Innovation Management Tips and Tricks (update: 2022)

Innovation is a modern buzz word, especially in the IT and marketing industry. Almost every market leader wants to be “innovative” and “perspective”. However, things get complicated when it comes to the implementation stage. All of a sudden, it turns out that our innovation can be not as profitable as we initially thought, or it could take more time than we assumed before we see the first results. And, in many instances, that’s a reason why, eventually, many innovative concepts end up in the trash.

The right approach is the key to success. It’s also applying some ground rules in the process. In this article, we are going to show you some of the greatest innovation management tips and tricks.

But firstly let’s find out what innovation management is.

What is innovation management?

General Electric. Dupont. Procter & Gamble. Visa. Linux. What connects these companies? And what makes them different from others? Great products? Yes. Great people? Sure. Great leaders? Usually. But if you look closer, you’ll discover a different, more important factor in their success: innovation management.

Well, many companies, especially in such highly competitive industries like technology and science, use the concept of innovation management. The main idea of innovation management is to boost employees’ potential for innovation by using the business structure and operational processes.

The appropriate approach to the innovation management process

You have to understand that there is no such thing as a model innovation management process. Naturally, there are many exemplary models of the innovation process, and they can be used as a guide. In practice, however, the strategy must be geared to the individual requirements of your company.

You should start by identifying your internal requirements and ultimate goal.

Ask yourself a few questions:

• What do we want to achieve?
• What do we need to start working on our innovation? Whose consent is necessary?
• What are the decision-making structures that should be taken into account?
• Who should be the leader of this process?

With these questions answered, you are ready to start working on your future innovation.

Innovation management tips and tricks

It’s all about the right approach and work organization. If you have everything organized and planned, pulling off even the most complicated project can be successful! Here’s a list of ground rules and innovation management tips and tricks that will help you effectively conduct your project.

How to empower your team to innovate?

Awake creativity and encourage collaboration

For starters, you and your team should put thinking caps on. Without creativity, there’s no innovation. And bear in mind that creativity has its own ways. You can’t be creative on command. That’s why we advise you to follow one of Seth Godin’s crucial principles.

Ten years ago, he wrote on his blog that, “Ideas hate conference rooms, particularly conference rooms where there is a history of criticism, personal attacks or boredom.” These are things to avoid if you want to be creative.

• You should create an open space in your organization where employees exchange ideas, vote, collaborate, and contribute to various concepts. Let nothing hold your creative side back!
• Get acquainted with various techniques designed to awake creativity. For instance, did you know that there are at least five different types of brainstorming? Or that the SCAMPER technique is extremely helpful when it comes to enhancing products and services? Do some research and adopt practices that can be helpful in your particular situation.

Involve as many people as possible

Don’t limit yourself just to a small “creative team”. Your entire company should be such a team! Employees have a tremendous potential to provide fantastic insights and ideas about organizational practices, services, products, customers, and, in general, long-term business goals.

Assign an innovation leader

Every innovation project requires strong leadership. This means there should be one single project leader who will be responsible for the project’s development.

The main role of the innovation leader is to formulate and facilitate the innovation process for the development team/technical specialists.

Below are some key responsibilities that come with a leadership position:

• Be a mentor: share your knowledge with the team and guide them using your experience and best practices.
• Be a facilitator: help the team discover the innovation process by implementing and using methods, techniques and games to achieve better results.

Be flexible

The innovation process has to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. Keep in mind that innovation is always unique. Therefore, every single time you try to invent something new, your strategy should be different.

Every idea has specific requirements. And the innovation process leading to it should also be unique and specifically tailored to your current project.

Be transparent

Your intent should be clear and understandable for every team member. Only then will you get their real engagement. Don’t hide your real goal. Help your colleagues understand what your company wants to achieve, and, more importantly, why. Sometimes, knowing the ultimate goal is the best way to find the perfect solution.

Moreover, your employees need to understand how their ideas can contribute to your project’s and company’s success. This means that they have to believe in this project, and they should be given the resources they need to participate in it.

Offer a reward plan

Nothing stimulates creativity and motivation more than rewards. However, keep in mind that these rewards should have real, practical value. You could even ask your employees what kind of rewards they would like to get? Maybe an extra day off? Or a bonus? Or perhaps a training that will improve their skills and raise competencies?

Methods that help to improve innovation thinking of your team

As we mentioned before, an innovation leader should help the team to unblock the innovation process by introducing some methods and techniques:

Six Sigma DMAIC Method

It is a five-stage strategy for improving a wide set of management processes, whether it’s software development, manufacturing, or some other process. The main idea is to DEFINE the customer’s problem, MEASURE it, ANALYZE it to find its root cause, and then IMPROVE it by brainstorming the relevant solutions. Finally, CONTROL it so that you maintain the improvements.

Design Thinking

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford defines design thinking as a five-step process. These steps are not always sequential, and teams often perform them in parallel, out of order, and repeat them iteratively.

Stage 1 – Empathize: Research your customer’s needs
Stage 2 – Define: State your users’ needs and problems
Stage 3 – Ideate: Challenge assumptions and create ideas
Stage 4 – Prototype: Start to create solutions
Stage 5 – Test: Try your solutions out

And finally, developing ideas together helps build brand loyalty and employee engagement, and that’s always a good thing! Make your employees feel like they’re a part of something great.

Innovation management tips and tricks – project

Look for external partners

In many instances, your internal resources are simply not sufficient to pull your project off. If that’s the case in your company, you should look for an external partner–a company or agency that has the resources, knowledge, or experience you lack. Outsourcing is almost always a great way to optimize and accelerate work.

Utilize the MVP approach

When it comes to designing a new product, especially digital, MVP is by far the best approach to use. The Minimum Viable Product is focused on creating an initial version of your project. This initial version should be as straightforward and cheap to produce as possible. The idea is to test your vision without investing large amounts of money in it. The MVP version can be presented to your customers, investors, partners, and other stakeholders. Thanks to the MVP version, you can verify if everything goes as planned and if the product displays all of the necessary features and functions.

Go right to the very end

Don’t be tempted to finish your project prematurely. Innovation, if it’s to be useful business-wise, should be conducted step by step up to the end. The project cannot be considered complete until everything in terms of production and distribution functions and runs. Besides the innovation itself, you ought to think about:

• Sales
• Product management
• Marketing
• Production
• Customer service
• Possible flaws and complaints

Final thoughts

In fact, innovation is a lot like a new company. It has to be planned, organized and well thought-out if it’s to be successful.

We are 100% confident that your innovation project will be a great success with all of these principles in mind.

If you’re working on an IT-related or AI-related project, drop us a line. Our team is always open to implementing new and innovative solutions in many sectors and industries.

Let’s find out what we can do together!