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Innovation Management

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Innovation Management

The Innovation Management capability supports the submission, centralization, and evaluation of ideas from across the organization to drive solutions to crowd-generated challenges and opportunities. Each capability within the Planview Capability Framework has a distinct set of features and functionality, business processes, best practices, and analytics and reports that deliver value to customers in the form of specific business outcomes.

Innovation Management Business Outcomes

We can foster stronger collaboration and ideation, allowing the crowd to share challenges/opportunities with each other and select the best solutions to the challenges that matter to them.

We can generate, capture, and refine new ideas, managing the entire process of evaluation and prioritization.

We can use quantitative reviews and qualitative evaluations to select ideas with the strongest business value.

We can automatically identify trends from crowd-generated content using natural language processing and sentiment analysis.

Innovation Management Processes

Select your product

Innovation Management sources, gathers, compares, and assesses new ideas across your organization.

 

           

Innovation Management – Standard Challenge Example Process Steps

 

SG Innovation Management - Standard Challenge Example Process Flow.png

           

Process Step Description

Create challenge

Create a new challenge using the Challenge Wizard, entering important relevant information such as the start time, end date, and the business problem the challenge is designed to solve. Challenges can also be created from a challenge template. Once the challenge is created, you will also configure phases for the challenge. 

It is recommended to use the standard challenge blueprint to ensure you have all of the necessary information while creating your challenge, which will help with framing the challenge. 

For more information, see Best Practices for Hosting a Challenge.

Participants post ideas

When the challenge commences users will begin to post ideas on how to solve the business challenge. Each idea will contain a title and description, along with an image. Categories, keywords, and attachments may also be added.

For more information, see Tips for Posting Ideas.

Participants edit ideas

As the challenge moves through the process, feedback is given, and more ideas are posted, a participant may find it helpful to make small changes or incorporate suggestions into their idea. They may edit their idea to make these updates.

Participants comment on ideas

As ideas are presented during the challenge, it can be helpful to provide the idea creator with feedback, as other participants may identify additional opportunities or potential problems with an idea. If commenting is enabled for the challenge, participants can provide this feedback by commenting on the idea. Users may also show support by liking ideas and comments that are made on ideas.

Participants vote on ideas

Throughout the initial phase of the challenge, users are able to vote on ideas they support. The voting system is configured within the Challenge Wizard to be based on either the number of likes or by a star-rating system. These criteria can be used to determine if ideas pass into the next phase. 

Experts review the top ideas

To prioritize the ideas that hold the most value for the organization, it can be helpful to have an executive committee or panel of experts who can evaluate the ideas and decide which ones will move forward in the process. This can be set up as an evaluation stage.

Participants vote using Pairwise

In the final round, pairwise voting can be used to compare ideas side-by-side. The side-by-side ranking helps determine which ideas have the most support from participants in comparison to other ideas presented.

For more information on configuring pairwise voting, see Pairwise Administration.
Idea/s selected

With top ideas identified, the organization must now select which ideas to implement. This will typically happen through the process of an idea selection meeting, where the top ideas are discussed with the sponsor, experts, and any other stakeholders. 

Prior to the selection meeting, you can download a challenge report to get all of the relevant information on each idea in a spreadsheet. It is recommended to remove all but 5-10 ideas for the discussion. 

During this meeting, it is important to discuss the value of each idea against the organization's evaluation criteria, its impact on business, budgeting, and the implementation strategy for the ideas selected, including who will be responsible for execution. You should also ensure there is a plan for announcing the selected ideas.

When ready, a challenge administrator can choose the selected ideas on the challenge home page. A custom layout for the announcement can be created if desired, and an email will be sent to selected idea owners if enabled. 
Challenge closed

When the last phase of your challenge ends, Spigit will automatically update the challenge timer, all pages, and permissions. You can also manually close a challenge at any point. 

Once the challenge is closed the challenge winners and top participants should be announced in a timely manner, and the process of implementation can begin.

           

           

           

Innovation Management – TeamTap Example Process Steps

 

SG Innovation Management - TeamTap Example Process Flow.png

           

Process Step Description

Tap owner creates Tap

Team Tap is a micro-challenge used when you want a simple, spontaneous outreach amongst your peers to solve an immediate problem. This could anything from soliciting feedback on an idea to asking for help with a process. You can create a Tap from any page within Spigit.

Tap shared with relevant users

Once a Tap is created, you can share your Tap with other users to prompt them for feedback. The Tap can be shared directly within Spigit, or as a link you can add to an email or other communication channel.

Users respond to Tap

If a user has ideas that can help the tap owner, they can post them as a response. They can also comment on other user responses or like other responses and comments. 

Users vote on responses

Users also have the ability to vote on the response they like the most. This can give the tap owner a feeling for which response(s) to accept. 

Tap owner accepts relevant responses

Once the Tap owner is ready, they can accept the response(s) they feel address their initial problem. 

Tap owner closes Tap

When the responses have been accepted and the tap owner feels confident, they can close the Tap.

           

           

           

Outputs, Reports, and Analytics

This solution capability is supported by the following outputs, reports, and analytics.

Type Associated Outputs, Reports, and Analytics Description
Report INN01 - Challenge Activity Contains an overview of each challenge and community that is present within a Spigit instance.*
Report INN02 - Ideas Contains all idea activity visualizations for each challenge.*
Report INN03 - Idea Activity Breakdown Displays key idea metrics which each challenge uses to prioritize ideas.*
Report INN04 - Idea Closure Fields Summary of all idea closure form fields that are configured. Enables a user to list ideas closed per challenge along with corresponding values from that challenge's idea closure form.*
Report INN05 - Idea Closure Fields Numeric Represents the idea closure fields that contain numeric estimates.*
Report INN06 - Idea Custom Fields Provides an out-of-the-box search and filter capability for all idea template custom fields that are in use.*
Report INN07 - Idea Voting Breakdown Shows which users are prioritizing which ideas.* 
Report INN08 - Pairwise Offers a breakdown of the Pairwise voting feature. Contains a combination of idea and Pairwise voting dimensions including Idea ID, Idea Title, URL, Total Pairwise Up Votes, Total Pairwise Down Votes, Total Pairwise Skip Votes, and the Pairwise Ranking.*
Report INN09 - Review Responses Provides insights into the breakdown of the review field responses for any review field in the challenge. Shows the breakdown of responses per idea based upon review form fields.*
Report INN10 - Tasks

Visualization 1 shows the breakdown of individual tasks that are assigned to ideas within the chosen challenge or community. Visualization 2 shows a simple breakdown of reviews and ideas only. Visualization 3 demonstrates the average score obtained for each of the review fields that are present in the challenge, illustrating a high-level view of strengths and weaknesses associated with the different quantitative fields in the review form.*
Report INN11 - User Activity Challenge Shows a visualization that represents users that have participated in the challenge.*
Report INN12 - User Custom Fields Shows the overview of users listed in the Spigit application and all of their user attributes.*
Report INN13 - User Activity / Time Uses the ideaID and the posting timestamp of the idea to determine activity by users across a temporal filter.* 
Report INN14 - Idea Key Themes Leverages Natural Language Processing to cluster ideas using the text contained in their descriptions.*
Report INN15 - Sentiment Key Influencers Shows what influences the overall sentiment score for ideas in the challenge.*
Report INN16 - Idea Sentiment Dashboard Offers deeper insights into a selected idea.*
Output INN17 - OData/Power BI Desktop Custom Reports Data export feature, which provides for the configuration of customized reports via Spigit's OData Connector to Power BI Desktop.
Output INN18 - OData/Tableau Custom Reports Data export feature, which provides for the configuration of customized reports via Spigit's Tableau Web Connector, using Power BI Desktop.

Output

 INN19 - Excel Custom Reports Data export feature, which provides for the configuration of customized Excel Reports via Spigit's Excel Connector and the Excel PivotTables functionality, using Power BI Embedded.
Report INN20 - Dynamic Idea Report Gives an in-depth snapshot of submitted ideas, including customized idea template fields, and idea engagement metrics (votes, comments, ratings, reviews).**
Report INN21 - Dynamic Review Report Displays all completed reviews and tasks. Shows the current idea review rating during the Expert Review Phase of the Challenge.** 
Report INN22 - Idea Selection Report Provides all the data needed to consider whether an idea should be moved to Successfully Implemented. Used when conducting the final review of ideas at the end of the challenge, when meeting as a group, to determine final successful ideas. Can be used to facilitate an effective selection meeting.** 
Report INN23 - Idea Tracking Report Shows all ideas closed successfully. Tracks idea details that have been selected for implementation.**
Report INN24 - Ideas Activity Report Shows all ideas’ graduation criteria fields and how close they are to reaching the threshold set for graduation to the next stage. Used towards the end of a phase to see if any ideas should be manually moved to the next stage.** 
Report INN25 - Moderator and Expert Activity Detail Report Lists the activity of all moderators and experts within a given date range.**
Report INN26 - Private Comments Report Lists any ideas that have had Private Comments posted by either an Administrator or Moderator.**
Report INN27 - Rapid Report Provides a holistic picture of the activity around top ideas. Displays Pairwise ranking, idea stats, and review scores. Used to compare ideas and where they were ranked by the crowd and review team.**
Report INN28 - User Task Report Tracks who has been assigned tasks, which are outstanding, and which have been completed during Expert Review phase.**
Report INN29 - Users with no Activity Report Lists users who have not taken any action since a given date.**
Report INN30 - Reviews

Three visualizations on the Task tab that show Reviews Assigned and Completed, Idea Review Scores, and Review Fields Average Score.*
Analytic INN31 - All Data Clusters Shows automatic modeling of Ideas, Taps, and Tap Responses together.* 
Analytic INN32 - TeamTap Key Themes Displays key themes, which are obtained solely from the Tap Title (Tap Description).*
Analytic INN33 - Tap Drill Through Dashboard Provides a readout of all the key data on a selected Tap.*
Analytic INN34 - Tap Clusters Shows which of the Tap Title key themes drive Tap Response themes.*
Analytic INN35 - User Activity Breakdown Displays configurable viewing of activity level. The default slicing on the page shows the top 50% of active users in the last 90 days.*
Analytic INN36 - Tap Explorer Focuses on a blend of user activity and themes to show how key themes drive activity levels across the crowd, allowing for identification of the most active users in each scenario.*
Analytic INN37 - Tap Explorer Activity Demonstrates count and type of activity when linked with user attributes, using a "cord" type visualization.*
Analytic INN38 - Tap Explorer Themes Conveys levels of activity against Tap key themes and user attribute data, using a "cord" type visualization.* 
Analytic INN39 - TeamTap Sentiment Influencers Focuses on the drivers that increase and decrease sentiment.*

*Standard Report in Insights/Power BI.

**Legacy Excel Report. Available but no longer supported as of 4/30/2021.

           

           

Use Cases

Popular Applications.png

Ideation

  • Time-bound challenge: set start and end dates
  • Micro-challenge or Tap, using TeamTap
  • Always-on challenge: no specified end date
  • Live challenge: facilitated in person or via web
  • External challenge: with non-employees (may require separate Spigit instance)
  • Dragon’s Den, Shark Tank, or contest challenge: compete for best idea and pitch to executives
  • Hackathon: define problems; suggest and select projects for the event; collaborate, review, and select projects

showcase applications.png

Knowledge sharing

  • You Ask, You Answer Q&A challenge: Crowd submits questions, crowd provides answers
  • You Ask, We Answer Q&A challenge: Crowd submits questions, a defined subset of individuals provides answers
  • Success stories, proven innovations, best practices, thought starters, creativity how-to

Additional Applications.png

Applications may include, but are not limited to:

UseCases.png

  Project Program Agile

Lean
New Product Ideas ✓      

Funding Applications

   ✓    

Spending

       ✓

Process Improvement

     ✓  

Backlog Prioritization

 ✓ ✓    

Project Requests

 ✓      

Project Prioritization

 ✓      

Risk Identification and Mitigation Ideas

 ✓ ✓    
Implementation Ideas ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Resource Selection ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

 

Additional Use Cases

  • Innovation: Contests, share proven innovations, success stories.
  • Operations: Best practices sharing, Q/A, cost efficiency, continuous improvement, internal capital funding.
  • Business Development: Opportunities, partnerships, strategies.
  • Product Management: New concepts, enhancements requests, customer voice, go-to-market plans.
  • PMO: PI planning, problem identification and scoping, project value tracking.
  • Agile Transformation: Portfolio or backlog prioritization, risk identification and mitigation, OKR or KPI development, PI Planning, opportunities, epics, visions.

           

           

Best Practices

An Innovation effort can be a complex, sequential series of actions around posted ideas, in response to a corporate-approved Challenge Question (challenge). By contrast, it can also be a simple, spontaneous outreach amongst one's peers to solve an immediate problem (Tap). The following Best Practices illustrate opportunities for Collaborative Discovery and Collective Decision Making in an Innovation Management Solution.

Managing Your Innovation Program

  • Crowdsourcing Program Advocacy: Educate your colleagues and potential challenge sponsors on what crowdsourced innovation is: engaging the people who know your business best—your employees, your suppliers, your partners, and your customers—to collaborate, generate and prioritize new ideas. Secondly, let them know how it can be used, for example, leveraging the power of the crowd or identifying challenge opportunities. Lastly, inform them how to run different types of Innovation Events, i.e., a time-bound vs. Always On challenge, Hackathon, Internal vs. External Challenge, Team Tap.

  • How to run a Successful Challenge: Running challenges in a continuous cycle is a highly effective way to align individual motivation with organizational goals. Before the challenge begins, identify key goals and obstacles. Formulate the right Challenge Question to pose to your crowd. Select the best Challenge Owners for their roles. Launch the challenge and energize participants. Give participants feedback and conduct transparent idea evaluation. Follow up with challenge results and celebrate wins. Note Lessons Learned for the next challenge.

  • Build the Right Team for your Innovation Program: It’s crucial to build the right team in order to maximize the effectiveness of the Innovation Program's effort. Clear roles and responsibilities are necessary in order to succeed. Participants, roles, and responsibilities will change over time, particularly as goals are met and new problems and opportunities emerge, but it’s critical that assignments are clear and understood at launch.

  • Best Practices for Idea Evaluation: Consider the evaluation criteria before you begin reviewing ideas, to determine which Ideas show the most promise and which can be easily put to the side. Determine what characteristics an idea must have in order to move forward to the next stage. Use built-in metrics like star votes, views, comments, or time of last activity to determine which Ideas are in most need of response, which ones are potential winners, and which can easily be taken out of the mix. Be as specific as possible about what you’re looking for when starting a challenge. Establish a strong context and use the challenge description in Spigit Email Notifications to state what your goals are and what factors you’ll need to evaluate Ideas.

  • Develop Products more Effectively: If there’s one thing Product Teams are not lacking for, it's a constant flow of ideas about how their product should evolve to meet the needs of different constituents. However, without a systematic process, teams can struggle to ensure they're focusing scarce resources on the most impactful validated enhancements that customers and potential customers desire. Empower Product Teams to build better products by managing the flow of product ideas with Spigit, 

Long Term Success

  • Promoting your Innovation Program: Internal marketing is a powerful tool that can be used to inspire employees and motivate them to become innovators. Introduce Spigit to Your Community. A town hall meeting is a key event for communicating your corporate strategy and innovation goals to your entire community and explain how Spigit is part of realizing that vision. Branding your Innovation Program makes it easier for you to talk about the program and rally participants. Spigit Email Notifications are an internal marketing tool built directly into Spigit that can be used to introduce initiatives, kick off Challenges, motivate participation, and celebrate wins.
  • Driving Participation with your Innovation Program: By providing frequent and continuous feedback, maintaining transparency, recognizing contributions, and sustaining long-term engagement with rewards and incentives, you motivate employees to keep contributing and remain active participants in your Innovation Program.
  • Leadership in Innovation - Moderators: The Moderator is responsible for managing the day-to-day activity of the Innovation Program, and directing ideas through different stages of evaluation to turn potentially useful ideas into action. Through a four step approach—Discover, Discuss, Evaluate, and Decide—you can better understand how to use Spigit features to motivate participation, drive sustained engagement in your innovation program, and identify and act on the best ideas.
  • The Power of No in an Innovation Program: Declining ideas is a necessary part of an Innovation Program, and when done transparently, can provide the fuel for ongoing engagement with the program. If that “no” comes with a thoughtful reasoning as to why the idea won’t be presently acted upon and realized—usually citing a constraint—nine times out of ten the person will accept the outcome. People understand constraints. What they want is a conversation. To be listened to. Often “nos” in an innovation program represent the fitness of the idea to the current environment. As that environment changes, that “no” can easily turn into a “yes.” 

Top 10 Tips/Best Practices for Hosting a Challenge

  1. Find the right sponsor: Someone dedicated to solving an important opportunity and willing to advocate for the challenge and follow through with the ideas.
  2. Ask the right question: Something that is owned by the sponsor and is aligned with the strategic objectives of the organization.
  3. Invite the right audience: The more the better. Diversity in thinking is an innovator's best friend.
  4. Moderate the conversation: Active moderation helps build ideas, connect people to ideas, and keeps the crowd focused on the challenge topic.
  5. Evaluate the ideas: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) should evaluate the crowd-nominated ideas, to ensure they meet the sponsor's criteria for success.
  6. Communicate: A well planned communication campaign drives overall participation and engagement on the desired behaviors and goals.
  7. Recognize excellence: Provide recognition for participants that go above and beyond with their activity levels and quality of content.
  8. Monitor the challenge: Check idea graduation rates and participation levels often; which can help determine needed adjustments to graduation criteria and communications.
  9. Take action: Do something with the selected ideas to build credibility and demonstrate value to all stakeholders.
  10. Follow up: Let the audience know what's happening with the selected ideas, so it doesn't turn into a black hole suggestion box.

           

 

Related Capabilities

Supported Solutions