling whenever
contemplating questions such as these.

Example – Market Profiling

This is an analysis done of the News Media industry examining the valuations (market capitalizations) of these
respective players in that industry. This is an example of just one small part of what would otherwise be a
comprehensive assessment of a market like News Media. Other assessments that might be done of this market
could include evaluations of things such as subscriber base size, annual revenues, reputation scores, general
relevance to trends, and so forth.

Courtesy of: CB Insights, New York, NY, USA

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 Opportunity Analysis
Opportunity Analysis involves the broad, open-ended search for new opportunities for a business to pursue –
often in new or emerging markets. These new opportunities need to align with what the business is capable of
pursuing and delivering (including through partnerships), so as to have line-of-sight into an entry path for that
market, understanding that new business development will be required, and also understanding that the
business may in fact need to simultaneously introduce certain innovations in its offerings in order to make them
desirable to these markets.

Opportunity Analysis can also search for the opportunity – either in the present or in the near future – for the
business to leverage a new type of business model in its existing markets, in order that it might deliver
innovation to those markets in a whole different way – sometimes in a way that ends up disrupting its existing
competitors (though also requiring substantial changes in its own business).

Opportunity Analysis is in some ways similar to Market Profiling except that instead of having a particular
market as its center of its focus, it instead has a business as its center of focus. Thus the research does not go
into the same level of detail for any one market as does Market Profiling, but rather takes a very broad search
across a large number of different markets. It always begins, however, by constructing a detailed profile of the
business, including SWOT characteristics, its culture and capabilities, its current offerings portfolio, and its
ecosystem of partnerships. This profile then provides the jumping-off point for exploring a large number of
different possibilities.

Opportunity Analysis also considers how the world is changing around a business and how those changes are,
or will be, impacting the business and its particular business model.

Ultimately an Opportunity Analysis should uncover both currently untapped and future potential opportunities
for the business to pursue.

This can prove highly invaluable to the business, particularly when searching for medium and long-term
(Horizon 2 & Horizon 3) opportunities.

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 Example – Opportunity Analysis
The following example is courtesy of Darcy Partners, and illustrates how they have gone about conducting
opportunity analysis.

Darcy Partners developed a very specific approach to opportunity analysis for considering ways to invest in new
startups (Corporate Venturing) in the Oil & Gas industry and otherwise establishing appropriate partnerships
elsewhere to build out profitable business ecosystems. Darcy calls its approach I o atio Path a s .

The founders of Darcy Partners spent a decade working in and with O&G companies, finding and investing in
innovative technology companies. Multiple iterations with O&G companies and trial and error has resulted in a
model that is now being adopted by an increasing number of operators and service companies. Darcy leverages
its connections in the innovation ecosystem to find, evaluate and introduce technologies to O&G companies and
accelerate their adoption.

The esults of Da s fi di gs a e e ie ed its Co po ate Re ie Boa d, a e lusi e fo u of i dust

players that meets on a regular basis to set technology priorities for research and scouting. The exhibit here
illustrates the composition of the forum. This model provides the required market research and screening of
technology vendors for the participating corporate members. The forum also provides an opportunity for the
non-competing corporate members to understand the perspective of their peers and hence when promising
technologies are identified, the adoption speed will be dramatically higher.

Bottom Line Impact: Da s p i a ite ia i e aluati g hu d eds of i o ati e o pa ies e e ea is the

tangible bottom line impact the a p o ise to Da s o po ate e e s.

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 Market Scouting
The aim of Market Scouting – a form of organic growth scouting – is to uncover new markets into which the
business can apply its technologies (or service methods).

Many technology-driven businesses find that they already have outstanding technologies and processes and
from these can deliver high performing, and sometimes innovative, new products and services. However, their
struggle lies in having tapped out their share of the markets they are in, despite any efforts to innovate there
otherwise. And so their need is to uncover new markets into which they can apply their technologies in order
to sustain future business growth.

This may seem vaguely similar to Opportunity Analysis, and it is. The difference, however, is that Market
Scouting is more well-defined and thus more constrained… less ope -ended. The technologies that are
attempting to be put to use are well established and well understood, and the business may even place
limitations up front as to which markets it is not interested in pursuing. The research is then able to focus much
more tightly around finding applications for their technology. That is a much less open-ended task than is
looking for broad new opportunities that might involve all manner of new offerings and business models. Here,
the pathway is much narrower and involves simply finding uses for the technology. New technologies are not on
the table (though derivative products and services will be), and new business models may or may not be on the
table.

Market Scouting can be an effective research method whenever a business is looking to leverage a Value
Capture strategy by introducing its technologies into new markets. The goal will be to find situations where
these new markets perceive their technologies as innovative in comparison to the solutions they currently have
access to. That makes the new solutions in effect true innovations for these markets, even though they may not
have been seen that way in their native markets. To do this, researchers must define the incremental value
proposition relative to current solutions in the market, and test that out with people knowledgeable of the
market to see if there is recognition of the higher degree of value offered.

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 Technology Scouting
The aim of Technology Scouting – a form of organic growth scouting, and the flipside of Market Scouting – is to
search out and find certain new technologies that can be adapted and embedded i to the usi ess offerings so
that the business can deliver technological innovation to its markets.

Many market-driven businesses focus heavily on a single market or cluster of markets. This inherently produces
a narrow field of view around the technologies used in – and the products and services offered to – those
markets. What these businesses often need in order to deliver new innovation to their markets is simply new
technology (or new service methods) that will allow them to raise the bar in regards to the value they deliver.

While some businesses will go on to develop these new technologies in house, organically, other businesses may
not have adequate R&D capabilities or capacities to do so. When that is the case, they can sometimes benefit
from bringing in new technology from the outside to embed into their offerings. They do this through various
types of partnership, such as technology transfer / IP licensing, contracted R&D, strategic suppliers, or even a
curated Open Innovation partnership.

Technology Scouters – those conducting the research – should focus not only on what the technology is and
how it works, but also on how the technology has been used to date. From that, they can conceive new ways
in which their business might leverage the technology in its own offerings.

They should keep in mind of course that how the technology has been used in the past should not constrain
possibilities around how it might be used in the future.

Technology Scouting can be an effective research method whenever a business is looking to leverage a Market
Escalation (Value Creation) strategy in their existing core markets and do not have the necessary technologies
developed in house to do so. In some cases, it may also allow them to break into new and adjacent markets
should they so desire.

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 Venture Scouting
The aim of Venture Scouting is to identify new startup ventures for a business to invest in – those holding
potential strategic value to the business.

Around the world, the availability of venture capital and a growing entrepreneurial spirit has rocketed the
emergence of new business ventures in practically every market. Many of these new ventures have brought
technology-enabled automation to previously non-automated areas (for example, marketing automation) and
with them, radical new business models that are unbundling incumbent business models. This has had the
effect of accelerating the pace of innovation in nearly every market – to the point that many legacy businesses
simply can no longer keep apace. They become increasingly at risk of losing out to market disruptions.

The more innovative and wise businesses often realize that the best approach in this situation is not to fight the
new entrants, but rather to join them. And they do this by investing in them, often with line-of-sight to taking a
controlling equity stake or full acquisition, given the potentially critical strategic value they represent. This has
certainly been the tactic used in the tech and pharmaceutical industries in recent years, where large established
Fortune 100 players are constantly investing in new startups that are trying radically new things in their
markets. By making these particular bets, the business lessen its chances of being left out and summarily
disrupted by the new ventures, should one of them happen to attain significant traction and scale to
meaningful size.

There are numerous online sources of high quality information relating to new ventures entering the market at
any given time, including, for example, Crunchbase (www.cruchbase.com), AngelList (www.angel.co) for those
accepting Angel funding (seed investment) and CB Insights (www.cbinsights.com) for those accepting venture
capital funding (usually a Series A, B, C, or D). These sorts of resources can make it straightforward for
researchers to stay abreast of new ventures entering their realm.

Venture Scouting can be an effective tool for enabling a business to leverage inorganic vehicles of innovation to
stay ahead of their markets, and potentially become a part of the next new business model for those markets.

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 Acquisition Scouting
The aim of Acquisition Scouting is to identify mature, established businesses for a business to acquire and
potentially merge with – those holding definite strategic value to the business.

With opportunity windows often growing smaller, and innovation cycles becoming increasingly shorter, often
the fastest route to market is to acquire an established business that already has the needed capabilities,
technologies, and channel maturity, and to leverage these to rapidly configure offerings for certain market
needs. This can often cut time to market to half or less, depending on the industry. And sometimes this can
mean the difference between hitting or missing a particular market window. In order to be able to acquire or
merge with an established business however, the first business must be able to discover the necessary
acquisition targets. Thus Acquisition Scouting.

The criteria used here for identifying the right targets are often quite different than those used for venture
investments, as acquiring or merging with a large business is a much different undertaking than is investing in a
startup. As with Venture Scouting, there are also certain resources that the researcher may turn to, including
M&A brokers and the networks they maintain.

Acquisition Scouting can be an effective tool for enabling a business to leverage inorganic vehicles of
innovation to stay ahead of their markets, and potentially break into additional new markets, depending on
what else the acquisition brings with it. Depending on the size and nature of the acquisition / merger however,
the actual process can take time to consummate. And even then, the resulting enterprise will require time and
focus in order to merge well. This may slow down certain other innovation efforts– a risk the business should
be well aware of prior to embarking on this path.

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 Using Research for Needfinding
Going back to the context of needfinding, it was put forth that the business needs to be constantly in search of
new opportunities, and constantly engaged in activities to that end. This raises the question – now that
numerous research methods have been surveyed – of what exactly that looks like, and of how the business to is
to do so.

Needfinding can use any of these methods that it wishes, but there are two exercises in particular that it should
definitely undertake.

The first is B2C engagement. Here, the business will spend time engaged
directly with its customers. Generally speaking, it can do this in one of
two ways, or both.

First, and most ideally, it can engage in fieldwork with its customers. To
uncover really useful insights around hidden opportunities, they will have
members of the business go out into the field and observe its customers first hand using its products, receiving
its services, experiencing its brands, and/or otherwise interacting with its organization. Walk a mile in their
shoes to develop empathy for what they are experiencing at each and every touchpoint. This will almost always
reveal opportunities for new innovation – sometimes minor, sometimes major.

Second, the business can assemble focus groups of customers, bringing them into its offices and talking with
them about how they feel a out hat is ei g offe ed to the … oth the value and the experience. They will
try to find out what these customers concerns are, which can be done by having them tell stories about their
encounters with the organization (or its competitors), and listen for their tensions. They will write these down
in plain customer language and keep it simple.

Finally, having conducted fieldwork and/or focus groups (or the equivalent thereof) – both forms of qualitative
market research – the organization can bring these insights into its needfinding discussions in order to home in
on the most impactful new opportunities for innovation it can deliver.

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 Examples – Fieldwork & Focus Groups
The first example here depicts a team of two (2) researchers (right-hand side) engaging a would-be customer
(subject, left-hand side) in a direct interview conversation, perhaps an Empathy Interview or similar type of
interview, all to learn more about her needs and perceptions of past experiences in meeting those needs.

The second example here depicts a couple of researchers (center, back) listening to the experiences and
perspectives of different participants in a focus group conducted in a relatively informal setting. Both of these
are clear examples of using research i o e s needfinding efforts, in that they are capable of revealing unmet
(and potentially unarticulated) needs within a market. These in turn may represent new innovation
opportunities the business wishes to pursue.

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 Using Research for Needfinding (cont.)
The second is segmentation. Here, the business needs to study its customers in order to understand the
different segments, or clusters, that it s deali g ith.

This segmentation should be based on what each usto e g oup s desi ed outcomes are, and, even more
importantly, what their underlying motivations are.

Depending on the level of precision and granularity desired, this can be done through User Research methods
like contextual inquiry, or through Quantitative and Qualitative Market Research methods, with either of these
perhaps combined into the Outcome-Driven Innovation methodology. Any combination of these methods may
e a le to ield the le el of g a ula it the usi ess eeds fo ade uatel u de sta di g ea h of its a ket s
segments.

Example – Market Segmentation By JTBD

The image below vividly illustrates how the market for social media can be segmented into different types of
users according to the specific jo each consumer desires to get done, which relates to the specific outcome
they wish to achieve, which in turn stems from a particular set of motivations, needs, and desires they have.
Thus, in each of these eight (8) cases, the customer involved has a different outcome they wish to accomplish,
and thus job the ill hi e the solutio to do fo the , a d thus a different social media platform in each case.

Photo Courtesy of: Viktorija Pashuta – www.pashuta photography.com – Los Angeles, CA, USA.

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 Using Research for Needfinding (cont.)
Listening Posts
Listening Posts are special insights-gathering offices that businesses set up in certain strategically-important
urban centers. Their purpose is to help the business stay abreast of various happenings and trends around the
world, making them a source of strategically-relevant market intelligence.

This market intelligence, including any specific insights that may be relevant to something the business (or a part
thereof) is considering, is then disseminated broadly throughout the organization via regular briefings. When
combined with other sources of insights-mining, they can serve as significant source of strategic intelligence
around which the business can undertake responsive strategic planning.

Listening Posts have been used for decades by the news media (and governments), but are becoming
increasingly common amongst businesses wanting to stay ahead of events themselves without relying on media
outlets. This allows the business to focus on just those areas it specifically wishes to home in on, giving it a more
granular view of those key areas.

Some of the primary urban centers for Listening Posts include Silicon Valley, London, Paris, Singapore, and
Tokyo. Some of the secondary urban centers for Listening Posts include New York City, Berlin, Milan, Hong
Kong, Shanghai, and Dubai. A usi ess hoi e of he e to locate its Listening Posts will often be influenced by
hat i dust it is i a d he e that pa ti ula i dust s hubs happen to exist.

Listening Posts are typically staffed with appropriately trained strategic marketing and design personnel –
individuals who understand what it is they are looking for, and who know how to spot a key event or trend when
it happens. Businesses sometimes contract out this work to outside firms whose sole purpose is to function as a
shared Listening Post service for multiple clients.

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 Example – Listening Posts
An example of a commercially-accessible source of innovation-related trend-scouting that explicitly uses
Listening Posts is that of Springwise Intelligence and their site springwise.com.

Springwise uses over 20,000 diffe e t sp i gspotte s situated in over 190 different countries around the
world to tune into specific innovation trends happening in different places. Each day Springwise receives
hundreds of submissions and curates these and presents around only about ten (10) of the best to publish that
day.

Courtesy of: Springwise Intelligence Ltd – London, UK – www.springwise.com.

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 LESSON 10g
The Big Dig

The Role of Research in Innovation

The Insights Plan

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 Developing the Insights Plan
When planning out any innovation endeavor, the Insights Leader – typically a senior research specialist – will
need to put together what is known as an Insights Plan.

An Insights Plan is a plan that:

a) Specifies what types of insights need to be generated, a d the …

b) Lays out a specific plan of attack for which research methods will be used, and in what order, to arrive at
those insights.

Quite often one finds that a perfect and complete

Insights Plan cannot be formulated at the front end of
a project, at least not in its entirety. Instead, the
project will begin with a preliminary Insights Plan to
get it started. And then – depending on what insights
are learned at different stages of the endeavor – the
plan will be revised to reflect new strategies that build
upon and further develop those insights.

In this way the Insights Plan is living, adaptive, and

iterative, and will ultimately – once the project is
completed – have delivered all the different insights that the project ended up requiring.

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 Developing the Insights Plan (cont.)
Good Insights Plans – which also means ones that are allowed to be living and adaptive –
are crucial to developing the key insights that innovation projects need.

It would be challenging and risky to attempt any major innovation project without first
developing an Insights Plan for how the project intended to develop the insights it needs for
success.

An Insights Plan should be viewed as a mandatory tool for smart innovation – one that
reduces the risk level associated with the project by laying out precisely what insights it requires and how it will
achieve these. This allows the project to develop confidence in its chances of success, or otherwise informs it
that its chances of success are low and should therefore be abandoned. Either scenario will help the business
avoid market failures by delivering the right innovations and not the wrong innovations to market.

Example – Insights Plan

Below is an example in which Nike was attempting to establish a strategic course of action for its Dri-FIT
product line – change it, reinvigorate the brand, or phase it out.

A research proposal was thus built outlining the Business Objective, Research Objective, and the
Recommended Research Approach. Additional to this would be more details of the research subjects
(demographics / psychographics / etc.), a budget for each type of study and/or the overall study, and a timeline
showing each phase of the undertaking. The plan / proposal may also highlight the team who will be carrying
out the research.

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 A Research Example
This is a specific example of the research that was undertaken for an innovation
project carried out by the New Business Creation business unit of Whirlpool
Corporation – the o ld s largest consumer appliance producer (Benton Harbor,
MI, USA).

First, the challenge was put forth to identify new opportunities that would fit Whirlpool, its brands, and what
the company does. In response to this, general Opportunity Scouting was done, in which a scan was made of
trending activities and hobbies in the home environment.

Several such opportunities were identified, including composting, hydroponic gardening, and home brewing (of
craft beer). All of these represented white space opportunities in that none of them had good automated
solutions available. Where people were doing them, they were doing so largely with home-built, sub-optimized
equipment (often the equipment was large, bulky, cumbersome, and labor and time intensive to use). Thus
there were clear unmet needs in each of these spaces. A general comparative assessment was made between
these and it was recognized that the home brewing trend had by far the largest scale and thus potential draw,
meaning an innovative new solution in this market held the potential for the greatest scale.

Once that particular market had been selected, the next step was to find whatever good secondary data existed

to kick-start the justification process. That information was found within research that had been commissioned
and published by the A e i a Ho e e e s’ Asso iatio in 2013. That research revealed the explosive
growth that the hobby of homebrewing had experienced over the preceding 15 years, with no apparent end in
sight. This information proved adequate for the initial justification of the endeavor

This research was backed up by a preliminary Quantitative Research survey to gauge the relative population of
current homebrewers, lapsed homebrewers, and non-homebrewers with an interest in trying it (but who had
not due to the time and effort involved).

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 A Research Example (cont.)
Based on the business plan compiled around these insights, the project was funded for additional research.
Once the project was funded, formal User Research and both Qualitative and Quantitative Market Research
were initiated.

The User Research involved conducting in-home studies (fieldwork) with current homebrewers to watch them
brew, discuss their setups, and learn about their specific pains, frictions, frustrations, and desires, as well as
their motivations around those. It also involved hosting a session with a panel of brewers / lapsed brewers /
non-brewers to co-create with them the ideal homebrewing process.

The Qualitative Research involved interviewing numerous individuals at various events and festivals about their
attitudes around craft beer, breweries, and home brewing. These interviews were video-recorded and edited
for later viewing by a larger group.

The Quantitative Research involved conducting an online survey of approximately 3,000 individuals (in pursuit
of statistical significance). This survey instrument was carefully designed to uncover specific insights about
people, their lifestyles, and their resonance with what was being proposed. This survey allowed the team to do
two things. First it allowed them to segment this overall GenPop market according to lifestyle attributes,
enabling them to single out the segment most aligned with the proposed Value Proposition, those segments
more weakly aligned to it, and those segments not aligned to it. This produced five segments – 1 strongly
aligned, 2 weakly aligned, and 2 not aligned. Second, by understanding the relative size of each segment, and
the strength of resonance with the Value Proposition, the team was able to compare that to national
populations and thereby more precisely establish the estimated scope of this market, and thus the potential
scale that the Value Proposition could potentially achieve given the appropriate Positioning and Pricing
Strategies together with the appropriate Marketing investment.

Altogether, this research allowed the team to qualify the

opportunity as a real opportunity with an unmet need they
could legitimately meet (a turnkey automated homebrewing
system), and establish a reliable estimate for the potential scale
of the solution. It was considered a good investment relative to
what the business would later go on to invest in developing this
solution, went into production in 2017.

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 LESSON 11
Design Thinking &
Human-Centered Design
in Innovation

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 Design Thinking – What Is It?
To begin with, we must answer the question… What exactly is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a method for both Discovery & Ideation in problems involving users (predominantly human
users) of a product, service, experience, business, etc.

Design Thinking is so a ed e ause it fo es o e to thi k like a designer . This, i othe o ds, is to thi k i
such a way that one is constantly in search of new (correct) patterns so that they can then devise better ways of
arranging things to correctly solve the problem associated with those patterns. When applied to the search for
new innovation, this means that one is constantly challenging the assumptions behind problems and, in this
quest, searching for deeper, more absolute, truths about the problems that lead them to new solutions which
ultimately deliver a best fit with the insights they have developed.

Design Thinking thus represents an incredibly powerful approach to innovation, and in terms of delivering
solutions that optimally resonate with users, tends to produce far better outcomes than many other methods.
It is also an approach that – once understood and mastered – is relatively straightforward to implement, given
that it involves a clearly defined process to follow and brings with it a complete set of tools to use known as
Design Methods – explained in more detail further on.

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 Design Thinking – What Is It? (cont.)
Design Thinking is thus both:

• A way of seeing and engaging with the world – understanding the

user-centricity of everything we design.

• A procedural set of methods and practices that innovators can use to

explore needs and solutions in a user-centric way.

Two very important principles that therefore undergird Design Thinking are:

1. Most problems as they are first encountered are ill framed

– they require reframing from a user-centric perspective.

2. Solutions are only as good as the extent to which they solve the
real problem and establish the best possible fit between user needs and solution.

These two principles apply regardless of what one is designing, be it a physical product, a digital product, a
service, a customer experience, a physical space, or a new business model. In each case, the solution must solve
for the right need, and it must do so at the right level, if it is to produce the best possible fit between the
solution and those having the need.

Design Thinking – Example

Example: Daylight Design: What is Design Thinking?

Watch the Case Study on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0V5BwTrQOCs

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 Design in Innovation –
Some History of Good Design
Design as a discipline has been around for centuries, but the modern era of
good desig began in the early 20th century with the work of such notable
designers as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Dorwin Teague, Henry Dreyfuss,
Flaminio Bertoni, Battista Pininfarina, and Harley Earl.

But it as t u til the 5 s that ode desig p a ti e t ul hit its st ide,

with the work of even more notable designers like Buckminster Fuller, Arne
Jacobsen, Charles and Ray Eames, David Mellor, Raymond Loewy, Luigi
Colani, Brooks Stevens, Robin Day, George Walker, Marcello Nizzoli, and
Frank Hershey.

These designers hailed from all over the world, with much of their work focusing on the emerging consumer
products markets – automobiles, furniture, and consumer appliances, and much of the work highly innovative
fo its ti e. So e of these desig e s o k as e i te p eti e i atu e, hile othe desig e s o k as
more practical and utilitarian in nature.

This same spirit of good design was carried on into the 1960s and beyond by notable designers like Dieter Rams,
Massimo Vignelli, Jacob Jensen, Giorgetto Giugiaro, and in more recent times, James Dyson and Jonathan Ive.

Design in Innovation –
Historical Examples of Famous / Iconic Designs
• Charles & Ray Eames – Herman Miller Eames Chair

• Egmont Arens – Kit he Aid Model K Mi e

• Dick Teague – Packard Automobiles

• Arne Jacobsen – furniture (egg chair)

• Marcello Nizzoli designs (e.g. sewing machine)

• Dieter Rams – brAun products

• Jonathan Ive – Apple products (e.g. iPod)

• James Dyson – Dyson vacuums

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 Design in Innovation –
Some History of Design Theories
To better appreciate the genesis of good design, particularly as it relates to modern innovation, one is well-
served to understand the evolution of the undergirding design theories that have informed and influenced the
practice of design.

Given the proliferation and popularity of modern design in the

1950s, both design theory and design practice had, by the 1960s,
begun to evolve significantly, starting with a movement that was
then known as Participatory Design, where the attempt was
being made to integrate users directly into the design process. In
order to give this movement tools to work with, this era also saw
the development of numerous Design Methods – ways in which
to study users and understand their interactions with products.
The most notable of these at the time was Usability Testing. Many of these methods borrowed from what was
being used at the time in architecture and urban planning. The main point of these efforts was to ensure that
designs (of whatever) fit their intended use and their intended users as ideally as possible. Much of this thinking
was reflected in the 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert Simon and the 1973 book Experiences in
Visual Thinking by Robert McKim. The movement largely culminated in the 1987 book Design Thinking by Peter
Rowe. Iterations of the movement in the ensuing decades (1980s and on) saw such design theories emerge as
User-Centered Design (using cognitive reflection), Meta-design (using process methods), Service Design, and
finally Human-Centered Design, or HCD. HCD eventually became as much of a mindset about design as it did a
design process per se, and remains the dominant design philosophy of today.

The early 2000s also saw Industrial Design expand beyond just
being about products to include the design of services and even
the much broader design of businesses.

Much of the design practice the world has today – more or less
labeled under the heading of Design Thinking – was developed in
the 1980s and 1990s at Stanford University (Stanford, CA), largely
by Professor Rolf Faste. Faste s olleague David Kelley
subsequently adapted Design Thinking to business and, based on these adaptations, in 1991 launched the now-
famous design firm IDEO. Sta fo d U i e sit s d.s hool has la gel o ti ued to e the a ie of the to h fo
the Design Thinking approach, which encapsulates the underlying philosophy of Human-Centered Design. In
1991, IIT Institute of Design (Chicago, IL) instituted the first ever PhD program in Design.

The next phase of design theory is likely to see a movement back toward a more scientific approach with the
increasing integration of neuroscience and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP). But full integration of these
practices into design theory may still be perhaps some years in the making.

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 Human-Centered Design – What Is It?
Desig Thi ki g s undergirding philosophy is referred to as Human-Centered Design or HCD.

The basis of this philosophy is that it places the human –

the user, or recipient of the design – at the core and
center of the design process.

This forces one to first study and analyze the needs of the
problem from a very human/user centric perspective
before trying to devise solutions to the problem.

This requi es the i o ato to get i side the ski of the

end user and fully understand the world from their
perspective – both the problem they are experiencing,
and whatever solution is being proposing for that
problem, including the quality of fit between the two.

A pivotal concept in the Human-Centered Design philosophy is that of

empathy and empathic understanding… holdi g – at least for some period of
study time – incredibly deep empathy for the user / customer at the center of
the problem.

The pursuit of empathy often requires the investigator to undertake any

manner of (temporary) adjustments to themselves or their environments in
order to fully experience the world as the customer would, thus developing
the necessary empathy for their situation.

It is not until one has done this that they are finally able to explore any
possible number of hypotheses around the problem, test those hypotheses,
a d the ho e i o the o e h pothesis that est e plai s the p o le f o that usto e s pe spe ti e.

From there, they can establish the necessary Design Principles they need to move toward with contemplating
possible solutions to the problem. This inherently forces any potential solutions considered to be in tune with
the real problem the customer is encountering.

Reframing Problems –
The Secret Sauce of Design Thinking
The true power of Design Thinking lies in the fa t that it fo es i o ato s to…
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 egi at the egi i g

– to start the innovation process in:

• the right place, which is naming the problem and empathetically exploring hypotheses around it, and…
• not in the wrong place, which is jumping straight into brainstorming solutions for what they thought was
the problem.

This is important, because far too many innovation efforts have

historically skipped this all too critical step and instead jumped
straight into brainstorming ideas and solutions without first
correctly defining the problem.

This generally means one of two things:

1. They will inherently solve for the wrong problem, o …

2. They will solve for the right problem, but at entirely the
wrong level of need.

In the first case, the solution they deliver will most likely be a
complete failure in the market.

In the latter case, the solution they deliver will most likely
be received as a e too … o etter than any other solution on the market

Truly successful innovation therefore requires both solving the correct problem,
and solving it at the correct level of human need.

This process of exploring and restating problems from how they were originally encountered or presented to a
more correct problem statement formulated at the proper level of human need is known as problem
reframing. Problem reframing is a fundamental necessity for delivering successful and impactful innovations to
any market.

The types of exercises wherein one is forced to develop empathy for their end user are a profoundly effective
way of going about problem reframing. They enable one to arrive at a soundly human-centric / user-centric
understanding of the problem. Likewise, they are an equally effective way of brainstorming properly-oriented
potential solutions, testing certain of those, and then converging on the one best solution for this problem.

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 Example – Reframing Problems
A well-used example of Problem Reframing is that of the perceived slowness of an elevator lift, and the
unacceptable wait times.

What researchers found is that rather than attempting to throw money at directly fixing this issue – with things
intended to make the elevator faster – they could instead change the entire psychology of the situation. It
as t that the ele ato as too slo ; athe it as that people did ot feel thei ti e as ei g used
productively.

It was found that by installing mirrors, people would instead place their attention on themselves rather than on
the wait. As a result, their perception of the wait time became that it was much shorter than previously. It was
also found that playing music and adding a hand-sanitizer – thi gs that also took people s i ds else he e –
further aided this perception. Mirrors, music, and hand sanitizers were all items that could be added more
easily and cost-effectively than could a faster elevator lift.

And thus they reframed the entire problem.

Source: Harvard Business Review, January-Fe ua , A e You Sol i g the Right P o le s? ,

by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg.

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 The Design Thinking Process
The Design Thinking Process is a systematic, procedural process
that allows a team to explore the true nature of a problem from
a human / user perspective and then conceive correct solutions
capable of solving that problem and resonating with users.

The process is reflected in the diagram shown below, which is the

Double-Diamond model – a conceptual model originally
conceived by the British Design Council in 2005.

In this model, there are five major stages. The first, third, and
fifth stages each consists of an individual action step. The
second and fourth stages – the ai dia o ds – consist of
three action steps each. This makes for nine actions steps
altogether.

This lesson examines the Design Thinking Process step by step.

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 1
The Design Thinking process begins by first a i g the p o le
(after considerable observing, questioning, and associating).
This may stem from any sort of market insights.

This is a step in which someone identifies what they perceive to be

a legitimate problem…

• An unmet need i the a ket the ig ut .

• An unmet outcome for customers.

• A major pain point with current offerings.

• O possi l …the se se that e te h ologies p o ide the oppo tu it to up the ga e o a pa ti ula

customer experience.

Ultimately, someone has to a e it a d own it. And they have to figure out if it has enough scale to be a
problem worth solving.

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 2
The second step in the Design Thinking process is to clarify the problem.

The exploration with empathy step uses divergent thinking to formulate as many possible
hypotheses as realistically possible. We then pause to conceive and design good
experiments to test these. The define step uses convergent thinking to test these
hypotheses and arrive at a point of clear focus, ultimately leading to a clear understanding
of the problem.

This process has three important steps:

1. Hypotheses Formation – Diverge. Form hypotheses about the true nature of the problem. Use empathy to
e plo e h .

2. Business Experiment Design – Conceive and design effective business experiments to test these hypotheses.

3. Hypotheses Testing – Converge. Use business experiments to test these hypotheses and converge on the
best one.

Where we step into this process is where we have the opportunity to apply our imaginations… What if… ? ,
How might we… ? , et . Where we step out of this process, we arrive with clarity around what the real
problem is. This may be an entirely different problem than what we were trying to solve when we went into
the process! This is very, very critical!

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 3
The third step in the Design Thinking process is to define our Point of View and establish
our Design Principles.

The Point of View, or PoV, is a tea s state e t of ho the ha e o e to u de sta d the

real problem they are addressing, not its surface symptoms. This is the point at which
they have fully reframed the problem.

Thus, what Problem Clarity has done for them at this point is that it has allowed them to peel back the many
layers of the problem and get down to the real problem behind the problem.

This is incredibly important, as many attempts at innovation start in the wrong place and summarily proceed to
solve the wrong problem, thus introducing high risk and substantial market failure into the process!

The Design Principles a e a tea s state e t of eliefs a out hat the feel a solutio to the eal p o le
must be able to do in order to optimally solve for that problem.

They serve as guidelines, therefore, in helping the team to think about:

• How they might best deliver a solution around the problem – including one that delivers a particular
brand experience – a d…

• Why they think doing it this way is the best way.

Design Principles must be able to help not only define solutions

which optimally solve for the problem, they must also capture the
a d s pa ti ula brand experience lens through which these
new solutions will be conceived. This will influence numerous
details about the final offering used to deliver the ultimate
solution.

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 Example – Point Of View
Point of View – Vessi

Vessi is a fully-automated beer fermentation appliance from Whirlpool Corporation (Benton

Harbor, MI) aimed at the home beer brewing enthusiast market – very fast growing markets in
the United States, Europe, and Australia.

There are a large number of current craft beer enthusiasts who have taken their passion for
craft beer to its logical limits… t a eli g lo g dista es o ee atio s to sa ple
unique craft beers from all over the world.

Their next logical step is to engage in home-brewing. But most of them are not the
DIY types who are going to cobble their own systems together and spend all day
Satu da fo e da aiti g o the e i g p o ess to happe .

Instead, what they want is a fully automated, turnkey appliance that affords them the
same level of creativity in experimenting with recipes, but without the extreme amounts of work
involved in the current home-brewing process.

Example – Design Principles

Design Principles – Vessi

Vessi is a fully-automated beer fermentation appliance from Whirlpool Corporation (Benton

Harbor, MI) aimed at the home beer brewing enthusiast market – very fast growing markets in
the United States, Europe, and Australia.

A solutio to this o su e s desire must:

• Be capable of facilitating at least fermentation and extract brewing.
• Be fully-automated… load i g edie ts, adjust setti gs, a d the hit go the est is ha ds-off).
• Be easy to set up and easy to use.
• Be easy to clean and sanitize.
• Look appealing.
• Operate quietly.
• Fit i to a e tai spa e app op iate to the use s e i g a ea.

A d thus… Vessi…

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 4
The fourth step in the Design Thinking process is to define the solution – the final Value
Proposition, or Value Definition. This is where we finally get to wear our creativity hats,
aski g uestio s like…

What are all the possible ways we can solve this problem
(which we now understand) using the PoV e’ e reated?

This process has three important steps:

1. Solution Ideation – a divergent process in which we use our creativity to brainstorm and conceive lots of
ideas for solving the problem! The ideate step is ou oppo tu it to get eall eati e a d esou eful… to
put our design skills to use in conceiving all sorts of new possibilities.
And we know that we are solving the right problem!

2. Solution Prototyping – build a variety of prototypes to test each of the proposed solutions.
The prototyping step asks us to build adequate prototypes of each solution idea so that we can test it along
appropriate dimensions.

3. Solution Testing – a convergent process in which each solution is tested so as to find the best solution.
Finally, the testing step enables us to discover which of our many ideas best solves the problem we have
defined with the PoV we have set.

This process allows us to find the best possible solution to the reframed problem.

At the end of this process, we will have arrived at

the right value model for that particular point in time.

This means we will have:

• Defined the best possible value proposition

(including the offering).

• That solves the problem we defined.

• Using the Point of View we established.

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 Design Thinking & Proposed Solutions
In relation to Step 4, as an Innovation Team goes about evaluating each potential new
solution, Design Thinking tasks them with asking some very fundamental questions about
the proposed solutions, and indeed, about the whole opportunity they represent.

In particular:

• The Human ele e t… Is it desirable to users?

Do people want or need it?
If ot, is it si pl a solutio looki g fo a p o le ?
Or perhaps problem awareness is needed to actuate the market (?).

• The Business ele e t… Is it viable to the business?

Can we make money on it and exist as a business organization with it?
If ot, pe haps it is a isio fo the futu e… a e late it ill o k.

• The Technical ele e t… Is it feasible technologically?

Can we make it?
If not, then perhaps it is just a dream, like cures for certain diseases we cannot yet create.

These questions are reflected in the Venn diagram shown here, a concept attributed to business management
guru Peter Drucker.

The sweet spot of innovation is clearly right in the middle of all these – desirable, viable, and feasible.

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 Example – Solution
Solution – Vessi

A solution that meets the previous Design Principles – validated through prototyping and user
testi g…

… is Vessi…
(Vessi is a fully-automated beer fermentation appliance from Whirlpool Corporation aimed at the home beer
brewing enthusiast market – very fast growing markets in the United States, Europe, and Australia).

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 5
The fifth – and final – step in the Design Thinking process is to define our Business Model.

At this point we take everything we have done up until this point, and we distill it all into a
clear business model with a winning value proposition. This should create the basis for a
sound business model with which to go to market.

This represents the segue from the Front End of Innovation (everything that has just been
done so far in the Design Thinking process) to the Mid Zone of Innovation – where the team begins to truly
strategize how this solution can be delivered to market, and ultimately to the Back End of Innovation – where
the team will finally execute this solution as a real offering. Thus there is still a long road ahead!

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 5 (cont.)
In the context of Business Model Innovation, the Value Proposition, as defined and
documented by the Innovation Team here, will explain the following details:

The Target Market

• Who is the target customer / customer segment? What are the details of their
persona?
• Does it involve an existing market / market segment that the business currently serves?
• Does it involve adjacent or new segments within existing markets?
• Does it involve adjacent markets altogether (those new to the business but not new to the world)?
• Does it involve an entirely new-to-the-world market (usually the result of a new product/service category)?

The Offering

• Is it a product, a service, or some hybrid of these?

• What is distinguishing about its design?
• Does it involve/require new product technology or new service methods? If so, what are those?
• Does it involve a new or modified Platform or Ecosystem? If so, what are these?
• Does it represent an entirely new product/service category (and thus a new market)?
• Does it involve/require a different approach to customer support? If so, what is that?

The Brand Delivery

• Does it involve a new brand or a brand refresh, and thus a new brand promise and brand message?
• Does it involve a new customer experience? If so, what is new and unique about that experience?

After the Value Proposition has been defined, the team will then proceed to attempt to define the balance of a
preliminary Business Model, which would focus on the Value Delivery side of the model.

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 The Design Thinking Process – Step 5 (cont.)
The Value Delivery, as defined and documented by the Innovation Team here, will attempt to explain the
following details:

Value Creation

• What must be new or different about the business organization for this solution to succeed?
• What must be e o diffe e t a out the usi ess G o th & I o atio E gi e fo this solutio to su eed?
• What ust e e o diffe e t a out the usi ess Value Net o k pa t e ships fo this solutio to
succeed?
• What ust e e o diffe e t a out the usi ess production and/or delivery methods for this solution to
succeed?

Customer Acquisition

• What new geographic markets must the business break into for this solution to succeed?
• What new marketing channels will the business need for this solution to succeed?
• What new sales channels will the business need for this solution to succeed?
• What new distribution channels will the business need for this solution to succeed?
• What new service channels will the business need for this solution to succeed?

Value Capture

• In what new ways must the business or its customers utilize assets for this solution to succeed?
• How will the business generate revenues from this solution?
• What must happen for the business to be able to use this revenue generation model successfully?

Thus, to the extent that any of these aspects of the business model are required to be new or different in order
for the solution to succeed, these must be documented here at this time.

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 Design Methods
Being able to execute Design Thinking requires three (3) things, namely:

1. An undergirding philosophy Human-Centered Design

2. A procedural flow The Design Thinking Process

3. A toolbox of supporting methods Design Methods

Thus Design Methods are the final element of Design Thinking, and what we now wish to explore.

Design Methods are specially-developed tasks and techniques that enable Innovation Teams to properly study
problems and needs and then evaluate potential solutions. Without this toolbox of methods to support each
task and activity, Design Thinking would be incomplete, and teams would be incapable of executing it.

There are a large number of Design Methods in use today for carrying out Design Thinking. Many of these are
examined further on in this lesson. As will be seen, each Design Method is geared for developing a specific type
of insight.

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 Design Methods (cont.)
While some Design Methods are useful across the entire Design Thinking process…

• certain methods are better suited for the

Problem Clarity stage,

• while other methods are better suited for the

Value Definition stage.

Si ila l …
• certain methods are best suited for the divergent steps
(forming hypotheses, ideating solutions),

• and certain methods are best suited for the convergent steps
(hypothesis testing / solution testing).

This consideration will be examined in more detail after reviewing a sampling of the Design Methods.

Design Methods can be divided into four (4) broad categories based on the
types of insight they are intended to produce.

These are:

1. Observe: Watch and observe would-be customers / users from afar

(without intrusion), making keen observations of their behaviors.
This allows observation of true behaviors, but may not reveal the causalities for those behaviors.

2. Question: Engage directly with would-be customers / users to gain immediate access to their thoughts,
attitudes, and opinions, all of which will be informed by their past experiences and current needs (thus they
have a contextual basis). Be ause these a e eal usto e s oti atio s, the a explain the causalities
associated with certain behaviors.

3. Experiment: Conduct any number of experiments to test out different concepts with would-be customers /
users in order to discover their reactions to each one, both cognitive and visceral.
This reveals yet deeper insight into their needs, desires, aspirations, motivations, and even values and beliefs.

4. Study: Carry out any number of evaluative tasks aimed at learning a situation better and creating a shared
understanding of the various aspects of the situation within the broader team.
These often require that a whole team engage together in creating design artifacts that describe or explain
either a current situation or a desired situation.

As Design Methods are examined further on, they will be considered according to these four groups.

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 Design Methods (cont.)
One will note that three of these groups – observe, question, and experiment – relate directly to the three of
the Discovery Skills. The fourth – study – also relates as well, in that it is the one place in which the Innovation
Team will apply Associative Thinking to associate the many diverse insights together (culled from the first three
actions) and ultimately come up with the innovative new concepts that define something completely new and
novel in their markets.

The Innovation Professional should also be aware that the order of Design Methods presented here does not
necessarily reflect the chronological sequence in which they will be used. While it is true that Observation
generally precedes Questioning, and that both of these, together with Experimenting, provide inputs into the
Study Methods, it can just as well be that certain Study Methods are used up front prior to the other methods,
as well as together with and alongside them. It is also true that Design Thinking is usually a very iterative
process, such that certain Study exercises may point to the need for additional and new Observation and
Questioning exercises.

Thus the Design Methods all work together to define an intertwined web of activity which will ultimately land a
team at the tail end of the Design Thinking process with the right insights and answers they need to move
forward with a winning new innovation.

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 The Observe Methods

The Observe Methods ould i lude the follo i g…

• Business Ethnography Empathize

• Fly On the Wall Empathize
• Behavioral Archeology Empathize
• Spatial Behavior Mapping Empathize
• Social Network Mapping Empathize
• Still Photo Survey Empathize
• Cultural Probes Empathize
• Workarounds Empathize
• Customer Hacks Empathize
• Absence Thinking Define
• Contextual Inquiry Define
• A Day In the Life Define
• Guided Tours Define
• Time-Lapse Video Survey Define
• Digital Ethnography Define

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The Question Methods

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 The Question Methods (cont.)
The Question Methods ould i lude the follo i g…

• Behavior Sampling Empathize

• Draw The Experience Empathize
• Contextual Interviews Empathize / Define
• Empathy Interviews Empathize / Define
• Personal Inventory Empathize / Define
• Journal Study Empathize / Define
• Camera Journal Study Empathize / Define
• Focus Groups Empathize / Define
• Conceptual Landscapes Empathize / Define
• Collaborative Mind Mapping Empathize / Define
• Random Name Generation Empathize / Define
• Collage Empathize / Define
• Behavioral Interviews Empathize / Define / Test
• Narration Empathize / Define / Test
• Foreign Correspondents Empathize / Define / Test
• Card Sort Empathize / Define / Test
• Free Listing Empathize / Define / Test
• Word Concept Association Empathize / Define / Test
• Extreme User Interviews Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Collaborative Sketching Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Participatory Design Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Five Whys Define / Test
• Why-How Laddering Define / Test
• Primary Quant Research Define / Test
• Kano Analysis Define / Test
• Unfocus Groups Define / Ideate / Test
• Stoke Ideate

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 The Experiment Methods

The Experiment Methods ould i lude the follo i g…

• Empathy Tools Empathize / Define

• Role-Playing / Informance Empathize / Ideate / Test
• Try It Yourself Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Bodystorming Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• User Testing Define / Test
• Scenario Testing Define / Test
• Usability Testing Define / Test
• Café Testing Define / Test
• User Scenarios Define / Ideate / Test

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The Study Methods

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 The Study Methods (cont.)
The Study Methods ould i lude the follo i g…

• Persona Empathize
• Empathy Map Empathize
• Secondary Research Empathize / Define
• Affinity Analysis Empathize / Define
• Storytelling Empathize / Ideate
• Storyboarding Empathize / Ideate
• Barrier & Trend Mapping Empathize / Ideate
• Metaphor Mapping Empathize / Ideate
• Desired Experience Model Empathize / Ideate
• Stakeholder Analysis Empathize / Ideate
• Saturate and Group Empathize / Ideate
• Story Share and Capture Empathize / Ideate
• Brainstorming Empathize / Ideate
• Piggybacking Empathize / Ideate
• Cross-Cultural Comparisons Empathize / Define / Ideate
• Concept Models Empathize / Define / Ideate
• What? How? Why? Empathize / Define / Ideate
• Activity Analysis Empathize / Define / Test
• Alignment Model Empathize / Define / Test
• Ecosystem Visualization Empathize / Define / Test
• Cognitive Task Analysis Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Process Flow Analysis Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Swim Lanes Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Anthropometric Analysis Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Error Analysis Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Value Webs Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• 2x2 Matrix Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Position Map Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Analogous Empathy Empathize / Define / Ideate / Test
• Begi e s Mi dset Define
• Six Thinking Hats Define
• Point of View Madlibs Define
• Point of View Analogy Define
• Point of View Want Ads Define

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 The Study Methods (cont.)
• Critical Reading Checklist Define
• Competitive Product Survey Define / Ideate
• Historical Analysis Define / Ideate
• Era Maps Define / Ideate
• Long Range Forecasts Define / Ideate
• P edi t Ne t Yea s Headli es Define/ Ideate
• Tangible Futures Define / Ideate
• Collaborative Inspection Define / Test
• Rapid Facilitation Ideate
• Constraint Imposition Ideate
• HMW? Questions Ideate
• Powers of Ten Ideate
• Backcasting Ideate
• Collaborative Sketchboards Ideate
• Brand Swap Ideate
• Design The Box Ideate
• Indirect Benchmark Ideate / Test
• Scenario Planning Ideate / Test
• Concept Videos Ideate / Test
• I Like, I Wish, What If Ideate / Test
• Feedback Capture Grid Ideate / Test

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 Prototyping for Design Thinking –
The Role of Prototypes in Design Thinking
Prototyping is fundamental to the Design Thinking process!

It should not be thought of as a discrete series of steps that a team will take, but rather as a way of thinking and
working that must permeate everything they do together. It allows Innovators to move ideas and concepts out
of their heads and out into the open – tangible artifacts in the physical world that other people can see, hear,
feel, smell, and possibly even taste.

Twelve Purposes for Prototyping

In Design Thinking prototyping is actually used for a very broad set of purposes.

Traditionally, whenever people were asked about

prototyping, most would offer a very R&D-type
answer, stating that prototyping is used to validate
the technical feasibility and functionality of
product designs. While that is true, and at least
partially correct, in Design Thinking prototyping is
used for much, much more than that.

In fact, prototyping is used for twelve (12) specific

reasons and purposes in Design Thinking.

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 Twelve Purposes for Prototyping (cont.)
These 12 purposes are:

1. Build to Learn: Build p otot pes to i ui e a d o se e… to lea e thi gs ith a Begi e s Mi d.

2. Build to Empathize: Build prototypes to develop an understanding of the customer and of their world /
situation / problem. May be replications of things observed in the field so as to li e i the o e s self.

3. Build to Clarify: Build prototypes to test hypotheses about the customer and their situation / problem. May
be used to engage customers in a new simulated environment using a new prototype artifact.

4. Build to Think: Build p otot pes pu el to e gage the i d s a al sis & s thesis e gi e . Ha i g
so ethi g to tu o e i o e s ha ds helps the i d to ette u de sta di g a o ept. As the i d
suggests new thoughts, go prototype them to see what comes of them. Even if nothing, it will keep the
mind exploring for more new ideas.

5. Build to Engage: Beyond problem clarification, build prototypes to engage customers in all manner of
conversations and collaborations; draw them into both the problem exploration and solution ideation work
via prototypes.

6. Build to Collaborate: Build prototypes to create together, to learn together, to resolve ambiguity together,
to ideate together, and to test together. Make in-situ prototyping a core element of collaborating in teams
and with customers.

7. Build to Communicate: Build prototypes to help team members communicate their insights, findings, and
ideas with one another so that as a team they can deepen their shared understanding of the meaning of
these things.

8. Build to Compare: Build prototypes to undertake comparative benchmarking between proposed new
solutio s a d e isti g su ogate solutio s. Figu e out ho to sol e usto e s p o le s ette , faste ,
cheaper, and hipper.

9. Build to Iterate: Build frugal prototypes – quick & dirty versions – to test ideas quickly and cost-effectively
to learn what does not work and why. Rinse and repeat often to achieve convergence.

10. Build to Decide: Build prototypes to enable a team to come together and synthesize their insights and
findings so that collectively they can make the necessary decisions they must to move their efforts forward
toward convergence.

11. Build to Prove: Build high-fidelity prototypes to validate the customer-efficacy and functional performance
of new solution ideas.

12. Build to Inspire: Build prototypes to cast a vision that speaks to our shared humanity and compels us to
move forward.

The more an Innovation Team builds and uses prototypes, the more it will
discover just how powerful they really are.

And as they set about building these different prototypes, they will often find
that a given prototype can be purposed for any number of the above aims,
aki g the et all the o e e satile a d i pa tful to the tea s effo ts.

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 Prototyping Types & Concepts
There are likewise a number of key types of prototypes, as well as concepts which relate to prototyping in
Design Thinking. Some of these are as follows.

Prototyping Types & Concepts:

• Prototype With A Purpose – One-Factor-At-A-Time (OFAT) Testing

Testing that focuses on a single variable or issue the team wishes to prototype and test around. This helps
the team manage its solution development / exploration / convergence process by breaking down its larger
problem into a series of smaller, more easily tested sub-problems.

• Prototype Fidelity & Resolution

Prototypes range in fidelity from low to high. Fidelity should be commensurate with the needs a team is
trying to fill, which usually relates to where they are in the progression of their project. Early on, when trying
to test hypotheses via customer interaction with mock-ups, the mock-ups should be simple and coarse, so
they can build new ones on the fly to rapidly explore new theories. Toward the end, where they are trying to
validate competing solution concepts, the prototypes will need to be high in fidelity with more accurate
functionality. In between, the prototypes will need to have an intermediate level of fidelity. Teams must
match the resolution to the need, but otherwise keep the resolution as low as possible so that they can
explore the problem and opportunity space as broadly as possible.

• Conceptual Prototypes
Any prototype – usually a diagrammatic or schematic drawing – illustrating a conceptualization of something,
ofte of so e la ge s ste o similar construct. These can be used either
to describe and analyze current states, or to conceive and design new versions.

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 Prototyping Types & Concepts (cont.)
• Paper Prototypes
Prototypes built using paper, markers, Post-it™ Notes, a d othe si ple D aterials that let people easily
organize their thoughts, articulate ideas and concepts, visualize abstract concepts together, and brainstorm
new insights together – all so that they can collaboratively explore a question or concept together. The
simplicity of these prototypes allows them to quickly explore and evaluate numerous concepts together, with
little cost and no risk. Often the natural starting place from which teams kick-start their Design Thinking
work, as they engage with customers and one another to better flesh out their problem and opportunity
spaces.

• Frugal Prototypes / Quick & Dirty Prototypes

Any prototype one is able to build quickly and easily using materials readily available to them. They allow
teams to quickly assemble variations on an idea or concept to share in their work. Though low in fidelity,
they are still very capable of communicating the idea or concept effectively. This lets teams interact with
customers and their own members to quickly evaluate and refine ideas and concepts.

• Scale Model Prototypes

Any prototype that makes use of a scaled version of an item so as to bring the problem space into a size
proportion that teams can most effectively study. Scaling can be either up (of a very small item) or down (of
a very large item) – in both cases bringing the item into a scale teams can easily handle and manipulate. By
studying the situation at a scale they can wrap their arms and minds around, teams are able to identify and
confirm key issues, as well as to collectively explore new options for solutions that better meet the needs at
hand.

• Appea a e / Looks-Like P otot pes

Any prototype that physically simulates the appearance of some real item. They generally do not possess full
functionality. Their aim is to understand the extent to which their appearance conveys the intended message
and expectations to those who will purchase and/or use them. Teams can use these wherever they need to
gather input and feedback on the appearance of an artifact.

• Wizard of Oz Prototypes
Any prototype in which some aspect of the functionality a team wishes to test with customers has been
faked. They can be very useful whenever a team needs to learn more about a particular area of functionality
before they are prepared to invest the time, effort, and cost needed to actually produce that functionality in
its true form.

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 Prototyping Types & Concepts (cont.)
• Fu tio al / Wo ks-Like P otot pes
Any prototype that provides the full functionality of a real system, possibly through the same mechanisms as
the real system would. They often look nothing at all like a finished product would, but nevertheless are
useful for evaluating the functional performance of various concepts. Teams might use them for the final
test step in their Value Definition work, where they are attempting to understand the functional performance
of different solution concepts. They are generally necessary if a team is to be able to make accurate
comparative evaluations between competing concepts and thereby find the one best solution for their
challenge.

• Behavioral Prototypes
Any prototype used to ascertain the behaviors of customers, typically in the context of how they interact with
a particular product, service, or experience. Teams use these in their empathy work to study, learn, and
understand customer behaviors and the reasons behind them; in their define work to test customer
behaviors against certain hypotheses and test for validity; in their ideate work to help stimulate the
brainstorming of new solution concepts; and in their test work to test out various solution concepts with
customers.

• Experience Prototypes
Any prototype used to simulate a customer experience and/or the immersive environment in which that
experience takes place. They are very useful for facilitating Bodystorming. Being able to appreciate and
evaluate a particular experience – set in its proper environment – demands that it be prototyped and staged
for customers to explore and experience firsthand. The prototype must thus be capable of projecting a high
degree of perceived realism to those who encounter them, meaning the artifacts used must be capable of
seeming real, and the people who deliver them must be capable of portraying real delivers.

• User-Driven Prototypes
Any situation where actual users are engaged in the design and development of prototypical solutions to
their needs. These prototypes can be very effective at efle ti g use s e tal model of the situation. Here,
a team gains insights not only from observing users use a prototype, but more importantly, from observing
them create the prototype – watching very carefully what they create and how they create it, and then
finding out why they created what they did. This reveals immense insights into how they see the problem,
how they think it should be solved, and why they think it should be so solved. By looking at how the user
thinks about solving the problem, and by understanding the reasons behind that, a team is able to gain deep
i sights i to the use s ps he so that the a ette u de sta d the fundamental needs, desires,
aspirations, priorities, values, and beliefs involved.

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 Prototype Usage & Fidelity
Innovation Teams – in the course of carrying out the Design Thinking process – will in fact build all manner of
prototypes… p otot pes the ill use to:

• Test out their hypotheses by running

business experiments.

• Refine their Point of View

and Design Principles.

• Visualize and communicate

different solution concepts.

• Validate certain of those

solution concepts.

These prototypes will range from:

• The lowest-fidelity paper prototypes used to create

shared understandings.

• To medium-fidelity prototypes that allow team members and customers to

try things out.

• To high-fidelity prototypes capable of validating the

technical performance and efficacy of different solutions.

Whatever the need, there is an appropriate type of prototype to satisfy it.

Innovation Teams will therefore use prototypes throughout their Design Thinking journey.

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 Prototyping Value & Necessity
Prototyping is often one of the easiest and yet most productive
things teams will do, yielding paybacks many times the time,
effort, and cost involved. By removing ambiguity, and by creating
tangible shared understandings of new concepts between the
many stakeholders in a project, it makes the innovation process
far better and far less risky, and thus far more intelligent in its
approach.

Innovation Teams must always, therefore, resist the temptation

to rush through the process and skip the prototyping work,
believing erroneously that they can achieve the same outcome via
mental and verbal exercises. They cannot skip this process.
Instead, they must resolve to do the prototyping e ui ed… to
put in their time at the Prototype Lab making whatever it is that is
needed to ad a e thei tea ’s ause.

There is a philosophy amongst some startup investors that they

will not invest in a new business ventures if the founders do not
have di t u de the fi ge ails . What this means for Innovation
Team is that everyone on the team must be knee-deep in the
prototyping trenches ensuring their team is as much of a maker
as it is a thinker. Design doing… ot just Design Thinking.

Prototyping for Design Thinking – A Way of Life

Understanding these things, Innovation Teams have no excuse.
They have to make prototyping – and testing – a foundational
way of life in their work. They have to infuse the mentality of
he i dou t, p otot pe a d test into every step of their
journey. They have to take action. Simply talking about
prototypes will not put something tangible in front of themselves
or their customers. They have to get some di t u de the
fi ge ails , prototyping early and prototyping often.

When teams succeed at prototyping and testing, their businesses succeed at innovation. And their markets –
and the customers who make up those markets – will thank them by opening up their purses and buying those
new innovations.

This all begins, however, with openly adopting the mantra, Whe i dou t, p otot pe a d test.

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 Additional Considerations about Design Thinking
In addition to the details explained above in the context of each stage of the Design Thinking
process, there are also some further important considerations to be aware of relating to the
use of Design Thinking and its underlying HCD philosophy.

These are:

1. The Design Thinking process requires a certain amount of time to execute.

Generally speaking, it cannot be rushed if it is to succeed. The additional months it may require is typically
more than made up for by the years of languishing market failures it avoids.

2. Design Thinking is very well suited to any situation in which the business wishes to take the time to define,
develop, and deliver a truly breakthrough new solution to some unmet or unsatisfied customer need.

3. Businesses should not attempt to a the Design Thinking process inside their routine Product
Development programs. It is usually not well suited to those endeavors, as they demand a fast pace with
quick convergence, usually deriving from a linear extrapolation of an existing Value Proposition and its
associated product/service offerings. The Design Thinking process typically requires more time than those
endeavors are able to allocate, and is focused on reframing problems into new problems, as opposed to
simply executing further on an existing need-solution relationship.

4. Businesses should, however, strive to institutionalize a Desig Thi ki g a of life into the culture and
activities of their organizations. This would be one where they operate perpetually out of a mindset of
empathy for their customers and, wherever possible, strive to reframe perceived problems into real
problems (if only in their heads) so as to get at fundamentally better solutions.

5. Throughout the Design Thinking process – and particularly in the Problem Clarity and Value Definition stages
– the use of the five Discovery Skills will be constantly called upon.
These play a critical role in being able to execute HCD well.

6. Each step of this process – and the process as a whole – must be allowed to be highly iterative in nature.
This is particularly true in the convergent stages. Since new things are constantly being learned throughout
the process, the team will sometimes have to step back and revisit a prior decision before moving on to the
next stage. Design Thinking is therefore not a linear process.

7. It is best to use imagination and creativity in their respective places – where they each best serve the
process. Imagination is the domain of imagining numerous different ideal future states – useful for forming
hypotheses. Creativity is the domain of resourcefully contemplating any number of new solutions – used
for brainstorming solution concepts.
When used in their respective places, both of these mental processes serve the exercise well.

8. The mode of operating in which one marries the Human-Centered Design philosophy to Customer
Experience thoughtfulness can be thought of as Experience Thinking – always thinking of the optimal set of
touchpoints to deliver the ideal brand experience for this customer segment and its particular needs and
motivations.

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 Additional Considerations About Design Thinking
(cont.)
Businesses should therefore strive to embed the HCD philosophy and way of thinking into their corporate
psyches and business cultures, and should otherwise explicitly apply the Design Thinking process to wherever
they need to define a breakthrough solution to a potential new market opportunity. In so doing, they must give
their Innovation Teams the headroom and the elbow room they need to hypothesize, observe, question,
experiment, network, brainstorm, and test possible new solutions for these opportunities, including the room
to occasionally fail in the process and certainly the room to iterate the process as much as they need in order to
get at the right answers they feel comfortable moving forward with.

If the business can provide the support and air cover these teams need to carry out this process, and to carry it
out well, the process will reward them accordingly with numerous market successes. Businesses should
therefore seek to master the Design Thinking process, particularly within their Innovation Teams.

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 Design Thinking – Summary
As revealed here, Design Thinking is an incredibly powerful approach to tackling problems from a user-centered
perspective.

By providing businesses with an underlying philosophy (HCD), a process (the Double Diamond), and plethora of
supporting Design Methods, it e po e s tea s to uild a d test h potheses a out thei usto e s p o le so
that they can solve it in the absolute best possible manner – producing new innovations with the capability to
truly resonate with these customers.

Businesses should seriously consider, therefore, making Design Thinking the cornerstone approach to
innovation work in their business, particularly if their sell offerings used directly by people.

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 LESSON 12
The Innovation Manager

Grand Masters of the New

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 What an Innovation Manager Is
Innovation Managers are the first line of leadership i d i i g a usi ess innovation program forward.

Just as the journey to becoming an Innovation Professional was an exciting one, the journey to becoming an
Innovation Manager is an equally exciting one. There are all new insights to gain, new skills to master, and the
ongoing joy of helping your organization remain on the on the leading edge of hat’s e i the o ld.

For those individuals ready to take this next step in their innovation career, this can be an incredibly fulfilling
role. As an Innovation Manager, you will continue being the pioneer, the explorer, and the maverick, but now
you will step out front in a very visible and vocal way driving innovation within and across your business.

This is the opportunity to demonstrate both leadership skills and business acumen, and to make a name for
ou self a o gst the usi ess legio s of i o ato s! At this le el, ou usi ess success or failure with
innovation will rest increasingly upon your shoulders. You will become one of its flagbearers, carrying the cause
of innovation forward into the unknown of its future in the business.

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 What an Innovation Manager Does
In most organizations, the Innovation Manager will serve in one of two ke oles… Project Leader or Program
Leader. Occasionally an Innovation Manager may serve in both of these capacities at once, or may oscillate
back and forth between them as needs dictate and opportunities allow.

The role of Innovation Project Leader is focused on leading specific innovation projects through the sequence
of steps they need to go through to produce a successful outcome at the end. This involves all of their front end
work, mid zone work, and back end work, as well as leading their teams through the several phase-gate
milestone reviews the project will have along the way. We will explore this role further in the context of how to
run and lead innovation projects.

The role of Innovation Program Leader is focused on helping the business drive its innovation program forward
to be productive and effective and to realize the objectives the business has set for it. There are two key tasks
that the Innovation Program Leader must take on. First is the task of driving broad engagement in the
innovation program across the organization (and in some cases even from outside the organization). Second is
the task of accumulating, aggregating, and evaluating the new ideas and opportunities that engagement
produces, as well as helping to drive and facilitate the selection process for choosing those that will become
actual innovation projects. We will explore this role further, primarily in the context of running the Evaluation &
Selection process.

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 Effective Innovation Managers
In terms of what makes for an effective Innovation Manager, it largely depends on which of these two roles the
manager is going to assume, as their different activities demand different sets of skills.

Fo P oje t Leade s…

This role requires an individual who has participated in numerous past innovation projects and therefore
understands the process and cycle well. It also demands a broad range of skills – organizing, detail-orientation,
business acumen, diplomacy, upward influence, networking, and a detailed knowledge of how to drive
innovation projects.

This role also e ui es o e othe e i po ta t skill… selling, because the Project Leader will inevitably have to
play e a gelist for the project at times, selling it in and across the business, including to many individuals
higher in the organization than themselves.

Fo P og a Leade s…

Task 1 (engagement) requires a resourceful leader and enthusiastic cheerleader.

Task 2 (evaluation & selection) requires a broad range of skills – open-mindedness, diplomacy, business
acumen, objectivity, upward influence, detail-orientation, organizing, networking, and a general knowledge of
how to drive innovation projects.

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LESSON 13
Leading & Building
Core Innovation Teams

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 Leading Core Innovation Teams
Core Innovation Teams are special dedicated teams whose sole job is to a out the usi ess a
innovation projects. Thei sole fo us is the usi ess innovation program; they do not work on projects outside
of that program.

Each team will typically only take on one project at a time so that they can remain focused on driving it through
to fruition as quickly as possible.

Most of the projects these teams will take on are focused on Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 initiatives for delivering
breakthrough and disruptive innovation.

Core Innovation Teams tend to be made up of approximately four role types:

1. Innovation Professionals – representing a broad cross-section of functions.

2. Innovation Strategists – potentially, to help drive the needfinding strategies.
3. Certain types of Innovation or Technical Specialists – as needed according to the p oje t s fo us.
4. An Innovation Manager.

As might be expected, these members all tend to be very creative and entrepreneurial.

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 Leading Core Innovation Teams (cont.)
The Innovation Manager will serve as Team Leader,
and will generally manage the project the team has
been assigned.

They will inherently therefore manage the team as it

executes the project.

Members of this team may report directly to the

Team Leader, or may be matrixed between this
individual and a functional manager.

Also, while most of the members of these teams will operate at their center, there may be other roles, such as
Innovation Facilitators, Innovation Mentors, and Innovation Mavericks for example – that operate at their
periphery, perhaps moving around and engaging with different Innovation Teams as needed (like an internal
consultant).

Core Innovation Teams often belong to a centralized innovation function within the business. They need not
however. They can belong to certain functional groups or business units. They sometimes take the place of
traditional R&D teams that would otherwise be focused on just organic development, or they otherwise
augment such teams.

Over the course of their careers, Innovation Managers

will be afforded the chance to lead and manage
numerous innovation projects and teams.
Eventually they will become very proficient at this.

Functioning as both team and project leader demands

certain skills of the Innovation Manager, namely:

• organization and project management

• people management
• leadership
• business acumen
• finance and accounting
• upward influence
• and more.

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 Building a Core Innovation Team
Innovation Managers also need to know how to build
effective Core Innovation Teams and what sorts of skills,
attitudes, dispositions, personalities, and so forth, make for
great Innovation Teams. One cannot simply piece together a
team at random and hope that it works out. Rather,
Innovation Teams must be carefully and intentionally
populated with the right mix of skills, dispositions, and
personalities so as to be most effective. Building such teams
is therefore a bit of an art, though certainly one that can be
developed by astute Team Leaders.

The make-up of a Core Innovation Team has to be carefully

designed and orchestrated in order to bring together just the
right mix and balance of skills, personalities, and styles. Its
members should include dreamers, designers, strategists,
and doers. They tend to be a collection of a e eeds .
And some will in fact be true mavericks.

Personality-wise, these teams must be capable of gelling as a

creative force, in order that they can become productive at
discovering new insights and conceiving new solutions that
typical everyday teams would never touch.

As has been repeatedly demonstrated in numerous organizations around the world, the best innovation work
(for the Front End and Mid Zone) happens in small, autonomous, well-designed teams. Core Innovation Teams
should therefore be kept relatively small in size – typically 6 - 7 members at max.

They should also be given considerable latitude and autonomy in how they go about conducting their work and,
to some extent, the paths they take with the innovation. Micro-managing is a surefire way to squelch their
creativity and the quality of their work. But this also requires the members of the teams to be of a certain
caliber in terms of business acumen and skill capability.

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 Building a Core Innovation Team (cont.)
So what do we look for when trying to build these Core Innovation Teams?

The following list of eighteen (18) criteria are key guidelines the Innovation
Manager should follow whenever attempting to build out a new Innovation Team
and find the right players for the team:

Guidelines for Building a Core Innovation Team

1. Members of the team should be naturally curious and given to exploration and
discovery… people ho a e al a s questioning things and wanting to know
h ? a d h ot?

2. Members of the team should be highly experiential… those illi g to pu sue

all manner of new and different life experiences for the sake of learning and
g o th th ough a jou e . These a e ofte ot ou safe, o di a people .

3. Members of the team should be intrapreneurs – highly entrepreneurial individuals who think and act like
startup founders… ot usuall fo d of the slo ess a d aste of u eau a ies, o of the sa e ess of
what already exists.

4. Members of the team should be T-shaped or comb-shaped i di iduals… highl a o plished i o e o o e

fields of specialization, but otherwise incredibly broad in their understanding of the world, the business, and
how both operate.

5. Members of the team should have cultivated large personal networks – innovation is often realized out of
who they know and not just what they know.

6. Teams should be peppered with mavericks (either from the inside or the outside), particularly if they are
being tasked with pursuing breakthrough innovations. Mavericks will help to halle ge the tea s thi ki g,
and will definitely challenge the current status quo in the business.

7. The team should include at least one great storyteller (if not more). Finding the right inspiration for new
innovation is often sparked through great storytelling. It also allows the team be able to communicate the
p oje t s value proposition to other stakeholders in the most effective manner possible.

8. The team should have a mix of both social backgrounds (race, culture, ethnicity, gender) and functional
backgrounds (finance, design, engineering, marketing, etc.). Cross-pollination tends to produce broader
and more heterogeneous thinking than does homogeneity.

9. Though not always necessary, the team will benefit from having a mix of brain-dominance patterns as well
as a mix of personality types. A strong leader may be able to overcome imbalances in these areas however.

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 Building a Core Innovation Team (cont.)
Guidelines for Building a Core Innovation Team (continued)

10. The team can benefit from a mix of different imagination and creativity skills
amongst its members. Having, for example, certain ones strong in unstructured
exploration and others strong in Lateral Thinking can produce a useful
symbiosis that helps the team explore and ideate more broadly than it might
otherwise.

11. The team should have a mix of discovery skills – observing, questioning, experimenting, networking, and
associating – as reflected in The I o ato s DNA – if it is to be able uncover gaps and opportunities most
effectively.

12. The team must have a mix of hard innovation skills so eti es efe ed to as the igge o . Colle ti el
as a team, they must be able to ideate, analyze, strategize, experiment, and ultimately execute.

13. The team must know how to uncover gaps in the market (unmet needs), as well as how to turn these gaps
into new opportunities (ways to meet the needs). This means a certain proficiency level in Market, User,
and Design Research.

14. Every member of the team must have absolute commitment to the issio … so- alled ski i the ga e .
Half-hearted commitments are often a precursor to failure. Success demands that everyone on the team is
all in.

15. The team must have set objectives and its progress against those objectives regularly measured by
someone outside the team. If they understand and sign-up to these objectives, they will not view them as a
threat to their autonomy.

16. Teams must be able to induce productive conflict while avoiding unproductive conflict.
This means that each team member has to sign on to a disag ee ut espe t attitude toward one another.

17. The team must have a single leader, and this individual must be given the autonomy they need to lead the
team. This person will generally be an Innovation Manager, often the one who is building the team.

18. The team – and in particular its leader – must have street smarts a d k o ho to ta kle & lo k i o de
to protect its project from the corporate antibodies that it will inevitably encounter whenever its project
comes up against the entrenched forces within the organization that view their project as a threat to their
way of life (not unlike an infection). This requires particularly strong skills in persuasion, diplomacy, and
upward influence if the team is to ultimately succeed in its mission.

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 Building a Core Innovation Team (cont.)
Begin by searching out professionals who are otherwise accomplished in their particular field of specialization,
but who also are:

• T-Shaped or comb-shaped i di iduals, a d…

• Naturally given to Discovery Skills.

These are often described as highly curious

individuals, constantly questioning things and
a ti g to k o h ? a d h ot?

They also tend to be highly experiential people,

willing to pursue all sorts of new and different life
experiences for the sake of learning and growth
through various life journeys.

They are often not hat o e thi ks of as o di a people .

Recalling the five (5) Innovation Discovery Skills that were

documented in the book
The I o ato ’s DNA by Dyer, Gregerson, and Ch iste se …

Look for a mix of strengths in these five skills, and make up your
teams accordingly!

The Five Discovery Skills Are:

1. Observing

2. Questioning

3. Experimenting

4. Networking

5. Associating Connecting the dots!

Associating is literally what is meant by o e ti g the dots !

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 Building a Core Innovation Team (cont.)
You also need to develop a team of individuals here who bring some street smarts and know how to ta kle &
lo k in order to protect certain innovation projects.

Inevitably in the course of t i g to ad a e e tai i o atio p oje ts…

particularly those focused on disruptive innovations...

those very counter to the urre t ay of doi g thi gs…

those which may even be seen as a threat to the current Foundations of Value
that some people wrap their jo se urity arou d…

… the teams pursuing them will come up against internal organizational opposition – known as
the e te p ise s a ti odies agai st i fe tio .

This team, and in particular its leaders, must know how to work through this to ensure projects keep moving
forward. This takes a certain skillset and often a lot of upward influence.

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 Example: Core Innovation Team:
HP Wearables and Smart Platform Team
An excellent example of o e o pa s use of a Core Innovation Team comes from HP
Development Company, LP (formally known as just HP , founded 1939), the American global
information technology company.

In a move to pursue a completely different sort of business model in the wearables / smart
platforms market, HP has established its Wearables and Smart Platform Team.

Given that the $3 Trillion fashion industry is so driven by emotion, the company did not feel that trying to
compete on both technology and fashion, the way other wearable producers like Apple, Samsung, and Pebble
were having to do, would be an effective play on their part. Instead, HP chose a business model based on
partnering with existing leading fashion brands / producers. Thus, the ha ge fo the o pa s Wearables and
Smart Platform Team is to develop new applications of its technologies for these existing fashion products.

In order to do this, the group operates autonomously and has adopted an early-stage startup model, where
everyone on the team must think and act like an intrapreneur.

The g oup s fi st pilot project was the Michael Bastian Chronowing smartwatch.

I the futu e, the usi ess i te tio s a e to pu sue e eddi g thei te h olog i
a broad array of fashion products, including watches, bags, clothing, shoes, and
other smart accessories.

To help promote this partnering business model, the company is branding it as E gi ee ed

HP te h olog , and states its purpose is to ake hat s al ead highl desi a le smarter.

Reference: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/innovation/overview.html

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 LESSON 14
The Innovation Manager
as Project Leader

Driving Focused Innovation

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving Focused Innovation – Introduction
The Innovation Project Leader serves a critical role in the business. Their job is to drive the
focused innovation work within individual projects required to produce certain outcomes,
typically the commercialization or implementation of a new innovation.

To do this, the Project Leader has to be able to lead both the innovation project itself and
the Innovation Team who will be carrying out the project.

From the project standpoint, the Project Leader will often lead an innovation project from start to finish,
evolving its team as needed over the course of the project.

They must be capable therefore of leading the project through the entire sequence of steps needed to take it
from opportunity identification to final offering delivery. This is an incredibly broad array of front end, mid
zone, and back end activities and encompasses numerous methods that build upon such fields as psychology,
sociology, anthropology, design, finance, marketing, branding, advertising, sales, engineering, manufacturing,
quality, and more. The Project Leader must therefore be an incredibly broad, knowledgeable individual in this
context.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving Focused Innovation – Intro (cont.)
On a tactical level, the Innovation Project Leader has to be able to lead their team through the numerous phase-
gate milestone reviews the project will encounter on its way to implementation. This requires an individual
who has participated in numerous past innovation projects and therefore understands this process and cycle
well. Other tactical skills required include detail-orientation, organizing, project management, and a detailed
knowledge of the many ways innovation projects can be driven and executed.

On a more strategic level, the Innovation Project Leader has to at times sell their project within and across the
usi ess. This ea s the ill ha e to e a le to pla the ole of e a gelist , ega dless of the le el i the
organization they are addressing. Being able to do this requires a broad collection of skills and capabilities.

• First, they must be an astute business-person with considerable business acumen and the ability to engage
with various stakeholders in the business and speak their language – thus playing the role of diplomat.

• Second, they should have attained the level of respect and regard in the organization needed to have some
degree of upward influence therein. This will have required building a considerable network on their part.

• Third, they must be able to convey a strong sense of confidence in not only themselves but also in their
team, together with the conviction that they and their team will do everything in their power to ensure the
project is executed properly (maximizing its chances of successfully framing the problem, defining the
solution, and executing on the solution).

If they are able to do these things, and to do them with a high level of competence and confidence – then they
should be able to sell their project across the organization and win the support and resources it needs to
survive and thrive. It will still be competing with other projects of course, so this does not mean their project
will not get killed (it may have been built on incorrect suppositions after all), but it does mean the odds of that
happening will be lessened.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving Focused Innovation – Intro (cont.)
From the team standpoint, the Project Leader will lead a periodically evolving team of innovation professionals
– some very accomplished in particular fields. As such, they must be capable of designing, structuring,
organizing, leading, and rallying this team to accomplish each of these steps in a methodical and synergistic
fashion so that their individual work products meld together in a way that allows the project to flow smoothly
along its progression.

Innovation teams will typically involve an incredibly broad array of participants – Futurists, Consumer Insights
Specialists, Market Research Specialists, Branding Specialists, Innovation Facilitators, Designers (of many types),
Engineers (of many types), Test & Validation Specialists, Production Planners and Analysts, Manufacturing &
Quality Specialists, Logistics & Supply Chain Specialists, Sales Specialists, and so on.

Thus the Project Leader must once again be an incredibly broad, knowledgeable individual in this context. A
certain level of maturity, humility, and well-developed people skills are critical for getting the team to function
as effectively as possible.

Integrative Thinkers / Associative Thinkers – those who have an insatiable desire for knowing all the many parts
and pieces of so ethi g a d ho the all o k togethe … ho the all associate and integrate – often make for
some of the best Project Leaders.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Structure the Project
Most innovation projects will follow a similar sequence of steps in order to develop the insights they need, act
on those insights, and ultimately produce a new innovation that speaks to those insights and resonates with
the market.

Most often, that sequence of steps will look something like the following series of steps.

Front End of Innovation

• Identify an unmet, ill-met, or emerging need in the market, or possibly within the business.
• Articulate what opportunity this potentially represents for the business.
• Undertake insights-mining – user research, market research, design research, futuring, etc. – whatever is
required to develop the types of insights the project needs to understand the need better and the potential
opportunity it represents.
• Develop a set of hypotheses around what the real problem might be underlying this need.
• Develop a series of business experiments that can be used to test the various hypotheses and converge on
the one best hypothesis.
• Where needed, create quick simple mock-ups of the different hypotheses.
• Run the business experiments.
• F o the fi di gs of the e pe i e ts, dete i e the o e est h pothesis, a d thus the tea s u de sta di g
of the problem that they will be taking on (it may potentially involve a hybrid of different hypotheses).
Document this in a final problem statement.
• Based o the tea s p o le state e t a d a o e idi g a ket i te t the ust adopt, do u ent the
tea s Poi t of Vie o e i g the eal p o le .
• Define the tea s Desig Principles which their solution must adhere to and the brand experience it must
deliver. These provide the constraints the team is to work with.
• Identify any other attributes the solution must deliver and any other constraints it must contend with.
• Run early financial analysis on what is known thus far. Answer the question of whether or not the findings at
this point reflect a problem that is worth solving for the business.
• Brainstorm / ideate a set of possible solutions capable of delivering against this Point of View and other
attributes / constraints.
• Develop a test plan for testing out the various solution ideas against the Point of View and other attribute /
constraint criteria. The test sequence should reflect actual usage of the solutions as realistically as possible,
including in-context user testing wherever applicable.
• Develop prototypes of each solution idea for testing.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Structure the Project (cont.)
• Run the test plan to test out each solution idea.
• From the findings of the test sequence, determine the one best solution, and thus the
tea s hose path fo a d fo deli e i g a e i o atio that ill add ess the eed ide tified it a
potentially involve a hybrid of solutions). Document this in a final solution statement.
• Develop preliminary designs for this solution and initial estimates of its cost / pricing / profit structure.
• Develop and document the assumptions of the business model associated with delivering this new solution.
• Run preliminary financial analysis on the proposed solution. Answer the question of whether or not the
findings thus far still reflect a problem worth solving for the business, and whether the solution proposed and
its business model will be a profitable one for the business to deliver.
• Present the findings at this point in a phase-gate milestone review. Seek a go / pivot / no-go decision on the
project.
• Circle back and repeat certain steps if required or requested.

Mid Zone of Innovation

• Develop a detailed go-to-market strategy for the new solution.

• Develop a more detailed explanation of the full business model involved.
• Develop a more formal business case / business plan for the project.
• Present these plans and strategies in a phase-gate milestone review. Seek a go / pivot / no-go decision on
continuing the project.
• Circle back and repeat certain steps if required or requested.

Back End of Innovation

• Develop all hard criteria for the new offering involved (product or service) – functional attributes, aesthetic
attributes, experiential attributes, brand attributes, financial attributes, etc.
• Undertake formal work to define, design, and develop the new solution, including everything required to
produce and deliver any new product or service involved.
• Develop a test plan for verifying the design and validating the product against all attribute criteria with the
level of reliability and confidence required for the brand.
• Conduct all design and product testing. Modify the design as required to satisfy all test criteria.
• Plan the introduction / commercialization of the new offering.
• Align all necessary parties – internal and external – for delivering the new offering.
• Present the outcomes up to this point in a phase-gate milestone review. Seek a go / pivot / no-go decision on
continuing the project.
• Circle back and repeat certain steps if required or requested.
• Conduct any pilot phases as intended for the project.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Structure the Project (cont.)
• Present the outcomes of the pilot run in a phase-gate milestone review. Seek a go / pivot
/ no-go decision on continuing the project into full production / delivery.
• Circle back and repeat certain steps if required or requested.
• Turn on full commercialization – production / delivery / marketing / sales / service / etc.

Post-Commercialization

• Monitor the outcomes of the project for some period after commercialization (often 3+
years post-launch).
• Ensure outcomes meet planned expectations.
• If outcomes greatly exceed and miss planned expectations, attempt to understand why and feed this
k o ledge a k i to the usi ess i o atio p o ess.

With experience, Project Leaders will learn to structure the work of their projects around a set of necessary
actions like these.

The actual series of steps that a business prefers to take may vary from business to business, but these are
largely representative of a good innovation process.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Secure Early Wins
Whenever a business is starting anew with an enterprise innovation program, it will need to first start small, find
early wins, and then build up from there. This is a principle that Program Leaders would have been aware of,
and is also a principle that Project Leaders should be aware of.

Thus, if the usi ess i o atio p og a is e , P oje t Leade s a d thei tea s should ot e su p ised if the
charters they are given all involve simple, straightforward, incremental, Horizon 1 innovation projects. They
should understand that their teams first need to run and succeed with these charters before they can be given
more challenging and involved charters.

This has less to do with the Innovation Teams and more to do with the need for the program to demonstrate
wins in the business so that it can sway more of the organization over in its favor. Of course, if the innovation
program is new, it is also likely that the Innovation Teams may also be new, and so it is also an opportunity for
these teams to learn the process by starting out with more straightforward projects so that they can work their
way up to more complex and more challenging projects. Either way, over time the teams will likely be given
more challenging charters, but in the beginning they will all be limited in scope for this reason.

The Project Leaders and Innovation Teams should simply be aware of this, and ensure that they all work
diligently to help produce the early wins needed to gain support for the program, particularly if they hope to be
able to work for the program for a long time to come. If the program can get the support it needs, then in due
season, its portfolio should become much better balanced.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Find the Need
One of the key tasks that the Project Leader will need to drive is needfinding. This largely entails a broad series
of research tasks – many involving fieldwork – that their team will need to undertake, usually with the
assistance of research specialists. The research can involve trend watching / scouting / casting, user research,
market research, design research, and other types of research, as well as internal assessments of certain areas
of the business.

Needfinding is generally in search of a clear understanding of either unmet, ill-met, or newly emerging needs in
the market, or possibly within the business. These needs can stem from many different types of causalities,
such as changing societal desires and expectations, emerging technological capabilities, long-standing
unquestioned assumptions in a market (or the business), shifting consumption patterns regionally or globally,
and/or any combination of these and other factors.

Once a business has identified various needs, it can then test each need against certain criteria (such as financial
return for example) to establish whether or not those needs represent needs that are worth solving for the
business. If they are, then they represent potential new opportunities for the business to go after, assuming the
business is capable of delivering a viable solution against the opportunity.

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 Needfinding – The Hunt for New Opportunity
In order to be able to consistently deliver
new innovations to our markets, we must
engage in an activity called eedfi di g .

The point of needfinding is to discover

new opportunities to deliver innovations that are
right for our business. Each of these new
opportunities has to represent a p o le o th
sol i g for our business and our markets.

But how does one begin their needfinding efforts?

Where do they go to hunt for new opportunities?

The Innovation Hunting Grounds

The way one goes about starting their needfinding work – finding e p o le o th sol i g oppo tu ities
that are right for the business – is by deciding specifically where they want to hunt for these new opportunities.

We call this the Innovation Hunting Grounds, and is

ge e all a pa t of the usi ess Innovation Strategy.

Here, what one has to figure out is where exactly is

the best place to look for new opportunity! What is
the most fertile hunting grounds for us to hunt on?

So, for example… they may have decided in the

context of their Innovation Strategy (explained further
down) that they want to pursue Market Expansion.
The e t uestio the e o es… Okay… ithi the
whole of the realm of possibility for Market Expansion, specifically what opportunities are there for us to take
our brand and know-how i to e a kets? The fact is, there may actually be scores of different
opportunities that a business could pursue, but most likely the majority of those would not be right for the
business – for a multitude of reasons. So this becomes an exercise in exploring multiple new opportunities in
the search for that one ideal opportunity that best fits the business and its Innovation Strategy – as well as its
broader corporate strategy.

That is what the Hunting Grounds is all about. Thus, the uestio is eall o e of… spe ifi all what are we
looking for?

A usi ess Innovation Hunting Grounds serves as an important key element of its overall Innovation Strategy.

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 Hunting Grounds – Two Sides
One can think of the Innovation Hunting Grounds as a coin with two sides.

There is both a strategic element and an opportunistic element to the

Innovation Hunting Grounds.

These are like the two sides of a coin.

On the strategic side, our top-level business strategy must dictate

which opportunities are and are not right for our business. In this
sense, it bounds the range of opportunities that we will consider.

But we cannot find all new opportunities from a purely strategic

approach.

Instead, our search must be also be a very opportunistic one…

hunting until we find the right new opportunities that can reconnect
our business with its markets at a higher level of value.

We refer to this – especially when hunting for opportunities to

deliver radical new breakthrough innovation – as exploring the
opportunity white space around us.

Very often, these will appear in unexpected ways, from unexpected

sources, or at unexpected times. We should be prepared to tap into
these in a very opportunistic manner when they do occur.

This is the opportunistic side of the coin.

A Problem Worth Solving – Two Sides

Ultimately, we will have to decide for each new opportunity whether or not it is a problem worth solving by
looking at it from both sides of the coin – both strategically and opportunistically – all of which should be
i fo ed …
Where our markets are headed!

Fortunately, there are many ways for exploring our hunting grounds to find new needs and opportunities.

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 Asking Questions
We go on the hunt by asking questions…

lots of questions…

of many different kinds!

Questions to Ask
To start with… so e of the key questions we need to go about asking should include the following.

For Today…

• Where are the markets greatest needs – both now and

in the foreseeable future?

• This requires them to step back and have a lot of empathy

for their customers – what is the usto e s ultimate need?

It may even mean that they need to stop wrestling with the same
questions they have been wrestling with, and see if perhaps there
might be an even more fundamental question that they should be
wrestling with – one that challenges the underlying assumptions and
orthodoxies of a prevailing business model.

If so, then that in and of itself may unlock some major new opportunity space.

And then – o ti ui g o ith thei uestio i g…

For Tomorrow…

• What are the pertinent trends they should be looking at?

– Societal, political, regulatory, technological, economic,
environmental, and otherwise.

• And… how do these trends impact the shared trajectory

they and their customers are on?

These are all very pertinent questions that a business has to examine in its hunt for new opportunity.

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 Questions to Ask (cont.)
Going even further yet, when examining a particular opportunity, they have to ask this question:

• Why is the problem that we want to tackle a

real problem for our customers?

• What is the pain …the o su e tension

(or friction …the big but ? Where do they say,
I a t to do X, ut I a ’t e ause of Y ?

These friction spots are often the places where an enterprise

will find opportunities to deliver significant new innovation,
taking them ever close to the utopia o ept of…

The Frictionless Economy!

Next, the business should consider these questions:

• Do we really understand the outcomes our customers need?

• Do we really understand their motivations behind those?

Do we really know what jo s our customers are trying to

get done toward those outcomes?

What is called Jobs-To-Be-Done Theory.

Ultimately, getting down the outcomes that our customers are seeking, and their motivations behind those
outcomes, and then clearly understanding the jobs they have to do in order to achieve those outcomes – which
jobs are most important and which are least well served – provides the business with some very clear clues as
to where to go looking.

This may require the use of a certain type of market clustering that derives from what is called Outcome-Driven
Innovation, or ODI.

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 Questions to Ask (cont.)
All along in this process, very important – especially as the business begins to home in on some specific
opportunities – is the idea that…

They have to accept the fact that they probably do not understand
the real p o le behind the problem .

The real problem is probably something more fundamental than how they are seeing it now, as was pointed out
earlier in the lesson on 10X Breakthrough Solutions.

So, if that really is the case, then how does one get there? How do they peel back the layers of the onion and
get down to the real problem behind the problem that they perceive?

The answer to that question is (ironically … by asking lots of questions… lots of really good questions, as the
following examples will demonstrate.

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 Questions to Ask (cont.)
Co side the follo i g e a ples…

Edwin Land was asked by his four-year-old daughter the question:

Dadd … WHY do we have to wait fo the pi tu e?
Edwin went on to invent the Polaroid Instant Camera and
to build a major business around it.

Brian Chesky, Job Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk asked the sel es the uestio : WHY
should you be stuck without a bed if I’ e got an extra air mattress?

Brian, Job, and Nathan went on to found Airbnb.

Will Glaser, Jon Kraft, and Tim Westergren asked the question:
WHAT if we could map the DNA of usi ?

Will, Jon, and Tim went on to found Pandora, the internet radio company.

Similarly, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph –

frustrated and fed up with the incessant late fees that
Blockbuster Video was charging them – asked the question:
WHY should I have to pay late fees?

Reed and Marc went on to found Netflix, the streaming video provider.

What all four of these examples share in common is that a major new opportunity for innovation was
discovered when industry outsiders chose to no longer wrestle with the same questions that incumbent
industry players e e estli g ith… hen they chose to ignore those questions and instead focus on a more
foundational question – one that had previously underpinned the assumptions aked i to the i u e ts
business models.

In each case, these innovators came up with either a new product or a new business model that fundamentally
disrupted the standing value proposition. All of them opened up major new opportunities by getting down to
the real problem behind a perceived problem.

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 Questions to Ask (cont.)
Yet another question the organization should be asking…

• What resources do we have or can we generate?

• What do we have to work with?

But they should not let this limit them!

It may be that they simply have not come upon yet the most
impactful combination of those resources.

So, one must consider many possible new combinations and

applications of resources in their hunt.

Similarly, another question the organization should be asking…

• Who else delivers a similar service and/or experience?

• How do they do it differently that we might emulate, perhaps in combination
– what is called a mash up?

This requires the business to use associative thinking.

Consider the following example.

In 2015, the French budget airline Transavia began marketing snack products in supermarkets and vending
machines that included on the packaging vouchers for discounted flights to Lisbon, Barcelona, or Dublin.

This was a mash-up on making the purchase of a holiday ticket as commodity of an action as buying a snack
product.

It turned into actually a very successful campaign, selling a large number of additional holiday tickets.

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 Questions to Ask (cont.)
Likewise, yet another question the organization should be asking…

• Who else might we partner with to create even more value and better experiences?
• Is there an Open Innovation pathway to a ette a ?

Consider the following example.

Delta Airlines partnered with Porsche to give certain of their frequent flyer passengers custom sports-car
concierge service to their next destination. This provided new value not only for these elite flyers, but also
se ed to oost Delta s brand among those simply watching the service being delivered.

That is a great example of innovation partnership!

And finally, the business should always be asking…

• What new sources of inspiration can we look to in regards to what other innovators are doing?

We call this Happenings Intelligence.

It can be found at sites like Springwise Intelligence Ltd, as shown below.

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 A Problem Worth Solving
But with every opportunity, there is always the ever-present question of…

Is this really a problem worth solving for our usi ess a d our arkets?

This uestio is eall o e of… Specifically what are we looking for?

The answer to that question is that we are looking for:

• a really big problem

• worth solving
• that we might have the ability to solve – either alone or together with a partner.

A p o le o th sol i g is therefore one that is big enough to matter to us

(either financially or strategically).

This means it needs to have a certain level of problem-scope and solution-scalability so that it is worth chasing
after. In other words, does it impact enough people or businesses that we can make a desirable return on a
solution?

If it does… the it may be a problem worth solving. It may in fact be an opportunity for the business to deliver
new innovation to the world. That is what we are after.

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 A Problem Worth Solving (cont.)
Thus, from a problem-scope standpoint, we should be
asking the question…

How big of a problem is it?

Is there a real financial return on solving it?

Consider the following example.

In December of 2001, SEGA launched the Segway.

SEGA spent 10 years developing this product, while venture

capitalists poured $100M into the R&D behind it.

Leading up to its public launch, SEGA excessively hyped that

this invention would t a sfo u a t a spo tatio .
Believing that, they forecasted selling 10,000 units per week
by 2002.

What actually happened in reality was that they sold only

30,000 units in a total of six years.

In this case, the Segway was a technology solution looking for

a problem that simply did not exist.

It was not a problem worth solving!

Instead, it was the fruit of a group of engineers who were

obsessed with solving an engineering problem known as the
inverted pendulum problem. But, commercially speaking, it
was not a problem that was worth solving, at least as
expressed in the form of the Segway.

In 2015, Segway was sold to the Chinese startup firm Ninebot at a massive loss!

That is the sort of thing that we want to avoid!

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 How to Ask
Finally, there is the question of how one should go about
aski g these uestio s… how they go about digging down into
customer needs to find the right new nuggets.

There are many methods and techniques for this, from

focus groups to business ethnography to general fieldwork.
Regardless of how one goes about it, in general there are
always certain key steps they will want to follow.

First, one should study their customers to discover the

different segments, or clusters, based on what each
usto e g oup s desired outcomes are, and, even more importantly,
what their underlying motivations are behind those outcomes.

Next, one should spend time with each customer group – in the field and in focus groups
(by the way, focus groups are great for talking about the past and the present, just not the future).

There are also many Design Methods that can help to facilitate this dialogue and observation in very creative
ways (these are not explored in this particular course).

Regarding field work, it is going to be very important for one

to go out into the field and observe customers firsthand
experiencing their business / brand / offering.

Walk a mile in their shoes to develop empathy for what they

are experiencing. And then bring this back into the
needfinding conversation.

Regarding in-office focus groups and such, one should also

bring customers into their offices and talk with them about
how they feel a out hat is ei g offe ed to the … about
the value they receive and the experiences they have. Find
out what their concerns are. Have them tell stories about
their encounters with our business o its o petito s …
listen for their tensions. Write these down in plain customer
language and keep it simple. That is how we will be able to
best respond to their tensions.

By this point – having done all of this needfinding work – one probably knows where their most likely hunting
grounds lie. So go start hunting for new opportunities!

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Find the Need (cont.)
In some cases, the needfinding work will have been completed prior to kicking off an Innovation Team on a new
project. In this situation, the Innovation Team and the Project Leader will come into the project already
understanding the general nature of the need and opportunity they are addressing.

The P oje t Leade s jo ill the e to structure the project to pick up from that point, usually starting with
additional insights research to help the team fine-tune its understanding of the need / opportunity and develop
a set of hypotheses around the problem. The Project Leader may also have to build a new Innovation Team for
the project, in which case they would ideally structure the team with the right skills for tackling this particular
need and opportunity.

In other cases, needfinding work will not have been completed prior to giving an Innovation Team a charter.

I this ase, a pa t of the tea s ha ter will be to go out and identify new needs and opportunities in a
particular area of the business, usually in keeping with a particular piece of its Innovation Strategy.

Thus, for example, the business may say that, as a part of its Innovation Strategy it wishes to develop an entirely
new Foundation of Value for adjacent market M. The I o atio Tea s ha te ould the e to go out a d
search for unmet, ill-met, or emerging needs in this particular market space – in keeping with the types of
solutions the business is likely to deliver.

In this situation, the Innovation Team will have the opportunity to identify new needs and opportunities, and
possibly to select which of those it wishes to take on (or this selection may be made for them at an executive
level).

The P oje t Leade s jo ill e to fi st build a team around this charter if they do not already have one, and
then once they have their team, to lead the necessary research and fieldwork to identify new needs and
opportunities, using good needfinding methodology.

Once this team has either selected or been assigned a particular need / opportunity to work on, the Project
Leader would then lead them forward into additional insights research to fine-tune their understanding of the
need / opportunity and develop hypotheses around its problem.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving the Outward Gaze –
Focusing the Project & Team Outward
Innovation teams can easily fall into the temptation – particularly if they are less experienced and new at
innovation – of allowing their gaze to turn inward or lateral.

• Inward means looking primarily at the

business itself – what it is capable of doing.

• Lateral means looking at current established

competitors and what they are doing.

Neither of these may be relevant to

what a market really needs.

Thus there is an important principal which applies to all high-quality innovation work and which the
Project Leader needs to clearly understand and adhere to.

It is that when trying to figure out where to innovate, the business must always start by looking at:

• Present customers and markets – today’s unmet needs

– often addressed through ODI / Outcome-Driven Innovation.

• Future customers and markets – to orro ’s unmet needs

– often addressed through DDI / Discovery-Driven Innovation.

We call this the out a d gaze .

This principal applies PERIOD – regardless of

how enticing what established competitors
are doing may look, or how technologically
enticing hat o e s o usi ess a do
might seem.

These are both potentially false, distracting

temptations.

What one must remain steadfastly focused on is figuring out what customers and markets really need, and then
how the business can evolve to meet those real needs.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving the Outward Gaze –
Focusing the Project & Team Outward (cont.)
For present markets and customers, study what is both important to them
and they are currently unsatisfied with.

The intersection of these two represent their underserved needs, and is

the fertile ground for delivering incremental innovation.

For future markets and customers, study evolving trends in society, culture,
economics, politics, regulations, technology, and other areas.
Then intersect trend scenarios with market, brand, and product strategies
to know where to aim a ai too fa to the left .

The intersections represent fertile ground for delivering

breakthrough innovation.

Never start by looking at your own enterprise.

That will come later. It comes after understanding
the market needs you need to address.

Never start by looking at your existing competitors.

That can be very misleading! Who knows if they are
o the ight path to hat eal a ket eeds a e…
they may be going down an entirely wrong path.

Furthermore… never pursue a new technology for

the sake of the technology. Only pursue it if you
know of a clear market need it sol es… or if you can
clearly envision a new use case it would create that
– on evidence of clear and concrete market insights
– is almost certain to create new demand.

And finally… never ever pursue an innovation

purely for the sake of being innovative.
That is almost always a sure path to a collective market response of so what? In other words, no matter how
enticing the supposed innovation may seem to the business, if it does not solve a real problem the market has
(and recognizes), then the market is not going to care. It may not even bother to yawn.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving the Outward Gaze –
Focusing the Project & Team Outward (cont.)
Businesses in particular who become overly fixated on what their existing competitors are
doing and on keeping up with them are missing the mark! By putting their eyes on their
competitors, they are taking their eyes off their customers and markets! At best, this will
produce a e-too outcome! That may not be what the market really needs.

Smart innovators know to always focus on the customer / market (present

or future), and not on the current competition. They stay abreast of what
the competition is doing, but they do not follow it.

This does ot e essa il ea that ou o t e d up doi g the same thing

as a competitor is doing. But it does mean that your reason for doing so
will be the right one e ause it s hat the a kets a d usto e s need)
and not the wrong one e ause it s hat a o petito – potentially
mistakenly – did).

Ultimately, every business has to do its own homework so that it can

find out and understand what its markets really need, and then work out of
that context – what is known as market pull.

Do not follow in the wrong directions and missteps of a competitor.

Everyone – customers and your business – loses when you do that.

Furthermore, it is only after the business has a clear handle

on what its markets and customers need (and will pay for)
that it can take a good look at its own enterprise and ask:

• Which of those needs best fits its strategy, resources,

and capabilities?

• Which it is willing to pursue and develop new resources

and capabilities in the process of renewing and/or
reinventing itself in the market?

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Driving the Outward Gaze –
Focusing the Project & Team Outward (cont.)
Busi esses ho…

• mistakenly chase after the shiny new things

they can deliver – technology push

• mistakenly run after the wrong directions and

missteps of competitors – copycat failure

… will end up failing both their own businesses and

their markets… a lose-lose scenario.

The win-win scenario for businesses and customers only happens

when the business gets this principle right and acts accordingly.
Project Leaders must therefore keep this principal front and center
in their minds at all times as they seek to steer their teams and
projects forward.

This warrants two additional notes…

First, there are businesses who adhere to a fast-follower model (quickly mimicking what other businesses are
doing that markets are responding positively to, without infringing on their intellectual property) and for a while
are successful with the strategy. This is a legitimate business strategy in the sense that it allows these
businesses to underprice market leaders because they have not had to invest in the same level of market and
technology research, nor have they experienced the same level of failed business experiments, but it also means
that these businesses will never be perceived as innovative or market leaders. Such businesses may consider
this consequence acceptable because they have been able to carve out a niche for themselves with the strategy,
and find that as long as they can keep up with competitors they will succeed at it. But therein lies the rub.
Often the lives of these businesses are cut short because at some point they can no longer keep up. This usually
happens as the result of a major market or technological shift that they were not tooled up to navigate. The key
value proposition they built their business on gets disrupted and they do not have the mechanisms in place to
adapt to that, in which case they usually end up closing the business. Thus, the fast-follower model – depending
on the industry involved – is often not a model for long-term resilience.

Second, the above rule about not focusing on existing competitors does not apply with equal weight to
emerging competitors entering the market with new business models. Those types of competitors are worth
paying a bit more attention to, because their new business models a e poised to e e tuall dis upt o e s
own business model. The business should therefore seek to understand emerging business models in their
markets and who is bringing them to the market so that they too can – when the time is right – invest in such
new business models. This is the one exception, then, to watching competitors closely.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Leverage the Innovation & Creativity Methods
As an Innovation Team – having associated with a particular need / opportunity, and having developed the
additional insights it requires – begins to dive deeply into its innovation work, the Project Leader will need to
take a look at the specific needs of the project – in terms of the types of tasks it will need to pursue and the
types of outcomes it will need to produce – and from this, piece together a plan of attack using any
combination of the many innovation and creativity methods a aila le i the i o ato s tool o .

As previously noted, some of the key innovation and creativity methods available to the Team can include:

• Outcome-Driven Innovation
• Discovery-Driven Innovation
• Design Thinking
• TRIZ
• Lateral Thinking
• Question Storming
• Hypothesis Forming
• Hypothesis Testing
• Brainstorming
• …a d o e.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Leverage Innovation & Creativity Methods (cont.)
The most appropriate plan of attack for a project will depend on the focus, scope, and scale for which it was
chartered, as reflected in such factors as:

• The business-customer relationship type – B2C / B2B / B2B2C.

• The target markets involved and their newness – existing core / adjacent / new-to-business / new-to-world.

• The speed at which target markets are moving – slow / medium / fast.

• The technological leaps involved – repeat application of existing tech / new application of existing tech / new
tech.

• The type of business innovation targeted – product / service / experience / brand / business model / hybrid.

• The general scope of innovation involved – incremental / breakthrough / disruptive / transformative.

• The time horizon involved – H1 / H2 / H3.

The Project Leader must therefore develop skills in understanding the focus, scope, and scale of their project,
and from this select those innovation and creativity methods most suited for enabling their team to deliver on
the project charter.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Build & Run the Right Experiments
To Learn Fast & Early
One of the key principles that Project Leaders
must learn is the incredible value of small,
controlled experiments.

The practice of running lots of small,

controlled experiments allows the business
to learn rapidly and cost-effectively. And
the faster the business can learn (and the
more learning it can do for a given budget),
the sooner it will be able to converge on
right solutions and the better able its
Innovation Teams will be at delivering relevant and impactful new innovations.

This principle extends all the way from the earliest needfinding stages all the way out to the market-testing of
prototypes and even to pilot testing. The faster and more cost-effectively the business can learn, the faster
and more effectively it can find synchronicity with identified needs.

This includes those attempts where a particular

innovation ends up failing.

The faster – and sooner in the lifecycle of the

project – an innovation can fail, the sooner the
project can be shelved or pivoted in favor of a
different innovation that may have a chance of
succeeding in its place.

Having innovation projects fail is therefore

acceptable (and not always undesirable), so long
as they are able to fail as early on in the process
as they possibly can. Having innovation projects fail
at the 11th hour, or worse yet, post-launch, is less excusable.

Thus a key philosophy associated with this principle is that if an innovation is ultimately going to fail, we want to
force it to fail as early on as we possibly can, so as to avoid sinking any more resources into the project than we
have to. The Innovation Team should therefore seek to stress-test the innovation they are working on as much
as they possibly can, and as early on as they possibly can. They should start early and repeat at key points
throughout the endeavor.

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 Example – Building and Running the
Right Experiments To Learn Fast And Early
An example of such an effort to build and run the types of experiments that allow it to learn fast and early
was one case within an Innovation Team at MasterCard.

The Business Case: Customer swipe machines for debit and credit cards are becoming ubiquitous at
supermarkets, stores, and fast food outlets. The screen and swipe combination effectively processes every
t a sa tio , ut it also offe s a tou h poi t he e the a d o pa a add alue fo the usto e . Could
these a hi es e used to e ha e the a d use s e pe ie e?

The Business Hypothesis: If we put relevant messages, offers, or both on the screen during a transaction, we
can both constructively influence both merchant and customer behavior, and make our card(s) the preferred
choice for transactions.

The Experiments:

Explore if we have point-of-sale (POS) relationships or merchant relationship who would partner for small-scale
experiments. Can we collaborate with the store(s) to come up with mutually beneficial messages and prompts?

Dete i e a suite of s ipe s ee essage p o pts to test. Fo e a ple, he a pu hase e eeds a e tai
level – say, $25 – a Would You Like a 5% Dis ou t? p o pt ould e displa ed. Othe p o pts ould e used
to suggest purchases or promotions, offer reward program points, ask if the customer wants an immediate
email receipt, or other incentives.

Can we tailor messages and prompts as a function of debit or credit card selection?

Are there prototype swipe POS devices whose future design and deployment we can influence?

Source: The I o ato s H pothesis, Michael Schrage, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014, Chapter 9: The 5x5
Portfolio.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Build & Run Exp. to Learn Fast & Early (cont.)
The Innovation Team should seek to:

• Stress-test the hypothesis they have selected (is it really the real problem?).

• Stress-test the Point of View they have selected (do its Design Principals conflict with the intended brand
experience?).

• Stress-test the solution they have selected (will it really sol e the p o le … the real problem?).

• Stress-test the final offering that has been designed and developed (does it really deliver on the intended
solution, and does it really solve the real problem?).

• Stress-test the intended go-to-market strategy (will it really connect this offering with the market as
intended?).

• Stress-test the all-out commercialization / implementation (will it really be able to scale up in the market as
envisioned?).

The more the Innovation Team can stress-test each

and every aspect of the innovation – at each and
every critical junction – the more confidence they
can have – assuming the project does in fact make
all the way to the end – that the new innovation
they ultimately end up delivering will in fact
address a real problem and thereby succeed as a
new opportunity venture.

The Project Leader must serve as champion of this

fail fast / fail ea l philosoph and so drive their
tea s efforts accordingly. Success for the team may in fact look like being able to force a certain charter to fail
early on rather than much later, in which case the team will be able to move on to a different charter that may
in fact have a chance of succeeding.

One of the biggest challenge will sometimes lie in interpreting the results of these experiments. Particularly
early on in the life of innovation projects where things are all still quite fuzzy, the outcomes of experiments can
be very open to interpretation. When this is the case, what one often finds is that some in the business want to
interpret the results one way, while others in the business want to interpret them another way. There is in fact
quite a bit of room for subjectivity at this point.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Build & Run Exp. to Learn Fast & Early (cont.)
The Project Leader – or perhaps an executive they report to – may therefore end up having to exercise a certain
level of judgment in the interpretation and use of the findings. If they feel the findings are inconclusive, then
they may have to make the call to continue pressing forward until a different experiment is able to yield a more
o lusi e fi di g. This a pa ti ula l e the ase he o i g up agai st the a sa e s… those o po ate
antibodies in the organization that feel threatened by the innovation and want to see it shut down. Such parties
will readily interpret experimental findings in their favor (consciously or subconsciously) which could result in
shutting down the project prematurely.

The Project Leader must therefore protect against such forces usi g the tea s e pe i e ts agai st the p oje t
inappropriately. This may require a certain level of ai o e from various executives in the business.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Manage the Stakeholders
Within any given innovation program – whether
centralized or decentralized in the business
– every project and initiative will involve certain
stakeholders it must contend with.

These can include, for example:

• Members of the Innovation Team

• Providers of Internal Support Services

(e.g. a Consumer Insights or Design group)

• Internal Managers & Executives

• Outside Business Partners

• Shareholders (Investors) in the Business

• Customers – Both Current and Noncurrent (Future)

• Society at Large (considering matters like sustainability and the triple bottom line for instance).

A stakeholder is thus defined as any party who has a role to play

in delivering or adopting a particular new innovation, whether
inside or outside the business.

• Those inside are generally called the Enterprise Ecosystem.

• Those outside the Partner Ecosystem.

Both ecosystems have to mesh together in order for success to happen.

What the Project Leader needs to be aware of is that each

and everyone one of the above stakeholders will be asking
the Innovation Team the same si gle uestio , a el …
What’s i it fo e? , or WIIFM as it is otherwise known.

In this context, the important concern for the Project Leader

will be how to behave very astutely. The Project Leader
must seek to deeply understand each of these stakeholders,
including what their core motivations are, and how that
drives their behavior. In othe o ds… hat thei WIIFM is.

One of the key tools the Project Leader can use for this purpose is Stakeholder Analysis.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Manage the Stakeholders (cont.)
Given that every innovation project will involve a potentially wide array of stakeholders, all of whom have to
come together to ulti atel ealize the i o atio , the P oje t Leade s jo is to figu e out how to leverage
ea h of these stakeholde s underlying motivations to achieve the p oje t’s o je ti es.

This is what Stakeholder Analysis is about. It allows the Project Leader to analyze and map out all of these
motivations so that they can understand the le e s they have at their disposal for effectively addressing each
motivation (WIIFM) and achieving the needed outcomes. This is particularly powerful whenever the innovation
involves a very large set of external stakeholders, a situation that is increasingly the case as the innovation
becomes increasingly transformative.

Once completed, a Stakeholder Analysis

produces a Stakeholder Map.

The Stakeholder Map shows the arrangement of

both the Enterprise Ecosystem and the Partner
Ecosystem and how the p oje t s needs from
each stakeholder stack up against these
Stakeholde s i di idual KPI levers (the things
they need to optimize). This reveals the give-
and-take nature and yin-yang relationship
between a project and its stakeholders.

What the Project Leader is seeking to find here are actions their team can take that will positively impact the
motivations of as many stakeholders as possible… pulli g as a levers in the right direction as they can, and
getting as large of a win-win as they possibly can. Doing this will tend to have the biggest impact possible on
advancing the cause of the project.

Of course the good Project Leader also realizes that they will never be able to fully satisfy all stakeholders (at
least not all the time), and so they must decide on a particular rank order fo ea h of these stakeholde s… so e
will be more important than others. For instance, and particularly if the organization is seeking to be highly
market-focused so that innovation can be pulled rather than pushed, they may designate future customers as
the highest-ranking stakeholder. All the other stakeholders would then fall in order behind them, according to
hat est fit the p oje t s eeds at that ti e.

New innovations in particular – because they are so new and often involve developing entirely new business
capabilities – benefit greatly from mapping out these relationships. From this, the Innovation Team can see
how to develop the best possible strategy for managing the relationships and their respective needs in order to
achieve success for the project.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Manage the Stakeholders (cont.)
The process of Stakeholder Analysis involves the following nine steps:

1. Identify the Stakeholders. Document each one. Group them either as part of the internal business
(Enterprise Ecosystem) or as part of the set of external partners (Partner Ecosystem).

2. For each Stakeholder, identify what the project requires from them in order to be successful.
Document this for each Stakeholder.

3. For each Stakeholder, identify what they need or want from the business. This is their WIIFM… the lever one
will need to figure out how to pull (in other words, how does one give them what they want?).

4. Map out all the Enterprise Ecosystem Stakeholders on one side, and all the Partner Ecosystem Stakeholders
on the other side.

5. In the center, note key Phase Milestones for the project that it is attempting to get through.

6. Next, step back and study the Map. Consider and discuss among the team all the different stakeholders, the
p oje t s cumulative needs f o the , a d hat the p oje t s pla e s ust e a le to deli e i o de to
satisfy all of these stakeholders.

7. Develop a strategy and plan of attack for delivering on each one, addressing the most important ones first.

8. Put this Stakeholde Map o the tea s work board so as to keep it in front of the team while they work
through these key project phases.

9. Next, execute each phase of the project and monitor results from each stakeholder to ensure the
stakeholder strategy is working as intended. Modify the strategy as needed and continue to execute.

Project Leaders and their teams will want to master Stakeholder Analysis and the skill of developing
good stakeholder strategies for their projects.

As they become increasingly proficient at stakeholder strategies, they will see their projects become
increasingly and more rapidly successful.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Manage the Stakeholders (cont.)
The picture here shows an example of a Stakeholder Analysis / Map.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Managing the Hand-Off Process
Many of the projects that Innovation Teams will end up initiating – should they reach a certain point in their
march toward implementation / commercialization – will eventually be handed off to a second team. This
second team – usually part of a functional group who will own the innovation post implementation, or a
business unit who will own it post commercialization – will finish taking the project across the finish line.

The reason for this is that these groups usually have the necessary individuals in certain roles to be in the best
position to finish the project. For example, these individuals may have a specialized set of skills needed to fully
implement the new innovation, or the relationships with partners and vendors needed to successfully
commercialize it. They will also be the ones (usually) who have to live with the new innovation once it has been
implemented or commercialized, meaning they will usually have preferences for precisely how it gets
implemented or commercialized.

Being able to navigate the hand-off process well requires a certain skillset and approach. This begins with
cultivating up front the right working relationships between the groups involved, usually a Core Innovation
Team – the upstream initiator – and a front line business unit – the downstream receiver.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Managing the Hand-Off Process (cont.)
The guiding philosophy for these relationships must be one of…

stakeholder alignment.

This alignment begins up front ith the tea s

original charter, or else somewhere near its
beginning, perhaps after early insights research or
establishment of a Point of View.

At this point, the critical need will be to:

a) manage stakeholder expectations a d…

b) get the right people on board with specific decisions prior to taking the next action steps.

Being able to manage stakeholder expectations throughout the upstream phases of a project also requires
having the right venues and events at which formal interactions take place and decisions are made.

In terms of formal events, these will largely take place in the context of formal phase-gate reviews, where
decision-makers will convene, review insights and results to date, and then make decisions as to whether to
continue supporting the project, modify it, or shelve it, according to certain predefined criteria. Otherwise,
from an informal standpoint, there can be any number of structured and unstructured interactions, used as
needed for each project, with generally no limit as to how much informal interaction takes place.

This is an important consideration that must always be kept in mind whenever an

upstream Innovation Team must at some point hand off an innovation project to a
downstream receiver (such as a particular business unit) in order for that party to take
the project to completion.

If the Innovation Team is to initiate and continue working on the project, it needs to
first get a priori alignment from this downstream receiver prior to initiating the project,
or otherwise early on in the project.

WHY is this so important?

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Managing the Hand-Off Process (cont.)
Be ause…

This ensures that when the time comes for the hand-off to occur, the downstream
receiver will support the project and take ownership of it.

Otherwise, the downstream team is just as likely to drop the project and let it die.
In other words, there would be no ownership.

What the business will not want is for its Innovation Teams to work on projects which are later abandoned
because the downstream receivers were not aligned to them. Thus, if hand-offs a e a pa t of the usi ess
innovation process, gaining this alignment early on and managing expectations throughout the upstream
phases of the project are absolutely critical to ensuring hand-offs happen as intended.

Getting the necessary level of internal pull required to have innovation projects progress smoothly through the
organization begins with the usi ess leade ship issui g a a date for i o atio . For example, 20% of
projects will relate to Innovation and will be drawn from the Core Innovation Team in support of that mission.
In light of the resistance that projects can otherwise encounter, this mandate is often the one thing that will
create the internal pull the business requires. Otherwise, the business can remain mired in tension where the
Core Innovation Team ends up trying to push the ope … a app oa h that does ot usuall o k ell.

It is i po ta t, the efo e, that all pa ties agendas are aligned such that innovation projects can address the
short-term, medium-term, and long-term needs of each internal stakeholder. The usi ess leadership must
work with business units and other stakeholders to ensure this is the case.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Using Pilots Effectively / With Understanding of
Busi ess’ Innovation Sandbox
Project Leaders will sometimes be expected to bring projects
all the way into a Pilot Phase and to oversee the Pilot, as
reflected in PROJECT 7 in the preceding figure.

When this is the case, they will have to engage not only
their own Innovation Teams, but also a much larger network
of internal and external business partners in order to
conduct the Pilot effectively.

This is usually their final chance to demonstrate that the upstream work their teams have done has been on
mark and has produced a new innovation that can scale in the marketplace.

Because so many different parties will be involved in

conducting a Pilot, it will be critical for the Project
Leader to have cultivated a wide network of business
partners inside and outside the business.

This is also one of the places where the Project

Leade s leadership skills will be put to the test
(and hopefully shine the brightest), as there will be a
number of stakeholder actions that have to come
together correctly in order to stage a successful
Pilot initiative.

Project Leaders who have earned the respect and admiration of their lateral and senior peers will generally
produce the most successful Pilots. This does not always mean, of course, that the Pilot will demonstrate the
hoped for outcome. A really good Pilot – when conducted properly – may in fact reveal a different insight,
including that the innovation is not viable, in which case the Pilot will still have accomplished its purpose of
allowing the business to not stake too much too early on, and thus mitigate its risks. Whichever finding is
demonstrated should be duly celebrated if the Pilot was conducted with proper expertise.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Using Pilots Effectively / With Understanding of
Busi ess’ I o atio Sa d o (cont.)
The Project Leader must also be aware that the types of Pilots their business is prepared to run may depend on
the business size, maturity, and brands. Small, young, entrepreneurial businesses may be prepared to run
Minimal Viable Product, or MVP, Pilots, particularly if the innovation involves a digital product that can be
iterated quickly. These businesses do not have so much at stake in the success or failure of the Pilot.

On the other hand, larger, more established businesses with well-regarded brands, or innovations that are
highly capital-intensive and cannot be iterated so quickly, often cannot afford to run – or are unwilling to run –
such MVP type Pilots, as there is too much at risk, both in terms of financial commitment and with respect to
brand reputation.

This gets do to he e the usi ess innovation sandbox is. Is it more external, as with the Lean Startup MVP
app oa h i hi h the a ketpla e is o e s gui ea pig? Or is it more internal, in which extensive internal
market research and user testing will be conducted prior to engaging in a Pilot, such that the Pilot is much more
refined and close to the final offering before introducing the market to it?

The Project Leader has to understand where on this continuum their business resides and then design the Pilot
– including any pre-Pilot testing – accordingly.

There is an exception however. Sometimes even large established businesses are willing to take an MVP
approach when launching the innovation under a new brand that is (for the time being) disassociated from the
parent organization and its brands. This is a tactic that is increasingly being adopted in order to allow large
organizations to move faster in the marketplace. If such new-brand MVP Pilots can ultimately be brought to a
certain stage of maturity and success, then they may eventually be re-branded into one of the parent brands, as
the risk level will be much lower at that stage. The Project Leader will therefore want to inquire of the usi ess
executive team to determine if this is a strategy the business is willing to take.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Using Pilots Effectively / With Understanding of
Busi ess’ I o atio Sa d o (cont.)
Finally, and somewhat related to the type of Pilot used, is the fact that even large corporations (such as GE and
Whirlpool Corporation for example) now have their X-Works Innovation Teams using crowdfunding sites like
Kickstarter and Indiegogo to market test new innovations while generating grassroots buzz around them. In
these ases, the test a i o atio s traction in the market by how many pre-orders they can get for it, and/or
how much other types of support they can raise aside from actually pre-ordering the offering. Certain
responses on these sites can provide an early leading indicator as to the pilot s a ti ipated success level, while
kickstarting early-stage marketing efforts.

The Project Leader should therefore look into whether or not such an approach might benefit their project and
whether or not their business is willing to engage in such a tactic. If so, these can provide useful early-stage
feedback on the project – feedback that in some cases may be able to make the actual pilot more successful.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Taking Projects All the Way into
Implementation / Commercialization
There are certain cases – such as when a new-to-the-world innovation is being launched for the first time –
one which would not yet have a home in the business – that a Core Innovation Team will take the new
innovation all the way into implementation or commercialization.

Furthermore, they will thereafter own it for some period of time, perhaps to ensure it eventually gains the
adoption it needs, after which a new business unit would typically be formed around it and ownership of the
new innovation passed off.

This is reflected in PROJECT 8 in the preceding figure above.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Taking Projects All the Way into
Implementation / Commercialization (cont.)
When this is the case, the Core Innovation Team must understand the expectation that:

• they will be the ones who will own this project from start to finish, a d…

• they will be required to do everything in the Front End, Mid Zone, and Back End to make the new innovation
a reality…

• including owning it for potentially months or years post-launch so that they can shepherd it into the
marketplace and get it past the Early Adopter stage and into the Early Majority stage.

This will potentially require a different make-up on this particular team – one with very strong back-end
commercialization skills, especially in areas like Marketing, Sales, Engineering, and Operations for example.

The Project Leader must therefore build a Core Innovation Team around this charter, and must ensure that the
members of this team fully understand the long-term commitment associated with the project. They would
not want a team, for example, that was geared for, and interested in, only front-end work or mid-zone work.
Such a team would likely not be successful in getting the new innovation into the marketplace effectively. The
Innovation Team will need to be well balanced for all three major phases of the work.

This may also mean rotating certain team members in and out at different phases of the project, so as to free
up, for example, front-end specialists to go work on other projects and not tie them down on work that was not
fit for them. A core team, however, should be expected to live with the project from start to finish so that there
is good ownership and smooth continuity.

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 The Innovation Manager as Project Leader –
Taking Projects All the Way into
Implementation / Commercialization (cont.)
Eventually the Innovation Team will hand off this new innovation (assuming it is continued in the market). This
will usually take place when either an existing business unit sees a strategic alignment to it and wishes to take
ownership of it, or when the business establishes an entirely new business unit to own and grow it.

In this later case, it is not uncommon for certain members of the Core Innovation Team to take leadership
positions in the new business unit so as to continue to their natural understanding of the innovation and
ownership of its long-term success. This is often a career stepping-stone for individuals involved in launching
such new-to-the-world innovations.

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 LESSON 15
The Innovation Management
Process

Driving Innovation Throughput

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 The Innovation Management Process
The image below is the graphical representation used to explain Innovation Management and the Innovation
Management Process / System. Note the Dragnet, Funnel, and Pipeline of the process with go / no-go / pivot
milestone reviews.

D ag et
Fu el
Pipeli e

GO PIVOT GO
PIVOT
PIVOT GO
PIVOT GO NO-GO NO-GO
NO-GO
NO-GO

This lesson examines the respective stages of the Innovation Management process, which, namely, are:

Innovation Strategies & Challenges – How to Focus Participants' Inputs

Everyone must be focused on common core objectives so that the inputs are of a high quality.
The Innovation Dragnet – Capturing Opportunities, Needs, and Other New Ideas
Numerous ways to collect, capture, catalog, and otherwise manage inputs.
Use of Idea Management software tools.
The Innovation Funnel – Evaluating and Selecting Ideas to Pass Forth
A well-trained and duly authorized team of senior leaders drives the vetting process.
Need solid market intelligence to do!
The Innovation Pipeline – Initiating Innovation Projects
Those projects whose business plans get approved and find a champion move onto execution
(the "first mile").

The Innovation Proving Ground – Piloting New Innovations

When desired, the practice of running pilot projects.

The Innovation Payback – Scaling New Innovations

Scaling up new innovations into full scale market offerings to reap the payback.

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 The Innovation Management Process (cont.)
Innovation Management, as defined here, involves two activities:

1. The process of driving engagement in a program of explicit bottom-up participatory innovation.

2. The process of gathering, evaluating, and selecting new innovation ideas and opportunities for the business
to pursue.

Innovation Management, as so defined, is distinguished from Innovation Governance. The latter is broader,
and relates to the higher-level governance of a total enterprise innovation program (which will have many
other facets to it). The activities of Innovation Management are therefore a subset of the broader set of
activities associated with Innovation Governance.

The demand placed upon Innovation Management is typically to engage as many people across (and sometimes
outside) the business as absolutely possible in order to drive the identification of as many potentially lucrative
new opportunities as possible. Being able to execute this activity well requires a systematic approach to
Innovation Management – a defined Innovation Management System.

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 The Innovation Management Process (cont.)
As a subset of the broader Enterprise Innovation program,
Innovation Management encompasses the structures,
processes, and roles focused specifically on driving
innovation input, conversion (throughput), and outcome
performance in the program.

InM defines all of the operational and governance processes

required to drive a funnel and pipeline of new innovation
opportunities, including the procedural mechanisms for
capturing, evaluating, selecting, and implementing new ideas and business opportunities.

InM is what enables the organization to have a flow within the program, sometimes called a Concept to
Customer or Mind to Market flow.

A good innovation management system will produce a constant stream of new business ideas that allows the
business to capture new market opportunities. By doing this continually, the InM system serves to constantly
renew the connectedness between the business and its markets, by ensuring the business remains perpetually
relevant to the marketplace. This is what it is sometimes referred to as a Continuous Pipeline of Advantage.

These new business ideas lead to innovative new solutions for emerging market needs. These innovative new
solutions might be expressed in the form of:

• New offerings

• Entirely new business models

• Entirely new markets.

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 The Innovation Management Process (cont.)
Recognizing this, the Global Innovation Institute has developed a highly-regarded model of Innovation
Management known as the GInI Innovation Management System, or simply InM System for short. The GInI
InM System involves a six-stage system focused on strategy, capture, evaluation & selection, initiation, pilot,
and scale.

The GInI Innovation Management System, or InMS

– is a 6 stage system with clusters:

1. Strategy
2. Capture
3. Evaluation
4. Initiation
5. Pilot
6. Scale

Within these six stages, certain activities will be

strategic, while others will be tactical.

EVALUATION
STRATEGY CAPTURE INITIATION PILOT SCALE
& SELECTION

These six stages represent a cyclical process that is intended to be in perpetual motion. All have the potential
to involve political considerations within the organization (and there are ways of managing those effectively).

Because evolving an organization into an innovation-driven one takes time, and because learning to use InM
tools and processes effectively takes effort and a clear sense of direction, the GInI InM System can provide the
necessary playbook for achieving sustainable success.

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 The Innovation Management Process (cont.)
The following explains how these six stages are clustered…

• The first stage (1 – strategy) is foundational – it lays the foundation necessary for the rest of the stages
to be successful.

• The next three stages (2 / 3 / 4 – capture / evaluation / initiation) are procedural and can be thought of as
the working engine of the system.

• The second stage addresses the capture of ideas / the third stage the evaluation of ideas / and the
fourth stage the early incubation of ideas in the form of actual innovation projects.

• The fourth stage is typically the longest of all the stages.

Projects will spend most of their lives in this stage undergoing development and refinement.

• The last two stages (5 & 6 – pilot & scale) are commercial – they are about commercializing new offerings,
starting at the pilot level and then scaling up to full market potential.

This (more detailed) image shows the six stages with their names and brief descriptions.

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 InM Stage 1 – Strategy
STAGE 1 is STRATEGY – The Innovation Framework

This involves applying an underlying Innovation Strategy or collection of strategies

wherever multiple sources of innovation (known as the growth vehicles) are used.

An Innovation Strategy is a statement of the types of innovation initiatives the

business desires and intends to pursue, where it will pursue these, and how it intends
to pursue these (what sources of innovation it will use).

The art of formulating an overarching Innovation Strategy is taught in GInI s Certified

Innovation Strategist and Certified Chief Innovation Officer courses.

For the purposes of the Certified Innovation Professional course, one can assume that the overarching
Innovation Strategy has ee de eloped the usi ess senior leadership and provided to the Innovation
Managers so that they can use it to guide their ensuing Innovation Management activities.

This lesson therefore explores what one is to do with this strategy, and how they will use it for the Innovation
Management process.

The Innovation Strategy is used to focus the o ga izatio s inputs into the InM system on certain common core
objectives. By focusing participants on these core objectives, it ensures the inputs are of a high quality and
aligned to the usi ess needs.

In order to do an effective job of focusing the organization on certain common core objectives, the Innovation
Strategy must be:

a) Clear and specific.

b) Aligned to the usi ess oade corporate strategy.

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 InM Stage 1 – Strategy (cont.)
The Innovation Strategy will establish certain goals and objectives that guide
investment priorities for the overall innovation portfolio.

It will address such questions as:

1. What size, shape, and market speed should the innovation portfolio have?

2. What are the relative risks and rewards of different strategies?

3. What should be the balance between incremental, breakthrough, disruptive, and

even transformative innovations?

4. What are the resources available to pursue more versus fewer innovations?

5. How fast does the business have to move relative to shifting market dynamics and/or competitive threats?

6. Is the business looking to expand into entirely new markets?

7. And more.

The Innovation Strategy also brings into alignment a number of supporting activities, processes, and structures,
including:

• The types of innovations contained in the portfolio of projects.

• The remaining stages of the InM process.

• The rest of the organizational makeup, structures, and

processes needed to otherwise execute the strategy.

Within any given Innovation Strategy, a variety of Growth Vehicles (the sources of innovation the business
uses, such as Internal R&D, X-Works Teams, partnerships, new venture investments, and/or business
acquisitions) may be in use to make up the Innovation Portfolio. Each such vehicle may have its own funnel and
pipeline. This means that each Growth Vehicle can have its own particular sub-strategy living inside the
broader Innovation Strategy.

The remaining InM stages will apply to each individual pipeline.

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 Example: InM Stage 1 – Strategy:
Ford Motor Company
An excellent example of a company that is using its Innovation Strategy effectively to
guide the inputs into its innovation efforts and thus its pipeline is Ford Motor Company
(founded in 1903).

Ford has openly publicized many of the innovation areas in which it is working.

These include:

• Sound Performance – product innovation for Horizon 1 / 2 Market Perpetuation strategies.

• Body Design – product innovation for Horizon 1 / 2 Market Perpetuation strategies.

• Manufacturing Capabilities – process innovation for Horizon 1 / 2 Market Perpetuation strategies.

• Human-Machine Interface (HMI) – technology innovation for Horizon 1 / 2 Market Perpetuation and Market
Escalation strategies.

• Battery Technology – technology innovation for Horizon 1 / 2 / 3 Market Perpetuation and Market Escalation
strategies.

• Usage-Specific Application Customizations (e.g. Medical) – product innovation for Horizon 1 / 2 Market
Expansion strategies.

• Internet of Things (IoT) / Connected Vehicles – technology innovation for Horizon 2 / 3 Market Escalation
and potential Market Creation strategies.

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 Example: InM Stage 1 – Strategy:
Ford Motor Company (cont.)
In each case, Ford uses these strategies to clearly focus the inputs and ideas of its team members around these
specific areas of need and opportunity. This is how Innovation Strategy is meant to be used in Innovation
Management.

Likewise, because Ford has defined this strategy, it will influence how Ford evaluates and selects new
innovation ideas, as well as how it goes about initiating and developing these new innovations within these
constraints, affecting the speed and tenacity with which it attacks each area.

References: http://www.ford.com

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 InM Stage 2 – Capture
STAGE 2 is CAPTURE – The Innovation Dragnet

This is often thought of as the dragnet preceding the Innovation Funnel. This is where
the InM process begins procedurally – with the capture and accumulation of new ideas
around potential innovation opportunities. This includes both the identification of
new opportunities and the articulation of potential solutions to address those.

Capture is where engagement comes into play. It is about engaging people in the
innovation process and then capturing needs, opportunities, and other new ideas
for the business. Thus it is home to a whole host of diverse mechanisms of
engagement for engaging people in the process (e.g. idea challenges, innovation jams, competitions, etc.).

Whatever mechanisms are used, they should always fit the organization and its needs so as to yield
maximum engagement and best outcomes.

Also, this process should carefully track who the originators are so that they can be duly recognized
and rewarded for their ideas should they be implemented (unless they have asked for anonymity).

In terms of actually capturing, collecting,

cataloging, and otherwise managing the
ideas and other inputs to this dragnet,
there are numerous means for doing this.
It is not uncommon to encounter here the
use of automated Idea Management
software tools, as there a number of such
solutions on the market (e.g. Imaginatik,
Spigit, Brightidea, Hype, etc.).

The general aim is to capture and

accumulate as many potential ideas as
possible, though as experience is gained with this process, organizations typically find ways to focus on the
quality of ideas and not just the quantity of ideas. Thus the use of focused Innovation Challenges.

Generally speaking, Idea Capture is an ongoing process for broad and open-ended needs.

However… e pe ie e has p o e that the best results are achieved when ta geted halle ge a paig s are
used to focus the o ga izatio s thinking around a particular need. This is where the highest quality ideas
typically originate.

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 InM Stage 2 – Capture (cont.)
Also, while idea capture is a necessary process, amassing ideas that may lead to innovations should not be
mistaken for innovation itself. Ideas by themselves are not innovations. Only executed ideas are innovations.
And only executed good ideas make for meaningful and relevant business innovations.

Example: InM Stage 2 – Capture: AT&T

One leading example of a firm making effective use of tools to capture new ideas into its Dragnet is AT&T
(founded in 1983), a leading American multinational telecommunications company.

AT&T needed a way to reach out and ideate with over 130,000 employees globally to source and develop new
product and service innovations. In 2009, the company launched its internal online crowdsourced platform
called The Innovation Pipeline, or TIP, a virtual place where employees could collaborate and refine new ideas.

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 Example: InM Stage 2 – Capture: AT&T
TIP also included the roles, structures, and processes needed for conducting
internal challenges and open forums.

Within TIP, employees submit their ideas and then vote on the various ideas.
Then, once per quarter, leaders meet to hear presentations on the top four ideas coming out of the system.
Based on this, leaders then decide whether or not to grant seed funding to create prototypes for these ideas.

TIP is built on top of the Spigit Engage Idea-Management software platform (www.spigit.com).

Between 2009 and 2014, TIP engaged over 130,000 employees across 54 countries, resulting in:

• More than 28,000 ideas submitted – ideas have ranged from customer-service enhancements to new
technologies.

• Numerous patents.

• Over $44 million in seed funding allocated for viable projects – more than 75 projects have been funded for
development.

• Numerous new revenue-generating initiatives, including new global marketing campaigns, service plans, and
apps.

• Significant ROI.

Typically, the employee with the initial idea is paired with others who can help
build a prototype. After a successful prototype is completed, these projects are
eligible for a second incubation period where ideas are moved into production.
Internal mentors – called champions – help the employees allocate budget and
move ideas through the appropriate business unit for launch.

In the final commercialization stage, projects can be implemented by an AT&T business unit, spun off into an
external company, or sold to a third party.

References:

Wall Street Journal Blog – Rachel King – http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2014/11/12/att-develops-employee-ideas-for-

innovation/

Spigit Webinar – https://www.spigit.com/att-uses-the-spigit-innovation-platform-to-power-tip-program/

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 InM Stage 3 – Evaluation & Selection
STAGE 3 is Evaluation & Selection – The Innovation Funnel

The Innovation Funnel, or i-Funnel, is focused on evaluating ideas and selecting the
best ideas to promote for further research and potential solution development. By
using a systematic process for evaluation and selection, a business can over time shape
its Innovation Portfolio to have the size, shape, and market speed it needs to align to
its Innovation Strategy (ies).

This is where projects actually get funded, and is thus the true expression of the
business' emergent Innovation Strategy… the strategy it e ds up pu sui g i the e d…
what it actually does, as opposed to what it might indicate or say otherwise elsewhere.

Having previously captured an ongoing stream of ideas

into an ideas database, driving this stage falls to a
designated Evaluation Group, which is generally made
up of various Innovation Managers and Innovation
Strategists.

This Project Evaluation & Selection space (Funnel)

constitutes the first half of the Innovation Portfolio, the
ensuing Pipeline (Stage 4) representing the second half.

The Evaluation Group

The Evaluation Group is a duly authorized

autonomous team of seasoned business leaders
(Innovation Managers and Innovation Strategists)
selected and trained explicitly to drive this
evaluation and selection process.

Depending on the objectives, it is not uncommon to

have multiple Evaluation Groups, each focused on
a different engagement mechanism for the program,
or on a different G o th Vehi le’s Pipeli e.

Eventually, in most cases, all funnels will converge into one.

These business leaders require solid market intelligence in order to do their job well, as they need to
understand which market needs are likely real and which are not. This provides the baseline against which
they will judge new ideas.

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 InM Stage 3 – Evaluation & Selection (cont.)
The Evaluation Process

The designated Evaluation Group will undertake a defined process for evaluating each
idea for its business and market merit and then selecting those concepts that warrant
additional time and effort for further examination. In general, this is an ongoing
process, carried out in waves, or cohorts.

The process progresses through a series of refining steps involving review, ranking, and
initial selection. Ideas that make it into Initial Selection will have a straw-man business
plan developed. This aids in further reviewing and vetting the concept.

The Selection Process

Subsequently, the Evaluation Group(s) must facilitate

a formal Selection Process.

Depending on the organization, they will either make

the final selections themselves, or have each business
case pitched to a formal Selection Panel.
This Selection Panel is typically made up of senior
business executives from across the business.

In the latter case, the Evaluation Group will either pitch the business cases themselves or otherwise have the
idea originators pitch them (perhaps with their help). The latter option often brings more passion to the effort.

The Evaluation Group may or may not add their own

recommendations, depending on whether these are
solicited from the Selection Panel.

In the end, the Selection Panel decides which, if any,

of the ideas are to be promoted for introduction into
the formal development and commercialization
pipeline.

This Selection Process is sometimes referred to as

the A gel Pit h and the Selection Panel as the
A gel Co ittee .

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 InM Stage 3 – Evaluation & Selection (cont.)
At this point in the process is where an organization benefits greatly from having a
well-defined and transparent governance process in place. The innovation
governance process lays out specifically what financial and business criteria are
to be used in evaluating and comparing competing ideas.

Definition and transparency around this ensures that all ideas are treated fairly
and equitably and are given equal consideration based on their own merits against
a consistent and relevant set of criteria.

Furthermore, organizations must undertake every reasonable effort to use real data in
their decision-making process, athe tha el i g o people s opinions.
Being data-informed forces them to accept reality as it is.

At the same time, however, everyone should also recognize and accept the fact that the confidence level
around project metrics will be low this far up in the Fuzzy Front End. This means there will inherently be a
certain level of subjectivity and judgment involved in the decision-making process… so ethi g that si pl
cannot be avoided at this stage in the innovation process.

Fi all … ideas that get selected for commercialization will typically need a formal champion within one of the
organization s business units. It will be this champion's job to help make the case for the idea within that
business unit and to then help get it off the ground. For this reason, it is imperative that the Evaluation Group
build and maintain a broad network of business unit champions across the entire business. Those ideas not
selected for promotion are either permanently culled or else placed in a parking lot to revisit at some later
point in the future.

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 Example: InM Stage 3 – Evaluation & Selection:
P&G
An example of a company using a highly-effective evaluation & selection process is
P&G (founded in 1837), the well-known global consumer products company.

P&G refers to itself as a dis ipli ed i o ato . The company has a very disciplined process and system for
selecting innovation projects, allocating resources, and ultimately bringing new innovations to market. It uses
this process / system to ensure it maintains a steady new-product pipeline for each business unit.

P&G s dis ipli ed sele tio p o ess e a les it to allo ate limited resources – human and financial – to the most
promising innovation opportunities, which it assesses using data ge e ated i the p oje t s initial research
phase. I the o pa s o o ds, it sele ts i o atio p oje ts ide tif i g o su e -inspired ideas that
will build the most short- and long-te sha eholde alue, hethe the ideas egi ith P&G o ou pa t e s .
The company sometimes combines projects to create even bigger customer opportunities while also conserving
resources.

P&G spends over $2 billion each year on R&D, by far the most in the consumer products industry, but yet the
company treats each dollar of research funding and each hour of research time like a scarce commodity.

Toda , P&G s results speak fo the sel es, gi e the o pa s phe o e al g o th o e the past 15 years.

References: https://www.pg.com/annualreport2008/managing.shtml#/managing/

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 InM Stage 4 – Initiation
STAGE 4 is INITIATION – The Innovation Pipeline

This stage – the Innovation Pipeline, or i-Pipe – starts when ideas have been
selected for implementation, an act known as Conversion. It begins the process of
taking new ideas from concept to reality.

At this point, initial business justification will have been completed (the business plan)
and signed-off on. So the focus moves to fostering the successful initiation of the
concept so that it has a fair chance of getting off the ground and making it on to the
next stage.

This Project Initiation space (Pipeline) constitutes the second half of the
Innovation Portfolio, the Funnel (Stage 3) being the first half.

This stage is often referred to as Innovation's First Mile

(much of the FEI is still happening here). It involves an
attention-demanding incubation process requiring
oversight, involvement, and championing.

This first step involves securing an appropriate champion to

move the project through execution. This champion must
own it and see it through up to a certain milestone in the
process, or until a pilot project has successfully demonstrated
its commercial viability.

There may continue to be iterative insights and discovery loops, as the underlying hypotheses continue to be
tested and the concept further refined. Hand-offs can occur once the project has established a firm grounding
and reached the appropriate milestone point.

Throughout this stage, appropriate types and levels of resource support must be provided for the project. It is
the job of the project champion to ensure the project receives the level of attention and the types and levels of
resource support it needs.

As projects are worked on throughout the Pipeline, they will face a number of go / no-go / pivot decision points
and hurdles they must navigate. Somewhere along the way within the Pipeline, many projects will end up
merging i to the usi ess normal product development process.

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 InM Stage 4 – Initiation (cont.)
Since the i-Pipe will have its own set of phases, the overall value of projects associated
with each phase should be regularly monitored and compared against specific goals for
that phase.

This will help to ensure a certain guaranteed value for the final output of the Pipeline
(an ongoing value applied for each quarter).

$ $
$ $
Throughout Stage 4 the organization is afforded many opportunities to have feedback loops, where they learn
how best to reinforce, redirect, and/or – where necessary – kill new ideas.

Those projects that make it all the way through to the end and become fully commercialized can be thought of
as the Innovation Flow, or i-Flow.

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 Example: InM Stage 4 – Initiation: Telefonica
An example of a company with an effective initiation process in its pipeline
is Telefónica, S.A. (founded in 1924), the Spanish broadband and tele-
communications provider with operations in Europe, Asia, and North, Central,
and South America. Telefónica operates a well-regarded small R&D lab called
Telefónica I+D using a Lean Startup philosophy.

Telefónica breaks their Innovation Management Process into four stages… Identify / Define / Refine / Deliver.
The first two stages occur in the Funnel / the latter two stages in the Pipeline.

Official Project Initiation happens at the beginning of the Refine stage. More specifically, once a project has
been approved via the business case built for it (which happens in the Define stage), it then moves into the
Pipeline at the Refine stage. This is where a Project Owner is assigned to o it and run with it and start
getting the full cross-functional team involved in developing its Go-to-Market Strategy and ultimately
commercializing the offering (which happens in the Deliver stage).

Poi t of
I itiatio

This process has worked very well for the Telefónica I+D team.

References:
http://www.tid.es/long-term-innovation/howwework
Ho Telefó i a i ple e ted Lea Sta tup app oa h a d uilt a i t ap e eu ial ultu e Ma ía Ele a
Ordóñez y Revuelta – Lean Analytics Association blog, http://lean-analytics.org/ourblog/?p=641.

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 InM Stage 5 – Pilot
STAGE 5 is PILOT – The Innovation Proving Ground

Often, depending on the scope of the endeavor and the commercialization strategy,
the offering being commercialized will first be done so on a limited scale… a pilot.

We call this Pilot Stage the Innovation Proving Ground. It continues the process of
taking new ideas from concept to reality, but in a more controlled and conservative
manner.

Sometimes there is surrogate market data that yields high confidence in the viability of
a concept. In those cases, the pilot may be foregone. In most other cases, the pilot is
justified, particularly when the scope is large.

The purpose of the pilot is to provide an

opportunity for commercial validation
of the concept.

This is confirmation that its underlying

hypothesis and its chosen solution are
in fact both valid and can successfully
scale up to the market's full potential.

Pilots that successfully demonstrate (prove)

the commercial viability of a particular
solution result in the concept being passed
on to the next stage, where the offering is
ramped up to full scale.

Those that do not result in the concept being rationalized or integrated into some other offering that
shifts or expands its value proposition.

By running a pilot, the organization is best able to manage its risks. Pilots provide a safe, cost-effective
approach to learning the market's response prior to taking an offering full-scale.

Given that full-scale production may involve major capital expenditures and large-scale supply chains and
distribution channels, or broad-scale service infrastructures, the pilot allows the business to prove these
investments are justified prior to making them.

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 InM Stage 5 – Pilot (cont.)
If the offering fails, it fails faster and with the least amount of fall-out.

If it succeeds, then they learn quickly why and how to best leverage that.

It is, in effect, an application of Lean Startup practice in the established business

enterprise.

Pilots provide valuable feedback that helps to fine-tune the value proposition prior to
scaling up the offering in the market. It also helps to demonstrate final fit to the
chosen brand portfolio.

The actual flavor and scale of a pilot will vary greatly

depending on the size and maturity of the business,
and the industry they are in.

• In the case of a startup software company for

example, it may take the form of a Minimum
Viable Product (MVP).

• In the case of a large, established brand however,

it will generally be a more well-developed offering.

Offering maturity and pilot scale are always relative to these factors.

The primary drawback to pilots is that they can cause an organization to lose the first-mover advantage where
there is large demand and competitors are also bringing to market similar offerings.

Sometimes, because of these market pressures, the strategy may have to dictate foregoing a pilot and moving
straight to full-scale production / delivery. In most situations however, this is the exception and not the rule.

As with the prior stage, the organization is afforded many opportunities for further feedback loops, where they
continue to learn how best to reinforce, redirect, and/or – where necessary – kill new ideas.

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 Example: InM Stage 5 – Pilot:
Volvo Car Corporation
An example of a company effectively using pilot projects to prove out the technical and commercial viability of
new technologies, features, and capabilities is the Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo Car Corporation (founded
in 1927).

In addition to the many active Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 innovation projects the company has in the works
e.g. D i e-E – electric po e t ai s; Se sus – IoT o e ted ehi les; I tellisafe Autopilot - autonomous
vehicles), the company has at least three projects actively in Pilot Stage at most times.

The screen shot shown here features a technology in pilot called Slippe Road Ale t .

Vol o s Pilot projects fall under a portfolio it calls Human Innovations .

Hu a I o atio s

Pilot
P oje ts

References: http://www.volvocars.com/intl/about/our-stories/human-innovations

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 InM Stage 6 – Scale
STAGE 6 is SCALE – The Innovation Payback

Stage 6 is about scaling new offerings from either concept or pilot stage up to
full-scale production in order to realize the market's full potential.

It completes the process of taking new ideas from concept to reality.

This stage involves making major capital investments to set up full-scale production
capability with large-scale supply chains, establish broad distribution channels, and
make major marketing investments. It also involves establishing a broad-scale service
infrastructure with its associated training and preparation.

This is only done for those concepts that have either demonstrated their commercial viability via a pilot or
that bring inherently high market confidence based on surrogate market insights.

This is the point at which the business will realize the full return on its innovation investment, thus the name
the Innovation Payback.

Projects that reach full scale status here tend to pay back tens, and often hundreds, of times their investment.
These are the new ideas that make all the hard work involved (and the failed attempts) worthwhile.

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 Example: InM Stage 6 – Scale: Starbucks
An example of a company with an effective process for moving from Pilot to Scale is
Starbucks Corporation (founded in 1971), the American coffee / coffeehouse chain
operating 23,450 locations worldwide.

Starbucks routinely pilots new concepts in select stores to test out their market appeal.
They learn effectively this way. Some items scale, othe ite s do ’t. They often will do
this in multiple regions, as some items take off in one market and not another.

Examples of Starbucks Pilots That Successfully Scaled Up In the Market

• Starbucks Loyalty Program (very popular)

• Starbucks VIA®
• Verismo Pods
• K-Cup Pods
• Smoothie (Vivanno) – in the U.S. only
• Bottled Frappuccino
• Holiday Lattes

Examples of Starbucks Pilots Currently In Process, Attempting to Scale Up

• Starbucks Reserve®
• Green Apron Delivery (NYC/Seattle)

Examples of Starbucks Pilots That Did Not Successfully Scale Up

• Circadia (café / restaurant)

• Barista Bar Blender
• Via Brewer Machines
• HEAR Music CD Burners
• Joe Magazine
• Berry Infusions
• Sorbetto
• Chantico
• Layered Espresso
• Eggnog Syrup
• Tribute Blend coffee
• Mazagran (bottled carbonated coffee)

References: http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/01/25/what-are-some-failed-starbucks-
products/#58ea3e511038

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 The Innovation Management Process (cont.)
The relationship between the Dragnet / Funnel / Pipeline
and the concepts of Front End / Mid Zone / Back End of
Innovation a e as follo s…

STAGE 1 – Strategy exists outside of individual innovation

projects, and therefore is not a part of the FEI / MZI / BEI
work categorization framework.

STAGE 2 & 3 of projects are carried out entirely in the

Front End of Innovation.

STAGE 4 of projects straddles the Front End and Mid Zone of Innovation, and so is carried out in part in both
phases.

The FEI will include the balance of the upfront research and concepting work not completed in Stage 3. Most
of the MZI will be completed in Stage 4, including some of the early planning for Stage 5.
How much of Stage 4 occurs in the FEI and how much occurs in the MZI will depend on the details of how
exactly the business has structured its Innovation Pipeline and the associated Phase-Gate milestones.

STAGE 5 of projects straddles the Mid Zone and Back End of Innovation, and so is carried out in part in both
phases.

Generally speaking, the planning of Stage 5 happens in the MZI (the balance of the MZI not completed in
Stage 4), while the doing of Stage 5 happens in the BEI.

STAGE 6 of projects is carried out entirely in the Back End of Innovation.

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 LESSON 16
Storytelling

How to Spark the Imagination & Turn Ships

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 One Thousand and One Nights
Our story begins with One Thousand and One Nights…

He e… the ai f a e sto o e s Shah ā , whom the narrator calls a "Sasanian king" ruling in "India and
China". Shah ā is shocked to discover that his brother's wife has been unfaithful. Discovering his own wife's
infidelity has been even more flagrant, he has her executed.

But in his bitterness and grief decides that all women are the same. So Shah ā egi s to a a succession
of virgins only to execute each one the next morning, before she has a chance to dishonor him.

Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, cannot find any more virgins. Scheherazade, the vizier's
daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees.

On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, but does not end it. The king,
curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion.
The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins (and only begins) a new one, and the king, eager to
hear the conclusion of this tale, postpones her execution once again.

And so on it goes for 1,001 nights.

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 Why Stories – In the Business?
So one begins to get a sense for the power of a sto to p olo g o e s life.

But what about inside a business? Where do stories and storytelling fit in the business? And how do they
relate to innovation work?

Many professionals will work for large organizations, but not in upper management. Trying to influence
change in those organizations can therefore seem like trying to turn an aircraft carrier with a canoe paddle!
It does not work very well.

Alternatively, one can go to bridge of the ship and convey a message to the captain that compels him to
order the helmsman to turn the wheel. Then the shop will turn!

And so, stories – if compelling (which they must be) – are very effective means for achieving that end.

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 Why Stories – As Humans?
Storytelling is a highly useful method for Innovation Teams!

Innovation Teams – if they are to be effective – must

therefore learn to use storytelling as their primary medium
for casting a compelling vision and getting other parties to
buy in to that vision.

This is often the only means by which they will succeed at

getting broader sponsorship for their project inside the
organization.

And when the business ultimately goes out into the market with their new innovation, it too must tell a story
about the new innovation that will resonate with customers on a more human level.

A story, at its simplest, is a narrative telling of an event or experience. It links events into a logical and
believable sequence. We all tell stories all the time. We remember what we experience, and we tell
other people what we remember in the form of a story. Stories work and stories have value because
they help us understand.

In fact, stories are hard-wired into the human psyche. So much so that for thousands of years – for as long as
people groups have had a rich language to draw from – they have been the primary means of passing down
customs, traditions, values, and other important information.

Through stories, facts and raw data gain meaning because they simplify and clarify even the most complex
information. Stories are how we best learn and visualize information.

Stories engage the human mind, as well as often the human spirit. They particularly engage the areas of the
mind associated with the imagination.

When stories are told, the mind awakens and listens… it engages with the story. They hook an audience with
emotion. Most importantly (for us), stories help people remember what they have heard. Even today, stories –
particularly well-told stories – have the power to connect people to ideas in a very human way.

A well-told story that reveals surprising information with a deeper meaning and some human emotions thrown
in will impact the listener not only intellectually, but also emotionally and sometimes even spiritually.

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 Why Stories – For the Mind?
Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for abstract ideas.

Tales with a little drama are remembered far longer than any slide crammed with analytics.

Study after study has suggested the power of story not just as an artistic product, but as a cognitive function.

Narrative g a s people’s atte tio , allows them to retain complex information longer.

If we do not consciously use story we are in some way denying people the ability to understand.

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 Storytelling – Purpose-Driven Narrative
In crafting compelling stories, Innovation Teams must:

1. Understand what story it is they need to tell around their particular challenge, a d the …

2. Skillfully weave together a narrative around that challenge that:

a. Stimulates the listener intellectually a d…

b. Moves them emotionally.

This story must convey a true sense of purpose in resolving the challenge, and must relate that particular
purpose to something that truly matters at a fundamentally human level, not just at a business level
(though the business element is very important too).

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 Storytelling – Structure / Content / Flow
In terms of STRUCTURE… a good story revolves around a central core character or
small group of characters.

In other words, it is character-driven, which allows the story to convey real

human needs and emotions, and thus the necessity for empathy.

The story would have three key components

– action, conflict, and transformation.

1. The action relates what the core character is trying to

accomplish (and why) and what they are doing toward that aim.

2. The conflict reveals what obstacles or roadblocks are standing

in their way, and what emotions that involves, including
perhaps any suppressed emotions lingering beneath the surface.

3. The transformation relates how the character or situation undergoes a transformation such that the conflict
gets resolved and the action is (more or less) accomplished, revealing some particular insight about the
whole matter.

Likewise, in terms of CONTENT, i a good sto …

• There is a protagonist
• There is a challenge or roadblock
• But no solution yet!
• We can be "that hero"!

Finally, in terms of FLOW, a good story will generally flow as follows…

Beginning – dramatically introduce the gap between what is and what could / should be.
A good technique is to start with a story about a person that captures the dilemma the story will eventually
solve. If ou gi e the a s e ight a a , h should the liste to a thi g afte that? Mai tai a sense of
mystery – What ill happe ? Excite imagination – grab attention immediately – frame a problem / set up
a dilemma that the presentation will (eventually) resolve.

Middle – fill in supporting information that allows us to move from what is to what could be in the ideal future.
You need to vary the presentation of information – vary energy so there is a rhythm instead of a flat line of
information (that would be boring).

Conclusion – summarize and picture the better world with the changes implemented.
End with call to action if appropriate. What ifs are often an excellent way of engaging the audience here.

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 Storytelling – Using Empathy
In constructing their story, the Innovation Team can draw directly from an Empathy Map if they have developed
one. What the customer thinks, feels, says, and does will define who the character is. The usto e s unmet
needs (pains and gains) will define what the conflict in the story is. And the insights the team has amassed, and
the solution concepts they have conceived, will all define what the transformation in the story is.

The Innovation Team should be able to develop and tell a compelling story around their character and their
ha a te s situation, and should be able to relate in a very human way how they will be able to deliver
transformation through their insights and solution.

Storytelling – Making It Real

In telling this story, the storyteller should:

• Strive to make it seem very authentic and never cliché.

• Even pepper a little bit of themselves into the story

if they can.

• Relate details about the character and the situation that

pull back the curtain on the emotions lying beneath
their actions, as emotions will always underlie human
behaviors, particularly strong and expressive behaviors.

Fi d a eed a d eet it – the basic formula of

a successful business is the storyline of a hero overcoming
obstacles to save the day.

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 Storytelling – Final Thoughts
When they are done, and if they have told a good story, an Innovation Team should have been able to sell their
project to the most stone-hearted supporter in the business.

This is why storytelling is so very important to a I o atio Tea s o k.

It may make the difference between getting their project funded and not getting it funded. Which is precisely
why they must do their work well, and must learn how to tell truly compelling stories out of that work.

People ill forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made
them feel.

Maya Angelou, social activist.

Emotions and beliefs are masters, reason their servant. Ignore emotion and reason slumbers; trigger
emotion and reason comes rushing to help.
Henry M. Boettinger, author, Moving Mountains: The Art of Letting Others See Things Your Way /
Director (retired) of Corporate Planning, AT&T.

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 A Storyteller on Every Innovation Team
Storytelling is so important to Innovation Teams that it is a skill
Team Leaders (Innovation Managers) are instructed to recruit for
when building their teams.

It enables these teams to be much more successful in pursuing

new innovation for the business! It not only lets them spark the
o ga izatio s collective imagination, more importantly, it
enables them to communicate the value proposition of their
endeavor to the business' key stakeholders.

That is crucial for gaining and maintaining the support they will if their project is to succeed.

Who is The Master Storyteller?

Who is the Master Storyteller?

The Master Storyteller is someone who is able to weave together compelling stories that enrapture the
audience and make them forget about everything else.

1. What they talk about is real, relevant, and rich.

2. They build on conflict, heroes, and resolution.
3. They know how to craft a really twisted plot.
4. They share the ugl … the pai & suspe se that make it compelling.
5. They paint a memoir, not a biography – they connect emotionally more than rationally.

These are the things a Master Storyteller is able to do well, whatever their particular delivery style may be.

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 LESSON 17
Selecting the Winning Ideas

My Innovation is Better Than

Your Innovation

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 Selecting the Winning Ideas – Introduction
This lesson examines the formal Evaluation & Selection Process for Innovation Management.

Before moving into the mechanics of Evaluation & Selection, several of I o atio Ma age e t s disti t
procedural steps are highlighted. These include:

• The detailed Assimilation Process.

• The role of the different Evaluation & Selection Teams and their respective E&S processes.

• The detailed Evaluation Process.

• The detailed Selection Process.

• The role of gamification and crowd-voting.

• A summarization of the entire process.

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 Assimilating Ideas
Central to making any InM system productive is the ability to:

1. Generate a substantial volume of high-quality, high-caliber innovation ideas representing

new opportunities the business can consider.

2. Assimilate these ideas, which involves capturing them, cataloging them, and aggregating them for
eventual evaluation.

This Assimilation Process will be managed by various

Assimilation Teams – groups of Innovation Managers who
manage the process. For any given Innovation Pipeline the
business has (which may tie to either an Innovation
Pathway, an Innovation Vehicle, or a particular Mechanism
of Engagement), these teams will have to drive and execute
an explicit process for assimilating the incoming ideas.

This process generally involves three (3) steps…

challenging, accumulating, and aggregating.

Challenging refers to issuing new innovation challenges. These are highly specific challenges presented to the
organization intended to drive highly focused ideation of new opportunities around that challenge. Innovation
Challenges tend to produce much higher quality inputs than do random, open-ended submissions (which helps
Innovation Teams then have better inputs to start with). Members of Assimilation Teams issue innovation
halle ges a o di g to the usi ess needs.

Accumulating new ideas typically means driving a database system that collects the ideas and assigns them to a
particular area, while also capturing any relevant information the a i lude. The also t a k the ideas
submitters.

Aggregating new ideas means clustering like ideas together, so as to minimize the amount of duplication and
redundancy involved. A method typically used for this is Affinity Analysis, which simple means clumping ideas
together that have some affinity to one another, such as perhaps different ways to deliver the same solution.

In general, assimilation is an ongoing process usually carried out in waves, or cohorts, through specific
challenges and engagement events.

Assimilation Teams will need to work with Engagement Teams to plan and coordinate specific engagement
events and campaigns accordingly. Sometimes the same Program Leaders will sit on both teams, which can
make coordination easier, but may make workloads more difficult.

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 Evaluation & Selection Teams and Processes
After having assimilated a large number of inputs, we next move into the formal Evaluation Process.

I a gi e o ga izatio s Innovation Management system, there has to be a series of evaluation and

selection steps undertaken. These typically will occur at two distinct levels.

The First-Level Evaluation & Selection process is typically conducted by Innovation Managers. It s p i a jo
is to vet new ideas and opportunities so as to cull down the number of concepts that the Second-Level
Evaluation & Selection Team has to spend time evaluating, with the implication that the cohort of concepts the
Second-Level Team evaluates is of a higher caliber (more business and/or market relevance) than is the larger
cohort the First-Level Team evaluates.

The Second-Level Evaluation & Selection process is typically conducted by executives from across the business
– those who more closely control the content of the usi ess innovation program. Its primary job is to select
those concepts that will be converted into real innovation projects via funding and overall support.

Together these two teams serve as the business Pipeline Gatekeepers.

First-Level Evaluation & Selection Teams are sometimes called just the Evaluation Group, as this is a simpler
label. Likewise, Second-Level Evaluation & Selection Teams are sometimes called just the Selection Panel, also
a simpler label.

As the name would suggest, First-Level Evaluation & Selection Teams do two primary things.
Each is critical to d i i g the usi ess Innovation Management system.

Number one… this tea ill drive and facilitate the evaluation process for evaluating all
incoming new ideas for their business and market merit.

Number two… this tea ill d i e a d fa ilitate the selection process for selecting those ideas
and opportunities that are to ultimately be converted into new innovation projects.

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 Evaluating Ideas
Evaluating new ideas means spending time reviewing and studying each one and making an early assessment
of their business and market merit and/or usefulness for new innovation. The team will follow a defined
process for conducting these evaluations and then for selecting those ideas that warrant further examination.

The outcome of this process is that certain ideas and opportunities get promoted for more formal evaluation
and consideration, while others are rejected and held back. The rejected ideas and opportunities can be put
into a parking lot which gets revisited once a year or so to see if perhaps an idea or opportunity emerges where
the time was not right when originally submitted, but the time is now right for. Thus, it is good to keep records
of all ideas, not only those that are moved forward at a given time.

In order to do this job well, the Evaluation Group require solid market intelligence, as they have to understand
which market needs may be real and which are not. This provides the baseline against which they will judge
new ideas. These ideas ust, of ou se, also elate to the usi ess Innovation Strategy.

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 Selecting the Winning Ideas
The formal selection process is used to select those ideas
and opportunities that are to ultimately be converted into
new innovation projects. This process is typically
executed in two waves (and sometimes more).

The first wave is an initial selection and the second wave

is a final (formal) selection. For the initial selections, the
Level 1 Team will conduct that themselves. For the
formal selections, the Level 1 Team will facilitate that
process, but the actual evaluations and selections will typically be made by the Level 2 (executive level) Team.

Initial selection flows out of the preceding evaluation process, and involves a series of refining steps in which
the ideas and opportunities are all reviewed, ranked, and then certain ones selected for the next wave (formal
review). This culls down the number of ideas and opportunities the Level 2 Team will have to evaluate.
Selection as this point means that additional time and effort will be invested into developing the concept
further so that there is an adequate basis for evaluating it in the final, formal selection process. This will often
involve building a preliminary st a a usi ess pla / usi ess ase for the concept. This work can either
pass to a special Innovation Team formed for this purpose, or be conducted the o ept s originators,
perhaps with assistance and coaching from an Innovation Professional.

Final selection is typically a more involved activity.

How it is conducted will vary somewhat from
organization to organization. In some organizations,
the Evaluation Group will make the final selections
themselves. This is rare however.

More common is for each new idea or opportunity to be

pit hed to the Selection Panel, an activity that the
Evaluation Group will need to facilitate. In this scenario,
the Evaluation Group will either pitch the business cases themselves or else have the idea originators pitch
them (perhaps with their help). This latter approach often brings more passion to the effort. Furthermore, the
Evaluation Group may or may not add their own recommendations at this point, depending on whether or not
these are solicited from the Selection Panel.

In the end, the Selection Panel will decide which, if any, of these new ideas are to be promoted for introduction
into the o ga izatio s fo al Innovation Pipeline – a process known as Conversion.

Because it involves the act of pitching new ideas, this process is sometimes referred to as the A gel Pit h and
the Selection Panel as the A gel Co ittee .

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 Selecting the Winning Ideas (cont.)
Selection – both initial and final – represents an activity
in which the business benefits greatly from having a
well-defined and transparent governance process
in place.

Such an innovation governance process will lay out

specifically what financial and business criteria are to be
used in evaluating and comparing competing ideas –
their gating process. Definition and transparency
around these ensures that all ideas are treated fairly and
equitably and are given equal consideration based on their own merits against a consistent and relevant
set of criteria.

By the same token, the business must undertake every reasonable effort to use real data (where it exists) in this
decision- aki g p o ess, athe tha el i g o i di idual s o tea s opinions. Being data-driven forces it to
accept reality as it is, rather than as one might wish it to be.

This being said, all parties should also recognize and accept the fact that the confidence level around project
metrics (e.g. things like market size and expected revenue earnings) will be low this far up in the Front End of
Innovation. This means there will inherently be a certain level of subjectivity and judgment involved in the
decision-making process… so ethi g that simply cannot be avoided at this stage in the innovation process.

Also, because the Evaluation Group(s) will play an important role in helping projects that have been approved
get their start i the usi ess fo al de elop e t a d o e ializatio pipelines, it will prove crucial for
them to cultivate solid relationships across a broad network of leade s i the usi ess a ious fu tio al
groups and business units.

Typically, ideas that get selected at this point for additional development and commercialization
work will need a formal Project Initiation Champion, a high-level leader in the business (often a
Director) who is well-respected and well-regarded and who can see that these projects get the
attention and resources they need. It will be their job to ensure the project gets what it needs to
get its feet on the ground and survive until it gets handed off to a business unit or is otherwise
implemented.

Typically, ideas that get handed off to a business unit will need a formal Business Unit Champion
within one of the business units. It will be this champion's job to help make the case for the idea
within that business unit and to then help get it off the ground.

For these reasons, it is imperative that the Evaluation Group build and maintain a broad network
of business unit champions across the entire business.

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 Crowd-Voting – InM Meets Gamification
Quite often, in the course of running an Innovation Management System, an organization is in search of ways to
engage their workers deeper yet into the ideation process.

One way they do that is through gamification – turning the ideation process into a game, or contest, between
participants to see who can generate the best ideas, the most ideas, or perhaps both.

The most common form of gamification is crowd-voting. Here, in the course of conducting a specific ideation
challenge a paig , the o ga izatio s pa ti ipa ts a e a le to see e e o e else’s idea su issio s, and then
are allowed to vote up or vote down o e a othe s ideas. Eventually, certain ideas will rise to the top and
others will sink to the bottom. Likewise, certain ideators will gain more poi ts and rise to the top of the
leaderboard – points they can later exchange for merchandise or cash. It thus serves as an incentive for
participating.

In the course of crowd-voting, the organization can and should prescribe what criteria they wish people to use,
but otherwise most of the time people will simply vote based on the extent to which they feel a particular idea is
a good one and thus merits further work. It will, in effect then, become a popula it o test of ideas.

Innovation Managers will want to keep this in mind, and while they will certainly want to use this o d’s
selections to single out several strong contenders, they may also have other criteria which they wish to apply in
a more direct and disciplined manner, which may lead to a different set of ideas surfacing to the top as well.
Otherwise, crowd-voting can also be a useful means of weeding out some of the least promising ideas – again,
so long as people are applying the criteria the business wants them to.

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 Putting Engagement and Evaluation Together –
Two Models for Collaboration
When it comes to how a business is to leverage both
Engagement Teams and Evaluation Groups most effectively
for their overall Innovation Management effort, there are
generally two approaches they can take.

The choice of which is best for a particular business will

depend on its needs, strategies, organizational structures,
and innovation governance otherwise.

In the first approach – known as dedicated teams – Engagement Teams and Evaluation Groups operate
separately and are aligned along their respective roles. This means the two teams will need to collaborate in
order to plan and run various campaigns and then to collect and review the results of those. This approach
allows each respective team to remain focused on their core task and to potentially reach a state of maximum
proficiency on that task.

In the second approach – known as hybrid teams – hybrid teams are formed that carry out both roles and are
aligned alo g the li es of so e po tio of the usi ess Innovation Strategy, such as a particular Innovation
Pathway (e.g. Market Escalation opportunities), a particular Innovation Vehicle (e.g. Corporate Venturing
opportunities), or a particular Engagement Mechanism (e.g. a Business Plan Competition). In this approach,
each such piece of the strategy can produce its own particular mini Innovation Pipeline that gets assimilated,
evaluated, and selected independent of other pipelines (these may eventually all merge together however, for
resourcing and strategy purposes).

Hybrid teams can also be built around the needs of a particular business unit, so as to drive new opportunities
just for that unit.

Hybrid teams thus own both roles – planning and running the engagement mechanism, and then collecting and
evaluating the ideas and opportunities arising out of it. One particular approach to hybrid teams is to build
them as partner pairs, in which one member of the pair takes the lead in planning and executing the campaign,
and the other member of the pair takes the lead in collecting, analyzing, and evaluating its outcomes.

Hybrid teams can be particularly effective because they afford the business more flexibility in when, where, and
how it uses campaigns. This also tends to make its overall Innovation Management system more agile and
adaptable as new needs arise.

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 Selecting the Winning Ideas – Summary
As has been seen, the overall Evaluation & Selection process
is crucial fo a o ga izatio s Innovation Management
system to work properly. Really, it is the heart of everything
the business is trying to do with its Innovation Pipeline,
particularly as it relates to driving bottom-up participatory
innovation. This is why it is so critically important for
businesses to get this process nailed down just right.

At the conclusion of each wave of the Level 1 Evaluation & Selection

process, the organization will have three (3) sets of ideas…

1. Move Forward 1

2. Parking Lot 1

3. Dead Forever 1.

The Move Forward 1 set will be passed along and presented to the
Level 2 Team for further evaluation and consideration. Given that this is the first level of evaluation &
selection, often only a small percentage of the total population of ideas submitted will be passed on to move
forward.

The Parking Lot 1 set will be set aside and revisited again in the future for potentially better fit with certain
trend timings. Given that this is the first level of evaluation & selection, there may be a sizeable number of
ideas that get placed here.

The Dead Forever 1 set will be discarded entirely. Given that this is the first level of evaluation & selection,
there may be a large number of ideas that get discarded.

It is not uncommon for this Level 1 process to occur weekly,

bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on how fast a campaign is
running and how many ideas it is generating.

There may be any number of different Level 1 streams feeding

into the higher-level Level 2 stream of evaluation & selection.

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 Selecting the Winning Ideas – Summary (cont.)
At the conclusion of each wave of the Level 2 Evaluation
& Selection process, the organization will likewise have
three (3) sets of ideas…

1. Move Forward 2

2. Parking Lot 2

3. Dead Forever 2.

The Move Forward 2 set ep ese ts the o ga izatio s Conversion – these are the set of concepts that get
funded and resourced and thus converted into actual innovation projects. Given that this is the second level of
evaluation & selection, a fair number of ideas may be moved forward here.

The Parking Lot 2 set will – like the Parking Lot 1 set – be set aside and revisited again in the future for
potentially better fit with certain trend timings. Given that this is the second level of evaluation & selection,
there may only be a small number of ideas that get placed here.

The Dead Forever 2 set – like the Dead Forever 1 set – will be discarded entirely. Given that this is the second
level of evaluation & selection, there will typically only be a very small number of ideas that get discarded here
(otherwise, the Level 1 Team would not be doing its job well).

It is not uncommon for this Level 2 process to occur monthly or quarterly, depending on how fast various
campaigns are running and how many ideas they are generating.

At the conclusion of each wave of this overall process, the organization will have its newest wave of innovation
projects being initiated in its Pipeline.

The overall size of its Pipeline (resources, capacities, growth demands, etc.) and the relative scope of each
project will dictate how many new projects get initiated in each period.

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 LESSON 18
Integration –
Pulling This All Together

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 Integration – Pulling This All Together
In bringing this course to an end, this lesson addresses one final topic – how to take everything learned in this
course and pull it together in a coherent manner to drive the pursuit of innovation in o e s business.

To this end seven (7) key steps are enumerated for making this happen.

These are:

1. U de sta d the usi ess Innovation Strategy – seek to understand where, strategically, your business wants
to go pursue new innovation (new products, new services, new markets, etc.), and how it wants to do those
things, and then use that to steer all the rest of these activities.

2. Find new opportunities out of unmet & unarticulated needs – go out into the world and into your markets
and hunt for those unresolved pain points / look at future trends and anticipate where new pains will arise.

3. Reframe each problem - state a good point of view about it – make sure it is understood at the most
fundamental level the business can deliver to, in order to deliver truly 10X breakthrough innovations. Use
whatever Innovation and Design Methods will help you do this well.

4. Brainstorm solutions for each problem and find the best solution – use your collective wisdom – inside the
business and out in the crowd – to find the best ways to solve for these problems. Again, use whatever
Innovation and Design Methods will help you do this well.

5. Submit these new opportunities to the Evaluation / Selection Process – use ou usi ess InM System to
your advantage – learn how to qualify & quantify opportunities through good research and defend them with
really good business plans and pitches. Tell us a good story about it!

6. Manage the business' Innovation Pipeline to maximize its investment in innovation – help your business
ensure it is converting and funding the best new projects to support its business and innovation strategies.

7. Finally – execute the projects! Just like you taught in Lessons 8 & 14, run the projects and deliver the new
innovations. Do this well and your business will realize the outcomes it needs from innovation.

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 Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 1
STEP 1: U de sta d the usi ess Innovation Strategy!

Seek to understand where – strategically – your business wants to go in

pursuit of new innovation (new products, new services, new markets,
and so forth), and how it wants to do those things. This should be
given to you ou o ga izatio s senior management, especially if there
is a senior manager – like a Chief Innovation Officer for example – charged
with defining and driving this strategy. Then use this strategy to steer all the rest of the activities that you end
up doing as an Innovation Professional, whether that is serving a member of an Acting Innovation Team, as an
Innovation Project Leader, or as an Innovation Program Leader.

Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 2

STEP 2: Needfinding!

Find new opportunities out of unmet & unarticulated needs. Go out into
the world and into your markets and hunt for those unresolved pain points.
Look at future trends and anticipate where new pains will arise.

Use this to – togethe ith ou usi ess Innovation Strategy – to focus all
of your innovation efforts moving forward! And use whatever Innovation
and Design Methods ill help ou do this ell… Ma ket Resea h / Use Resea h / DDI / a d so o .

Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 3

STEP 3: Reframe each problem. State a good Point of View about it.

Make sure each problem is understood at the most fundamental level

the business can deliver to, in order to deliver truly 10X breakthrough
innovations. Use whatever Innovation and Design Methods will help you
do this ell… Desig Thi ki g / ODI / and so on.

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 Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 4
STEP 4: Brainstorm solutions for each problem and find the best solution
for that problem.

Use your collective wisdom – inside the business and out in the crowd
– to find the best ways to solve for these problems. Again, use whatever
Innovation and Design Methods ill help ou do this ell… Desig Thi ki g
/ ODI / Breakthrough Innovation Method / brainstorming / and so on.

Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 5

STEP 5: Submit these new opportunities to the Evaluation & Selection
Process.

Use ou usi ess Innovation Management System to your advantage.

Learn how to qualify and quantify opportunities through good research.
Then defend them with really good business plans and pitches.

Use storytelling… tell us a good story about it!

Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 6

STEP 6: Manage the business' Innovation Pipeline to maximize the
usi ess investment in innovation.

Help your business ensure it is converting and funding the best new projects
to support its business and innovation strategies.

Integration – Pulling This All Together – Step 7

STEP 7: Finally – execute the projects!

Just like we were taught in Lesson 8 (for Innovation Professionals) & Lesson
14 fo P oje t Leade s … run the projects and deliver the new innovations.
Do this well and your business will realize the outcomes it needs from
innovation!

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 Integration – Pulling This All Together
Those are the seven (7) things you need to pull together in order to be effective at innovation.

Be aware that the order and sequence of these things can vary from business to business, so do not be
surprised if your business wants to do them differently. For example, some organizations do not want to spend
time and effort reframing problems and finding solutions for them until they have first been converted into
projects. That is acceptable too, so long as these things are all happening effectively.

1. Understand the busi ess’ I o atio Strategy – seek to understand where, strategically, your business wants
to go pursue new innovation (new products, new services, new markets, etc.), and how it wants to do those
things, and then use that to steer all the rest of these activities.

2. Find new opportunities out of unmet & unarticulated needs – go out into the world and into your markets and
hunt for those unresolved pain points / look at future trends and anticipate where new pains will arise.

3. Reframe each problem - state a good point of view about it – make sure it is understood at the most
fundamental level the business can deliver to, in order to deliver truly 10X breakthrough innovations. Use
whatever Innovation and Design Methods will help you do this well.

4. Brainstorm solutions for each problem and find the best solution – use your collective wisdom – inside the
business and out in the crowd – to find the best ways to solve for these problems. Again, use whatever
Innovation and Design Methods will help you do this well.

5. Submit these new opportunities to the Evaluation / Selection Process – use your usi ess’ InM System to your
advantage – learn how to qualify & quantify opportunities through good research and defend them with
really good business plans and pitches. Tell us a good story about it!

6. Manage the business' Innovation Pipeline to maximize its investment in innovation – help your business
ensure it is converting and funding the best new projects to support its business and innovation strategies.

7. Finally – execute the projects! Just like you taught in Lessons 8 & 14, run the projects and deliver the new
innovations. Do this well and your business will realize the outcomes it needs from innovation.

Now go be effective!

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 LESSON 19
About the CInP®
Certification Process & Exam

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 About the CInP® Certification Process
Here the CInP® Certification and the CInP® Exam are briefly discussed.

To begin with, let it be made known that it is GInI’s desi e that each course participant would become a
Certified Innovation Professional®.

This is ultimately for your sake, for your career, and for your organization.

Therefore, please do – if at all possible – register for and take the CInP® exam.

The CInP® Certification Process is as follows:

1. Ensure that you meet GI I s Exam Eligibility Requirements for the CInP® exam.

2. Complete and submit the CInP® Exam Application to GInI.

3. A ait GI I s Application Completeness Review of your application.

GInI will notify you once this is complete.

4. Thereafter, pay the CInP® Exam Enrollment Fee.

5. You will then be registered for the CInP® exam, and will receive details from GInI on how to
complete the exam, including a link to the online exam site.

6. You must complete the CInP® exam within the one (1) year Exam Eligibility Period.

7. To maintain your certification, you must earn 45 Innovation Development Units (IDUs) every 2 years
or retake the CInP® exam.

For more information – see: https://www.gini.org/cinp.

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 About the CInP® Exam
The details of the CInP® Exam are as follows:

• The exam is administered online through a Computer-Based Testing (CBT) system.

• There are 90 multiple-choice questions on the exam.

• You have 90 minutes in which to complete the exam.

• You must complete the exam in one sitting.

You will be unable to pause the exam timer once you have begun the exam.

• The Passing Score for the exam is 60%.

• Once you submit your answers, you will immediately receive your Pass / Fail result.

• Once you pass the exam, you can expect to receive your CInP Certificate within 6-8 weeks.

• If you fail the exam on your first attempt, you are allowed to retake it one (1) more times within your
one (1) year eligibility period – at half price.
If after two unsuccessful attempts you still have not passed the exam, then you are required to retake
the CInP® Exam Preparation Course.

For more information – see: https://www.gini.org/cinp.

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 The I o ato ’s Oath
The I o ato ’s Oath sig ifies o e s o it e t to i o atio .

I do hereby solemnly pledge to commit myself to the cause of

innovation in all my endeavors both professional and personal.
From henceforth on, I will strive to endow my work with the sense
of purpose and mission that come only from pursuing innovation,
and will exercise the curiosity, exploration, and focused
determination needed to deliver radical new value that moves our
world forward and makes it a better place.

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 LESSON 20
Engagement

The Art of Participatory Innovation

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 Engagement – The Art of Participatory Innovation
Success with bottom-up, participatory innovation in an
enterprise innovation program usually comes down to
one thing – the o ga izatio s a ilit to drive and sustain
engagement.

Engagement refers to getting the organization and its

people involved and engaged in its formal enterprise
innovation program.

For most workers, this involvement will take the form of

participating in various internal grassroots activities and events – all outside the scope of their normal day-to-
day roles – aimed at driving the identification of new needs and opportunities for innovation that the business
can pursue. These then become the inputs i to the usi ess Innovation Management System… those e
ideas and opportunities the Dragnet captures.

For bottom-up, participatory innovation, therefore,

engagement is foundational and absolutely critical to a
healthy and successful innovation program. It is what
democratizes the innovation program and connects it with
the people who give it life! It is also one of the key sources
for innovative new ideas to feed the Innovation Pipeline.

Without engagement, an innovation program will be

effectively dead!

Inside of the formal enterprise innovation program, certain

Innovation Managers will be assigned to serve as InM
Program Leaders with primary or exclusive responsibility for
driving engagement in the program.

These are known as Engagement Teams.

This is where they spend the majority of their time, energy,

and focus… d i i g e gage e t.

Fortunately, over time there has come to be a large arsenal of mechanisms these Program Leaders can call upon
for engaging the organization in a wide variety of ways.

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 The Mechanisms of Engagement
Mo e spe ifi all , the usi ess i o atio p og a ust
employ what we refer to as mechanisms of engagement –
events, activities, and resources designed specifically to
engage people in various innovation efforts.

These enable the program to tap into the insights,

knowledge, and perceptions of the organization's
internal staff and external partners, primarily around
what is happening external to the business, in current and
potential markets, and, very importantly, how it can potentially capitalize on those things. In some cases they
involve going so far as to actually create something that can be immediately taken to market.

There are a large number of mechanisms in common use, of many different types. Each of these serves a
different purpose and thus has an appropriate time and place, according to the needs of the program at any
given time. Each also has a very different way of engaging people, and therefore a different feel to it. Some
are simple, straightforward, and unstructured, while others are more structured and very work-intensive. For
this reason, some mechanisms will resonate with certain people more so than with others. This is why
businesses need to use a variety of mechanisms.

The following are 19 commonly used Mechanisms of Engagement

• Communities of Practice
• Expert Forums
• Speed Dating
• Idea Conferences
• Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels
• i–Mentors / i-Coaches
• Flash Builds
• Maverick Panels
• Ideation Challenges
• Innovation Kits
• Innovation Jams
• Hackathons
• Innovation Workshops
• Innovation Tournaments
• 5 x 5 Team Competitions
• Business Plan Competitions Dragon's Den / Shark Tank
• Design Sprints
• Captive Accelerators
• Joint Practice Sessions

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 The Mechanisms of Engagement (cont.)
The following sections provide brief explanations of certain
mechanisms of engagement.

InM Program Leaders must learn all of these methods (and may even
create some of their own) and carefully consider which of these are
suited to thei p og a s needs and its particular goals and objectives.
They should then be prepared to employ any that are relevant, noting
that over time, as specific needs arise, they may need to pull out one
they have not used previously in order to accomplish a specific outcome. Thus proficiency in a hole tool o
of e gage e t e ha is s g eatl e efits the o ga izatio s Innovation Management efforts.

Mechanism: Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice are ongoing communities of professional
peers organized around specific subject matters. They are formed to
enable individuals to share their expertise in certain areas and to help
out one another opportunistically, which generally means as needs
and interests arise. As such, they help to stoke occasional inputs into
the enterprise innovation program. Just as importantly though, by
sharing openly and widely, they help further the organization's
capabilities in these areas.

Since these communities are ope -e ded in nature, there are no set timeframes for follow-on action. In
order to be self-sustaining, each community will need a distinct subject matter with broad interest and a
community manager.

Mechanism: Expert Forums

Expert Forums are online forums designed to allow individuals and
teams to submit their questions on particular topics and get back
answers and solutions from subject matter experts. The subject
matter experts need not be internal; they can just as well be outside
experts sourced from any number of places, including venues such as
online Subject Matter Expert brokerage portals like Gerson Lehrman
Group (www.glg.it), Maven (www.maven.co), and Zintro
(www.zintro.com). These sometimes require an extended period of promotion to get people in the habit of
using them and making them an ingrained part of how they routinely find answers. The insights and ideas they
generate can produce useful fodder for the enterprise innovation program.

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 Mechanism: Speed Dating
Speed Dating is scheduled sessions between peers (typically two,
sometimes three) designed to facilitate reciprocal sharing of insights,
expertise, and experience. They are much more intimate a d o -
topi than are Communities of Practice. Speed dates may happen
only once, or can become recurring if desired.

Speed dating can be productive at any level of the organization, but

can prove particularly effective at higher levels, where individuals often have deep wells of business expertise
around specific functional domains. With speed dating, it is important to properly scope the participants so
that each side understands the give-and-take they should expect, and therefore have bought into the idea so
they are prepared to engage in it completely.

The outcomes of speed dates can often produce extremely valuable inputs into the broader innovation
program, and may result in any manner of innovation initiatives for the business (some of which may have
immediate impact).

Mechanism: Idea Conferences

Idea Conferences are outside conferences that participants are sent to
so that they can be exposed to fresh thinking and diverse ideas from
all over the world. It allows them to not only hear the ideas, but also
network and interact with the presenters and other attendees to
further explore and develop some of the ideas.

Idea Conferences are also known as idea a ele ato s . They are like
speed-dating on steroids, all crammed into a short time span.

Examples of Idea Conferences include:

• TED (www.ted.com)
• the Aspen Ideas Festival (www.aspenideas.org)
• Davos – the World Economic Forum's annual meeting (www.weforum.org/events/).

Participants typically return to their offices inspired with all manner of new ways of seeing and thinking and
with ideas that can be applied inside the business. Ultimately, some of these ideas will make their way into the
Innovation Funnel.

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 Mechanism: Cross-Industry
Lateral Innovation Panels
Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels are private groups of
businesses from different industries who from time to time host panel
sessions together in which each business sends one or more leaders to
engage with their peers on the panel. The purpose of the panels is so
that these businesses can cross-pollinate ideas with one another and
in some cases address a particular challenge that one or more of them
wishes to address. Because these businesses all come from different
industries, these panels tend to produce highly lateral thinking around
different ways of seeing things and doing things – what are known as lateral approaches. After each panel
session concludes, these business leaders can then return to their respective organizations and use the new
insights they gained as fresh new fodder fo thei usi ess i o atio p og a .

Because they involve sending business leaders outside the organization to source potential new ideas from
other businesses, these panels are also considered a form of Open Innovation.

Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels tend to be formed and run as loose partnerships, with member
organizations joining and leaving as their needs would dictate. Any given business can therefore set up and run
their own panel as they wish. Depending on the panel and how it tends to operate, its sessions can either be
highly structured (usually as workshops), or more unstructured (usually as simple open dialogues).

Cross-industry lateral innovation has often proven a valuable approach for businesses. Select examples are
provided on the website www.crossindustryinnovation.com.

Mechanism: i-Mentors / i-Coaches

I-Mentors and i-Coaches are individuals who have been specially-
trained as innovation mentors / facilitators / coaches and who float
around the business, moving from project to project as needed or
requested. They plug themselves into select project teams and deploy
various innovation tools (e.g. design methods, problem reframing,
brainstorming, business model canvas, customer journey mapping,
etc.) to help the teams break out of current thinking patterns around a
challenge and tap into new thinking patterns. This often yields new insights i to the tea s more fundamental
problem, which in turn tends to yield more novel and innovative solutions, producing tangible results for the
innovation program.

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 Mechanism: Flash Builds
Flash Builds are pre-planned events where small creative teams
(e.g. a researcher, a designer, and an engineer) converge on a place –
typically a place where real, actual customers are going about their
business – and create a new product on site over the course of
approximately a week or so (working long days). This setting allows
developers to conceive, build, and test out a new offering live,
right on the spot while they are developing it. This makes for highly
rapid, on-the-spot iterations as each successive version is tested with different customers as it becomes
available, allowing the design to rapidly converge on a high-quality version in very short order. When finished,
the team can – perhaps with some final clean up back in their lab – then roll out the offering to their entire
market if so desired.

Flash Builds are ideally suited to digital products like mobile apps, and work particularly well for offerings used
to augment broader customer experiences, such as in retail shopping for example.

Flash Builds are modeled after the concept of flash o s , but are intended to create something useful rather
than just make a bunch of noise.

Example: Flash Build – Nordstrom

This is an example of a Flash Build with Nordstrom, the boutique retailer, in which a team f o the o pa s
Core Innovation Group I o atio La e t directly into the field (at a Nordstrom store in downtown
Seattle, WA, USA) to carry out a very fast and effective development of a retail consumer shopping aid.

Watch what takes shape over the course of one week with just one small team.

The end product – a tool to help people

compare their appearance with different
sunglasses – is a useful sales aid for boosting
the sales of sunglasses. Once the team was
satisfied with this tool, they could then roll it
out to all of the Nordstrom stores around the
world, greatly scaling this one effort.

References: Nordstrom Innovation Lab:

Sunglass iPad App Case Study.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szr0ezLyQHY

06:42

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 Mechanism: Maverick Panels
Maverick Panels – also known as Thought Leader Panels – are events
where e te al thought leade s (some of whom should be
mavericks and provocateurs) are brought in to meet face-to-face with
the usi ess leading innovators. The external thought leaders /
experts are generally considered visionary in their respective fields,
such that they bring in fresh new perspectives and insights that should
ideally challenge and stretch the organization's thinking. Here they
discuss, explore, speculate, and otherwise engage in very active and sometimes vociferous debate amongst the
panel. Given their o ife ous atu e, these a e e diffe e t tha a ge tle e 's de ate , as the a e i te ded
to move the needle on the organization's thinking in a significantly meaningful way.

Beyond the discussion and debate, they can also engage in active exploration of future scenarios together, as
well as co-creation of concepts for new businesses, offerings, and business models that stand to capitalize on
the intersection of certain trends and their insights.

Maverick Panels tend to be really good for stirring up questions and debates when trying to look out at Horizon
3 and figure out where the business should be focusing its efforts in that timeframe.

Mechanism: Ideation Challenges

Ideation Challenges are crowdsourced ideation campaigns focused on
a specific business challenge. They are presented to a wide and
diverse audience over a limited timeframe, and have clear follow-up
milestones. They sometimes use gamification to drive participation,
where peers can ote up or ote do one another's ideas to see
whose ideas rise to the top and whose sink to the bottom, there being
prizes for those that float to the top.

Idea Challenges may generate hundreds of new ideas, each of which must then be reviewed and evaluated for
usefulness and actionability. Follow up is often assigned to special teams either in Corporate Strategy,
Enterprise innovation, or one of the front line business units.

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 Mechanism: Innovation Kits
Innovation Kits are an exercise in which any number of participants
from all over the organization are provided with carefully-
designed starter kits containing various paraphernalia.
The paraphernalia are meant to serve as thought starters.

Participants are challenged to take the paraphernalia and use it to

spark innovative new thinking around a particular business challenge,
and to consider how the various pieces and parts might be
recombined in novel ways to generate novel new ideas about needs, opportunities, and solutions.
The end result is the submission by participants of new ideas they were able to generate from the synthesis of
the different starter pieces.

There is no limit to how many innovation kits can be handed out, nor how long such a campaign can be run at a
given time. And while it may prove useful to have all the kits be uniform in any given wave, it is often good over
time to mix up the kit contents, as this will generate the greatest variety of new ideas over the long run.

Example: Innovation Kit – Adobe Kickbox

A great example of a company that has instituted highly effective engagement mechanisms is
Adobe Systems fou ded i , o e of the o ld s leadi g creative design software companies.

At Adobe, some of the key mechanisms in use include:

• Idea Kits – The Adobe Kickbox – quarterly cohorts.

• Ideation Challenges – ongoing.

• Distinguished Inventors Status – ongoing.

These are also in addition to Ado e s o al product roadmap work, which is well-informed by professional
insights research.

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 Mechanism: Innovation Jams
Innovation Jams are open discussion and brainstorming forums
framed around a certain issue(s) that is/are pertinent and relevant to
the business at the time. Using various mediums, they serve as a
means for broad scale collaborative innovation.

Innovation Jams allow participants from the broadest possible global

audience – often numerous countries and companies, and potentially
thousands of individuals – to share their insights, perspectives, and
ideas on an issue, with the goal of discovering a new solution to the problem (often a long–standing problem).
Because of their ability to integrate so many diverse perspectives, they have shown themselves to be powerful
tools for seeing problems with e e es and creating solutions that no individual or group ever could have in
isolation. Given the potential scale of these forums, they are generally curated and moderated by a trained
moderator.

In the context of an enterprise innovation program, Innovation Jams can be a powerful tool for generating well
considered new business ideas, perhaps in response to a challenge or opportunity that was first identified
elsewhere in the program.

Possibly the most well-known example of a broad scale innovation jam was IBM's 2006 Innovation
Ja ™, which brought together more than 150,000 people from 104 countries and 67 companies
and resulted in launching 10 new businesses using $100 million of seed investment.

Mechanism: Hackathons
Hackathons are team sprints organized to build something entirely
new in a highly-compressed timeframe (e.g. over a weekend). They
are most common in the tech / software worlds. They can be a great
source of fun for those inclined to participate, and often produce a
highly useful outcome in record time.

Since the outcome rarely emerges in saleable form, the challenge then
becomes how to finish what the event began and turn that into a
finished product. That work must typically be transferred to a formal development team who will complete
and implement the outcome. Keeping the momentum to ensure this happens generally requires some type of
executive sponsorship with a commitment to finish what the hackathon began.

With the right follow-on, these have been known to have business impact in as little as one month, particularly
when the outcome can be integrated into something that already exists.

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 Mechanism: Innovation Workshops
Innovation Workshops are hands-on working sessions purposefully-
designed to engage participants in a variety of thought-provoking
activities around discovery and creation. They come in a variety of
forms, each designed to accomplish a specific purpose and to engage a
specific type of participant from the organization. Regardless of which
types of workshop are used, they all tend to yield actionable fodder
for the innovation program – some ideas being strategic and some
being tactical, but all being valuable.

Examples of workshops include:

• Frontline Innovation Workshops attacking identified challenges

• Strategic Inquiry Design Methods fieldwork

• Business Model Expedition a hunt for new business models

• Customer Experience Workshop to analyze CXs & design new CXs

• Executive Strategy Ideation executive level situation / scenario analysis & forward-looking brainstorming

Mechanism: Innovation Tournaments

Innovation Tournaments are prize-based contests designed to
generate a large number of high-caliber new ideas in a set timeframe
the est e idea fo . They are often open to the general
public and/or a large internal/external pool of participants.

Since they are force-ranked competitions, they have competition-style

rules and clearly defined participation guidelines, and there will
inherently be i e s and lose s .

Their biggest challenge lies in generating the desired caliber of participation and from this the desired quality
and caliber of ideas.

In the context of an enterprise innovation program, they can be a highly effective tool for generating
high-quality ideas to front load the Innovation Funnel.

When these tournaments are open to the general public, that is generally considered Crowdsourcing, a form of
Open Innovation.

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 Mechanism: 5 X 5 Team Competitions
5 x 5 Team Competitions are internal competitions aimed at generating some number of relevant hypotheses
about a business' markets and with them a large number of high-quality, low-cost, quickly-executable business
experiments designed to yield definitive learnings about the hypotheses.

To accomplish this, the competition builds out approximately 5 teams, each comprised of approximately
5 members who have been explicitly hand-picked for this exercise, and then each team spends roughly 5 days
together (full time) to develop what they feel is an important hypothesis (or several themed hypotheses)
around their markets and with that 5 business experiments that can each be run within 5 weeks or less, and for
$5,000 or less, which will yield useable and actionable insights about the hypothesis.

At the end of the initial conception period, each team presents their hypothesis and their 5 proposed business
experiments to a committee that ideally includes business unit leaders who can fund the experiments.

Coming out of the competition, certain experiments will be funded and run, and select prizes awarded to
winning hypotheses / experiments, according to the committee's final recommendations. These experiments do
not generally yield final answers about solutions, but they do tend to confirm or repute particular elements of
the hypotheses, and in so doing point the organization in the right direction for additional learning and possible
solutions. More often than not, the experiments provide useful learnings that eventually do inform new
innovations offered to the market.

As a mechanism for exploring and testing various market hypotheses, 5 x 5 Team Competitions are highly
compatible with Design Thinking methodology.

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 Mechanism: Business Plan Competitions
Business Plan Competitions are internal competitions in which teams of peers work together to, in each case,
identify a new opportunity for the business, develop a relatively complete and well thought-out business plan
for commercializing it, and then pitch that plan to an internal venture board, generally in order to get funding
for it. This is not unlike what entrepreneurs do on the outside when they pitch to Venture Capitalists to get
funding for a new business venture, except that in these cases, it is all internally-focused – the individuals
are intrapreneurs pitching to an internal venture board for internal funding to develop a concept for
use internally by the business. Otherwise the vibe is very much the same.

Considering the amount of (volunteer) work that teams must invest in these competitions, companies typically
host them only once or twice per year. In some cases, they are also used as the venue for a formal
intrapreneurship program. There are usually cash prizes and other incentives for the winners and runner-ups.

After the competition, the winning teams are typically given a Series A round of funding to further investigate,
research, and otherwise prove out their concept and business plan. If that phase proves successful, they may
be awarded a Series B round for additional proof-of-concept development / testing, and so forth. If a concept
proves strong enough, it may ultimately make its way all the way through to commercialization
(implementation) withi the Co e I o atio Tea a d/o o e of the usi ess usi ess u its. How this
happens can vary widely from one business to the next.

In almost all cases the endeavor will be handed off to a special team dedicated to this purpose, but where
exactly this takes place will vary considerably. In some cases, it will happen early on. In other cases, it will
happen later, relying on the original team to continue pursuing the Series A, Series B, etc. work (on top of their
normal day jobs) until a certain milestone has been reached.

In the context of an enterprise innovation program, these competitions provide an excellent tool for surfacing
and funding many non-core, and potentially breakthrough or disruptive, business innovations. Depending on
the scope of the concept and how much follow-on development work is required, business impact can be on
the order of months to years.

They are also known as Drago ’s De s in the UK and Europe, and Shark Tanks in the United States.

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 Example: Business Plan Competition – Whirlpool
A great example of a company that has instituted highly effective engagement
mechanisms is Whirlpool Corporation (founded in 1911), the o ld’s largest consumer
appliance manufacturer.

At Whirlpool, some of the key mechanisms in use include:

• i-Mentors – ongoing.
• Hackathons – quarterly.
• Business Plan Competitions – annual SPARK Competition.

These are in addition to the normal product roadmap work done at Whirlpool, all of which is highly informed by
some of the best insights research done anywhere.

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 Mechanism: Design Sprints
Design Sprints are a popular fast-concept-validation method for new digital solutions. The sprint involves a
five-day process aimed at answering critical business questions, which it does by rapidly designing,
prototyping, and user-testing the new concept.

Design Sprints were developed by Google Ventures (GV . GV efe s to it as a g eatest hits of business strategy,
innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more, all packaged into a battle-tested process that any team
can use.

The Design Sprint takes place as follows.

• On Day 1, the team maps out the problem they are attacking and picks an important place to focus their
efforts.

• On Day 2, the team sketches out competing solutions on paper.

• On Day 3, the team makes the difficult decision of which solution to pursue, turning their ideas into a
testable hypothesis.

• On Day 4, the team cranks out a high-fidelity prototype of their chosen solution.

• And on Day 5, they test this new (prototype) solution with five real live users.

So instead of waiting to launch an eventual MVP to understand whether or not their idea is a good one, working
together in a sprint teams are able to compress what might otherwise be months of development and
validation time into a single week. They end up with a functional prototype which they test with real users on
the spot, affording them clear insights into the validity of their hypotheses, and thus shortcutting what
otherwise might be a potentially endless debate cycle. This allows them to, in effect, fast-forward into the
future to see what their finished product will look like and what customer reactions to it will be, prior to making
any expensive commitments such as a VC investment. Design Sprints can thus be a highly valuable tool for
rapidly validating new business concepts.

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 Mechanism: Captive Accelerators
Captive Accelerators are startup accelerators set up exclusively inside
of larger organizations. Their purpose is to give internal teams
(consisting of employees who have demonstrated entrepreneurial
tendencies, interests, and capabilities), the venue to develop, build,
and test out completely new, different offerings and/or business
models that the organization's existing business units never would. It
includes taking the new offering / business model into market –
typically under their own brand or a derivative corporate brand
(e.g. Google Labs, Telefonica Labs) – to test it out and learn what traction it can gain.

Successful internal ventures can then either be spun out as independent companies, set up as new business
units in the corporation, or integrated into existing business units. These give intrapreneurs the opportunity to
experience the fun, creativity, and hard work of a startup without ever having to leave the safety of their
organizations. It gives corporations access to potentially radical new ideas that they may otherwise never
pursue.

Sponsored Accelerators are similar, but they tend to involve bringing in entrepreneurs from the outside and
sponsoring their new business ventures with a seed investment. This is often done to help spark a community
of businesses around a particular product platform the larger organization owns.

Example: Captive Accelerator – Nike

An example of a company sponsoring its own in-house captive / sponsored accelerator
program is Nike+ Accelerator Program at Nike (founded in 1964) in Corvalis, Oregon, U.S.
Nike first began this program in 2015 as part of a broader partnering initiative called FUEL
LAB.

In the first ever Nike+ Accelerator, 10 start-up companies

moved to Portland, OR for 3 months and collaborated with Nike
and mentors on their company products and connections to
NikeFuel and Nike+. At the Demo Days in June 2015, in Portland
and San Francisco, the companies presented their product
concepts to over 1000 Nike leaders, angel investors, venture
capitalists, industry leaders, and members of the media. Some
were funded for further development and commercialization,
including inside of Nike.

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 Mechanism: Joint Practice Sessions
Joint Practice Sessions are highly-focused group sessions designed to
engage key business leaders around specific (usually significant)
challenges and opportunities facing the business.

Their purpose is to bring awareness to these challenges and

opportunities, and to collaboratively develop actions plans for
offensively going after them.

Joint Practice Sessions are typically set up as regularly recurring events in order to drive continuity and
momentum in the actions. They often end up producing shifts in priorities, plans, resources, KPIs, and so forth.
As such, they serve as a highly strategic (top-down) piece of a broader enterprise innovation program.

The Mechanisms of Engagement – Clustered

Collectively, these nineteen mechanisms can be clustered into four broad
groups based on how fast they e the i o atio e gi e .

These are:

Low RPM – For generating a steady flow of actionable intelligence.

Communities of Practice / Expert Forums

Medium RPM – For sparking new ways of seeing & thinking about core challenges & opportunities.
Speed Dating / Idea Conferences / i-Mentors & i-Coaches / Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels / Flash
Builds

High RPM – Fo u o e i g outside the o e oppo tu ities a d ge e ati g e uall o el solutio s.

Maverick Panels / Idea Challenges / Innovation Kits / Innovation Jams / Hackathons / Innovation
Workshops

Red Line – Fo a ti el pu sui g outside the o e eakth ough i o ations.

Innovation Tournaments / 5 x 5 Teams / Business Plan Competitions /
Design Sprints / Captive Accelerators / Joint Practice Sessions

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 Mechanisms of Engagement – Clustered (cont.)
If we lay these out by cluster, they look like this.

Low RPM High RPM

• Communities of Practice • Maverick Panels
• Expert Forums • Idea Challenges
• Innovation Kits
Medium RPM
• Innovation Jams
• Speed Dating
• Hackathons
• Idea Conferences
• Innovation Workshops
• i-Mentors
• Flash Builds Red Line
• Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels • Innovation Tournaments
• 5 x 5 Teams
• Business Plan Competitions
• Design Sprints
• Captive Accelerators
• Joint Practice Sessions

Mechanisms of Engagement – Portfolio Approach

At any given time a healthy innovation program will employ a variety of these mechanisms so as to feed
multiple different areas of the program and drive a range of outcomes. Since each will resonate with a
different audience, this portfolio approach allows a program to maximize its overall engagement, while also
benefiting from a diversity of personalities, styles, and organizational capabilities. This also produces outcomes
that will impact the short, medium, and long-term time horizons for the business.

For any of these,

the timing for their impact
on the business can be
anywhere from immediate to
several years, depending on
scope and work required to
develop and implement a
particular concept, and how
ead the market is for that
idea.

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 Driving Reinforcement to Sustain
Ongoing Engagement
Program Leaders and Engagement Teams bear
responsibility for not only driving engagement on an
as-needed basis, but also for helping to sustain
engagement in the innovation program over the long run.
And while seeing the business experience major impacts
from innovation is a big incentivisor (especially for those
on the projects), over time such outcomes come to be
seen as the norm… the a e o e o less e pe ted.

When that happens, the program runs the risk of

becoming ignored.

This will particularly be the case if the business realizes substantial returns from the program but members of
the organization are not given a share in those gains. Thus it is errant to expect business results alone to be
adequate for driving ongoing sustained engagement in the program over the long run.

For this reason, Program Leaders must take explicit steps toward the sorts of
reinforcement mechanisms that can in fact drive sustained ongoing
engagement in the program.

Those mechanisms include the following:

Incentives – to encourage people to engage with the program in the first

place.

Recognition – for individuals and teams who have made significant contributions to the program either through
an engagement mechanism or through their work on an innovation project.

Recognition can occur in three venues. All three serve to build the sort of pride that keeps members of the
organization coming back to contribute more.

The three venues are:

1. Internal recognition and award ceremonies conducted for the innovation program – contributors are
called forward and openly recognized for their contributions.

2. Internal communications, such as newsletters, that chronicle specific events and projects and those who
have had a hand in them, including the results they have produced.

3. External communications (public relations) in which select individuals and teams are publicly praised for
their work at the organization, and how that work has made the business a leader in its markets.

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 Driving Reinforcement to Sustain
Ongoing Engagement (cont.)
Rewards – for individuals and teams who have made significant contributions to the
program through their involvement in an innovation project.

Rewards generally involve either cash prizes or high-value material prizes.

Rewards are generally handed out during recognition and award ceremonies conducted for the innovation
program – contributors are called forward and openly rendered this reward for their contributions.

It will be important for rewards to be commensurate with the impact the p oje t has had o the usi ess… if
the project has made a measurable difference in the life of the business, then these rewards should make a
measurable difference in the life of contributors. Otherwise, token rewards will actually do more harm than
good, as they will sour contributors toward the program. This in an important point for Program Leaders to
keep in mind.

Regarding incentives and rewards, Program Leaders will need to work with the executive team overseeing the
enterprise innovation program to establish the bases for incentives and rewards, including monetary value,
frequency, trigger events, and so forth. They will need to ensure that incentives and rewards – rewards in
particularly – are administered fairly, objectively, and consistently across the organization and across time so
that no perceptions of bias or favoritism arise.

In order to drive transparency around this, it is good for the program to openly publish its criteria for rewards
well before ever issuing its first reward. This leaves no question i pa ti ipa ts i ds as to ho the usi ess
arrived at awarding certain rewards and not others, as well as the amounts of certain rewards.

Regarding recognition, Program Leaders will need to work with the appropriate internal communications and
marketing communications staff to ensure achievements in the program are being adequately and properly
recognized, and that details around projects, contributions, and outcomes are being accurately chronicled. This
is greatly aided if such staff have been assigned full-time directly and explicitly to the usi ess innovation
program. When that is the case, these individuals will have their focus constantly on the innovation program
and on all the things going on with it, so that the organization can have a constant newsfeed on the program and
the program thereby maintains ever-present visibility within the business.

All of these mechanisms – incentives, rewards, and recognition – play a key role in driving ongoing sustained
engagement in the program.

Similarly, the more p ess o e age the program can garner – both internally and externally – the more
members of the organization will be inclined to stay engaged with it. It is i the P og a Leade s i te est
therefore to ensure that all of these mechanisms are being used (and used well) to support their efforts. Doing
so will make their jobs significantly easier over the long run. Othe ise, t i g to eig ite e gage e t i a
program that has grown cold is usually a difficult and frustrating task – one that Program Leaders will not want
to have to face if they do not have to.

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 Engagement – P og a Leade ’s Jo
The P og a Leade s Job in relation to engagement is
manifold, and includes the following responsibilities:

1. Develop a starting set of engagement mechanisms for the

business and ensure that all InM Program Managers
understand these and how they are to be used and
applied.

2. At all times be aware of the usi ess needs from the

innovation program and select and deploy those
engagement mechanisms that will be capable of addressing these needs.

3. As special needs arise from different functional groups and/or business units, select and deploy the
engagement mechanisms most suited to those needs.

4. For each engagement mechanism selected and deployed, ensure that an Engagement Team has been
identified and/or assembled who will have responsibility for owning and conducting the mechanism and
each of its campaigns.

5. Monitor the outcomes and results for each engagement mechanism and ensure that individually and
collectively, the InM program is realizing the outcomes it needs from each mechanism. Adjust as needed by
either replacing a particular mechanism with a different one, or by executing a particular mechanism in a
different way (how they are carried out can impact their effectiveness quite a lot).

6. Monitor the overall level of engagement across the organization to ensure the business is achieving the level
of bottom-up engagement it needs for the innovation program to be successful.

7. Over time, accumulate and/or develop new mechanisms of engagement. These can be found through
networking with peers across various industries, attending innovation conferences, engaging innovation
consultants and software vendors, and/or conducting focused online searches for new mechanisms.

8. Employ appropriate reinforcement mechanisms to drive ongoing sustained engagement in the program.

As Program Leaders and Engagement Teams gain experience

with the practice of engagement, increasingly they will
understand where to use specific mechanisms of
engagement and how to leverage these to greatest effect.

Si ila l , as the usi ess i o atio p og a matures and

develops an expanding portfolio of capabilities, it will realize
increasing benefits from each of these mechanisms.

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 LESSON 21
The Innovation Manager
as Liaison
Leveraging Open Innovation

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 Leveraging Open Innovation – Introduction to OI
Open Innovation is a concept that deals with the strategic
philosophy around where and how a business goes about
developing and commercializing new innovations,
particularly those involving a new capability or technology.

Open Innovation stands in stark contrast to the traditional

industrial era mindset. In that mindset, all of the core
technology that a business was to use had to be developed
internally by the business, and all of the core offerings that a
business was to provide had to be the product of the native capabilities of the business.
This is what has been classically referred to as the Not I e ted He e S d o e, or NIH.

The Open Innovation philosophy suggests that, instead, the business prospers more by sourcing key
technologies outside of its own organization, and by offering products and services that leverage new
capabilities it does not itself possess. It also embraces the idea that any given organization is not always the
one most capable of spotting new opportunities it should pursue, owing to having its own sources of myopia.

Thus Open Innovation suggests that a business should open itself up to two things…

Number one, the wisdom of outside parties in identifying potentially lucrative new opportunities and
solutions for those opportunities.

Number two, the broader universe of technologies and capabilities that an entirely new cohort of partners
can bring.

The first of these allows the business to uncover strategically important opportunities or strategically
significant new approaches to market needs that it might otherwise have never seen.

The second of these enables a business to deliver new innovations (new value and new experiences) that it
never could have were it to rely solely upon its own capabilities.

This often accelerates the new innovation the business is able to bring to market, allowing it to become the
market leader and often leapfrog competitors.

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 Leveraging Open Innovation – Intro to OI (cont.)
Historically, Open Innovation as a formal concept was first introduced
by Dr. Henry William Chesbrough in his 2006 book Open Innovation:
The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology.

Dr. Chesbrough – an Adjunct Professor at the Haas School of Business

at the University of California, Berkeley and Executive Director of the
Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation – borrowed numerous
examples from the technology sector and specifically from the likes of
businesses such as Xerox PARC, IBM, Intel, and Lucent. He set the
stage by first explaining the Closed Innovation Paradigm, then the
Ope I o atio Pa adig , a d fi all ho o e s business model
must change in order to make the transformation from the Closed
Paradigm to the Open Paradigm. He further expanded on the Open
Innovation Paradigm by showing how the concept not only works
from the outside in (known as outside-in OI) to also working from the
inside-out (known as inside-out OI) by using internally-developed
technologies to spin-out new business ventures. Dr. Chesbrough also
addressed the sometimes contentious issue of how Intellectual
Property protections were to be shared between Open Innovation partners.

Since Dr. Chesbrough originally introduced the concept back in 2006, a substantial volume of additional
academic and practical research has been conducted on the subject, and numerous other books on the subject
have been published, generally expanding the scenarios and contexts in which Open Innovation has being
successfully applied and used.

Since its introduction in 2006, Open Innovation has taken on

six primary forms from a practical, applied perspective –
all but one facilitated through online portals and hubs.

• The first is Crowdsourcing.

• The second is Crowdfunding.

• The third is Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels.

• The fourth is Curated OI Partnerships.

• The fifth is Curated Subject Matter Expert Engagements.

• And the sixth is the Online Brokerage of IP Rights.

Each of these is explained in the sections that follow.

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 Leveraging OI – Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the practice of running campaigns in the
outside world – usually with the general public – to engage
people in identifying new market opportunities for a business.

Such opportunities typically relate to specific unmet needs and

possible ways the business might be able to address them, given
its technological and other capabilities.

The end result is usually the identification of profitable new opportunities and
innovative new solution concepts that the business may never have considered were
it left to its own internal devices. For this reason, crowdsourcing has been referred to
as availing the business to the isdo of the o d , or the glo al ai . Indeed,
it has been witnessed many times over that the collective wisdom of a large group can
often produce measurably better insights and ideas than can the more limited
perspective of a narrow group.

The preceding is particularly true when considering that those on the outside assume
the ma ket’s pe spe ti e of a situation, while those on the inside assume the usi ess’
perspective of a situation. These two perspectives often produce very different outcomes.
Having the a ket’s pe spe ti e, in addition to the usi ess’ pe spe ti es, therefore helps businesses to
uncover needs and opportunities it might never have otherwise.

Crowdsourcing offers businesses a way to tap into the same

types of grassroots passion as fuel crowd-curated entities like
Wikipedia and GitHub, an open-source software repository.
The open-source software movement in particular – a highly
structured and formalized form of crowdsourcing – has united
hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world in
generating millions of lines of software code, with the products
they produce often rivaling (and sometimes besting) those of
large commercial software vendors. Movements like this are
driven by individual passions for creating innovative new
solutions that solve particularly challenging problems.

Crowdsourcing campaigns are usually run as contests, with prizes awarded for the top ideas submitted. Some
campaigns are gamified, he e pa ti ipa ts a see othe pa ti ipa ts ideas a d vote on them, but more often
than not they are run as closed, blind competitions. In some cases, those who submit a winning idea are invited
to come visit the business and present it firsthand. Prizes are generally cash, and can run into the tens or
hundreds of thousands of dollars. The better of the crowdsourced competitions can involve prizes of up to
250,000 USD or more.

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 Leveraging OI – Crowdsourcing (cont.)
In recent years, numerous companies have run highly successful public crowdsourcing programs.

Notable among these are:

• GE’s efforts with the GrabCAD, Kaggle, & 10EQS platforms to access external engineers / scientists.
• P&G’s Connect + Develop program.
• Cis o’s I-Prize competitions – aimed at finding new
$1B business opportunities.

Note that these are the external manifestation of Innovation

Tournaments – introduced previously as a mechanism of engagement.

These programs are run online typically using external crowdsourcing platforms and/or off-the-shelf
idea management software tools.

Characteristic examples of these crowdsourcing platforms would include:

• Chaordix www.chaordix.com
• WE THINQ www.wethinq.com
• 10EQS www.eqs.com
• Kaggle www.kaggle.com

Characteristic examples of idea management software platforms that offer this capability include:

• Spigit www.spigit.com
• Brightidea www.brightidea.com
• Qmarkets www.qmarkets.net

In all such campaigns, the business must be very clear and transparent about how intellectual property and
compensation are to be handled. In most cases, because compensation (prizes) are being offered, all
intellectual property rights will be claimed by the sponsoring business, with no claims going to the idea
originators.

The primary drawback to crowdsourcing is that – to the extent that

a business openly publishes its winners – it e poses the usi ess
potential endeavors to its competitors, giving them visibility into
the same ideas and opportunities. This can cost the business a first-
mover advantage.

While the business could keep the winning ideas confidential, this
tends to dampen ongoing enthusiasm for, and interest in, the
program. Businesses generally find, therefore, that they need to publicize
the winners if they intend to keep the program running year after year with high-caliber contributions.

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 Leveraging OI – Crowdsourcing (cont.)
Just as with internal engagement mechanisms, the business
will need to allocate a team to managing its crowdsourcing
campaigns. These individuals would frame each challenge,
publicize and market them, collect and evaluate the entries
(typically separating them into use, keep, and discard
groups), and ultimately select the winning entries (perhaps
with the help of key executives). They would thereafter
publicize the winners and administer the prize awards.

Both the prize awards and their publicizing of the winners serve to reinforce their campaigns so that in
subsequent rounds they will continue to get high-caliber participation, a critical ingredient for any successful
long-term crowdsourcing program.

Leveraging OI – Crowdfunding
In addition to online crowdsourced campaigns, several large-scale
innovators have in recent years turned to running campaigns on
crowdfunding sites… platfo s t aditio all ese ed fo ash-
strapped entrepreneurs attempting to raise funding to launch very
modest businesses and other projects. Examples of this include
GE using Kickstarter and OurCrowd, P&G using CircleUp, and
Whirlpool Corporation using Indiegogo.

The reason these large Fortune 100 businesses use such platforms is two-fold, neither of which involve a need
for funding.

First, it allows them to create very grassroots word-of-mouth marketing for some of the more radical
innovation concepts they are considering.

Second, and more importantly, it affords them yet one more opportunity to market test concepts. Those
concepts that see a lot of traction on these platforms should, in theory, also be able to generate good traction
within the general market. Conversely, poor traction on these platforms (which, after all, tend to be populated
ith I o ato a d Lead Adopte t pe adopte s is ge e all take as a sig of lo de a d fo the idea,
and thus an indicator that it possibly will not do well in the general market (and should therefore be nixed).

Characteristic examples of these platforms (there are estimated to be over 400 of them) include:

• Kickstarter www.kickstarter.com
• Indiegogo www.indiegogo.com
• CircleUp www.circleup.com

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 Leveraging OI –
Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels
Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels are private groups of businesses in which select leaders from each
business come together from time to time with the whole panel in order to cross-pollinate ideas with one
another and in some cases to address a particular challenge that one or more of them wishes to address. These
are most productive when the businesses all come from different industries, as that tends to produce very
lateral thinking around substantially different ways of doing certain things – what are known as lateral
approaches.

Cross-Industry Lateral Innovation Panels tend to be formed and run as loose partnerships. Thus, they are often
having new member organizations join and certain current member organizations leave, depending on the
needs and desires of those particular organizations. Likewise, depending on the particular panel and how it
tends to be managed and operated, the sessions it shares together can either be highly structured workshops,
or unstructured dialogue sessions.

Because the business would send one or more its leaders to these panels, and would then expect them to
su se ue tl i g a k e ideas ith hi h to feed the usi ess i o atio p og a , these pa els a e also
considered a mechanism of engagement.

Ultimately, cross-industry lateral innovation can prove to be a highly valuable approach for businesses to
consider.

For select examples of cross-industry innovation, refer to the website by this name at
www.crossindustryinnovation.com.

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 Leveraging OI –
Curated Open Innovation Partnerships
Very often, an organization will already have a good idea of
the opportunity they wish to go after, but internally fail to
possess either the technology required or the capability to
develop that into an offering that can be commercialized – or
both.

In the past, this would have meant they had to forego the
opportunity altogether, which may have put them at risk of being passed by a competitor or disrupted by a new
entrant. No longer is that necessary however. With the advent of the Open Innovation philosophy has now
come a large number of Open Innovation brokerage platforms.

These platforms can be thought of as match-makers, matching businesses who have a particular technology /
capability need with other businesses who possess certain technologies and capabilities. Because the
partnerships are facilitated though the OI platforms, one can think of them as u ated , or oke ed ,
partnerships. The platform attempts to help those with a need find the right match to their need from among
the collection of businesses looking to provide their capabilities.

The end result is a new partnership between

two or more businesses, coming together around
innovating on a particular need and opportunity.

Because these partnerships are facilitated though the

OI platforms, one can think of them as u ated , or
oke ed , partnerships.

Curated OI Partnerships tend to be a somewhat

enduring partnerships forged around developing
– or more commonly deploying – a particular
technology or capability for developing a specific offering to take to market. Thus, the OEM in this case may be
embedding the pa t e ’s te h olog into their offering, and for the life of that offering will rely upon that
particular technology.

Details of how new intellectual property is to be shared have to be worked out in each of these situations. IP, in
fact, has in the past been a point of contention that has held back certain OI initiatives, but at least for those
eager to make use of the approach they are able to work out an IP-sharing arrangement in the end that tends to
be acceptable to both sides, including any exclusivity agreements should that come into question.

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 Leveraging OI –
Curated Open Innovation Partnerships (cont.)
Characteristic examples of Open Innovation curated-partnership sites include:

• NineSigma www.ninesigma.com
• InnoCentive www.innocentive.com
• VisionMine www.visionmine.com
• Idea Connection www.ideaconnection.com
• Jovoto www.jovoto.com
• yet2.com www.yet2.com
• e-Zassi www.ezassi.com
• inno-get www.innoget.com
• Open Innovators www.openinnovators.de

There are also certain Open Innovation platforms which are industry-specific, such as, for example:
• Solvable Systems www.solvable.co Social Challenges
• SpecialChem www.specialchem.com Specialty Chemicals Industry
• All Food Experts www.allfoodexperts.com Food & Beverage Industry

Additionally, there are also platforms which seek to take a more active hands-o iddle a app oa h to the
matching of partners, including sometimes getting involved in the actual innovation work themselves.

Examples of these include:

• 100 Open www.100open.com

• RESOLUTE Innovation www.resoluteinnovation.com
• Fido Global www.fidoglobal.com
• Intellectual Ventures IDF www.inventiondevfund.com

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 Examples – Curated OI Partnerships
Countless organizations – mostly large multinational corporations – have taken advantage of OI platforms
such as these.

Examples include such well-known businesses as 3M, Abbott, Alcoa, AT&T, Audi, Avaya, Avery Dennison,
Barclays, Celanese, CibaVision, Coca Cola, DuPont, Eli Lilly & Company, GE, GSK, HP, htc, IBM, KPMG, Lloyds
Banking Group, Marriott, Medtronic, Merck, Microsoft, Nestle, P&G, PayPal, Philips, Reckitt Benckiser, Roche,
SAP, Siemens, Starbucks, Stryker, The LEGO Group, The World Bank, UBS Deutsche Bank, and Under Armour, to
name just a few. Certainly, using OI platforms to establish curated partnerships has become very commonplace
now, and is at times used to great competitive advantage.

Clear examples of companies using Curated OI Partnerships and these platforms are those leveraging the
NineSigma Open Innovation portal to connect with partners. Companies such as those shown here use the
portal to discover new solutions to technical and commercial challenges, and occasionally to discover untapped
new opportunities in adjacent markets.

NineSights is a community platform these partners use to collaborate with one another.

Taken from www.ninesigma.com.

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 Leveraging OI – Subject Matter Expert Platforms
Another approach to Open Innovation – perhaps what might be thought
of as Ope I o atio Light – is the use of subject matter expert (SME)
portals for curated SME engagements. These portals allow businesses to
connect with all manner of subject matter experts in order to gain
insights and learn critical information. The i di idual s e pe tise a e
around a particular industry, market, technology, or business process.

Whatever the case, the business has a particular question they need answered in order to more accurately
formulate specific strategies and plans, including at times investment decisions, and these platforms allow
them to gain access to the people with the needed expertise to answer their questions.

Unlike crowdsourcing, where there is a one-to-many relationship, these

are clearly one-to-one engagements. And unlike curated OI partnership
portals, where a more enduring partnership is formed, these tend to be
very short-lived – often just one-time engagements. They are also
typically conducted over the telephone, but occasionally involve the SME
traveling to the hiring business to engage more directly.

Just as with curated-partnership portals, there are a number of SME portals, or platforms, that have sprung up
in recent years.

Some of the more well-known SME portals include:

• GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group) www.glg.it

• Maven www.maven.co
• Zintro www.zintro.com
• Guidepoint www.guidepointglobal.com

These platforms end up being used by tens of thousands of

businesses each year, including businesses of nearly every
size and from practically every industry.

Several of the platforms boast hundreds of thousands of

SMEs that their clients can call upon. They make finding
expert insight and advice cost-effective and convenient for
businesses, while also lucrative for SMEs wishing to further
monetize their specialized knowledge and experience.

The use of SME Platforms is one way businesses facilitate the mechanism of engagement known as
Expert Forums.

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 Leveraging OI –
Online IP Brokerage / Licensing Platforms
Finally, closely aligned to the Open Innovation Paradigm is the licensing and brokerage of Intellectual Property
Rights. While IP brokerages, agents, and auction houses have existed for decades, there have now come to be
several online IP licensing and brokerage sites which curate the relationship between IP holders and those
seeking new technology to license.

Unlike with curated OI partnerships, the selling partner typically does not do any real development work
for the client. Instead, they only license or sell the IP and possibly provide limited guidance in its application.
The development work is otherwise left to the purchasing client to take on.

Examples of these online IP brokerage platforms include:

• IP Market www.ipmarket.com
• IP Nexus www.ipnexus.com
• IP Trading www.iptrading.com
• Novience www.novience.com
• Tynax www.tymax.com

These platforms allow any type of organization to buy or sell IP rights, often bypassing the traditional IP
brokers and agents that have historically been used in the past.

Businesses can thus use these online platforms to access the rights to certain IP – either through licensing or full
ownership – and thereafter use the intellectual property know-how to develop innovative new offerings for
their markets. They should, of course, first ensure that they are solving a problem that will be worth solving for
them – one that will provide the necessary financial return to make the investment in the IP worthwhile.

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 Leveraging OI – Summary
Open Innovation is an incredibly powerful paradigm that is
yielding significant returns for many businesses through the
numerous new innovations it has allowed them to deliver.

Transitioning from the Closed Innovation Paradigm to the

Open Innovation Paradigm produces both new business
insights around unmet needs and potentially lucrative new
opportunities, as well as access to the knowledge,
technology, capabilities, and intellectual property
businesses need to act on these – things they might not have otherwise. This can often mean the difference
between launching me-too offerings and truly category-defining ones. It is certainly, therefore, a vehicle of
innovation and growth that innovative organizations will want to put into their arsenals.

Furthermore, Open Innovation is now blazing new paths into

the broader emerging world of customer co-creation.

In this arena, new venues continue to emerge, from online

bespoke customer design sites, to customer design contests,
to 3D-printed parts, and more, all giving rise to the so-called
prosumer (hybrid producer/consumer).

In the years to come, it is expected that businesses will

increasingly find means of involving their customers and
potential customers in conceiving, designing, and producing all manner of new products and services,
giving Open Innovation an ever-expanding context.

Given that so much Open Innovation work is now facilitated

online through the various portals and hubs, it has become
increasingly convenient for businesses to avail themselves to
these resources. Their excuses for not doing so can thus
grow thin, confidentiality around organic developments
notwithstanding.

In most cases, if businesses want to pull ahead in their markets in the years to come, they will have to make
Open Innovation a key part of their game plan.

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 LESSON 22
Program & Project
Management Tools
for Innovation Management

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 Program & Project Management Tools
for Innovation Management
There are a number of Program Management and
Project Management methods and tools in use for
Innovation Management purposes.

It is useful to understand the most critical and common

ones, what they are used for, and how they are used, so
that the Innovation Manager can put them to use to
benefit their Innovation Management efforts.

Five key methods and tools of concern are:

1. Idea Management Software

2. Portfolio Management Software
3. Product Lifecycle Management Software
4. Product Roadmapping
5. Phase-Gate Project Management

Each of these are examined in further detail.

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 Idea Management Software
In the context of Innovation Management, Idea Management
is an activity (using a software platform) concerned with
collecting and managing the many new ideas the organization
is able to generate.

Idea Management software is used to manage the dragnet and

funnel of the Innovation Management process (Stages 2 & 3).
It often includes a number of different modules and tools, from
member management, to challenge management, to social
gamification, he e pa ti ipa ts ote o o e a othe s ideas, to leaderboard analysis, to data consolidation
(for collecting additional data toward business justification), and so forth.

The image below depicts an example user interface within an Idea Management software platform
(in this case, Spigit by Mindjet).

One will notice the leaderboard with various analytics Innovation Managers can use for monitoring activity
and the status of specific challenges and so forth.

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 Portfolio Management Software
In the context of Innovation Management, Portfolio Management is a practice concerned with managing the
portfolio of proposed and active innovation projects. The former are under consideration for potential
promotion to active status (funnel); the latter are being actively worked on (pipeline).

Aside from these two portfolios, there can be any number of other individual portfolios e.g. pa ki g lot , killed
projects, etc.) as the business desires or needs.

As a tool, Portfolio Management allows an Innovation Manager (usually part of the Evaluation Group) to actually
do two things:

1. For prospective projects, they can evaluate and compare specific metrics for each project
(e.g. NPV, investment, FTE staff, market size, market importance, technological advantage,
business capability, etc.), so as to ultimately select the most promising projects for promotion.

2. For active projects, they can track progress against pre-established milestones and deliverables from
a p oje t s oss-functional team.

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 Portfolio Management Software (cont.)
The image below depicts an example user interface within a Portfolio Management software platform
(in this case, Nupe).

One will notice the list of different portfolios in the second selection line, and the ability to manage teams
and issue reports from the first selection line.

It should be noted that in context of routine

Product Management, Portfolio Management is
used slightly differently.

In that context, it is used to manage a portfolio of

existing offerings and decide which ones to
continue improving, which ones to replace with a
new product, and which ones to simply retire.

Thus, the decision processes associated with this context,

though similar, are not exactly the same as when considering all new innovations. With routine Product
Management, most decisions are generally going to focus on Horizon 1 incremental changes.

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 Product Lifecycle Management Software
Product Lifecycle Management deals with tying together
the different organizational functions involved in defining,
designing, developing, and delivering products and
services (primarily products).

In particular, it is concerned with seamlessly creating,

storing, sharing, and archiving of all the data associated
with defining the product and the processes associated
with delivering it. This will involve Marketing, Design,
Engineering, Sales, Service, Manufacturing, and so on.
All of their product-defining data is brought together into one IT system and managed comprehensively
for the life of the product.

The theory is that this enables an enterprise to be better able to manage development and improvement of its
products across their lifecycles.

The image below depicts a conceptual layout of a Portfolio Management system.

Product Lifecycle Management is also known as simply PLM.

PLM was originally (20+ years ago) known as Product Data Management, or PDM.

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 Product Lifecycle Management Software (cont.)
The image below depicts an example user interface within a Product Lifecycle Management software platform
(in this case, Windchill from Parametric Technology Corporation).

One will notice the indented Bill of Materials for the architecture of the product depicted in the CAD image on
the right, and tabulation of various component properties (data stored in the database) in the table below.

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 Product Roadmapping
Product Roadmapping is a routine Product Management practice used to plan out successive generations
of a particular product line.

Given that it starts with an existing product line, its primary use is for the type of incremental innovation work
that would normally be driven by a Product Manager. It does not typically have an application per se in the
context of breakthrough, disruptive, or transformative innovations for the Horizon 2 and Horizon 3 time frames
(depending on the specific details of the usi ess Ho izo & Ho izo ti e f a es… it a so eti es be used
for certain Horizon 2 initiatives).

The image below depicts an example of a Product Roadmap (in this case for the Microsoft Xbox 720).

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 Phase Gate Project Management
Phase-Gate Project Management is a specific method of project management used to manage the
development of new products and/or services.

It involves dividing the overall project into a sequential series of phases – with each phase focused on a specific
set of activities and outcomes – with the respective phases marked by milestones and separated by toll gates.
At each toll gate, various go / no-go / pivot decisions get made for the project.

At the individual toll gates, management reviews are conducted in order to assess the progress of the project
against pre-established criteria.
If the project continues to show the intended progress against these criteria, then it proceeds on to the next
phase.

If, however, the project is unable to satisfy these criteria, then it would either be re-scoped and redefined into
a different project (a pivot), combined with another project (also a pivot), or else killed off entirely (a no-go).

In the context of Innovation Management, Phase-Gate Project Management is used inside the
Innovation Pipeline to manage the development and progression of each new innovation project.
At the designated milestones, where toll gate reviews occur, go / no-go / pivot decisions are made.

The project will either:

• Go forward.
• Pivot – adjust its intent, scale, scope, etc. into a different project or combined with another project.
• Not go forward – killed off entirely.

Phase-Gate is the defacto method for progressing projects through an Innovation Pipeline toward completion.

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 Phase Gate Project Management (cont.)
The one exception is with certain software development
projects, where agile development methods such as Scrum
are used. These structure the development work differently
so as to accommodate the constant, ongoing revisions of
the software. In effect, these are products which are considered
to be never finished, which is why a traditional linear progression
approach is not a good fit.

Nevertheless, agile software development must live inside of the

broader product development process, and will ultimately still be subject to the Phase-Gate Milestone Reviews.

This image depicts a conceptual layout of a Phase-Gate Project Management approach where there are
five (5) major Milestone Gates the project will be subjected to, defining key stages in the process such as
Feasibility, Development, Validation, Launch, and Post-Launch Evaluation.

This image is courtesy of Nutreco (www.nutreco.com).

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 LESSON 23
Useful Resources
for Innovation Professionals

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 Useful Resources for Innovation Professionals
There is actually an immense wealth of online resources concerning a broad variety of innovation topics,
as well as several useful books.

Here we sample several that may prove of value to the CInP. These include:

• Recommended Innovation Books

• Innovation Information Portals

• Idea Management Software Sites

• Open Innovation Portals

• Subject Matter Expert Sites

• Innovation Related Periodicals

• Innovation Related Events & Shows

• Syndicated Research Companies

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 Recommended Innovation Books
INNOVATION MANAGEMENT / EXECUTION

The Innovators DNA Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovators Hypothesis Michael Schrage

Innovation Governance Jean-Philippe Deschamps, Beebe Noelson

The Other Side of Innovation Vijay Govindarajan, Chris Trimble

The I o ato s Method Nathan Furr, Jeff Dyer

Lean Startup Eric Ries

What Customers Want Anthony Ulwick

Open Innovation Henry William Chesbrough

A More Beautiful Question Warren Berger

STRATEGIC INNOVATION / INNOVATION STRATEGY

The Alchemy of Growth Mehroad Bagai, Stephen Coley, David White

The Curve Ahead Dave Power

The Attackers Advantage Ram Charan

The Innovators Dilemma Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovators Solution Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor

Innovation Alchemist Luis Solis

Blue Ocean Strategy W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne

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 Innovation Information Portals
Building A Smarter Planet www.asmarterplanet.com
Business Performance Innovation www.bpinetwork.org
Creative Leader www.creativeleader.com
Everything Brilliant www.everythingbrilliant.co.uk
Idea Flow www.ideaflow.com
Idea to Value www.ideatovalue.com
IdeaConnction www.ideaconnction.com
Innovation At Work https://innovationatwork.wordpress.com
Innovation Excellence www.innovationexcellence.com
Innovation Leader www.innovationleader.com
Innovation Learning www.innovation.teachable.com
Innovation Management www.innovationmanagement.se
Innovisio - The Innovation Info Blog http://innovisio.blogspot.com
Institute for Innovation Development www.innovationdevelopment.org
Integrative Innovation www.integrative-innovation.net
Management Innovation Exchange www.managementexchange.com
Open Innovation www.open-innovation.blogspot.com
Secretary of Innovation www.secretaryofinnovation.com
The Chief Innovation Officer thechiefinnovationofficer.com
The Innovation Enterprise channels.theinnovationenterprise.com
The Management Roundtable www.roundtable.com
Viewpoints on Innovation www.viewpoints.io
Wired Innovation Insights www.wired.com/insights/
Wisepreneur www.wisepreneur.com

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 Idea Management Software Platforms
Betterific enterprise.betterific.compov.com
BrainBank www.brainbankinc.com
BrightIdea www.brightidea.com
Coactify www.coactify.com
CogniStreamer nv www.cognistreamer.com
Crowdicity www.crowdicity.com
Elguji Software, Inc. www.elguji.com
Group Systems www.thinktank.net
HYPE Innovation www.hypeinnovation.com
IdeaScale www.ideascale.com
Imaginatik www.imaginatik.com
Induct www.inductsoftware.com
Inno360 www.inno-360.com
InnoCentive www.innocentive.com
Innovaro, Inc. www.innovaro.com
InnovationCast www.innovationcast.com
Innovation 5g www.innovation5g.com
Innovation Factory www.innovationfactory.eu
Innovation Framework Technologies www.innovation-framework.com
Innovation Minder www.innovation-minder.com
Ipsos Marketing www.innovationpov.com
Kindling www.kindlingapp.com
Nosco www.nos.co
Planview www.planview.com
Qmarkets www.qmarkets.net
Sopheon www.sopheon.com
Spigit (Mindjet) www.spigit.com
WebINNOmotion www.sa360.ca/en/webINNOmotion
WeDecide enterprise.wedecide.com
Wellspring Worldwide www.wellspringworldwide.com

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 Open Innovation Portals
100% Open www.100open.com
10EQS www.10eqs.com
Betterific www.betterific.com
Chaordix www.chaordix.com
e-Zassi www.ezassi.com
FIDO - Fearless Innovation Designed Online www.fidoglobal.com
Hypios www.hypios.com
Idea Connection Ltd. www.ideaconnection.com
IdeaScale www.ideascale.com
InnoCentive www.innocentive.com
inno-get www.innoget.com
InnovationExchange www.innovationexchange.com
IP Market www.ipmarket.com
Jovoto www.jovoto.com
Kaggle www.kaggle.com
NineSigma, Inc. www.ninesigma.com
Open Innovators www.openinnovators.de
Psion Teklogix www.psion.com
RESOLUTE Innovation www.resoluteinnovation.com
Solvable Systems Inc. www.solvable.co
SpecialChem www.specialchem.com
VisionMine www.visionmine.com
Wazoku www.wazoku.com
WE THINQ www.wethinq.com
yet2.com www.yet2.com

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 Subject Matter Expert Sites
AlphaSights www.alphasights.com Expert micro-consultation
Axon Advisors www.axonadvisors.com Expert micro-consultation
Clarity https://clarity.fm B2B Marketplace - Advice for entrepreneurs
Clewed www.clewed.com B2B Marketplace for Business Advisors
Coleman Research Group www.colemanrg.com Expert micro-consultation
Experts Council www.expertscouncil.com Expert micro-consultation
Founder Dating www.founderdating.com Marketplace for startup advisors
Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc. www.glg.it Expert micro-consultation
Guidepoint www.guidepointglobal.com Expert micro-consultation
Maven www.maven.co Expert micro-consultation
Mintebi www.mintebi.com Expert micro-consultation
mosaicHUB www.mosaichub.com B2B Marketplace - Small businesses
Opportunity www.opprtunity.com B2B Marketplace - Small businesses
Referral Key www.referralkey.com Peer-to-Peer Referrals
SpareHire www.sparehire.com Business services
The Blur Group www.blurgroup.com Business services
Upwork www.upwork.com Business services
Zintro www.zintro.com Expert micro-consultation

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 Innovation Related Periodicals
Tech Crunch Tech Business www.techcrunch.com
Fast Enterprise Fast Moving Business Culture www.fastenterprise.com
Dezeen Architecture, Design www.dezeen.com
Core 77 Industrial Design www.core77.com
Design Milk Design www.design-milk.com
ID Magazine Industrial Design www.id-mag.com
DesignIntelligence Architecture, Design www.di.net
Design World Product & Machine Design www.designworldonline.com
Design News Machine Design www.designnews.com
Machine Design Machine Design www.machinedesign.com
Product Design & Development Product Design & Engineering www.pddnet.com
Medical Design Technology Medical Product Design www.mdtmag.com
ECN Electronics Design & Engineering www.ecnmag.com
Wireless Design & Development Wireless Design & Eng. www.wirelessdesignmag.com
CED - Communication Engineering & Design Broadband Tech & Eng. www.cedmagazine.com
Manufacturing Net Manufacturing Organizations www.manufacturing.net
AdWeek Advertising www.adweek.com
CMO Digital Marketing www.cmo.com
Survey Magazine Surveys / Quantitative Research www.surveymagazine.org
Brand Packaging Branded Packaging www.brandpackaging.com
Flexible Packaging Flexible Engineered Packages www.flexpackmag.com
Beauty Packaging Branded Packaging for Beauty Goods www.rodmanmedia.com
Packaging World Packaging Engineering www.packworld.com
Target Marketing Marketing / Advertising www.targetmarketingmag.com
Global Corp Venturing Magazine Corporate Venturing www.globalcorporateventuring.com

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 Innovation Related Events & Shows
South by Southwest SXSW Technology, Media, Business www.sxsw.com
Aspen Ideas Festival AIF World Changing Ideas www.aspenideas.org
WEF Annual Forum - Davos Davos World Changing Ideas www.weforum.org
TED TED Technology, Entertainment, & Design www.ted.org
Foresight & Trends FS&T Trends www.iirusa.com/foresightandtrends/home.xml
Front End of Innovation FEI Innovation www.iirusa.com
Back End of Innovation BEI Innovation www.iirusa.com
Innovate INNOVATE Innovation www.iirusa.com
Innova-Con INC Innovation www.iaoip.org
Process Driven Innovation PDI Innovation Management www.marcusevansch.com
Innovation Forum IF Innovation www.economist.com
Global Innovation Forum GIF Innovation, Creativity, NPD www.innovation2014.com
The Innovation Economy TIE Business Innovation www.theinnovationeconomy.org
The Global Inno Summit GIS / GIW Innovation Ecosystems www.innosummit.com
CInO Summit – NY / SF / EU CINO Innovation www.theinnovationenterprise.com/summits/calendar
Unleashing Innovation UIS Innovation www.globalexecutiveevents.com/upcoming-events/
IIEX North America IIeX NA Market Insights www.iiex-na.insightinnovation.org
Future of Consumer Intelligence FCI Consumer Insights www.iirusa.com
Consumer Insights in NPD CINPDD Consumer Insights www.marcusevansch.com
OmniShopper OS Insights www.iirusa.com/omnishopper/homepage.xml
The Market Research Event TMRE Market Research www.iirusa.com
Mrkt Research for Prod Innovation MRPI Market Insights www.iqpc.com
Relevents Insights Festival RIF Inst http://relevents.com/experiences/festivals/insights-festival/
Cannes Lions CL Creativity & Brand Communication www.canneslions.com
Brand New Conference BNC Branding www.underconsideration.com/brandnewconference
FUSE - Brand Strategy FUSE Brand / Package Design www.iirusa.com
Brand Packaging PTS Branded Packaging www.packagingthatsells.com
The Dieline Conference DLC Package Design www.thedieline.com/events
The Packaging Conference TPC Packaging Engineering www.thepackagingconference.com
Total CX Leade s Su it TCELS Customer Experience www.iirusa.com
Engagement & Experience EEO Customer Experience www.engagementexpo.com
CX Week CXW Customer Experience www.cxweek.com
Total Customer Experience TCE Customer Experience www.totalexperiencesummit.com
Total Experience Design TXD User Experience www.totalexperiencesummit.com
Design Thinking DT Design Methods www.marcusevansch.com

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 Innovation Related Events & Shows (cont.)
Innovation By Design IBD Design www.fastcodesign.com/section/innovation-by-design
99U 99U Design www.behance.net
Open Innovation Roundtable OI Open Innovation www.marcusevansch.com
Crowdsourcing Week CSWK Crowdsourcing / Crowdfunding www.crowdsourcingweek.com
PDMA Annual Conference PIM New Product Development www.pdma.org
NPD & Marketing NPD&M New Product Development www.productinnovationevent.com
Product Innovation Summit PIS www.theinnovationenterprise.com/summits/product-innovation-summit-boston
INDUSTRY INDUSTRY New Product Development www.indsum.com
Prod Management, Inno & Growth PMI&G New Product Development www.productevent.com
Stage-Gate® Innovation Summit SGIS New Product Development www.stage-gate.com
MindTheProduct MTP New Product Dev conference.mindtheproduct.com
Crossroads Tech xChange CTX Technology in Insights Research www.surveyevents.com
INNOVATE FESTIVAL IF-TBD Technology http://innovate.relevents.com/
The Anti-Summit TAS Arts Science Humanities Tech Bus http://antisummit.relevents.com/
Funnel Industry Conf & Expo FIOPS Sales & Marketing Funnels www.fiops.com
Money 20/20 M2020 Financial & Payments Innovation www.money2020.com
MIX Mashup MMU Workplace Innovation www.managementexchange.com
Work Human WH Workplace Innovation www.workhuman.com
Prototyping The Future PTF Urban Innovation www.prototypingthefuture.ca
Future Cities & Urban Inno FCUI Urban http://relevents.com/experiences/festivals/futurecities/
One Spark Festival One Spark Crowdfunding for Startups www.onespark.com
Corp Vent & Inno Partnering CVIP Corporate Venturing www.corporateventuringconference.com
DISRUPT B2C DISRUPT Corporate Venturing www.iirusa.com
DISRUPT Pharma DISRUPT Corporate Venturing www.iirusa.com
DISRUPT Financial DISTRUPT Corporate Venturing www.iirusa.com

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 Syndicated Research Companies
Future In Focus www.futureinfocus.com
A.T. Kearney www.atkearney.com
Aberdeen Group www.aberdeen.com
ABI Research www.abiresearch.com
AcuPOLL Precision Research www.acupoll.com
Added Value www.added-value.com
Aeffect www.aeffect.com
Aite Group www.aitegroup.com
Altimeter Group www.altimetergroup.com
AMR Research www.amr-research.com
Anderson Analytics www.andersonanalytics.com
Asia Insight www.asiainsight.com
AutoPacific www.autopacific.com
B2B International www.b2binternationalusa.com
Basex www.basex.com
BCC Research www.bccresearch.com
Beacon Research www.beaconresearch.net
Berg Insight www.berginsight.com
BioSeeker Group AB www.bioseeker.com
Blueocean Market Intelligence www.blueoceanmi.com
Brainjuicer www.brainjuicer.com
BrandIQ brandiq.biz
Burke www.burke.com
Business Analysts' Group www.business-analysts.com
Canalys www.canalys.com
Chadwick Martin Bailey www.cmbinfo.com
CJM Market Insights www.cjmmarketinsights.com
Clearworks www.clearworks.net
Constellation Research www.constellationr.com
Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research www.copernicusmarketing.com
Corona Insights www.coronainsights.com
Daniel Research Group www.danielresearchgroup.com
Datamonitor www.datamonitor.com
Demand Metric Research Corp www.demandmetric.com
Digital Clarity Group www.digitalclaritygroup.com

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 Syndicated Research Companies (cont.)
Drug Market Info www.drugmarketinfo.wordpress.com
Edge Healthcare Research www.edgehcr.com
eMarketer www.emarketer.com
Encuesta www.e- research -global.com
Espicom Healthcare Intelligence www.espicom.com
Firefly Millward Brown www. fireflymb.com
Forrester Research www.forrester.com
Frost & Sullivan www.frost.com
Galaxy Research www.galaxyresearch.com.au
Gardner Publications www.gardnerweb.com
Gartner Group www.gartner.com
GBI Research www.gbiresearch.com
Geo Strategy Partners www.geostrategypartners.com
GfK www.gfk.com
Gleanster Research www.gleanster.com/gleanster-research
GlobalData www.globaldata.com
GlobalWebIndex www.globalwebindex.net
GigaOM / Knowingly, Corp. www.research.gigaom.com
Harker Research www.harkerresearch.com
Harris Interactive www.theharrispoll.com
Heart + Mind Strategies heartandmindstrategies.com
HfS Research www.hfsresearch.com
Hitwise www.experian.com/hitwise
IANS www.iansresearch.com
IDC www.idc.com
IHS Global Insight www.ihs.com
Illuminas www.illuminas.com
infoAnalytica www.infoanalytica.com
Informa Research Services www.informaresearchservices.com
Insight Strategy Group www.insightstrategygroup.com
Insights in Marketing www.insightsinmarketing.com
Into-Tech Research Group www.infotech.com
Ipsos www.ipsos.com
IBIS World www.ibisworld.com
Itracks www.itracks.com

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 Syndicated Research Companies (cont.)
J.D. Power www.jdpower.com
Kalorama Information www.kaloramainformation.com
Kirk Tyson Competitive Intelligence www.kirktyson.com
Leading Edge Forum www.leadingedgeforum.com
Leibowitz Marketing Services www.leibowitz-research.com
Markets and Markets www.marketsandmarkets.com
Market Probe www.marketprobe.com
MarketLine www.marketline.com
MESH www.meshexperience.com
Mintel Market Research www.mintel.com
MSW-ARS Research www.mswresearch.com
Mordor Intelligence www.mordorintelligence.com
Nemrtes Research www.nemertes.com
Nielsen www.nielsen.com
Novus Market Research www.novus.com
ORC International www.orcinternational.com
Ovum Ltd www.ovum.com
P&K Research www.pk-research.com
Packaged Facts www.packagedfacts.com
Peanut Labs web.peanutlabs.com
Plunkett Research www.plunkettresearch.com
Real Story Group www.realstorygroup.com
Redwood Capital www.redcapgroup.com
Rti Research www.rtiresearch.com
Schlesinger Associates www.schlesingerassociates.com
Sentier Strategic Resources www.sentier.us.com
SIS International Research www.sisinternational.com
Simba Information www.simbainformation.com
Solutions Review www.solutions-review.com
StatPlan Energy www.statplanenergy.com
Synovate eng.synovate.ru
TechCast Project www.techcastglobal.com
Technomic www.technomic.com
The 451 Group www.451research.com
The Gilbane Group www.gilbane.com

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 Syndicated Research Companies (cont.)
The Understanding & Insight Group www.theuandigroup.com
TNS Global www.tnsglobal.com
Venture Planning Group www.vpgcorp.com
Vision Critical www.visioncritical.com
VPG Market Research www.vpgmarketresearch.com
Zogby International www.zogbyanalytics.com
Euromonitor International www.euromonitor.com

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ACTION PLAN

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 ◌ Exercise – 30 / 60 / 90 Day Action Plan ◌
Below, outline an action plan of next steps that you and your organization will need to take in order to begin this
journey of innovation strategy.

30-Day Action Plan

60-Day Action Plan

90-Day Action Plan

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APPENDICES

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APPENDICES

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 VALIDATION

INCUBATION
ELUCIDATION
DECLARATION

OBSERVATION
INVESTIGATION
APPENDICES

Ma e i k Questio e So ialize Resea he Ma age Ma kete

D ea e E pe i e te S thesize St ategist Desig e
Questio e So ialize A al st E gi ee
P odu e
Ma kete

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APPENDICES

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 D ag et

Fu el
Pipeli e

PIVOT GO
PIVOT GO
APPENDICES

PIVOT GO
PIVOT NO-GO
GO NO-GO
NO-GO
NO-GO

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435
APPENDICES

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436
APPENDICES

$$
$$

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437
APPENDICES

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438
 EVALUATION
STRATEGY CAPTURE INITIATION PILOT SCALE
& SELECTION
APPENDICES

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