Harnessing the power of innovation advocates

Harnessing the power of innovation advocates

May 13th 2014

Colin Nelson

Director of Strategic Consulting

[email protected]

Introduction – Colin Nelson

7 years in Online Innovation and Idea Management

• Primarily working in the US, Europe, and the Middle

East

Background includes:

• Market Research / Knowledge Management /

Information Management & New Product

Development

Focused on:

• Client advisory / training / coaching / program

strategy & health / innovation community

management

Read articles here:

• http://innovationmanagement.se

Director of Strategic Consulting at HYPE

2 www.hypeinnovation.com

Topics for today

Sustainable enterprise innovation programs

Key challenges facing our clients

What is an ‘Innovation Advocate’?

Identifying & Training Innovation Advocates


Example advocate programs

THE COMPANY

• 11 years in business, 90+ employees

• 100% specialized in innovation management software

• Run by the founders, backed by institutional investors

• HYPE headquartered in Bonn

• North-America office in Boston

THE SOFTWARE

170+ active installations world wide

Grows with you:

• Comes off-the-shelf with best practices built-in that have been shaped by the

experience of many years

• Extremely configurable: If you want, the software can adapt to your company culture,

objectives, processes, languages

HYPE at a Glance


Our Clients


Our Offering

Innovation Management Optimize idea portfolios across the enterprise

Process

Our scalable end-to-end

innovation process is based

upon our experiences of

working on over 170 innovation

programs worldwide

Our platform is designed to

most effectively support the

various needs of today’s

innovation initiatives across

different industries

Our consultants help you to

quick-start your first

campaign, to establish a

sustainable innovation

program and to open it up to

customers and partners.

Software Professional Services

www.hypeinnovation.com 6

Recognition

HYPE Innovation Cited as a Leader in the

market for Innovation Management Tools

in Q3 2013 Forrester Wave report.



Everyone can

help us to

innovate

One off

innovations

aren’t enough

Enterprise

scale requires

software

Enterprise scale

requires an

understanding of

how people behave

online


Some fundamental assumptions

Get people involved

Collective expertise is a powerful

asset

We need to make better use of

our people and knowledge

Using this resource we can

develop more innovation

Give them an ability to share

ideas and insights

Encourage extensive

collaboration

Tap into hidden pools of

knowledge

Retain all insights, ideas &

concepts


Topics for today







Colin Nelson | Hype Softwaretechnik

Engagement

Innovation

Value


We all want our programs to be sustainable

Key foundations for sustainable programs

Communications

A broad focus

Grow your innovation

community

Use the data


Communications

A broad focus Use the data

Key foundations for sustainable programs

Grow your innovation

community


14

We seek diversity of opinion, so engagement from all corners is key

Se

cto

r

exp

ert

ize

Marketing

Finance

New Product Development / R&D

IT

HR

Sales

Procurement

www.hypeinnovation.com

Topics for today







16

Most companies have ‘patchy’ engagement

Se

cto

r

exp

ert

ize

Marketing

Finance


IT

HR

Sales

Procurement


17

Se

cto

r

exp

ert

ize

Marketing

Finance


IT

HR

Sales

Procurement

We can’t get ‘this’ division engaged


18

Why won’t

‘this’ country

join in?


19

You didn’t

mean me? …did you?


20

Is this really

what you were

looking for?


21

Navigating complex organizations…


22

This job is too big to be a ‘lone wolf’


23

Summary of the challenges for Innovation Professionals

• Often a small team that’s not

connected to all those that can &

want to innovate

• People in many locations and

divisions

• Top down messaging only goes so far

in changing the way people work


Topics for today







25

Regular idea jams

• A series of innovation ‘Jams’ run in 2013

• 10,000 invitees focused on a range of

innovation needs & challenges

• Supported by 49 advocates available 24 x

7

• India, US, Fr, Swe, Jap, Brazil, China - all

provided advocates

• 111 ideas selected from over 600

submitted & 3000 comments

• (49 of which have patent relevance)


26

Sustainable innovation community

• Central innovation team supported by 10 divisional

champions 20 innovation ambassadors

• Builds the bridge between the core innovation team and

each locality.

• Ambassadors relay the message of innovation to their peer

groups

• Now developing F2F sessions to take the innovation

community to the next level

http://hypeinnovation.com/resources/case-studies/

27

Hand picked advocate community

• Network of US cancer hospitals

• Developing a new advocate community

based upon collaborative innovation

behaviors

• Training for all volunteer advocates

• Advocate community will meet monthly

online to share stories, ideas on

innovation, local challenges &

opportunities


Topics for today







29

They should have day jobs


30

They can help us as they work

Local eyes and ears

Advocate

Cheerleader


31

How can they help our programs?

Demonstrate good

behaviors:

• Participating • High quality content • Constructive comments • Connecting people


32


Identify hot topics

• Focus areas for innovation • New campaign sponsors • New experts to help


33


Help others

• Encourage participation • Explain the process and its

value • Share success stories


Idea Campaigns Ideas Concepts Innovation Projects

Idea Generation Idea Evaluation Innovation Portfolio Management

Strategic

Innovation Areas

The Front End of Innovation The Back End of Innovation

Where do they fit to our innovation workflow?

Identify topics

/ needs

Promote

engagement

Find expertize

www.hypeinnovation.com 34

Topics for today







36

How can we identify good advocates?

Volunteers are ok, but its best to pick those that consistently

demonstrate good collaborative innovation behaviors


37

What behaviors are we looking for?

Sharing ideas and

insights when asked

I will share because I

trust the organization

& my colleagues

Helping to build upon

the ideas of others


38

How can we identify them?

Skeptical /

negative

Unaware

Cautious

Interested

Enthusiastic

• Aware of the program, but unlikely to participate unless

they see the benefits / value of doing so

• Bought in, will participate in almost all campaigns if they

can

• Bought in, will participate if the campaign is relevant

• Won’t participate unless made aware, will then fit into

one of the three categories above

• Blockers to them participating that will need to be

removed

http://goodies.hypeinnovation.com/case-study-swisslog


39

How can we identify them?

• Look at the participation data • Those that participate regularly • Comment as-well as share ideas • Participate irrespective of the

theme or question

Skeptical /

negative

Unaware

Cautious

Interested

Enthusiastic


40

Can we train them?

• Explain how they’ve been identified

• Would they like to volunteer to help?

• Share the hard and soft objectives of the program


41

What should we ask them to do?

• Talk about the project • Encourage people to share • Share success stories • Forward ideas and insights to

colleagues


42

Build the community

• Have monthly f2f meetings • Share experiences and

insights • Highlight successes and

blockers


43

Leverage your advocate community

Se

cto

r

exp

ert

ize

Marketing

Finance


IT

HR

Sales

Procurement


Summary

44

Innovation is too big a job to be a lone wolf

Advocates exist and they’re happy to help

Look for those that participate most regularly

Train them and build the advocate community by intoducing them to each other


Questions?

Colin Nelson

Director of Strategic Consulting

[email protected]

Presentations & Public Speaking

Harnessing the power of innovation advocates