Top Takeaway:
Great store of resources and points of view on Dr. Lauchlan A. K. Mackinnon’s www.ideamanagementsystems.com — well worth looking at with a fresh open mind. New software and systems bring improved efficiency and usability to idea management processes in smaller companies.
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Background:
Formalized Idea Management Systems don’t seem to be the norm in smaller companies. Why not? Smaller companies have more to lose by draining internal resources generating, intaking, and sorting through ideas manually, and they also have (relatively) more to gain if they can catch the gem in the idea pile. At what point does the most common reason for NOT using software for idea management – ”Budget Concerns” — end up adding cost and/or creating missed revenue through inefficiencies and lost ideas? One more thing to sort out, but probably worth a new look as performance stakes get higher for innovators.
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The Story:
I recently facilitated a roundtable discussion in Seattle with the focus of delivering innovation – Product Realization – and generating a list of Next Practices. The session was very intentionally structured toward forward-thinking practices in order to avoid stepping into the usual complaints and holes about execution hiccups and resource scarcity.
That said, we did touch on “obstacles” in relation to how they were overcome.
Interestingly, the most commonly mentioned obstacle to innovation success was “executing the wrong thing beautifully”.
Obviously — difficult to detect until it’s too late. How then to make sure we’re starting off with the right idea?
The following definition and description is from www.ideamanagementsystems.com
“What is an Idea Management System?
- Idea Generation
- Idea Capture
- Idea Collaboration
- Idea Assessment
- Idea Implementation
- Idea Outcomes Monitoring
An Idea Management System involves 5 components:
- A Front-End system to capture and develop ideas
- A Back-End system to define and implement processes for filtering and assessing ideas and deciding which ones to invest in
- An organisational architecture to define the roles and organisational structures facilitating this activity
- IT systems to support and enable this workflow
- Metrics and measures to monitor the flow of ideas through the ‘idea pipeline’ and to determine the business value of the idea generation and implementation process
That is, an Idea Management System puts in place systems and processes to implement a ‘stage-gate’ or idea funnel process where ideas are systematically filtered and assessed against criteria and only the most valuable ones are implemented and put into practice.
An Idea Management System manages, monitors and implements innovation in a structured way. Although it is not the only way to approach innovation, it is very appealing to management as it provides structure, discipline, clear milestones and metrics to what may otherwise be a very qualitative and unstructured process.”
Dr. Lauchlan A. K. Mackinnon’s blog on this topic has a meaty content menu from 2007 up until December 7, 2008, and many of the external links are loaded with current updates and more recent content.
As an innovator in a product-focused SME that does not have a formal system for tracking and managing ideas, this area holds great promise.
I agree with Dr. Mackinnon’s opinion that we tend to get tangled up not in the idea collection part of this process but in our attempts to assign criteria for success and to be truly objective about what projects to NOT move forward with.
I had not considered implementing a software solution for idea management (specifically aimed at innovation — beyond general NPD) prior to investigating the information and opinions on www.ideamanagement.com . I look forward to diving more deeply into innovators’ opinions on this software category to see what your picks are for 2010 and beyond.
Filed under: Innovation: Front End Tagged: | front end, idea funnel, idea management software, idea management systems, innovation, stage gate
