Posted on Aug 13, 2018 on Create Hub, here. How to setup an innovation programme
Samuel Fry shares the lessons that he has learned when setting up a lab of innovation. When I work with companies on their digital strategy, I find that they often want to innovate like a startup while being able to scale at an enterprise level. One way of approaching this is to create teams, spaces and programmes that support innovation. Recently, I was asked to help a company setup an Innovation Lab to explore new ideas and test whether they are viable. I thought that I would share some of my experiences here, for those that are looking to do the same. Why innovation is important for large companiesDigital technologies are changing every industry. This is not just impacting the tools that they have but also their business model. Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles; AirBnB, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate; Facebook, the world’s most popular content provider, creates no content; and Instagram, the world’s most valuable photo company, sells no cameras. Companies don’t operate in the way that they used to. Large companies face intense competition from startups and internet companies, who bring with them new business models, agile processes and the ability to release products rapidly. In response, these companies are looking to learn from the creative skills of startups and combine that with their strengths as an enterprise. One method of doing this is to create innovation programmes, tasked to explore new ideas quickly. The value of creating Labs, Hubs or Factories of InnovationAn effective method of generating innovation projects in large companies is to create teams dedicated to exploring new ideas. This is usually a combination of establishing a space, with a team who have a process of quickly exploring and testing ideas. These spaces have many names, often with the word ‘Lab’, ‘Hub’ or ‘Factory’ as part of it – usually to symbolise the hands-on attitude of the team. These innovation spaces look to combine agile methods with a view on what it takes to deliver projects like this at an enterprise level. They set out a framework for exploring and developing ideas, plus often a view on how to take the proven ideas and turn them into finished products. Creating an innovation spaceIf you are setting out to create an innovation programme, often the first step is to create a space for the team to operate in. The focus here is to create a space where people feel comfortable, inspired and safe to generate ideas – no matter how silly they might sound. In my opinion, this can only be acheived by finding a space that can be dedicated to the innovation team, rather than a few desks or an area within the usual environment. You want people to come into the space and to visually recognise that this is different to the ‘standard’ ways of working. A technique that I have found to help here is also to create a ‘charter’ or a ‘manifesto’ for how those working in the space should behave too. Perhaps you want them to ‘be open’, ‘to allow everyone to speak’, ‘to not block ideas’ or even just ‘to take photos’. Whatever you want people to do in the space, if you can find a way to show that on a poster or in writing on the wall then that helps to address the usual challenges of the organisation from the moment people enter. Alongside this are the practicalities of what you need the space to do. Maybe you need lots of whiteboards, a space for snacks, a social calendar, bright colours, windows or even just good air conditioning. You want to create a space where people feel comfortable so that they can freely explore new ideas. Creating an innovation teamIn terms of the team itself, like any agile team, you want a dedicated, cross-functional team. It is difficult to make any real changes if the team itself is not dedicated to focusing on exploring innovation ideas. If they have other commitments as part of the company’s business-as-usual activities then when push comes to shove they will be asked to focus on those activities. However, I have found that innovation does not happen over night; instead, innovation is usually the result of a continual exploration of new ideas and through teams continually challenging the norms. In addition, you need a mixture of people with different skills in the team. In IT organisations, we often talk about cross-functional teams being a mixture of designers, software developers, software testers and business analysts. These roles are useful but it’s also good to consider having people from different departments or with a strong network in the organisation. One of the aims of my current innovation team is to help connect different parts of the organisation around new ideas, which wouldn’t be possible without these considerations. Finally, it’s also worth making links with other teams in the organisation that will help you accelerate ideas further. Often the IT, legal and marketing teams can all help in this way; yet, there might be others too. Defining your framework and toolsSo, you have an awesome team and a great space but how do you actually explore the ideas? Well, clearly you need a framework to work within. There are plenty of different frameworks that might help, many of which take a phased approach (even if those phases are quite fluid), embrace concepts like Design Thinking or DevOps and they encourage you to work towards creating and testing a Minimal Viable Product. What is important is to pick a framework (or adapt one) based on the goals of your innovation programme. The factor to think about, especially in a technology environment, is to choose platforms that allow you to quickly setup projects so that you can test ideas quickly but which also allow you to iterate and scale projects. Some factors to consider are:
So, if you want to create a successful innovation programme you need to do all of the above. All of this will allow teams to feel able to come up with new ideas and feel safe to fail. After all, if you don’t then your company will never be able to adapt. If you are creating a new innovation programme, then I am keen to hear about it. Tweet me @samueljfry and let me know what you’ve learned in the process.
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