Five success factors for your innovation management

Digitalization has brought many benefits for innovation management. Companies work more flexibly, faster, and more effectively than ever before. Innovation strategies can be implemented more effectively if employees use principles of collaboration to jointly implement innovation projects. In this article you will learn about five important success factors for your innovation management.

Barriers to successful innovation management

Many new projects are launched in innovation management:

• Organizations develop innovative products, process innovations and digital business models.
• They improve services and customer support through service innovations.
• They create a corporate culture of innovation.

But it is not as simple as that. Many companies start innovation projects in innovation management. Innovation teams approach their work fully motivated. And then – the day to day business gets in between.

• The size of the only recently sworn in innovation team is effectively shrinking.
• Previously agreed deadlines for milestones are forgotten.
• The project is doomed.

The good news: There are ways to save your project (or not have it get to that point in the first place). You can find out what they are in this article.

Success factor 1: Invent your way out of dead ends in innovation management!

“We have always done it this way” – a statement that means deadlock in almost every innovation project.

• Wherever employees generate unconventional ideas, innovation projects can emerge, grow and flourish.
• Promote open dialogue. Be ready for change. Don’t disregard ideas because they seem exotic at first.
• Often these “exotic” ideas are good approaches to overcome obstacles effectively.

Success factor 2: Innovation management needs the knowledge of outsiders!

Innovation management has many overlaps with knowledge management. Together these disciplines are a real driver for innovation. What they have in common: Knowledge management and innovation management only exist in companies where the workforce shares its knowledge.

• Put your challenges up for public discussion!
• Get inputs from others who seem to have nothing to do with the project!
• Ask outsiders for unconventional solutions!

If you make your existing knowledge available across departments, this will form the basis for innovation. All approaches will be questioned and rethought. The innovation project gets going again.

Success factor 3: Motivate and inspire innovation teams!

An innovation project in innovation management often comes to nothing because the day-to-day business is upsetting you. The consequence: The interest of those involved in the project dwindles more and more. The challenge is to keep all the people involved in the project focused.

How do you manage that? Through regular ideation, inspiration and motivation. One way to do it: Block an appointment once a week in the calendars of the workforce for an innovation brainstorming session. New ideas and discussions are the cornerstone of every successful innovation project.

Incidentally, internal dialogue can be encouraged at any time with an innovation management software such as Innolytics^® Innovation. Every user can immediately create an idea from which a lively discussion grows.

Success factor 4: Set concrete milestones for your innovation pipeline!

Usually an innovation project starts in the so-called Fuzzy Front-end of Innovation with a lot of creativity and brainstorming. But what if the project comes to a standstill because the inspiration seems to be gone? In such cases, it makes sense to define a major innovation goal, translate it into an innovation roadmap and define clear measurable innovation metrics.

As a first step in the innovation process, these milestones serve as a guideline for all those involved. The milestones are both the starting and orientation point for successful innovation projects. In the Innolytics^® software these can be easily defined.

Success factor 5: Rely on best practice examples!

Sharing knowledge is the first step to more inventiveness in every company. By presenting best practice examples in innovation management, you promote the exchange of knowledge – and inspire your team.

• Select best practice examples from your innovation management and present them to your team members. This motivates and shows what has already been achieved in your own company through innovation projects.
• Encourage colleagues to present best practice stories from other companies. Even the trainee certainly has exciting stories to tell.
• Make the best practice experiences available to all employees in a company-internal innovation blog. This can also be found in the Innolytics® innovation software.

As soon as you draw on the successful methods of other companies, the pool of ideas starts bubbling up again. Use the successes of other companies – or even your own – to drive innovation projects forward and promote direct dialogue.

Creating innovation culture with innovation management software

Innovation management stands and falls with innovation culture. Whoever manages to actively involve their employees in innovation management – wins. And exactly that is achieved through the five points mentioned above.

An innovation management software such as Innolytics^® helps you to promote open dialogue within your company. It offers employees the space to access past knowledge, share and collect new ideas and develop existing innovation projects.