May I ask…
- Do you know exactly what projects are running per strategic priority?
- Do you know their current statuses?
- Are you confident you’re doing enough to achieve your objectives?
- Do you suspect there may be too many projects in your innovation funnel?
“In strong companies, the best ideas win. In weak companies, politics win.”
Steve Jobs
Let me help you…
- Harness your strategic intent so it enforces and informs the hard choices in your portfolio management.
- Clarify the principles that drive the design of all innovation management processes.
- Structure your innovation governance to balance empowerment and accountability.
- Simplify your innovation process to focus on the “what” and grant flexibility on the “how”.
So you can…
- Dramatically improve the effectiveness of your innovation system.
- Maintain discipline in decision-making (no zombie projects).
- Create a playbook as a guide for putting the innovation strategy into action.
How it works
The Innovation Strategy Execution service enhances innovation effectiveness. Your 4-6 essential Design Principles guide the creation of an Innovation Project Portfolio Management Scoring model plus all other essential structures for innovation (portfolio) management and -governance.
Process
1
Establish design principles.
2
Establish filters that prevent unaligned projects from entering the innovation funnel.
3
Selection of criteria from a longlist.
4
Setting up the scoring model.
5
Refinement of criteria per phase.
6
Design of governance processes.
7
Creation of decision-making process and -rhythm.
8
Communication, training, implementation and coaching.
Case study
Union poisťovňa a.s., innovation governance, process and portfolio management.
Problem
Innovation management in Union had developed organically, resulting in a set of unconnected processes. These structures were unable to support Union’s innovation ambitions, making it hard to maintain an overview and assess progress on its portfolio of innovation projects.
Assignment
Unify, upgrade and simplify innovation structures and processes.
Challenge
Being a midsized organization with a dynamic, growing core business and many other competing priorities, it was imperative to minimize interruption of ongoing business and limit the time investment of top leadership.
Approach
As a first step, I facilitated key stakeholders in establishing design principles for the new structures.
Based on these principles, a universally applicable innovation project scoring model was set up. It was composed of criteria inspired by international examples that were adjusted for the Union context. This list was refined per development phase to inform project selection and prioritization. Its criteria included strategic alignment and were updateable.
The innovation process was connected to the Scaled agile framework already in use. A matching decision-making process and -rhythm were set up, allowing for the monitoring of progress, and the team playbook was updated and simplified.
Outcomes
- A structural alignment of innovation management decision-making to the overall strategy.
- A single assessment approach for ideas and projects regardless of their origin enabling unified project prioritization and progress assessment.
- A more straightforward way of working for teams, with a playbook page reduction from 190 to 25.
You can preview the value for your company in a Do-Or-Die Challenge:
On day one, project team members conduct a scoring of an innovation project. The next day, the project is assessed collectively and qualitatively in a 3-hour workshop. Day three features a repeat of the scoring, resulting in a go-no-go recommendation. In case of go, a challenge to prove project viability follows.
Investment: € 10k
Stop overinvesting in unaligned or unpromising initiatives. Book your call now.
Schedule a 30-minute call so we can uncover three design principles that can inform the setup of your innovation portfolio management.