How do you scope out your innovation project for success?
Thomas Edison once said, 'Being busy does not always mean real work'.
The challenge for many innovation projects is they can quickly become drawn out despite everyone seemingly busy.
How do you avoid mission creep busyness and stay focused?
Any adventure needs a map. It shows the endpoint and steps required to get there.
And if you need to change course at some point if new and pertinent information arises, you’ll need to navigate a new course and adapt your plan.
Let's examine the five critical elements and rules of thumb that help you navigate successful innovation projects.
These five questions can help define the purpose and scope of your projects to give you focus.
What
What does success look like? What is your scale of ambition?
Why
Why are you doing this—why bother?
What's the background, context and motivation to commit time, energy and resources to this initiative?
Who
Who is this for? Which target audience, end-users, retail customers and stakeholders.
Who is involved? Who is on the core team and the extended team?
When
When has this got to be finished?
How
How are you going to do this?
How will you know when you've achieved your goals?
What are the hard and soft KPIs?
What are the critical phases of work and the resources required?
Let’s look at each one of these in more detail
What
What does success look like?
What is the scale of our ambition?
This is a pivotal question for any project team. For instance:
How do we reframe our benefits, to get consumers to reappraise our brand and reignite category growth?
Do we have permission to move into adjacent category segments, and if so, how do we win?
How can we develop new claims for existing products without changing their formulations, adding manufacturing cost or complexity?
How do we reinvent the business from a product to a service offer?
How do we reimagine the customer experience at particular points in the customer journey?
Work with your team and stakeholders to craft your pivotal question
Also, be clear about what is in scope, out of scope and the constraints. This helps concentrate people's minds, forces choices and maximises creativity.
The pivotal question determines the scale of your ambition and the resources required.
Why
Why are you doing this—why bother?
Why should people be energised and motivated?
What will get people to scramble to be on this project team?
You need a sharp elevator speech, story or pitch on why the organisation needs this project and commit resources now to create momentum.
For instance:
Your competitor has just launched an exciting new proposition, which threatens your brand.
Consumers are changing behaviours due to the cost of living crisis, and you need to reframe your value.
Your customers have particular frustrations and barriers to accessing your services at key customer journey steps.
You have an exciting new technology but are unsure how to position it to customers.
Be clear about why you need to solve a problem.
This helps engage sponsors and stakeholders.
Who
There are two elements to the 'Who?' question.
Who is this for?
Which consumers - existing users or new prospects?
Which end customers, channels or organisations?
Who is involved?
Who is on the core team and an extended team?
Which business partners and stakeholders must be involved as they have expertise and can help co-design the solution?
When
A simple but critical question. When has this work got to be completed?
This question shapes the plan and the amount of time and resources you can allocate.
How
How are you going to do this? What is the shape of the plan?
The challenge for many organisations is that they have innovation 'processes', but often, they become written in stone, yet aren't always equally suited to every innovation challenge.
Adventurers will adapt their approach and kit to a specific challenge. Climbing Helvellyn in the Lake District doesn’t require the same approach as Kilimanjaro.
Likewise, brilliant innovators look inside their innovation toolkit and identify the most appropriate steps and tools.
Adapt these steps to suit the scale and scope of the project and the expected outcomes for each cycle of work.
Determine who to involve at each phase and the resources required.
Set some hard and soft KPIs, so you know if you are progressing toward your goals.
Map out this plan and get others to input, critique and challenge to shape it.
Build in some flexibility.
Undoubtedly, you will encounter new insights, uncover unexpected constraints or barriers, or unlock surprising ideas that could take you in a new and better direction.
Be open to these serendipitous discoveries and epiphanies.
And if you need to navigate a new course, reset your goals and realign with stakeholders.
By answering these five questions, you’ll be able to navigate your innovation projects with more focus.
If you need help to give your innovation projects the focus they need, and with flexible tools and techniques, give us a shout.
We’d love to help.