Effective innovation processes - the key to successful innovation

Being innovative doesn't just mean generating creative ideas. Effective and clearly defined processes for selection and development are just as important - because this is the only way to turn the right idea into a successful product. This is precisely where BUSSE's structured creativity methodology comes into play.

Innovation is and remains the key to future corporate success. We all agree on that. Nokia and the German automotive industry have clearly demonstrated what happens if you rest on yesterday's achievements for too long.

Despite our currently shrinking overall economy, we in Germany remain one of the world's innovation champions and have created great technologies and products in recent decades. However, this also requires entrepreneurial spirit, the courage to make decisions, foresight and a corresponding investment culture: virtues that we need to remember again instead of the overwhelming bureaucracy and current delegation of responsibility. Especially in these times of uncertainty, we need to invest in forward-looking products and technologies.

How do you generate innovation?

In recent years, there has been a strong focus on the idea generation methodology: in addition to the ‘holy grail’ of Scrum-based agile working (in which you have to commit to specific requirements at some point in order to turn it into a series product), the ‘design thinking method’ was proclaimed and many a company thought that a room with bare screed, concrete walls and furniture made from Euro pallets was the key to new products. Jean-Pierre Hagmann described this very aptly in his book ‘Hört auf Innovationstheater zu spielen’.

In our experience, however, the idea generation process is not the critical component: There were numerous methods here even before design thinking, such as Prof Rohrbach's creativity techniques, the Edison principle, etc. These methods are summarised very nicely and clearly at www.designmethodsfinder.com.

How do you find the ‘right’ ideas?

In addition to technology-driven innovation, user-driven innovation in particular offers very effective approaches for creating new factors for future customer enthusiasm across the entire spectrum of user experience - i.e. before, during and after actual use. The tried and tested ‘home remedies’ of the human-centred design process are suitable for this: defining users (and importantly also other stakeholders such as procurers) and creating user journeys so that pain points and optimisation potential can be identified. Here, too, the right level between the scope of the (analytical) framework and the balancing act between analysis and solution space must be created and not every journey and every user must be formulated to the last detail.

In principle, however, the same applies before every innovation process as before every journey: Planning is everything Otherwise you have the feeling of maximum freedom - which is mistakenly understood as maximum creativity - but wander past the absolute hotspot or get lost in the jungle...

Definition of search fields

When finding innovations, it is therefore important to define clear search fields and also explicitly exclude clear areas. This allows creativity to be focussed and avoids ideas that are ‘found’ efficiently but are not actually implemented because they do not fit in with the corporate strategy, sales channel or portfolio. Of course, disruptive approaches offer great potential, but they also require a lot of energy and time to be realised in the end.

Product profiles

Based on the user journeys and search fields, creative ideas for new products, applications and functions must be generated in small interdisciplinary teams and short sprints. This process requires clear moderation to guide and direct the processes and sessions. The output needs to be a simple but stringent documentation of the ideas, their key features, market potential and risks/technologies so that they can be presented, compared, combined and further developed. Tools such as Miro-Boards are ideal for this collaborative work.

The approaches selected with high potential must be further elaborated in a follow-up session and described in more detail in product profiles so that the ideas can finally be evaluated against each other according to clearly defined criteria and weightings (QFD) and the first definable action items can also be identified.

Finding idea ambassadors

The top favourites must then be assigned to clear ‘idea ambassadors’ who can pursue the approaches and action items despite day-to-day business. An essential point here is above all the check of ‘problem relevance’ and ‘market acceptance’.

This must be carried out on the basis of the profiles and accompanying sketches/story boards in dialogue with the other specialist departments and, above all, with potential customers, users and sales.

Realisation

And to ensure that the innovation was not just ‘perspiration’ but is actually realised as a successful product, appropriate resources and control processes such as product committees and stage gates must be established in the company organisation in order to be able to develop the ideas further. The findings of the Standish Group's Chaos Study apply here above all: if possible, cut the projects into ‘small slices’ that can be provided with clear objectives, requirements and documentation and offer a clear basis for further decisions. Above all, the MVP approach helps here: start with the ‘minimum viable product’ instead of spending ages developing the ‘ultimate’ solution. The ‘wrong’ ideas and approaches must also be sorted out as early as possible (‘fail fast, fail cheap’) in order to realise precisely this one product idea which, according to statistics, is the only one out of 100 projects and 3,000 ideas that really leads to success....

There are many methods and partners for generating creative ideas. However, it is not the creativity but the realisation of the idea into a successful product that counts. We are happy to support you on your innovation journey: We moderate innovation sessions, set up the necessary processes together with you and also have the resources and expertise for series development.

Please feel free to contact us.