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Innovation is a topic that has received a great deal of attention over the last few years. A lot of people have tried to say how it happens and have laid out steps for innovation. Not long ago, a client asked me to help them design a new innovation process, and the outcome surprised us all. Here's what happened.
We used the following DFSS (Design for Six Sigma) approach to designing the new innovation process:
1. Define the VOC (Voice of the Customer) and Stakeholder Needs for an innovation process.
2. Rank and Prioritize the Customer and Stakeholder Needs into 2 categories: those that are NUD (New, Unique and Difficult) to fulfill vs. those that are ECO (Easy, Common and Old).
3. Translate the NUD Needs into Measurable Process Design Requirements so we can easily tell when we are fulfilling them during process design.
4. Create a variety of process architectures (designs) that conceptually fulfill the NUD Requirements.
5. Evaluate, hybridize and select the best process architecture to take forward into detailed, sub-process design.
6. Conduct sub-process design on each portion of the process.
7. Make each sub-process robust to application noises that can disrupt the new sub-processes.
8. Integrate the robust sub-processes into a system that can then be evaluated for application under both nominal and stressful conditions; make the integrated innovation process robust as a system.
9. Verify the new innovation process through pilot applications under a well-designed control plan, including Change Management, Process Metrics, Training, Mentoring and on-going Support of innovation tasks.
10. Mature the new innovation process using lessons learned and place it under steady-state process control using the refined control plan and metrics for process improvement.
The big surprise came in step 2. We interviewed over 40 people across the R&D organization from Leaders to Doers and many others involved in supporting innovation activities. What we discovered was that an innovation process was 1/12th of what was actually required!
Here are the 12 component requirements that the VOC and Stakeholder Needs data revealed:
1. Business Strategy and an Innovation Strategy tied to the Enterprise Vision (where are we going, where do we want to be?)
2. Funding Sources to provide the investment capital to fuel the innovation activities and materiel resources
3. Core Technical Competency Development Training Program
4. Facilities and Equipment
5. Innovation Champions/Sponsors and Coaches/Advocates
6. Training on Innovation Tools, Methods and Best Practices
7. VOC Acquisition and Immersion
8. Innovation Metrics
9. Rewards and Recognition
10. Idea Capture and Documentation
11. Communication Plan for Innovation Process and Resources
and, finally
12. Innovation Process
The lesson we learned was that an innovation process alone was not enough to provide a sustainable approach to innovation. What we ended up with was a 12-component Innovation Framework to address each of the needs/requirements developed from the VOC, Stakeholder input and broad industry benchmarking.
It is easy to benchmark innovation. The literature is bristling with information, process models, case studies, examples, and even what not to do. The most difficulty was encountered trying to stay the course of interviewing a reasonable cross-section of people from the R&D organization and those tangential to it. Getting this input, processing it and validating it took a great deal of effort and time. But once we condensed it all down into logical sub-groups, we were amazed at the true depth and breadth of needs to be considered as we translated them into our "critical few" requirements for an innovation framework - the process of innovation being but one cog in the machine.
That is how innovation is enhanced in an R&D organization. In fact, we used a great many innovation tools, methods and best practices to innovate this framework! The heart of innovation is necessity (as in, "necessity is the mother of invention"). Once you know what is truly needed, unleashing creative people to generate solutions is fairly easy, and, as a bonus-it can be great fun! | 
