The Innovation Management Process

Innovation management processes will ensure that your entire organization pulls in the same direction. Help your employees become more creative today with support from this guide.

Experts agree that innovation requires the right strategy, investment, leadership, and risk appetite. Therefore, following a clear and streamlined innovation management process should be a priority for most organizations who want to spark change and initiate innovation.

In our previous guide to “What is innovation management?”, we looked at the fundamentals of this concept, and why it is essential for progressive modern business operations. Next, let's focus on the innovation management process and its phases.

Understanding the innovation management process

Corporate innovation is described as “having out-of-the-box thinking as a strategy within your business”. Innovation management should allow entrepreneurs to freely work on ideas, but there should be a clearly defined process. 

An innovation management process will provide guidance. How this process works is different in each organization and depends on the underlying method used. The four main methods to consider are;

1. Push vs. pull

Push-based innovation is when companies with extensive and well-funded research and development (R&D) departments focus on internal and technology-driven advancements. Research shows that 95% of business innovations will fail and all organizations must be comfortable with this. Still, companies who use push-based innovation management processes can afford for this to happen because of their sufficient resources.

Conversely, pull-based innovation processes are external and market-orientated. They are used by firms with fewer resources and gather information about potential customers and their willingness to pay before they invest in a new product or service. This reduces risks of failing but requires time to be spent on research.

2. Phase-gate process

The phase-gate process helps to reduce risks, allocate resources, and increase success rates. It also helps bring products to market faster. It is primarily used when ideas outweigh resources and you need to ensure that only the best ideas survive.

It does this by dividing projects into stages, seperated by decision points, otherwise known as gates, and assessing the quality of an idea at each ‘gate’. At each decision point, the potential outcomes will be; go, kill, hold, recycle, or conditional go.

3. Lean startup model

The lean startup model is inspired by lean manufacturing, aiming to reduce inefficiencies while always looking for better ways of doing certain things.This is another popular innovation management process type to consider. 

The aim is to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and release it as fast as possible. Then, it uses a feedback loop to improve and release new versions based on more data gathered. This in turn leads to an improved product, and so on. This iterative process is called the build-measure-learn loop.

4. Bottom-up vs. top-down

Traditional top-down innovation limits creativity and decisions to a select few. However, bottom-up innovation allows the organization to cultivate a culture where innovation is accessible to employees at all levels of the business, guaranteeing a greater volume of ideas from multiple perspectives.

While top-down can still be used in some situations, encouraging employees to engage in the creative process often yields better results. Aside from the increase in volume of ideas, employees want to work on their ideas and have the psychological safety to do so.

The essence of the innovation management process

All the innovation management process methods are geared towards helping you unearth more ideas and enjoy faster paths to market. Meanwhile, the essence can be broken down into three distinct phases:

1. Validation

An idea must be analyzed for desirability. If nobody wants it, the idea will be destined to fail. A good innovation process involves rejecting ideas early on. It also involves giving employees confidence to work on ideas that pass this stage through validation.

2. Proof of concept

As well as desirability, concepts need to be supported by feasibility. Sure, we’d all love to drive a flying car, but it just isn’t feasible (at least not yet) so this lacks proof of concept. If the idea is feasible with the available resources and there is a market for it, the idea has a good chance of succeeding.

3. Implementation

However, the hypothetical analysis counts for very little if it’s not backed up by the ability to do it. Aside from having the resources, ideas must fit the company.

Contextualization is a vital factor. The main driving forces of innovation are customer experiences, revenue growth, and product development. If a product does this and fits the brand, it is more likely to thrive.

Open innovation in innovation management

Openness is a key ingredient in the recipe for any successful innovation management process. Firstly, if an idea doesn’t suit your organization, it can still be realized through a corporate spin-out/spin-off.

Meanwhile, open innovation allows companies to share knowledge and expertise. This could mean collaborating on a project with other companies when areas of expertise overlap. Alternatively, it can involve the customer, as Starbucks did with the My Starbucks Idea program, which birthed several new products.

When innovation management processes are open on an external level, it further supports internal versatility too. 

Develop your innovation management process

While there are several ways to tackle innovation, the innovation management process needs to be clear for all relevant parties. Tools like our flagship product, KICKBOX, put the right frameworks in place to support individual and collaborative efforts while also allowing organizations to tap into the collective talents of an external network of innovators.