Kareem Shaker, PMI-RMP, PMP, is a senior
manager, projects and enterprise risk at Dubai
World, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Follow him
on Twitter at @kareemshaker.
If this innovative project idea is a brand-new
product that requires funding and early feedback,
entrepreneurs and organizations can use crowdsourcing to market their ideas and seek early
responses. Crowdfunding platforms such as Kick-starter and Indiegogo can help secure funding for
your innovative idea by a group of backers who
are passionate about your future product. Pebble
Smartwatch, the Ubuntu Edge smartphone and
the LIFX smart LED bulb are just few innovative
products that benefited from crowdfunding. Their
teams raised millions of dollars to transform ideas
into successful products.
This ideation process works best in an innova-tion-friendly environment, coupled with a well-aligned innovation strategy governed by SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and
Time-bound) goals.
Innovate
This is the phase where all the action happens,
where ideas are brought to life and concepts are
turned into tangible deliverables. Implementing PMI project management good practices is
an important factor in successfully delivering the
innovative product.
One area to focus on in this phase is stakeholder
management. As innovation projects are unique,
each stakeholder segment perceives the project
outcome differently, possibly creating conflicts of
interest. Classifying your stakeholders is crucial
for a successful delivery. A power/interest grid
can be used to categorize stakeholders based on
their power and interest in the innovation project
outcome.
Agile project management works best with innovation delivery, given the highly iterative nature
and substantial risk level of innovation projects.
Using an agile approach provides incremental
delivery as compared to the conventional big-bang
approach. It also boosts team collaboration and
gets the customers or end users actively involved
because they can provide continuous feedback
on the deliverables. Agile also allows the team to
adapt the innovative product or service easily.
Capitalize
This phase encompasses realizing the innovative
product or service benefits, then measuring the
return on innovation investment—in other
words, determine how well the innovation
strategy is working.
With intrapreneurship (behaving like an entrepreneur despite being in a large organization) on
the rise in most corporations, intrapreneurs own
the commercialization of innovative products and
services and develop plans to meet foreseen sales
targets. In the case of not-for-profit innovations,
adoption rates or return on society for social projects can be used instead.
An important part of this step is adopting a
continuous improvement style. Customer evaluations of the innovative product play an important role in this. The innovation framework itself
should also be reviewed frequently to assess its
efficiency in generating the right ideas and effectiveness in delivering them successfully. Building
innovation scorecards and a management dashboard can provide a holistic outlook of the innovation portfolio performance. Should the team
need to improve high-performance products or
discontinue failed innovations, an efficient innovation framework will reduce the time needed for
decision-making.
A defined set of key performance indicators
(KPIs) with realistic goals is essential to distinguish
between a successful innovative product and a
bungled one. One KPI for innovation is the percentage of new products and services sold, compared to the aggregate number of sales.
Developing and following the three-phase innovation framework helps your organization strike
the right balance across innovation projects in an
integrated way. Automating the framework using
innovation management systems can accelerate the
process, boost creativity and rally return on innovation investments. PM
The innovation
framework
itself should
also be reviewed
frequently
to assess its
efficiency in
generating the
right ideas and
effectiveness in
delivering them
successfully.
