How to Build an Innovation Process

CustomizedDevelop a process built for your company or organization – takes into consideration your company’s size, culture, resources, and types of products and services

Easy to Follow Design a process that is “lite” in that it is easy to use with simple steps, tools and templates, allowing the team to move quickly

Clearly Defined Identify roles, responsibilities and hand-offs across the organization

Buy-InGain input, alignment, and ownership from a cross functional team on the process

Repeatable Standardize and create a repeatable idea to launch process

Remove RoadblocksIdentify any challenges, issues, assumptions that need to be addressed in order for the company to be successful with idea launch

Why Create Your Own Innovation Process?

Conduct an Innovation Process Mapping Workshop

We recommend conducting a workshop to bring stakeholders from across the organization together to co-create an innovation process that works for your specific work culture and team. Getting alignment in the workshop helps ensure everyone buys in and will follow the process.

How To Do It

Key Steps

Step 1: Identify the cross functional team Be sure that your workshop includes all of the teams that touch the process – product management, marketing, sales, customer service, engineering, etc. You will also want to include people from all levels of the organization.

Step 2: Create Agenda for workshopCreate an agenda that allows for plenty of group interaction and creativity, with breaks as needed. We like to use tailored games to make the workshops effective but still fun. A typical workshop spans 1-2 days.

Key Steps

Step 3: Develop prep materials for the workshop to get everyone on the same page for the day This could include glossaries, background on company, innovation mission and goals, as well as all of the items needed for the workshop and any games.

Step 4: Create communications and invitation for cross functional teamHow you position the workshop is important. A 1-2 day workshop is a big investment of time for people. Be sure to let them know why it is important that they participate, what they can expect from the workshop and how it will benefit the organization as well as them personally.

Key Steps

Step 5: Facilitate cross functional workshop to map out the idea to launch processKeep participants engaged by facilitating a workshop that is fun, interesting, productive and on point.

What You Create

DocumentationDocument the outcome of the workshop including:

• Process flows • Issues/challenges list• Planning impacts including impacts to resources, tools, systems etc.

as identified in the process mapping workshop

CommunicationCommunicate process to the rest of the organization so that new ideas are developed and launched effectively, efficiently and in a consistent manner

Tools & TemplatesDetermine what systems, tools, or templates are required to support the process

TrainingDevelop training and a workbook that makes it easy to get people up to speed on the new innovation process

We would love to chat with you about building a culture of innovation at your company. We work with companies and teams, large and small, all over the world to help tackle innovation challenges.

Ask us about our Innovation process mapping, ideation workshops, innovation team building, and customer co-creation sessions.

Engage in Innovation