Innovation Management in Turbulent Times

«When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.» Quote: Confucius

These days the world is increasingly turbulent and complex for both people and businesses. Solid businesses are disrupted, startups are not reaching target tipping point. Customers stop buying, cash-flows rapidly burned.

This Innovation Management service is for business leaders who want and need to think through how best to deal with increasing turbulence, reduce risk and uncertainty that come with it. The goal is to add and speed up creativity and innovative ideation processes.

The output and result should be increased revenues or totally new revenue streams.

The way forward is to get started, right now, on actually doing totally new things.

But where to start? How to start?

Recorded Webinar

With external objective help from an innovation advisor you can kick-start innovative new initiatives to faster be able to get your cash-flow up and running.  

Do you recognize one or several of the questions below?

• Do you worry that you may run out of time, energy or money to speed up new innovations?
• Do you urgently need to re-target other markets and customers?
• Or maybe you urgently need to design new business and/or revenue models for existing products or services?
• Or do you urgently need to launch new products or services?
• Or do you need help to get started with a flexible innovation program quickest possible?

If so, this service will provide process skillset, objectivity and extra brainware for creativity and Innovation Management to accelerate existing or new innovation initiatives.

Accelerate your ideation and creativity process

The Innovation Management service is packed with insights and practical methods and tools for streamlining every innovation strategy process designed and adaptable for multi-industries.

With added brainpower for your creativity and innovation process, you will be able to make your process from concept to launch even faster.

A mashup of customized innovation methods

To simplify and accelerate; concept, business and innovation development, the service will contribute with creativity and innovation put into a system of smaller and manageable steps. With a few core steps, starting from step one, or jump into a later step depending on your existing skillset demand and process stage.

Pairing methods – Framework agnostic

Different innovation methods have their own distinct pros & cons.

They are designed for different types and complexity of innovation projects (example: business model innovation, product or service innovation), timeframe and resource capability (i.e. budgets and available people).

Instead it makes sense to boost the timeline from planning to launch, picking the core and strengths from several frameworks and pairing them.

First thing to decide on is new vision and purpose. Then strategic direction (First-Mover VS. Follower), Push VS. Pull, innovation type (radical, incremental or combined), what to solve, what to do and what to build.

First after these decisions we decide on the tools. This approach is called framework agnostic.

Step 1: Exploring the Status Quo (As-Is)

Objective: Assess and establish unified As-Is situation for your business and markets.

Questions to explore:

• What is status quo?
• What is your company or industry problem or challenge today?
• Establish the innovator team (combining strategy & technology/service insights and skillsets)

Process description: Brainstorming across all business departments and business area topics.

Methods/frameworks: Creative Thinking put into system based on Six Thinking Hats.

What is Six Thinking Hats?

What is your instinctive approach to decision making? If you’re naturally optimistic, then chances are you don’t always consider potential downsides. Similarly, if you’re very cautious or have a risk-averse outlook, you might not focus on opportunities that could open up.

Often, the best decisions come from changing the way that you think about problems, and examining them from different viewpoints.

Six Thinking Hats can help your team to look at problems from different perspectives, but one at a time, to avoid confusion from too many angles crowding your thinking.

Output: Defining status quo, the problem or challenge for the As-Is situation.

Cloud tools: Zoom + Trello (or similar)

Step 2: Exploring ideas and potential

Objective: Collect ideas & assess and establish identified innovation; potential, types, levels and complexity.

Questions to explore:

• Which ideas are best in short or long run?
• What ideas are most desirable, useful and economical viable?
• What is the Pains & Gains?
• What customer or user related situation need a fix?
• What (customer/user) jobs need to be done? (categorizing, defining, capturing, and organizing)
• Push or Pull innovation?
• What is the fastest Time-To-Market?
• Radical or incremental innovations? Combinations?
• How to increase the customer or user value (innovation level)
• Identify the innovation levels, novelty and complexity
• How do we create usefulness, innovation value and differentiation?
• What is the new innovation hot spot and potential?
• What risks need to be adressed?

Process description: Brainstorming session – Identify context, ideas, Pains & Gains, business goals and innovation potential (assess the To-Be scenarios). Idea Management (Collect, Evaluate, Prioritize – internal/external)

Methods/frameworks: Mashup of the innovator way of thinking based on: Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS), Value Proposition Canvas, Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD), Output-Driven Innovation (ODI) and Transient Advantage.

Push innovations: Respond to needs from the market /customer/user. (Commonly incremental innovations by followers. Lower costs, faster Time-To-Market, lower price) Example methods: LEAN, Design Thinking.

Pull innovations: New technology-driven (or radical new services) innovations to the market. (Creating a new market spot, creating new needs and value. Commonly radical innovations by first-movers). Higher development costs, longer Time-To-Market but higher price tags. Example methods: Blue Ocean Strategy and Transient Advantage.

Output: New business and innovation direction based on user and customer-driven needs and value.

Cloud tools: Zoom + Trello (or similar) + Viima Idea Management

Step 3: Early Stage Evaluation of Innovation(s)

Objective: Define and prioritize ideas based on innovation potential, Time-To-Market, pricing, costs and (multiple-) revenue stream possibilites.

Questions to explore:

• How can we design really unique Value Proposition? (Value Creation)
• How do we know and measure if the innovation is desirable, feasible, and viable?
• How can we be sure that we have enough resource capability?
• How can we take advantage of technology-driven innovations?
• How can we reduce cost and increase speed to determine target cost base?
• How do we design price advantage and determine strategic price?
• How do we target markets and scaling? (Existing or noncustomers – TAM, SAM, SOM)

Process description: Brainstorming session – Evaluate new possibilities, assess insights and assumtion testing.

Methods/frameworks: Value Proposition Canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur) + BOS

Output: New insights of value creation, value alignment and refined Unique Value Proposition.

Cloud tools: Zoom + Trello (or similar) + Viima Idea Management

Step 4 – Concept Development & Rapid Prototyping or Service Design

Objective: Bringing together innovative elements into a coherent alternative solution that can be explored, tested and evaluated. Simplified fast external concept-testing.

• Simplified 7-steps user-driven & value-centric concept development
• Assumption testing: isolate and test key assumptions
• Concept-testing & external (target user/customer) validation
• Rapid prototyping: expressing a new concept in tangible form for exploration, testing and refinement
• Early stage first external Proof-Of-Concept validation

Process description: Concept-development and concept-testing with online web survey, prototyping with feedback loop for all major milestones/iterations.

Methods/Frameworks: LEAN MVP and Agile approach.

Co-creation with the target customer/user: involve them with external concept-testing (Web survey), and co-creation during prototyping or service design to empower the creation of the solution. Make the solution desirable and useful with high value perception.

Trial launch: Affordable and enabling customers to experience the new solution over a period of time, testing key assumptions with real market data from customer/user adoption.

Feedback loop: Establish a group of target customers/users for external iterative feedback.

Output: New insights of customer/user value perception and value alignment. Empowering the product or service MVP before launch.

Cloud tools: Zoom + Trello (or similar)

Step 5 – Defining Business & Innovation Strategies and Launch Plan

Objective: Bringing together refined business and innovation initiatives with actionable launch planning.

• Identify & define the business model & (multiple-) revenue stream(s)
• Business Model testing (incl. Value Creation & Value Capturing)
• Innovation tactics for products or services
• Defining Problem/Solution Fit
• Product/Market Fit
• Assess if the innovation initiatives are; desirable, viable and feasible
• Scaling (user adoption and growth) model(s)
• Design of Action Plan
• Design of Launch Plan for MVP
• Assessments of financial and HR capabilities
• Actions to reduce risk
• Defining measurements for revenue and growth

Process description: Business Model Canvas Development, Business Model Testing, Value Capturing testing and Revenue Model refinement. Assessing external feedback hence Problem/Solution Fit and Product/Market Fit. Development of revised or new Action Plan and Launch Plan.

Methods/Frameworks: Scaling LEAN (Ash Maurya) and Agile approach.

Output: Re-design or new content of both Action Plan and Launch Plan. Digital Branding & Marketing Campaign Design.

Cloud tools: Zoom + Trello (or similar)

Creative Innovation Management via Remote Consulting

Do you need extra brainware for existing or new innovation teams with added innovation and business advisory capability? Use the contact form below.