IEEE ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT REVIEW, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FIRST QUARTER, MARCH 2013 5

Innovation: Developing the “VisualPrototype”—GERARD H. GAYNORVice President of Publications,Director of Engineering,LIFE FELLOW, IEEE

IEEE DOI 10.1109/EMR.2013.2244974

IT is much easier to talk aboutinnovation than to do innovation.The word innovation is somisused in society that it totallyloses its meaning. In a previousarticle I described innovation:Innovation InventionCommercialization orImplementation; nocommercialization orimplementation, no innovation.You may or may not acceptthe description, but innovationcannot be confused with ideas orinvention.

The second article focusedon ideas and the process oftaking those raw ideas andmolding them into a conceptand then into what I describedas a visual prototype that canbe communicated. We have allheard about the great idea, butwhere does it go from there? Thisprocess of developing a visualprototype requires due diligence,much greater attention thannormally planned, and often, aconclusion that the idea is notworth pursuing. Any idea thatbecomes an innovation requires acommitment from many differentpeople at many different levels inthe organization. What does thatvisual prototype include and whyshould it be a priority.

Innovation can take placeby design or by tinkeringaround and of course in somecombination of both. While I’mnot against tinkering around,it often does work, focusing onthe design of the innovation,asking the difficult questionsup-front and using an integratedbusiness perspective does help

increase the success rate.Ideas come from individuals;successful innovation requirescompetent teams to considerthe idea in the context of someform of commercialization orimplementation. The originatorof the idea usually must takethe responsibility for developingthe visual prototype. It’s difficultto pass on your ideas forothers to describe in detail andcommunicate to others involvedin the organization’s process.

So what does that visual prototypeinclude? It takes more thantechnologies to develop an ideainto an innovation. The followingissues must be addressed early inthe process and not after majorinvestments have been made inthe organization’s resources.1. Describe the Concept—thisusually takes more effortthan anticipated. The processinvolves much iteration. Itoften requires more thinkingthan doing. Just saying here’san idea for a new product orservice doesn’t make it. First,that idea must be translatedto what I refer to as Concept:the Concept describes clearlyand concisely, both in wordsand graphics, the productor service. Its principlesof operation may even bedemonstrated by searchingthe junk box. That ideaneeds to be analyzed frommany different perspectives.In my early career I workedwith Dr. Alexander Kolin, aphysicist from the Universityof Chicago, and he taughtme how to demonstrateconcepts with the simplest of

6 IEEE ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT REVIEW, VOL. 41, NO. 1, FIRST QUARTER, MARCH 2013

models—toothpicks, matchsticks, rubber bands, and allthe simplest of what we referto as things (the junk box).Of course as we entered the21 Century, what Dr. Kolincalled things, became a bitmore complex.

2. Potential Opportuni-ties—What are the features,advantages, and benefits ofthe idea, whether related toa product, process, service,or responding to some ad-ministrative proposal? Whatproblem does it solve? Whatdoes it do for the user? Doesit provide a financial or somesocial benefit?

3. Strategic Fit—does thefulfillment of the idea meetthe strategic directionsof the organization? Thisusually requires more than acursory response if the ideawould somehow change thedirection of the organization?

4. Knockouts—knockouts arethe difficult to face issues,but should be identified inthe early stages of promotingan idea. Those potentialknockouts include state ofproposed new technologies;the knowledge base in alldisciplines and functions; therequired capital investments;an available productdistribution system tomove the product to themarketplace; a physicaldistribution system withinits markets; and a customerservice organization todeal with new productintroduction problems. Thefact that these impedimentsmight exist does not providea reason to disregard theidea. The objective is torecognize the significance ofpotential knockouts early inthe innovation process.

5. Required Resources—re-sources involve not onlypeople and financial butalso available organizationalintellectual property; accessto information; not only theproduct related technologies,but also the technologies thatdrive all other organizationalfunctions; marketing andsales; a workable distributionsystem; a committed groupof suppliers; a customer basesufficiently large to meetthe financial needs of theorganization; both the re-quired internal and externalproduction capability; and ofcourse the required financialresources.

6. Acceptable Infrastruc-ture—pursuing an ideaalso requires an acceptableorganizational infrastruc-ture. Infrastructure includesidentified purposes; an or-ganizational vision that’scommunicated and real; a setof defined organizational ob-jectives; a strategic direction;a workable organizationalstructure; a culture that sup-ports innovation; minimumdependence on policies andprocedures; freedom withdiscipline; and leadershipfrom top to bottom, from allfunctions and professionaldisciplines, and clear andconcise communication.

7. Defined Deliverables—afterusing all the availableresources as mentioned andpossibly many others, whatare you going to deliver forthe effort. There is no doubtthat in order to sell an ideait must be romanced to somelevel, but be careful howfar you go. You probablywill not deliver 100 percenton your idea as conditionschange from the time the

idea is suggested to the timeit reaches the marketplace.Those situations involvenational and internationaleconomies, politics, socialadjustments, and more andmore.

8. Metrics—finally, a metricof success needs to beestablished.

This visual prototype focuses onthe potential business. As suchit is meant to provide guidancenot decimal point accuracy.Many ideas in the processof fulfillment can consumeresources far beyond any returnon the investment. The largeran organization becomes thelarger that figure becomes. Asan example, an idea that maygenerate a $100,000 in sales atmaturity may be an excellentidea to pursue in a companywith annual sales of $1 million.However, that same $100,000project may be of no value to anorganization with annual sales of$100 million.

So, if you have the idea, developit into a communicable concept,and then into a visual prototype.The visual prototype in mostcases requires the input froma group with the requiredexpertise. An innovation based ona new technology involves morethan technological expertise;technological expertise onlywill not bring a new product tothe marketplace. The sameapplies to an innovationsuggested by any otherfunction or discipline. Finally,ideas come from individuals,developing a workable visualprototype requires input frommultiple-disciplines.