Online Innovation Lab Guide

How to Setup and Launch Your Own Online Innovation Lab

 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Defining Attributes 3
  Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation Events 3
  Breakthrough and Disruptive Change 4
  Incremental Improvements 4
  Diverse Participants 5
  Research Oriented and Experimental Approach 5
  AI-Powered Data Analysis 5
  System of Record 6
How to Setup an Online Innovation Lab 6
  Innovation Lab Charter 7
 Metrics 9
  Innovation Team 9
  Networking and Partnering 9
  UX, Branding and Design 10
 Culture 11
  Processes and Best Practices 12
Equipment and Tools 13
  The Software 13
   The Logistics and Hardware 14
  Reporting, Accounting and Transparency 15
Can We Start with a Temporary Innovation Lab? 16
Other Sources of Information 17

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Introduction

Investing in disruption is an essential strategy. The Online Innovation Lab Guide is based on 20
That is why online innovation labs are rapidly years of hands-on experience of Planbox innovation
gaining traction as a highly engaging and valuable experts working with hundreds of customers to
social innovation tool. They are widely used by build a business case for, plan, design, develop and
multinational corporations, research facilities launch online innovation management systems and
and think tanks as a forum for collaborative portals. This guide describes the benefits of setting
idea generation and development. Yet there are up an Online Innovation Lab. It also explains how
limited standards, best practices, core features you can plan and start an online innovation lab for
and generally accepted definitions of what an your organization.
innovation lab should do and how it should be run.

Defining Attributes
This section outlines the key features and functions of an online innovation lab.

Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation Events

Online innovation labs cast a much wider net than a typical ideation portal. Online innovation labs seek the
collaboration of and contribution from a variety of different sources, including your employees, customers,
business partners, universities, startups, and other innovation incubators or perhaps even the general
public. The lab is designed to provide a collaborative workspace where a diverse group of participants
engages in focused, mission-driven idea generation and co-creation activities.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Breakthrough and Disruptive Change

Innovation labs are not optimized to find solutions
for short-term problems primarily. Instead, they focus
on creating long-term future value. By unshackling
participants from the need to seek immediate results,
collaborators are free to challenge the status quo,
explore deeper horizons, identify emerging trends, and
participate in blue-sky thinking. An online innovation
lab offers a way for companies to find new opportunities
to regain momentum, foster a culture that is more
receptive to and embracing of innovation, attract top
talent, and ensure that the company is keeping pace
with the rapidly changing and disruptive market forces.
Technology is often at the heart of these dislocations. For
this reason, a majority of the Fortune 100 organizations
have established innovation labs that are explicitly or
implicitly focused on technological advancement.

The primary focus of most innovation labs is to

achieve a breakthrough innovation rather than seeking
incremental improvements. Companies often invest in
online innovation labs to find solutions to problems that
they are unable to solve on their own. They tackle their
toughest challenges and often find ideas and solutions
that lead to breakthrough innovation and disruptive
change. These innovations may include business
transformation strategies, alternative business models,
or solutions to significant complex problems.

Incremental Improvements
You can’t always hit a home run. That’s why it’s
essential for the lab also to produce some quick
wins, such as finding incremental cost savings or new
revenue opportunities. These solutions are easier to
find, evaluate, justify, and implement. However, the
innovation team must take care not to become too risk-
averse by focusing on an increasingly larger percentage
of its resources on these types of activities.

To learn more about “Quick Wins”, click here to read

Innovation Leader’s 2019 Quick Wins Report.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Diverse Participants
Leverage the creativity of a diverse ecosystem by creating a social innovation network that encourages
inclusiveness regardless of beliefs, demographics, job function, or status. Innovation labs are designed
to bring together a diverse group of participants cutting across domains of opinion, expertise, ethnicity,
background, culture, and interests. Use this diversity to fuel and energize creativity and the quest for finding
unusual yet highly effective solutions. The challenge owner and the innovation management committee
carefully select participants to bring them together, even if they would not otherwise collaborate.

Research Oriented and Experimental Approach

Vital features of any well-designed innovation lab include providing the infrastructure, processes and best
practices that encourage rapid prototyping, small proof of concept tests, experimental development, and
incremental progress.

AI-Powered Data Analysis

Statistics show that 90% of the world’s data was generated over the last two years (Petter Bae Brandtzæg of
SINTEF ICT). Additionally, only less than 1% of all customer data is analyzed (IDC Report). With 1B+ websites
and social media posts, conversations and comments occurring exponentially, there is a lot of information up
for grabs. Data indicates that Facebook users write over 250 million posts per hour and Twitter tweets over 21
million times per hour. Online innovation labs that incorporate advanced search and AI-powered technology
can help organizations turn this massive data into a source of sustainable competitive advantage. The
information provided by proactively searching all available data can lead to insights, important discussions,
the inception of new concepts and recognition of emerging trends that can be turned into new ideas, support
the development of existing ideas and actionable solutions.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

System of Record
More and more organizations are adopting the following principle:

System of Record for Innovation

If it’s not in the innovation system then it’s not an idea; no one can support
it or comment on it, and no one can work on it.

In a sale process in most organizations, if an opportunity is not stored and tracked in a CRM system, then no one
can work on it. This is the same concept used for reporting bugs or requesting support. The request must first be
recorded in the issue tracking or helpdesk system. Then, a ticket is assigned for someone to resolve. The same
concept should apply to innovation management. All ideas, collaboration, innovation activities, supporting content
and information produced in an innovation lab or from any other source, must be stored in a single system of record
for innovation. Using a systems approach provides a way for innovation management to build upon and improve

How to Setup
an Online
Innovation Lab

An online innovation lab is:

A virtual workspace designed to optimize innovation

A fluid environment for creative problem solving and solution discovery
A collaborative workspace where UX, business rules, rewards, and engagement tools are adjusted to focus carefully
selected participants on a specific challenge/problem area
A virtual presentation stage that facilitates the exchange of ideas
Technology platform to enable collaboration, analysis, and team-based decision making

The sections that follow describe the planning and preparation steps that are required to set up a complete online
innovation lab.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Innovation Lab Charter

WHY? Why do you do
The first and most important step you need to take is
what you do? What’s
to define your Online Innovation objectives and scope. the purpose?
To highlight the importance of this activity, we explore
the application of Simon Sinek’s Start with Why
technique to investing in an online innovation lab. HOW? How do you
WHY? do what you do?
According to Simon Sinek, the fundamental
difference between the “apples” of the world and
everyone else is that they start with “why.” Sinek WHAT? What the hell
developed what he called the “Golden Circle” that do you do?
has the following three layers:

Why - This is why the online innovation lab exists, the core reason for its existence.
How - This is how the online innovation lab fulfills the core reason for its existence.
What - This is what the online innovation lab does to fulfill the core reason for its existence.

This sounds trivial, understandable and simple. However, applying Sinek’s finding to innovation labs, most
organizations will start with “What an innovation lab does” and then move to “How they do it.” A majority will
neglect to define, communicate and market “Why they do what they do.” Therefore, your online innovation lab
requires a clear written definition of its scope and objectives:
What type of challenges will the lab focus on? And what type of solutions is the organization looking for?
How is success defined and measured?
How much of the budget is allocated to innovation activities, experimentation and concept development?

The Innovation Lab Charter is an effective tool and

mechanism to agree on and communicate your lab’s
mission statement and scope. The purpose of the
charter is to concisely and unequivocally describe
why the Innovation Lab has been created, how the
Innovation Lab will fulfill its purpose, and what it
should do to meet its reason for being created.

The following is an Innovation Charter for a fictitious

company called Acme sets up a permanent
innovation lab focused primarily on finding
transformative and disruptive breakthroughs.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Innovation Lab Charter Example for Acme

Innovation Lab Charter Example for Acme

Acme Idea Lab delivers breakthrough game-changing innovations through an open and collaborative
effort with Acme’s suppliers, partners, startups, researchers, and the academic community.

Innovation Lab Charter

Breakthrough Innovation

Networking and Partnering Incremental Innovation

Employee Engagement

Acme’s senior management has reviewed this Innovation Lab Charter and agrees with the mission and
priorities set out in this document. This charter will drive all innovation lab activity and future decision
making.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Metrics
The innovation lab charter described previously plays a
fundamental role in determining how you measure your online
innovation lab’s results and level of success.

Innovation Team
You have to carefully consider the profile of the team selected
to run your online innovation lab. Many organizations often
initially staff their lab with venture investors and those who are
oriented towards making investment decisions. This may not
be the best way to start. Those who view the lab as a venture
capital incubator will insist on ROI analysis prematurely when
the concept has not been sufficiently developed and lacks data
points. This results in potentially great ideas being tabled. This
is the opposite of what an innovation lab should accomplish.

The best initial innovation lab team members are:

Tech-savvy yet socially adept; possess the expertise
to evaluate new technologies and able to collaborate
effectively with academics, researchers, startups, partners
and other participants who are describing potentially
complex highly technical solutions
Liked and respected throughout the organization so their
recommendations receive a proper review and are vetted
and implemented by senior management and other
business leaders.

Networking and Partnering

An online innovation lab serves as a powerful platform to create
an ecosystem of relationships with people and organizations
spanning a diverse skill set such as technology, manufacturing,
consulting, marketing and human resources. The lab serves
as a networking and partnering opportunity to connect the
organization with:
Investors Customers and business
Academics, researchers and partners
incubators Employees and consultants
Startups and entrepreneurs

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

UX, Branding and Design

The best way to make an online innovation lab engaging and keeping it “alive” is to carefully select the
innovation lab portal’s UX, branding and design. Here are some ways to develop your lab’s brand:
Pick a fun name, design a simple logo and create a slogan for your online innovation lab. This branding
needs to be consistent with the company’s actual voice and values. Senior executives, primarily from
marketing and HR should be part of any innovation lab related branding and messaging decisions.
Creating your unique look and feel that mesh with the organization’s online branding and
other web properties.
Design online banners that are posted and shared on internal company portals and other online systems
to promote the innovation lab and any ongoing challenges you run.
Design, order and distribute shirts, mugs, pens, invitation cards and other promotional items to advertise
the innovation lab and any new challenges you plan to run.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Culture
Most innovation practitioners that are new to the field think of culture as an unstable, abstract concept
over which they have little control. Emphasizing things such as keep your space clear of clutter, fix broken
windows, approve of a relaxed dress code, offer coffee and snacks for all, and take it easy casual Fridays can
only do so much to make the workplace more enjoyable.

However, even the smallest change has a substantial long term impact on how people think and operate
when the change is part of a more significant theme, such as establishing a tech-powered, data-driven, social
and innovative culture. Here are some examples of innovation lab culture themes:

We Love Flat Participants in the lab cannot pull rank on each other. Managers, team leaders and
field employees receive the same treatment. Participants are differentiated based
on the role they play in the idea management process, such as contributors, idea
champions, subject matter experts, and challenge owners.

We Are Limitless No idea can ever be rejected initially with the excuse that the organization does not have
the means, time, budget or resources to even consider it.

Iterations R US If an idea is approved for experimentation, set short achievable goals. Create a
prototype, test, evaluate and repeat the same process as many times as the team
deems that it is necessary.

Vote and Evaluate All participants, every subject matter expert and idea evaluator has allocated some
time on Tuesday to discuss, vote, comment on or evaluate new or existing ideas.
Tuesday

Failure Fun Friday Popcorn and snacks are ordered to celebrate the worst failed experiments.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Processes and Best Practices

An Online Innovation Lab is intended to operate as an investment that develops actionable solutions, not just
half baked ideas. Therefore, the lab has to map out the entire innovation process, from idea generation to
evaluation, development, conceptualization, experimentation, implementation and commercialization.

Standardized Innovation lab processes and best practices include:

Defining a Good Idea Blueprint: Describe and share what a good idea looks like. This gives participants an
example to follow. Ask your Planbox advisor for a copy of the Planbox recommended Good Idea Blueprint.
Open ideation and external crowdsourcing framework, policies, business rules and rewards: Define the
procedures, business rules, and guidelines in which participants can contribute. Policies include:
Official privacy policy, confidentiality, and IP ownership agreements participants have to review
and accept before participating in any lab activity
Guidelines for rewards and recognitions that can be set up and promoted to encourage
participation
Activity planning schedule: Plan the lab’s monthly, quarterly and annual activity schedule including what
contests, brainstorming sessions, internal shark tank competitions to run, and what challenges to focus on.
Innovation lab workflow:

Idea Business Case

Research Generation Evaluation Development

Prototyping &
Implementation Funding Experimentation
Selection

Establishing the minimum necessary documented processes, policies and procedures promotes the healthy
and effective function of the lab. However, verification and enforcement should not be so strict and rigid as
to create unnecessary overhead, bureaucracy, inhibit creativity and discourage participation. Any paperwork
and agreement that is more than 2 or 3 pages long or any process that takes more than a few minutes to verify
is excessive and detrimental to an online innovation lab.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Equipment and Tools

The Software
The foundation of a successful online innovation lab is the careful selection and implementation of tools
and technologies that support how you envision the lab to look, as well as your workflows, business rules,
and methods of operation.

Key features include:

System of record for innovation management. All ideas, interactions and supporting materials and
documents are recorded in your innovation system.
Support for planning and launching online jam sessions, shark tank internal business competitions,
crowdsourcing co-creation and open innovation campaigns, innovation challenges and decision
sessions to communicate the organization’s vision.
Business rule engine configured to send notifications, award points and push and pull information for
other information sources.
Dynamic forms support and form design to iteratively add more information as the ideas are developed.

For a complete feature list, please contact Planbox to request our latest Innovation Management Software
Evaluation Guide.

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The Logistics and Hardware

To be effective, even an online virtual lab needs physical space and equipment.
The following is the minimum recommended list:

Idea kiosks: if you have a significant number of field employees

or potential participants, setting up an idea kiosk in a carefully
selected located close to their everyday commute can
substantially increase participation. This is especially useful for
initial raw idea generation.

Regular reserved conference room sessions, including

projectors, monitors, and displays: Every regional business unit
or office should schedule regular get-togethers to celebrate
failures and successes, discuss new challenges and focus areas,
and virtually collaborate with teams in other locations on a
real-time basis. These types of regularly planned activities go
a long way in advancing a culture of innovation and purpose-
driven creativity.

Regional fun innovation spaces: In addition to scheduled

events, your organization can set up a fun, inspiring innovation
room where people are free to go anytime to discuss new
ideas, virtually connect with other collaborators in an ad hoc
team setting, or to simply tune out of the daily work to focus on
a specific business problem.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Reporting, Accounting and Transparency

It’s important to carefully select the success factors you intend to measure and evaluate when reporting on
the online innovation lab investments and activities. The following is an example of an online innovation lab
summary performance report, the potential metrics and the type of information you should track and report.

While measuring and tracking costs, results and performance of your online innovation lab are a must; you
must be careful not to impede the willingness to take risks. Never squelch creativity and critical thinking.
You will not be able to show a positive ROI in the near term, especially if your online innovation lab’s charted
is tilted to favor breakthrough innovations. For example, in the sample report above, it is likely that the
investments and the resulting ROI of the initiatives that paid off are based on innovation activities that took
place months or years ago.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Can We Start with a

Temporary Innovation Lab?

An online innovation lab does not have to start as a permanently funded function. While more mature
and well-funded innovation teams make long term investments from the outset, earlier stage teams with
less backing can take incremental steps towards building and maintaining a permanent online lab as they
incrementally demonstrate how incredibly valuable and essential such an online facility can be.

The innovation team can plan a series of activities that lead up to the formation of
an online lab, such as:
Innovation jam

Shark tank business competition

Innovation contest

Market research

Plan and execute a set of continuous improvement challenges

Open innovation and external crowdsourcing

For more information on the various innovation activities and events you can plan and launch, please
contact your Planbox innovation advisor.

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 Online Innovation Lab Guide

Other Sources of Information

Innovation Management Glossary:
http://planbox.com/agile-work-innovation-management-software-glossary

Planbox Innovate support portal

https://helpdesk.planbox.com

Guide to Challenge Driven Innovation Management

https://planbox.com/resources/guide-challenge-driven-innovation-management

Ultimate Innovation Strategist’s Playbook

http://planbox.com/resources/ultimate-innovation-strategist-playbook

How to Gamify Innovation

http://planbox.com/resources/innovation-gamification-guide

Planbox Idea Contest Brochure

http://planbox.com/resources/planbox-idea-contest-management

Planbox Innovate Brochure

http://planbox.com/resources/planbox-innovation-brochure

Planbox Shark Tank Brochure

https://planbox.com/resources/shark-tank-competition

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About Planbox

Planbox is a pioneering provider of cloud-based AI-powered agile innovation software with over 20 years
of experience in the innovation management space. They have successfully completed over 400 enterprise
deployments supporting more than 5M active users spanning over 120 countries. They have helped world-
leading organizations generate well over $5B of ROI through innovation initiatives that have led to new
revenue and cost reduction opportunities using their patented technology platform. Planbox provides a
software solution to help organizations innovate consistently and experiment cost-effectively by creating an
innovation ecosystem for crowdsourcing with employees, customers, and others to help them solve business
challenges that align with their corporate strategy. Planbox offers a one-of-a-kind workflow process to
evaluate, develop, prioritize, experiment, and ultimately implement the best ideas.

To learn more, visit: www.planbox.com and unleash your innovation butterfly.

“ Innovation Central has enabled us to engage with our employees more closely to share
their knowledge. We consider it an important tool in our efforts to keep our customers
satisfied and provide an experience that keeps them coming back.”

Michelle Egger, Innovation Operations

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