Roles, profiles and responsibilities +advice for setting up your ‘innovation machine’ , your company needs a special culture, a new mindset across all levels, disciplines and functions. To become really innovative As a leader, you need to introduce and promote a solid , which will gradually become part of the normal, day-to-day business innovation framework But, to reach this point, you will have to go through a challenging , which is expected to have significant impact on your company. This requires a talented ‘innovation team’ — the right synthesis of strategists, technologists and communicators — to lead this fundamental change and operate at the core of the ‘innovation machine’; to introduce the new , to and . transformation phase culture inspire teams drive innovation by example Team Responsibilities The objectives and specific roles of the ‘innovation team’ depend on the type, size and industry of the company. In the typical case, companies need a driving force — a solid team to naturally , to introduce the right technologies and the best practices regarding innovation and creative thinking; to make sure the overall innovation program is also in alignment with the on-going business; to manage the noise and the risk of (internal) disruption from the ‘ ’. from within diffuse the innovation thinking innovation machine This special team needs to be , , and strategic tactical agile fast Depending on companies’ innovation readiness, the responsibility areas of the ‘innovation team’ may include the following: 1. Set the strategy, define success The strategy and the roadmap towards the desired innovation-driven mode is critical. The ‘innovation team’ needs to define and It must identify the milestones and define the metrics and success criteria across the . what innovation is in the context of your company, how to ‘get there’. innovation transformation journey To properly set the innovation strategy, the team must demonstrate deep understanding of the current state of your company, the challenges and business opportunities. The team must be capable of capturing and interpreting market and competition insights, trends and predictions. The team must clearly articulate and communicate the vision, and the strategy to redefine your company as an innovation-driven organization. 2. Provide the innovation framework The ‘innovation team’ must identify and provide the right to facilitate and also to speed up the adoption of the . For instance, the team needs to select, adapt and provide and , platforms to setup and like , , applications etc. enabling technologies day-to-day innovation activities innovation culture ideation brainstorming tools programming ideation challenges hackathons ideas processing pipelines information sharing 3. To innovate by example Innovation is an exciting and inspiring topic, but if you don’t deliver concrete examples of applied innovation — ideally through success stories — its power will quickly fade out. The ‘innovation team’ must have creative members, engineers and technologists to showcase , ; the team needs to clearly , with the ; it must demonstrate how innovation can bring concrete commercial results, fast. This is the best way to inspire people and drive high-levels of engagement with the overall innovation initiative. real innovation at pace connect the theoretical abstract notions of innovation commercial context of your company 4. Communicate, Inspire, Diffuse Communication in this context is critical: no matter how innovative your team or how efficient the innovation framework is, if the communication is not effective, the innovation initiative is at risk. Proper communication is the way to spread the and inspire people to join the ‘ ’; to prove that innovation creates value for the company, the employees, for the customers and possibly for the society; to and change . innovation message new way of working diffuse great ideas how products are conceived, designed and built 5. Measure, Assess, Adjust The ‘innovation team’ needs to continuously measure and evaluate the progress towards each next milestone of the innovation transformation programme. In case of gaps or ‘surprises’, the team needs to quickly review the assumptions, the involved models and processes, and make the right decisions in an agile manner- to ensure alignment with the overall strategic innovation plan. 6. Handle the noise, Avoid disruption Innovation can generate noise and become (not only to the market but also to the company). The ‘innovation team’ must prevent the situation where the standard KPIs of the company are exposed to risk due to aggressive, over-ambitious innovation programs or, for example, due to unexpected response to a ‘call to innovate’. The team must handle the noise and be very effective in identifying the signals, that is, the . It must be able to prioritize wisely and communicate in a smooth and effective way. disruptive real business opportunities The synthesis of the team The size and exact synthesis of the team heavily depends on the industry, the domain of expertise and the size of the corporation. In any case, the ‘innovation team’ needs to be . In the typical case, the team will have some of the following profiles. multidisciplinary with the right balance of strategy, execution and communication experts : you need strategic thinking to plan the . You need strategists with extensive exposure to innovation programmes and deep understanding of your industry, the competitors, the market dynamics and the in reference to your domain. Strategists innovation transformation journey state of the art : you need them to start , , and for your innovation programme; to capture the competition and global developments, identify gaps, overlaps and opportunities; to make the link with commercial aspects of your business; to and be the . Product experts defining opportunities innovation themes focus areas think as users voice of the your customer the experts combining deep technical knowledge, best practices and understanding of product architecture, product development lifecycle and innovation methodologies. They should drive initiatives such as the transition to and techniques with focus on and . In a software context, these could be or with extensive prototyping and/or agile product development experience. Technologists: agile engineering practices modern product development experimentation data-driven decision making Senior Architects Engineers senior management members capable to drive programmes, lead multiple initiatives and manage projects to enable the innovation transformation. Programme Managers: even if intellectual property is not part of your objectives, great opportunities might appear — ones that you cannot afford to miss: as teams ideate, collaborate and experiment with ideas, they might produce novel, high-potential and patentable solutions; the team needs good reflections in spotting patentability and potential competitive advantages. IP experts: : the ultimate objective of this programme, is to transform the to a , creating value for your customers and stakeholders through novel ideas. The best way to achieve this, is by example: you need to form a team of to set the example in terms of , , and most-importantly, in terms of . Your ‘innovation team’ needs a core of technologists — a multidisciplinary team able to rapidly execute/ build , , measure the and package the results; you need creative people, passionate about delivering novel solutions to challenging problems; risk takers, self-starters and ambitious professionals with both technical and commercial acumen. Real Innovators typical employee real innovator innovators mentality behaviour best practices outcomes prototypes proof of concepts success : To successfully introduce the , you need a clever and effective communication plan to , particular activities and primarily, . This needs to be driven by passionate and effective communicators the ones responsible for , communicate progress, achievements, top performers and success stories. Innovation Advocates innovation mindset present the innovation programme itself innovation success stories — diffusing the innovation message : These are the specialists in innovation and development frameworks, methodologies and tools. They will educate your teams in , , , and related methodologies and practices; they will facilitate and drive workshops, ideation sessions and the practical aspects of day-to-day innovation. Innovation process experts agile engineering rapid prototyping experimentation design thinking : the scheme must be flexible to allow employees outside the core ‘innovation team’ to join for certain period of time, based on a rotation scheme. This will maximize the information and expertise sharing, and will ensure smoother transition to the innovation-driven mode. It is a great way to minimise the risk of isolating the innovation team from the rest of the company. Guest innovators The structure of the innovation team should be flexible and flat: there should be three lines of reference — the , the and the — all aligned but also with clear separation of concerns and well-defined, independent work streams and programmes. strategic practical innovation communication The challenges One of the major risks when having a separate ‘innovation team’, is : Innovation teams usually have the benefit of using the latest technologies and safe experimentation/ development environments, without the production and operations-related constraints and challenges. This can lead in a situation where the innovation team is seen, by the rest of the company, as a working in a , while all other teams are dealing with real-world business problems and challenges. This is why , , and are very important when setting up this team. the risk of isolation from the rest of the organization detached entity sandbox effective communication continuous information sharing innovation by example rotation schemes Another major risk, is to disrupt the day-to-day business: the entire system could easily become dysfunctional if employees lose focus and teams get destructed. In another scenario, continuous ideation could generate noise and a long backlog of proposals, which cannot be effectively handled; product development processes could also be destructed from random suggestions or not properly defined business proposals. In any case, the innovation team must ensure the right balance between innovation and ‘business as usual’, by effectively identifying real business opportunities and setting the right focus. As originally published on hackerearth blog Principles of a great ‘Ideation Channel’

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