eBook

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO

 ORGANIZE INNOVATION
A logical and pragmatic way to an innovative organisation.
Copywrite © 2019, Creatieve Koppen. All rights reserved
Published by Creatieve Koppen B.V. The Netherlands, Rotterdam.
ISBN: A simple guide to organize innovation — 9789082971606
Design of book: Catherine Schubiger, ACL Creative Studio
For general information about our products or services, please
contact us via our website: www.creatievekoppen.nl
First edition.
 “THIS BOOK IS MUCH
MORE THAN JUST
ANOTHER BOOK ON
INNOVATION. IT
CAPTURES THE VISION, “MINDSET IS THE
STRATEGY AND ONLY LIMITATION FOR
TOOLS FOR INNO­­VATION; INNOVATION.”
NOT FROM A Lesly Broekaart, Innovation Manager,

THEORETICAL POINT RET (Public Transport Company)

OF VIEW, BUT
BASED ON A LOT OF
EXPERIENCE.”
Peter de Haas, CEO, Breinwave
 “A FRESH LOOK AT
INNOVATION IN THEORY,
AND A HANDHOLD “MANY INNOVATION
FOR ADAPTATION IN BOOKS ARE
CONTEMPORARY ABOUT MODELS AND
PRACTICE.” REMAIN ABSTRACT.
Rault Harmeling, Innovation Director, CGI
IN THIS BOOK, INNOVA-
TION IS PUT INTO
PRACTICE THROUGH
THE MODEL. A ‘CALL
TO ACTION’.”
Marcel Wilschut, Innovation Manager,
Albert Schweitzer Hospital
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Preface  7 3.5 When is innovation successful?  33

2 Introduction  12 3.6 Business vs. innovation  36

2.1 Innovation principles  13 3.7 

What about other methods?  49

2.2 Introduction to Innovationlands  15 4 Innovation Framework  40

3 What is innovation?  18 5 Innovation Culture  44

3.1 Why innovation?  20 5.1 Roles, responsibilities, and governance  48

3.2 Definition of innovation  23 6 Innovation Strategy  53

3.3 3 types of renewal  24 6.1 Reactive and proactive innovation  56

3.4 4 types of innovation  27 7 Innovation Inbox  59

 7.1 Innovative sources for innovation ideas  62 11 EXTRA  91

7.2 Collecting problems above ideas  64 11.1 Here’s a mission for you  91

7.3 Prioritizing innovations  66 11.2 Events you can organize  93

8 Innovation Roadmap  69 11.3 Tools you can use  95

9 Innovation Execution  72 12 About us  97

9.1 Innovation Stage Process (execution)  73 13 The end the beginning  100

10 Innovation Sprints  79

10.1 Six step approach of Innovation sprints  84

10.2 Innovation Sprint Master  87

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

PREFACE

Innovation is everywhere these days. we don’t always see it. There are many or unevenly distributed throughout
Smart phones / watches, self-service levels of innovation. Innovation is not the organization. And then there are
supermarkets, drone delivery, self-­ only about delivering new products some people who think that innova-
driving cars, and beyond. Market- or services to the market, you can tion is something you can just do in
eers love to give you a glimpse into find innovation in countless other addition to your normal job, without
this new world because it’s hot. But if situations. paying attention to how the process
you’re not inno­ vative then what is is structured.
your role in this world? I wrote this book with a clear goal: to
explain how to organize innovation In the following chapters, I present a
While it’s true that I think every organ- successfully. I see a lot of organiza- simple way of organizing innovation.
ization should innovate, most organ- tions struggle with innovation. Often, A way that will help you step up your
izations are already doing it. It’s just, the definition of innovation is unclear innovation ladder. This way is simple

7
and powerful because it’s easily scal- implementations of innovation. My
able and can be used in every size team and I have also made many SHARE FEEDBACK
organization. mistakes (and solved them) and
delivered numerous successes. I
This book is especially helpful for you transformed those lessons learned
as an Innovation manager/director, into a fresh new Innovation agency
business development employee, in the Netherlands.
innovation team member, director or
CEO, manager, advisor, and anyone Based on all the experiences and
else who is curious about innovation. ­insights we’ve collected throughout
the years; my team and I are proud No organization is the exactly the
Everything I share in this book is to introduce an innovative way of same, and innovation is almost
based on proven methods and working that can help any organiza- never organized in the same way.
experiences within my innovation tion. From small to enterprise, profit But with this simple guide, I think
company as consultants, advisors, to non-profit. you can kickstart your next step
coaches and because we carry out ­innovative organization that will add
a lot of innovations within our com- Speak up! Share your thoughts and even more business value.
pany. things you like or miss in this book.
We’ll take all the additional insights
During my years as a strategic inno- and feedback we receive and update
vation advisor, I saw many different this book continuously.

8
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

“We dare you to share your greatest ideas, your biggest

challenges to help the organization reach its goals. To
come up with interesting ideas, even when nobody asked
for them. To listen to ideas, to value the time and energy
someone spent on coming up with and sharing those ideas.
To explain the idea even better if someone doesn’t under-
stand it. We dare you to go further and deeper, to never let
go, break rules, find new ways, collaborate with others, and
achieve goals that nobody ever has. We dare you to join
the innovation adventure together and respectfully fight
the common and old way of doing things. Win by doing
things differently and deliver long term and short value.”

9
As constant innovators, we get a lot When you finish it, please let us • A simple guide to organize
of requests to share our tricks of the know if you enjoyed reading this innovation (this book)
trade, finesses, and experiences. We book and would be interested in an • A simple guide to master
help a lot of organizations learn how extended version. The extended ver- Innovation Sprints
to organize innovation and facilitate sion will include even more in-depth • A simple guide to facilitate
innovation projects. We also train our and detailed information. creative sessions
clients on how to better manage/fa- • A simple guide to execute
cilitate these processes. During these innovation missions
trainings, people constantly came to DOWNLOAD
us with, “This is really interesting, INNOVATION Subscribe to our mailing list and we’ll
when are you going to write a book TOOLBOX keep you informed about innovation
about it?” and new releases.

Writing a book was, of course, the

next logical step. But we also had to SUBSCRIBE TO
follow our own advice and first get a MAILING LIST
Minimum Viable Product as soon as
possible. We wrote a lot of articles
and discussed this with our clients Be sure to check out the latest re-
and other experts. And now we’re leases of the Innovation books we
ready to take the next step: a book. have already written:

10
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION TOOLBOX
In this book we refer to some of our DOWNLOAD
existing models and canvasses. You INNOVATION
can download these tools for free in TOOLBOX
the Innovation Toolbox, along with
this book.

The models and canvasses are easy

to use, and they give you important
insights. Print out the canvases as
big as you want or edit them directly
in your favorite PDF reader. You can
also redesign these canvases and
use them in your own branding.

11
2

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is not only about cool important enabler and vital for most things start to happen, giving you
new products, gadgets, drones, block- innovation projects, the real chal- more room to invest.
chain, artificial intelligence, self-driv- lenge with innovation is to develop
ing cars, or smartwatches. If that’s Focus on reaching a series of short-
a way of working that delivers results.
your idea of innovation, then, by and long-term results, instead of try-
Part of these results include giving
reading this book, you will become you more space to be inspired.ing to eat the elephant in one bite
enlightened. Once you structure and facing defeat directly afterward.
your innovation properly, we prom- When you read this book, you will Getting the job done and delivering
begin to see the big picture and value with innovation is the new sexy.
ise that there will be plenty of time
to experiment with new gadgets how you can start to orchestrate
and tools. more successful innovations. But to
reach that point, you need to invest
Technology cannot be the goal of in the process. When you do this,
innovation. While technology is an you will notice that a lot of very cool

12
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

2.1

INNOVATION
PRINCIPLES

Innovation principles are the BALANCE BETWEEN STRUCTURE CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR
core guidelines for applying AND CREATIVITY BREAKFAST
the innovation framework, Usually, a spark of creativity kicks it’s not the strategy but the culture
and these should be used in things off. But successful Innovation within an organization that defines the
all Innovation projects. is led by structure, not creativity. In innovation success. A good ­culture
the end, an idea is responsible for combined with a solid strategy is the
1% of the solution. The other 99% is best scenario. A second-best sce-
allocated to the innovation team and nario is the organization with a good
all the investments in time, money, culture and a bad strategy. This will
and persistence of those who are deliver results anyway.
building the innovation.

13
INNOVATION IS A NUMBERS IDEA GENERATION IS SIMPLE; START SLOWLY AND KILL FAST
GAME AND PEOPLE ARE NUMBER 1 THE REAL CHALLENGE IS TO Most innovations fail because they
One idea is worthless; you need at FIND THE PROBLEM didn’t go deep enough in the first
least 300 ideas for success. Most Very few organizations have prob- stages (problem finding, solution
companies fall in love with (their lems generating ideas. The first step finding). Usually, this results in big
own) ideas and believe they save is to find the problems you want to changes later on.
time by making fast decisions. Gen- solve. Without a problem or a situa-
erating 300 ideas doesn’t take much tion to improve, the innovative idea Start slow and involve the end users.
time. Along with ideas, you also will be a finished product without If it’s too hard to validate an innova-
need lots of problems as those help value. tion, kill it.
generate many possible solutions.
Senior managers of successful inno- The most successful organizations
vative organizations know that they are convinced that finding strategic
are more successful when they ask issues and problems, and conse-
the right questions, instead of tell- quently solving them, is the best way
ing people what to do and/or how to create real business value.
to do it.

To gain the best insights possible

and get the most varied ideas, in-
volve as many people as possible in
the innovation challenges (missions).

14
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

2.2
INTRODUCTION TO
INNOVATIONLANDS
“WHAT IF EVERY
EMPLOYEE IS ON THE
LOOKOUT FOR
Time to break out the example company:
INNOVATION IDEAS?”
Innovationlands. Throughout the book,
this example of a highly innovative, albeit
fictitious, company will explain how and
why specific choices are made in an inno­
vative organization. This gives a clearer
picture about how things can be organized
in ‘reality’. Every chapter of this book
will be illustrated with an example straight
out of Innovationlands.
15
 INNOVATIONLANDS

Innovationlands is a relatively new John is the founder and CEO of and 250 work in the head office. The
theme park located in Rotterdam, ­Innovationlands. His goal is to make head office is busy managing the
the Netherlands. The theme park this theme park the biggest in the current business of the park and
opened its doors three years ago. world. Therefore, during the next ­developing the future of the theme
Contrary to traditional theme parks, five years, John wants to grow the park.
Innovationlands is focused on inno- company every year by 25% (revenue,
vative and futuristic attractions. For visitors, etc.) To accomplish this, the Mitchel joined the company last
example, there is a blind rollercoast- theme park will launch one big new year and is the head of innovation.
er set completely in the dark. Visitors innovative attraction every year. Each John asked Mitchel to lead all inno-
can put on 3D glasses and select vations within the company. The main
year, park visitors are asked to deliver
one of 10 rollercoaster themes (forest, ideas for these new attractions, problems: everyone in the company
mountain, Halloween, Christmas, etc.) along with three small attractions. was doing great things, but all in a
and experience a rollercoaster ride different way; and the success of all
on a whole new level. In another The head office of Innovationlands renewals could be higher.
room there is a simulator where is located in a futuristic tower in the
people can experience the same park itself. There are more than 800 As an ambitious company, Innova-
rollercoaster attraction… but then people working for the company. tionlands wants to grow. John be-
without the rollercoaster. 550 people work in the actual park lieves that innovation is what makes

16
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

the park unique and he wants every First step to innovation:

Every employee has the responsibility
team within the company to work in to be on the lookout for improve- After researching the organization,
the same way. Innovation (renewing ments, and the innovation team is Mitchel’s first step is to start an inno-
business models, processes, prod- responsible for helping to facilitate
vation project to innovate innova-
ucts, and new markets) should be by the process. This way, every improve-
tion. This project is such a success
design. Not just something that is ment will be defined, experimented, that he decides to repeat it every
turned on/off once a year, but a killed, or executed into success. year. Thereby taking the innovative
­continuous process. organization to the next level every
Each improvement brings with it a year.
Not every employee has to spend a better way of working and a company
large or specific amount of time on where high potentials love to work.
innovations. But every employee in Something that will definitely out-
every team should be open to mak- perform the competition in the long
ing things better, to making smart run.
decisions that are efficient and effec-
tive. Mitchel researched the issue and is
now ready to take the next step in
If some things can be improved, organizing the organization in order
­employees will get help from the in- to realize this vision on innovation.
novation team to drive the process.

17
3

WHAT IS
INNOVATION?

Most organizations think that inno- to in order to be an innovative organ- be innovative or risk your role in the
vation means coming up with the ization. world becoming less and less. The
next Spotify, Apple, or Uber in their question is; what your strategy will
market, otherwise the business won’t There are many levels on which you be and how you will execute this
survive. But that’s not the case. Sure, can be innovative. It is not a question strategy consistently to make the
those previous examples are really of being innovative, you probably necessary impact.
innovative and successful, but that’s are. It’s also not a question of wheth-
not the standard you have to live up er you should innovate. You should

18
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

As we all know, every business e ­ arns give real-life insights into whether earning money and eventually begin
its money by doing work. For exam- the addition will be sustainable and to make a profit on the addition.
ple, producing cupcakes or bikes, maintainable.
selling products through a web shop,
giving trainings, etc. But that’s just If you notice that operation people
the operations side of the business. don’t share insights or ideas, you
The focus lies on doing the work as have to focus more on developing
efficiently and effectively as possible,
an innovation culture. Innovation is
and that goes for innovations as well. not always about focusing on earn- “INNOVATION IS
ing money. Most times, innovation is
NOT A PLAYGROUND OR
Let’s say that you want to develop a about creating value for customers
new attraction for Innovationlands. and/or employees.
WELLNESS, IT‘S A GYM
Well, that’s an innovation project. WHERE YOU REACH YOUR
Imagine: ‘A new way of selling tickets Of course, an innovation project is GOALS WITH TRAINING
to customers without waiting lines’. an investment in future value, so it AND COACHING.”
will cost you time, money, resources,
You might already know what idea and attention in the interim. It’s only
you want to include, or maybe you when the innovation project is imple-
have an idea but are open for more mented successfully and embedded
options that will help you grow your in the operations of your organiza-
business. Your operations people can tion, that you will be able to start

19
3.1

WHY INNOVATION?
3.1.1
WHY DO WE NEED
TO INNOVATE?
• Economic growth • Improving employee
• Competitive advantage performance and satisfaction
• Cost-cutting • Taking advantage of
• Improving current work opportunities and/or trends
• Higher business revenue gains • Business survival
• Improving customer
performance and satisfaction

20
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

3.1.2
WHY ORGANIZATIONS
DON’T INVEST IN INNOVATION

• Bad experiences with • Focus only placed on marketing • Focus only placed on improve-
innovation. value of innovation instead of on ments (small innovations) but
• Culture is not open for ideas business value. the agenda is too full. No room
(ideas come from the top and • Fewer innovations in the for bigger innovations.
are not open). pipeline and no clear picture of • Focus only placed on big
• Nobody in senior management the total innovation projects. innovations (disruptive).
is responsible for innovation. • No overall innovation roadmap. High costs and long lead times.
• Business Strategy is not up to Responsibilities only in the No focus on the small/medium
date or is poorly developed. actual business units. innovations.
• No broader view of the market • Focus only placed on the • Lack of entrepreneurship/
and so no opportunities included enthusiasm of the few and no intrapreneurship and of people
in strategy. business strategy on innovation. who get things ‘done-done’
• Everything is going pretty well. because they believe in what
No need to improve. they’re doing.

21
3.1.3
WHY DO MOST INNOVATION
PROJECTS FAIL?

• No trust in the execution of the • No focus on the primary innova- • Too many or too few ideas.
project. tion type (strategic goal). • Continuously changing the
• There was no valid problem, • It cost too much money specs of the innovation.
or the problem was not big (no valid business case). • The innovations were executed
enough. • The goals were unattainable.
• by poorly skilled and equipped
• The innovation lead time took The result was not what the people.
too long. customers wanted/needed. • Oversized budget and/or
• The focus was only on risky • Innovation never reached resources were allocated.
innovations (disruption). done-done status.

22
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

3.2

DEFINITION OF
INNOVATION
There are many definitions for ‘inno- done-done when the new product is
vation’. Below is a new definition that fully implemented and available for
makes it crystal clear that innovation customers.
is the process of realizing something.
Innovation:
The end result must be done-done. Innovation is the process of realizing
Done-done means that the innova- new products, processes, proposi­
tion is live, it is implemented success- tions, or business models to create
fully, it can be used/bought/profited added value for customers and / or
from. For example, the web shop employees.
owner who wants to grow and is
thinking of introducing a new cate-
gory of products. The innovation is

23
3.3

3 TYPES INNOVATION

OF RENEWAL
INVENTION

IMPROVEMENT

Innovation is a part of renewal. There INVENTION Something completely new in the word.
are three types of innovation within
the domain of renewal. Check out INNOVATION Something existing in the world but new for the
this simple model: organization.

IMPROVEMENT Something existing within the organization that

needs enhancement.

24
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

It’s plain that there are many levels purpose to innovate. Innovation typi- and more expensive projects that
of renewal. The inventions level is cally takes place when you introduce require a certain way of working to
easy to recognize when you see that something new into your organiza- avoid scope creep, over budgeting,
an organization has its own research tion that is not new in the world, but solving things without a problem or
and development department. Their new to your organization or your a market, etc. And inventions require
goal is to produce new inventions, customers. It’s not an invention where greater commitment and a struc-
and some companies label those as Intellectual Property will come into tured, rock-solid way of working.
“intellectual property” (IP). Compa- play.
nies who pursue this goal spend a Another model to help you see dif-
lot of money on research and devel- Improvements are projects that en- ferent levels of innovation is the 3
opment. In turn, they earn a lot of hance the products, services, and / Horizons Model. You can match the
money by either producing their own or processes on the way. These are previous model with this one. The
goods based on the IP or through IP small, low-risk projects that only horizons tell you to focus first on the
licensing. In practice, there are also need a small investment in time and first horizon and whenever you im-
some organizations that develop money. There is almost no research prove in Innovation, you can move
­innovations that can be ‘protected’ necessary to see that an improvement up one horizon level.
with IP without knowing it. is worthwhile.
However, this book focuses on inno-
Innovation doesn’t necessarily take Typically, improvements are renewals vations. If you think that innovation
shape as a big invention. It can be, that have to be managed by the op- means building something com-
but that’s not the main reason or eration itself. Innovations are bigger pletely new that will turn the market

25
on its ear, you probably shouldn’t 3 HORIZONS MODEL
start with innovation.

Here’s how you build a culture of in-

our industry
new to
novation: first, strengthen your busi-
ness with improvements; then focus Ho
riz

MARKET & CUSTOMER NEWNESS

on innovation; finally, if you still need on
3
to improve, focus on inventions. di
sr
u

new to us

pt
The goal is not to dive straight into Hor

ive
inventions, but to improve your busi- izo

inn
n2
n

ov
ness. Keep in mind that most organ-

ati
ew
izations manage big growth in their

on
inn
business by putting their focus on Ho
inc ri

well known

ov
improvements and innovations. Sure, inn re

atio
zo ntal
ov
there are some parallels between

n1
m atio

n
e n
sales and innovation. But as a com-
pany, you don’t want to sell the big
project when you start a new busi- new to
well known new to us
ness. For a long-term business, the our industry

best way is to grow into it. TECHNOLOGY & SOLUTION NEWNESS

26
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

3.4

4 TYPES
OF INNOVATION

From a strategic point of view, an This is exactly why it’s important to How to read this model: uncover the
­innovation often has a primary focus link every innovation to one of the main reason you need to develop
and can be classified as a finance, four primary types (see page 27). this innovation. Weather you use a
process, product, or delivery innova- Understanding these types will help top down (proactive) or a bottom up
tion. Often, innovations consist of you find the correct business owner, (reactive) approach, in every situa-
one or more aspects of these classi- sponsor, team, and where to put tion, it’s imperative to define the most
fications, which makes it hard to stay your focus in relation to budget and dominant reason why you need this
focused. time. This may be one of the most innovation.
complex models to use, but it could
help you make your innovation more
successful.

27
 inside out outside in

FINANCE PROCESS PRODUCT DELIVERY

Business Product Customer

Network Structure Process Product Service Channel Brand
Model System Experience

Want to know more about the different types of innovation?

Read about it in the book ‘Ten types of innovation’ by Larry Keeley.

28
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

FINANCE
INNOVATION

INNOVATIONLANDS
This revolves around the new business viders is that you don’t pay per song.
models, ways of paying for products As a customer, you pay a subscrip-
or services, and how the network is tion to gain access to all the available
working between sup­pliers. songs.
Innovationlands is currently con-
Spotify is a great example of a finance sidering whether to forego the en-
innovation. The product is the same; trance fee and only charge visitors
everyone gets to listen to music. Yes, per attraction. Every visitor will be
the delivery is different but that’s not able to download an app onto their
phone and they can log in to each
the primary focus of this innovation.
attraction they hit. At the end of
The process of how the product is their visit they pay the best price
produced is not new either. Where available.
Spotify differs from other music pro-

29
 2

PROCESS
INNOVATION

This is all about the process of how to deliver a proposal one week after INNOVATIONLANDS
the products are made available, the sales meeting, instead of the
how they’re produced and sold, etc. usual two weeks after. They saw a
Nothing changes for the product, success rate of +10%. Then they im-
but the underlying processes, like proved on this by devising next-day
the production, are new. proposal delivery. This is a typical Visitors can buy tickets right from
example of process innovation. their phone / browser; tickets can
Here’s an example: a company that no longer be purchased at the
theme park entrance. The system is
sells large engines had an idea that
working faster, and much better
the period between the sales meet-
than buying from a ticket window.
ing and the proposal could be linked Also, this process is linked to the
to the proposal approval. So they did strategy of the park.
an experiment (innovation project)

30
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

PRODUCT
INNOVATION

Many organizations rely on product new product that you can deliver to
innovation. But most times it’s not your current market. The goal of this INNOVATIONLANDS
the product that they are updating. can be to enlarge the market share
A new value proposition without a or to keep the market share safe for
new product is not product inno­ the future.
vation. Rather, product innovation
is focused on the process of the de- When you develop a new product The attractions in the park are the
livery. for a new target group, you must product of Innovationlands. Every
­determine the innovation’s strategic year a big new attraction is launched.
This is the best way to explain what
This process is more focused on the goal. What is the most dominant
product innovation is.
marketing surrounding the product ­element? Be careful when renewing
than on the product itself. Product things, as both areas are more com-
innovation is about developing a plex and come with more risk.

31
 4 A more compact product that will fit
onto smaller vessels.
DELIVERY
INNOVATIONLANDS

INNOVATION
The process managers agree that
the process of how they produce
these new products is more impor-
This is focused on delivering your tant to focus on. But the finance One of the rules is that visitors must
product to a certain market. Also in- viewpoint zeros in on delivering the be able to visit the park live but
cluded in this kind of innovation is new engine with a subscription, so also virtually. So, the experience of
delivering your product to a new that the customers will pay a monthly both live and virtual visits has been
made possible. Now more people
channel and/or optimizing customer fee that includes service.
are attracted to and can experience
satisfaction. Innovationlands than just those who
Which category should the company are able to visit physically. As this
Here’s a good example of delivery focus on? None of them. Because rule is implemented by design, any
innovation: a big engine company from a strategic level, the goal is to new park attractions must be de-
delivers motors to large sea-going grow the business to focus on de­ veloped for visitors to experience
both live and virtually.
vessels, like carriers and cruise ships. livering products in a new channel.
The company sees that the maritime The rest of the types are linked to that
pleasure market is growing, and that decision. less important. Next to that, it will
there is room for a new product that help you focus on what to do first
they can sell in this market. The tech- This realization will help you focus and whether you’ll need to experi-
nical department can see that there on your innovation and separate the ment with your ideas in a small and
is a need for a new kind of product. important issues from those that are flexible way.
32
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

3.5

WHEN IS INNOVATION
SUCCESSFUL?

When is something done? And when In practice, you can use the term An innovation project needs a cou-
is it done-done? Innovations are ‘definition of done’. This definition ple of pivots to reach completion. A
projects with a determined start and needs to be defined before starting pivot is a big change in the project, a
end date. Some people claim that the phase. The risk of not doing this change that will better fit the busi-
innovation is an iterative process. and just going with the flow is that ness needs or the end user needs.
That is also true. Either way, you have the project will probably cost more Those pivots can occur because of
to define the phase of the project money, time, and resources. the insights you gather during the
along with when this phase is con- project.
sidered complete.

33
It’s important to acknowledge that for example, an employee, partner, est cost happens at the start of the
the innovation project isn’t done- supplier, and/or customer. innovation project (fuzzy front end).
done until the definition of done is Any investment in the first stages of
reached. One of the most important When the end user rates the result innovation is easily returned in sav-
things is to not only focus on the with an 8 or higher, innovation will ings later on in development.
business value (internal) but to also have become part of the business
stay focused on the end user value and most likely deliver value. At that The focus on getting results in the
(target group). After all, that will be point, the innovation project team way of both business and end users
the group that uses the innovation in hands the whole thing over to oper- is important to maintain, but that
the end. ations. Operations then carries out doesn’t mean that this is the only
improvements from time to time, to thing to focus on in the process. In
There are countless innovation pro- include new insights and keep the the end, the innovation is meant to
jects that were completed but are innovation ‘fresh’. create value because the end user is
not yet returning value. This is be- satisfied with it. Frequently, the end
cause the end user was not involved Most innovations that cost a lot of user is not unsatisfied in the begin-
at all or in a too late stadium. In most time and money lose out in the ning or knows what the solution must
of those cases, the development ­development phase. That is largely look like. But getting to know the
was done but the end user wasn’t due to major changes in that phase end user and involving this group
satisfied. To avoid this predicament, and/or end users who are not satis- will help you get a successful result.
it’s important to focus on the end fied with the result. The most visible
user right from the start. This can be, effect on the end result with the low-

34
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

In the business of organizing innova- If you’re more experienced in man- It all depends on your own defini-
tion, the innovation success rate (ISR) aging innovations, you can go even tion, but most organizations have a
often comes into play. This is a per- deeper. Then you can measure the success rate of 1-5%. When you exe-
centage with the following formula: innovation value; you calculate the cute a clear innovation system, you
value that represents the innovation could achieve a success rate between
C
ISR = *100 in 3 to 5 years and then link that value 10-20% or even higher.
S
to the total costs of the innovation:

V
ISR = * 100
T

Legenda:

ISR = Innovation success ratio

C = Completed innovation projects

S = Started innovation projects

V = Created innovation value

T = Total investment of innovation

35
3.6

BUSINESS VS.
INNOVATION

Many organizations struggle between Innovation costs money until that in- It’s smart to keep track of innovations
business and innovation. Business is novation is successfully implemented and the value they represent. For
where organizations earn their money and becomes part of the business. ­example, take the value (revenue or
or value and innovation is the part Only then will it return value. But not profit) three to five years after imple-
that will cost them money. A combi- all innovations have to earn money. mentation and place that beside the
nation that seems almost impossible. An innovation can also reduce costs, total cost of Innovation.
or it can help other parts of the busi-
ness grow.

36
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

BUSINESS
BUSINESSVS.
VS.INNOVATION
INNOVATION

SUCCESS &
BUSINESS INNOVATION CONTINUITY

The struggle of every Innovation needs investment Every successful organization

organization is to efficiently in time and money. And has a clear process and plan
organize innovation within or when successfully developed, to grow the business with
next to the business. it becomes part of the innovation.
business, and will continually
create business value.

37
Typically, organizations that find a Most organizations decide to place vation a year. Therefore, every or-
good balance between innovation innovation totally outside the busi- ganization needs to invest in a way
and business will be more successful ness. This way, it can become easier of working that delivers long term
than others. to build new innovations. But the value, not just short-term gratifica-
downfall comes in the handover to tion.
The most likely reason why it is so the business. Therefore, it’s almost
difficult for most organizations to always smarter to innovate within Sure, this is all easier said than done.
­innovate is because of the difference the organization and have a clear But if you also believe this is the way
between (daily) Business and Inno- process with clear rules, roles, and to go, read on and use what you learn
vation. The success of the business responsibilities. to create that innovative organiza-
is to keep the engine running effi- tion and long term and short-term
ciently and effectively. The fewer in- Innovation experts facilitate the inno- innovation success!
terruptions of the running engine, vation process and manage to create
the better. The success of innovation teams that realize innovation success
is the opposite of business. Success with innovators, business people, and
depends on doing things differently. stakeholders. The goal is to create
So, typically, if creatives are mixed an innovative organization with an
up in the productivity process, the innovation culture.
effectiveness of the business could
suffer. It’s not about creating one successful
‘lucky shot’ innovation or one inno-

38
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

3.7

WHAT ABOUT OTHER

METHODS?

Many best practices and methodol- This book will help you coordinate
ogies are used to execute innova- innovation better and bring your
tions and to better execute the inno- ­innovation organization to the fore-
vation way of working within an front. See it as a how-to guide that
organization. The approach laid out can help any organization learn to
in this book is based on a collection innovate logically and successfully.
of proven best practices, best models,
and methodologies in the market.
Those have been combined with real-­
life experiences and new ways of or-
ganization.

39
4

INNOVATION FRAMEWORK
The Innovation Management Frame- Innovation is not about creativity solve the biggest problems, instead
work shows how you can implement alone. And guiding the innovation of running around doing a lot of busy
a sustainable innovation system, or process isn’t the role of the crea- work without getting concrete busi-
innovation engine, within your organ- tives. It’s down to the innovation ness value. For example, we always
ization. This Innovation framework manager to decide what kinds of hear ideas about building an app for
also defines the structure of the rest­innovations need attention. We use the organization. Most people think
of this book. the term ‘innovation manager’ for this is really a cool project to do. But
many innovation roles; for example, typically, there is either no need for
It’s important to be clear about who business development manager. Fur- the innovation at all or no valid busi-
will manage the entire innovation ther on in the book, we will explain ness case.
process. Who will be responsible, the various roles more in detail.
and which important stakeholders An app is a solution, and people for-
will actually implement the result of There are plenty of ideas lurking in get to think about the problem they
the innovation(s). every organization. The real challenge are solving. So they are introducing
is to ask the right questions and a solution and not solving a problem.

40
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

There are a lot of examples of apps INNOVATION FRAMEWORK

that organizations created that didn’t
work out or just didn’t get used by
the end users.
BUSINESS STRATEGY

Always think twice before putting a

INNOVATION STRATEGY
creative person in charge of an inno-
vation team. That person will start a
lot of cool innovations, but not nec- EXTERNAL
CUSTOMERS TRENDS EMPLOYEES
INTERNAL
essarily bring them to the finish line.
PARTNERS STRATEGIC ISSUES

Successful organizations have a clear

EVALUATION INSPIRATION

SCOUTS

system of innovation: the Innovation

INNOVATION INBOX INNOVATION
Engine. This engine is fueled by in- MANAGER

novation ideas and / or problems.

INNOVATION ROADMAP
The Innovation Inbox is the filter;
­after taking in all the information, the INNOVATION TEAM INNOVATION BOARD

inbox (managed by the Innovation

INNOVATION FUZZY FRONT END INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT

manager) determines which innova- 1.

PROBLEM
2.
SOLUTION
3.
EXPERIMENT
4.
BUSINESS
5.
DEVELOPMENT
6.
DELIVERY

tion ideas are the best to execute as

FINDING FINDING PLAN

an innovation project. When the deci-

41
sion is made to execute an innova- but the bigger the organization the Innovation scouts will help define
tion, the information is placed in themore active inboxes there will be. every piece of input from the inbox
Innovation roadmap that tells when For example, if your organization has and then validate that input for the
the innovation will be executed. multiple departments, you can have system. The app is a solution. Could
one innovation inbox per depart- be that customers are not satisfied.
When starting an innovation project ment. Maybe they find it difficult to get in
there are three important things to contact with experts within your
consider: who is in the innovation The Inbox is managed by an Inno­ ­organization. Or maybe there is no
team; what is the plan of execution, vation manager. Typically, an inbox problem at all, someone just really
which is decided during a kick-off contains ideas and not final plans. wants to build an app.
meeting with the business owner For example, “We have an idea for
and the innovation team; and who is launching an app for our customers.”
accountable (who do you inform and However exciting the initial thought,
when, and who will give the team this is an idea not a solution.
permission to go further).
To take this seriously, we first dive
The Innovation Inbox is the central into the situation and explore the
point of the Innovation Framework. real problem; find out why this app
The inbox receives all the executa- is necessary.
ble input of interesting innovations.
Small organizations have one inbox,

42
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATIONLANDS

When Mitchel started in the company, which anyone could write down the big- Since nurturing this culture, Mitchel can
ideas came from every direction. It frus- gest issues within a team or the latest now let each team to take over for them-
trated him because some ideas were ideas. Mitchel then collected the ideas/ selves. To be the innovation scout or, if
very good, but still too raw. Because issues once a week and had them cop- the team is big enough, to be the inno-
those raw ideas were not very well pack- ied into an Excel sheet. vation manager of a department to fa-
aged, management could not see the cilitate the growing system for ideas and
potential. Sometimes Mitchel shuffled the boards problems.
from one coffee corner to another and
Not many people in the company man- asked other teams to help out with the By doing this, Mitchel can review the
aged to get their ideas to the people in ideas. Then he gave that feedback back system and link various teams to each
charge. And not that many managers to the original team. other that have similar problems / ideas.
were open to innovations that were out- Innovations that need to be executed
side the team scope. While Mitchel was experimenting with into a solution are facilitated by Mitchel.
how to bring problems and ideas out And he keeps a library of successes, fail-
The first success for Mitchel was placing into the open, he was also instilling inter- ures, and lessons learned.
an ‘Innovation whiteboard’ in every cof- action between the teams. He was build-
fee corner throughout the company, on ing a culture of innovation.

43
5

INNOVATION
CULTURE “CULTURE EATS
STRATEGY
FOR BREAKFAST”

Innovation Culture is not the easiest

say, “This will never work in our or- The responsibility (or even account-
ganization.” Throughout the years,
thing in the world to understand. It’s ability) for culture lies at the top of
many organizations have struggled
the soft side of the organization, and an organization. Directors and man-
initially with innovation. Culture re-
there are typically too many varia- agement make the most import
bles to understand and master. fers to the beliefs and behaviors ­decisions to influence from the top
that determine  how  a company's down. What people will be hired,
Organizations can do much more employees and management in- what are the core values, what will
than they think. Sometimes people teract and handle. be rewarded, what needs to change,

44
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

and what is good enough. Culture is class of managers and leaders. Try to stand your ground. Reward
built out of the “average” of the em- Those leaders that still believe that good behavior and reaffirm the goal
ployees, and even the customers, innovation is only a top-level con- you have when situations go wrong.
but it’s defined by and is the respon- cern. The top decides what to do Typically, one of the major influencers
sibility of the top layer of the organi-and how to do it. That’s fine, if you’re in innovation is the management.
zation. a small company. But larger organi- If they don’t understand innovation
zations need people, systems, and or what value it holds for the organi-
We see that the most important pillar tools to grow even faster. zation, they will kill the innovation.
of building an innovation culture is Often times, unconsciously.
taking innovation seriously. If some- As one of the decision makers, it’s
one is responsible for innovation, important to define the culture you Management doesn’t want distrac-
that person can make a difference. want. This depends on the current tions or too many changes. And most
Managing innovation in an organiza- active culture. After the definition isof them have KPIs that are focused
tion of 100 people can be a full-time determined, you build a plan to grow on output and value. Focusing pri-
job. Innovation will help in areas like from the current situation to the fu-
marily on the KPIs puts management
getting the strategy in place, helping ture culture. Getting the results you
under significant pressure. What do
every department reach their growth want? Execute the plan and keep you think the reaction will be to an
goals, etc. measuring. employee sharing a raw idea that
he/she has about an innovation
Innovation’s biggest struggle, howev- Hold on to the things you agreed on. that, at the heart of it, will cost money
er, is the more hierarchically oriented You will be challenged constantly. and time?

45
The solution here is that everyone Take an organization that needs to the best possible way when the fu-
must be aware that innovation is im- make a big change, for example. If ture pleasure is twice the current pain.
portant and what innovation can do this change can only be done when
for the business. At the top of the or- the current way of working will not Focus on solving problems, but also
ganization, it must be set as a priority get interrupted, then you can choose on rewards and gamification systems.
to build and hold the innovation cul- to carry out innovations separately. So, what is the reward when we exe-
ture. You don’t build a culture by just Maybe even in another office build- cute three successful innovations in
planning an innovative project. Inno- ing and with different people. a year? Maybe you can turn it upside
vation culture focuses continuously down: what is the reward for killing
on the main goal and on executing Still, it will always be the long-term three innovations per quarter (yes, it
and steering the process. goal to have an innovation culture. is necessary to focus on the best in-
One where the current way of work- novations). Make it interesting and
Of course, building an innovation ing is linked to the new ways. A con- inspiring and people will get the job
culture is the main goal. But some- tinuous loop of innovation. done!
times this seems almost impossible
to do. You have to adjust your strategy Be wary not to focus only on Inno­ A clear governance of the Inno­
to make choices for the short time to vation KPIs or on structure and pro- vation system helps in generating
do innovation outside the current cesses. Innovation is also fun. The internal and external ideas. But more
business. best way to change the organization importantly, that governance will
is to focus on the pleasure of it all. help in getting innovation into exe-
People are motivated/stimulated in cution mode. For a solid execution

46
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

you need budget, time, attention, the first real disappointing innovation We dare you to share your greatest
and resources. is killed. ideas, your biggest challenges to
help the organization reach its
Sometimes innovation projects have Within innovation, there is a rule that goals. To come up with interesting
their own budget, while other organ- states that the best ideas come when ideas, even when nobody asked
izations are always funded by the the issue/problem is big enough. for them. To listen to ideas, to value
business owner (problem owner). Problems make up the core of inno- the time and energy someone
Sometimes these elements are com- vations that really matter. Most peo- spent on coming up with and shar-
bined. The rules about when and how ple have better ideas when they’re ing those ideas. To explain the idea
to configure the budget, however, solving a problem than when they even better if someone doesn’t un-
are different in every organization. just come up with a good opportunity. derstand it. We dare you to go fur-
ther and deeper, to never let go,
Perhaps the most important thing If your organization is structured well break rules, find new ways, collab-
for a healthy innovation culture? Em- enough, the most probable oppor- orate with others, and achieve
bracing ideas and problems. Ideas tunities are nice and full of inspira- goals that nobody ever has. We
are good and always worth looking tion. However, most opportunities dare you to join the innovation ad-
into. Don’t judge a book by its cover. are not as valuable as solving cases venture together and respectfully
A culture that dictates that mistakes based on the strategy of the organi- fight the common and old way of
cannot be made is one of the big- zation. doing things. Win by doing things
gest challenges to change. Every- differently and deliver long term
body says that this is possible, until and short value.

47
5.1

ROLES,
RESPONSEBILITIES,
AND GOVERNANCE
There are important roles in the in- can be appointed to other ‘functions’.
ter, we share our experience on how
novation system. Some organizations to organize innovation from the For example, the general manager
try to embed innovation in the busi- perspective of a small, medium, orcan also fulfill the role of Innovation
ness lines, while others set up an in- large organization. director. A product manager can
novation team to focus on innova- perform the role of Innovation man-
It is important to realize that these ager, etc. Be aware of contradicting
tions. Still other organizations set up
a more hybrid way of working. roles and responsibilities need to interests when assigning these roles.
be present in an organization to
Good news: there is no one best way reach innovation success. However, Keep in mind that most directors,
to organize innovation. In this chap- in smaller organizations these roles managers, etc. need to focus on the

48
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

ROLE DESCRIPTION SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

INNOVATION
DIRECTOR
Part of the board of the organization or someone who reports to one
of the board members who is responsible for innovation. This person
– +/– +
(BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT puts together the innovation framework and the innovation team
DIRECTOR)
and manages the process of innovation.

– +/–
INNOVATION A group that mandates the operations/business or are the directors/
BOARD managers of the departments or divisions itself. This board can be +
(INNOVATION COUNCIL) very handy when you want help from the business (or your sponsors)
in making the best decisions. When the strategy and budget are in
place, the Innovation Board can decide which innovations to start/
end and check if innovations are headed in the right direction.

INNOVATION This manager is responsible for one of the domains of innovation. In

MANAGER large organizations, this person reports to the Innovation Director. In
+ + +
(BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT small and medium size organizations, this person is responsible for
MANAGER)
all the innovations and for managing the innovation inbox.

INNOVATION TEAM The team of people who work full time or part time in the Innovation
(BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Team. The people in this team can scout for new innovation ideas, + + +
TEAM)
manage innovation sources, and help evolve ideas (problem finding,
case building) into ready-to-execute innovation projects.

INNOVATION SPRINT Trained experts who facilitate the process of innovation projects.
MASTER This can be the project leader, but not necessarily. + + +

Legenda:   – no need   + / – optional   + necessary

49
operations side of the work. Mean- ping wood but forgot to sharpen his be more effective and efficient, you
ing, they need to keep the produc- ax. He had no time to sharpen his become more productive.
tion engine (real engine or people) ax because he had to finish the job
working well. The worst thing that before dawn. An interesting thought is that the
can happen is that the work gets in- ­innovation team in your organization
terrupted by innovation. This is the Some people need to sharpen their can work 20% or even 40% of the
worst thing and it happens in almost ax more often to get the job done. time on innovation projects. But be
every organization. Other people need to sharpen their aware: innovation is not suitable for
ax less and have to focus on doing everyone, so be sure to have the right
Interruptions can include, for exam- the actual work to finish the job. In- competences in place to execute in-
ple, taking more people from their novation is not only about doing novation projects successfully.
existing projects to work on the inno­ things that inspire. When it comes
vation, therefore causing slow-down down to it, results matter. Inspiration As an Innovation director or Innova-
or failure of projects. Another cog in is a part of the process that helps in tion manager you need a strong
the works can be people continu- finding new opportunities to inno- team that will scout innovation ideas,
ously voicing their ‘better ideas’ about vate. It is not the end goal. evolve them, and eventually also be
how to get the job done. able to execute innovations.
Productivity is roughly calculated by
Ever heard the story about the wood- dividing the result by the offers (in
cutter? He spent a lot of energy chop- time and money). So, if you strive to

50
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

Some companies try to combine in reality, employees struggled with To execute innovation successful, you
these two ways of working. For ex- the rule; some reviews revealed that need a clear process and a work-
ample. Google once introduced the it was unclear what the performance force. You also need a culture of inno-
‘20% rule’. This was a way to innovate was for the other 20% of the time. vation. Not everyone wants to join
the organization by giving every em- And for others it was seen as more this workforce and as an Innovation
ployee the space they needed to of a 120% rule then a 20% rule. Manager you also don't want every-
work on projects and experiments one in the team.
Nowadays only 10% of employees
they liked. This solution was an inno-
vation in itself and focused on theat Google work with the 20% rule. You need the whole organization to
operational aspect. But Google hasn’t admitted defeat, be on the lookout for interesting
because when one of the 20% ideas innovation ideas. You need a clear
Managers know that they can only is successful, it becomes a project process to filter out innovation ideas
get 80% work time from their em- that is worked on within the 80% and a trained innovation team to ex-
ployees and that overworking their timeframe. ecute innovation projects together
employees isn’t allowed. However, with the business.

51
 INNOVATIONLANDS

Mitchel is the Innovation manager of Currently, every department has its own I­nnovation Board. Mitchel updates the
­Innovationlands. John, the CEO, is the Innovation scout. This person is in direct board with innovations within the com-
Innovation director. When the time is contact with Mitchel. Mitchel takes care pany. All of the innovations are executed
right, Mitchel will become the Innova- of training and updates from other de- within the business units.
tion director, but the maturity level of partments. Once a month all Innovation
innovation within the company has not scouts meet each other to learn and im- In the next Innovation Board meeting,
yet reached that point. prove how innovation is working within John and Mitchel will bring forward the
the company. Michel leads these meet- fact that Mitchel will be getting extra
When every department has their own ings. help in his innovation team to better ex-
Innovation manager in place, that will ecute the innovations; there are two
probably be the time to reshuffle the The business unit managers meet once vacancies open. This small group will
roles and responsivities. As CEO, John a month, and Innovation is one of the make up the innovation team, and they
can make decisions based on the things standard items on the agenda. John is will help business units to speed up the
he wants; he puts focus on innovation in charge of these meetings, from a innovation process (Innovation Sprint
when it is needed. management as well as from an innova- Masters) and execute innovations across
tion point of view. During this meeting the business units.
all business unit managers are in the

52
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION
STRATEGY
The most important goals and exe- One of the best ways to innovate is If the innovation team is continuously
cution roadmap for innovations are to focus both on the strategic prob- reacting to a diverse set of ideas
determined based on the organiza- lems (top down) and on the oppor- coming from different sources, you
tional strategy and through careful tunities (bottom up). We call these probably need major optimization.
re­search. After researching thorough- proactive and reactive innovations. This is called ‘reactive innovation’.
ly, you can develop an Innovation Proactive means asking the right The other side of that is ‘proactive
Strategy and summarize it in an questions to the target groups you innovation’. With reactive innovation,
­Inno­vation Strategy Canvas (inno­ want to include. Reactive is more organizations react to innovation
vation toolbox). about plucking ideas out of thin air. ideas. With proactive innovations,

53
the business strategy is focused on Build a show case and use it as a big risk in starting to do something
solving the most important strategic dangling carrot in front of the horse. without a clear goal. A lot of innova-
goals/issues. But it may not be the end of an inno- tion projects have been killed over
vation process. Successful organiza- the years because there was no case
For example; as an innovation team, tions focus on allocating time and to solve.
do you receive many ideas from budget for proactive and reactive
suppliers, customers, and/or tech innovations. For example; allocate a Sometimes a new idea is born with-
innovators form outside the organi- percentage of the total budget for out a problem. Even then, reverse
zation? Then perhaps you should gathering inspiration and doing re- engineer this and find the problem
really focus on the core goals of search on those shiny, new trends. within the opportunity. This will help
innovation. What do you want to These inspiration projects could you ‘sell’ the story/innovation. Based
achieve? In the end, you want to also achieve great business value, on your business strategy, you al-
achieve business value, and not just but you need to find a really solid ready know what strategic problems
by doing cool projects with VR, AR, case for that to happen. you need to solve. Try to ask the cor-
Apps, robots, etc. Sure, go ahead rect questions and open yourself up
and create those kinds of innova- We see that most organizations fo- to people who offer concrete ideas
tions, but never lose focus on what cus on executing ideas into results, that will solve those problems. Both
really delivers the most value for the instead of finding the right prob- focus and budget should always be
business. lems to solve and generating nu- available for things that really matter
merous ideas about how to solve on a strategic level.
them. By doing this, people take a

54
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

Every year an organization’s strategy the organization what to do and how strategy all the way back. Therefore,
is updated to achieve the short-term to do it. Today’s successful compa- in the framework, both parts are
goals, which help achieve the long- nies, however, are more visual and connected. This is another value that
term goals in the end. Efficient organ- explain what they want to achieve is created in an innovative organiza-
izations already have this long-term and why they want to achieve it. tion. Always be sure to include these
and short-term (one to three years) Their job is to manage the organiza- insights in the rhythm of communi-
strategy in place. Once you have tion, set the long- and short-term cation and information.
these in place, you can link the inno- goals, and create a culture where
vation framework to the business ­experts help to come up with ideas
strategy. and proposals to reach these goals.
TIP

For example; when one of the major Always carve out the innovation
Look at the Innovation
goals of the strategy is to grow the framework with the Board. With some­
Strategy Canvas in
business by 25% in the upcoming body who has the highest responsi-
the Innovation Toolbox.
three years, from an innovation per- bility of innovation in combination
spective, it’s logical to facilitate the with the Innovation director and/or
process to achieve these goals rather Innovation manager, for example.
than focus on other results.
When you are getting insights in­
In traditional organizations, the lead- the Innovation way of working you
ers think it’s their responsibility to tell definitely can influence the business

55
6.1

REACTIVE AND
PROACTIVE INNOVATION

Let’s say you receive an interesting In practice, most organizations fill the All organizations need to focus first
idea from a customer. That’s called innovation boxes and their roadmap on proactive innovations and then
reactive innovation. When you ask with reactive innovation. To be more on reactive innovations. When the
customers to think with you to gen- successful in innovation you need strategy is clear and there are some
erate ideas for new products, that’s money, time, resources, and atten- strategic issues (development goals),
called proactive innovation. Both are tion form senior management to get the best way to be efficient and ef-
good ways to start an innovation. the job done. fective with innovation is to look for
innovations within those domains.

56
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

Of course, you cannot predict every­ The most successful organizations Broad: “What new innovative prod­
thing in your strategy so the combi- ask, top down, the right questions. uct can you come up with?”
nation between proactive and reac- They know that good innovations
tive is the best solution to keep you come from all over; both inside and Focused: ”We need to grow to in­
open for anything. Focus most of outside the organization. clude more corporate customers.
your time and money on proactive Based on the data we have, what
innovation and you will create more When the question is too big or too ideas for new products can you
business value in the end. Build an broad, organizations get fewer ideas generate to attract corporate cus­
excellent strategy and ask for ideas to work with. In those instances, tomers like Company X?”
(problems) to solve the strategic success­ful organizations prefer ques-
issues you see. tions that are more focused on solv-
ing something.

57
 INNOVATIONLANDS

In a one-on-one meeting between John When organizations are growing, strategy • 

Inventions — One or two projects
and Mitchel, Michel presents the inno- becomes increasingly important. Mitchel that have high success revenue, but
vation results and proposes to take the is now working on a strategy and a also come with higher risk.
next step. budget plan where he allocates parts­
of the budget for specific kinds of inno- • 
Innovation Projects — New attractions,
“I’m currently doing a lot of research vation: solution for waiting lines, new busi-
and implementing some small improve- ness models and new markets.
ments. I want to take the next step and • Inspiration projects — Projects with-
start the coming year with a clear strategy, out a clear goal but necessary to • Budget to continuously improve the
just as with any other business unit. ­inspire the organization, based on innovation way of working within the
trends and future market develop- company.
The innovation team is growing. There ment.
are now two to three people working on • Budget for communication market-
innovation full time, and we need some • Improvement projects — Projects to ing and for events to build an inno-
clear goals to maintain our focus on the redefine the current way of working. vative organization internally and
highest priorities for the organization.” externally.

58
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION
INBOX
The Innovation Inbox is an box where this is. You also need to ensure the problems will be worked out in an
all Innovation Ideas are stored. The problem owner in your organization innovation project. Sometimes the
input comes from all different kind is committed to being part of the Innovation manager decides this
of sources. Here Innovation ideas will project team. with the Innovation Board, which in-
be screened, optimized, killed or cludes important stakeholders who
send to the next phase: Roadmap. The Innovation Inbox is a library that can help create the best environment
Before starting your project, be sure houses all the ideas and problems for success.
you understand what problem you’re received from many sources. The In-
going to solve and whose problem novation manager will decide which

59
 “SUCCESSFUL
ORGANIZATIONS HAVE
A CLEAR SYSTEM
OF INNOVATION”

Based on the strategy and all the in- As an organization/team, you want Most times, only ideas are used
ternal and external resources, ideas to innovate problems and/or chal- here. And most organizations decide
and problems are identified that con- lenges. Be aware that you deliver based on a few ideas and move
tribute to the achievement of the the highest added value by solving right away to the business cases,
strategic goals. There is a healthy a problem, instead of selling an idea without first creating a clear prob-
­relationship between proactive (top that is not yet a problem for the cus- lem definition. Be careful not to take
down and inside out) and reactive tomer or internal organization. any short cuts here. If you do, your
(bottom up and outside in). You can business case might fail, or the result
use both the problems and ideas in might come in at too high a cost or
this phase. turnaround time.

60
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATIONLANDS

Based on the strategy, one of the ideas data of movement with marketing
came into the inbox and was titled: data. The two systems are not integrated
TIP ­Increase the price of all tickets by 1%. with each other. This problem is easy
This idea came out of the question to fix and is not an issue for the success
Use the canvasses about how to grow by 25% next year. for this innovation.
and models in the
The idea is simple to execute but has The problem here that needs to be
Innovation Toolbox to many dependencies. For example, if fixed is to see whether this approach
facilitate this process. the price is raised by 1%, this could will increase the amount of return visi-
­affect the number of victors that come tors. Is it true that if people are targeted
to the park. based on their movements, they will
increase their return visits to the park?
Another idea was to better target cus-
tomers to revisit the park by tracking The question for this innovation pro-
their movements throughout the park. ject is to come up with three possible
If this idea is placed in the roadmap, strategies to experiment with. Not by
the first thing that needs to be done is integrating the systems but by analyz-
to find the real problem for this innova- ing the system and building three
tion. The problem is that Innovation- strategies to test. If it works, they will
lands is currently not connecting the start integrating the systems.

61
7.1

INNOVATIVE
SOURCES FOR
INNOVATION IDEAS

When the Innovation Strategy is set, To be clear, you need many possible Both are called ideas, but both have
it’s time to collect innovation ideas innovation ideas to fill the innova- another goal. The first one we call
for the innovation roadmap. Those tion inbox and the roadmap. Then ‘innovation ideas’, the goal being to
ideas are different than ideas for when you start executing an innova- find as many possible innovations to
solutions (in execution an innovation). tion project, you need a clear (in- execute in an innovation project. The
Still, most people think both ideas depth) definition of the problem and second one we call ‘solution ideas’
are the same. hundreds of possible ideas to solve and those serve to generate as many
this problem. ideas as possible to solve one prob-
lem.
62
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

There are all kinds of sources and

channels available, and you can see
which of those are worthy to put into
an innovation project. Innovation
Weekly meetings / Digitally or
ideas can come from employees,
project meetings / real-life events
problems, or ideas from inside and/
or outside your organization. By man- scrum meetings
aging these sources correctly, you’ll
receive many innovation ideas and
problems that need to be solved
Research /
and executed into results that ulti-
trends /
mately have business value.
Idea box, idea opportunities
A couple of innovation resources Best idea management
where you can find ideas: events / platform
innovation
events

Round table
sessions with
Employee / customers /
customer / employees
63
supplier reviews
7.2

COLLECTING PROBLEMS
ABOVE IDEAS

Successful organizations need both can invest in a better gear system. tra things. If you want to grow the
problems and ideas. If you have a But if your engine is not running customer satisfaction rate from 7.5
culture that defines a problem as smoothly, even with improvements to 8.5, you can invest in new prod-
something you don’t talk about, you outside the core, you will not fulfillucts and services. Or, you can first
should work on that. Problems are the potential success. find the causes of the current situa-
essential for growth. If you see your tion and, based on that, optimize the
organization as a machine and you You have to first define what you can way of working and optionally invest
want to speed up the vehicle, you solve before you invest in new or ex- in net products and services.

64
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

In the innovation process, many should be offered in your web shop. generating ideas for those than the
­organizations focus on shiny new If the problem and the potential are other way around. When you as-
things rather than digging out the big enough, starting up an innova- sume the problem is what you first
things that really matter. Because tion project will be to your benefit. hear, you could end up treating a
when you share an idea, and some- symptom instead of solving the real
one is enthusiastic about it, you ex- Within the innovation project, start problem. Frequently, the problem
pect to execute that idea as you with the initial problem finding, solu- that is pointed out in the first place is
pitched it. But that’s not always the tion finding, and concepting. Within not the real problem that is solved
best way to go about it. a short period of time, you’ll see later on.
whether the business case for the
The goal is to collect problems that ­innovation is strong enough to exe- “Idea generation is simple. The real
clients or employees have in the cute the project. challenge is to find strategic issues
­interest of getting the best results. to solve and create business value.”
Here’s a good example; you have to We believe that there are more solu-
keep an eye on customer satisfaction, tions than problems. Ideas are not
otherwise your customers will go to the problem. It’s better to focus on
another web shop for what they think finding the right problems to fix and

65
7.3

PRIOTIZING
INNOVATIONS

To avoid investing a lot of time in owner, a rough estimate of invest- Model can help you to prioritize the
making advanced business cases per ment, and a rough estimate of the best options. How? Ask your team
innovation, there are other methods impact on the organization or busi- and/or stakeholders to rate every
to help you decide what innovation ness unit goals. idea with the expected investment
to start with. and impact.
One of the decision models availa-
The most important thing is to have ble is the Innovation Impact Model. An easy way to rate these is to use
all the necessary metadata of inno- When your Inbox is bursting with lots three options: low, medium, or high.
vation. Think about category, strate- of innovation ideas or during Solu-
gic domain, business unit, business tion Finding, the Innovation Impact

66
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION IMPACT MODEL

INNOVATION IMPACT MODEL

i
i
HIGH

Just do it
i
i Optimize it
i

Don’t do it
IMPACT

i i
MEDIUM

i
i
i

i
i
LOW

LOW MEDIUM HIGH

INVESTMENT

67 Version 2.0 Organize and realize successful innovations CREATIEVEKOPPEN.NL

Innovations in the top left part of the Don’t bother to start with innova-
model are in the sweat spot, be- tions in the red corner. Those inno-
TIP
cause those ideas have a high impact vations might need time to develop.
with a low investment. But watch out, Could be, in time, when the tech- You can use Innovation
these innovations are often not the nique is better or cheaper, that these Management software
most spectacular innovations. These innovations might move up in the like Accept Mission to
are typically the ideas that go around model. generate, score and
for a long time, are being carried out review innovations with
by other companies currently, or they small to very large
are just plain small. Still, understand groups. You can use
that these ideas are a perfect start functions like advanced
from a business perspective. You reviewing (innovation
can source points by doing this and board) or let employees
invest and learn in the process of in- go undercover to
novation. brainstorm time, place
and function inde­
If you have ideas in the middle part pendent.
(orange), you can discuss how you
can move them to the top left part;
for example, by changing the scope
or the solution to make them smaller
or with a higher impact.
68
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION
ROADMAP
When innovation ideas (potential completion wish date. This enables Periodically, the innovation roadmap
innovation projects) are sent to the you to plot your potential innova- is integrated into the overall project
inbox, you need to carry out a first tions on the innovation roadmap in and program roadmap of an organi-
analysis/validation on strategic fit, time, size and, priority. zation. A decision is made for every
potential value for the organization new initiative as to whether that initi-
(high level estimate), expected costs The next step is to make a decision: ative will gain a place on the project
(very high-level estimate), expected execute, kill, pause, or refine the in- roadmap. The roadmap gives insight
duration to complete (very high-level novation. into the planning for the upcoming
estimate), estimated priority, and months, quarters, and even years.

69
Most companies work with an 18-month dating the innovation roadmap. when you want to initiate the innova-
(rolling) roadmap. tion board, when to build the Inno-
Those in the senior management vation strategy, when you want to
The decision to execute, kill, pause, level of an organization (e.g. Innova- organize an internal innovation event,
or refine the innovation can be based tion Board) are accountable for the etc. You can choose to integrate this
on further investigation (e.g. in an in- project and program roadmap. The roadmap with the projects roadmap
novation sprint) or based on priority Innovation director is responsible for or just build a whole other roadmap.
and strategic fit. Potential innovations maintaining and updating the pro-
are now part of the project and pro- ject and program roadmap based
gram roadmap of the organization. on the input from the innovation
roadmap and periodic alignment
When the project’s start date (based with stakeholders (internal, e.g. de-
on expected duration to complete partments; external, e.g. suppliers).
and completion wish date) is due, an
innovation sprint is started to further The innovation roadmap can also
elaborate/define the innovation. be used to add activities on how to
develop the innovative organization
The innovation roadmap is the re- itself. In this case, you implement
sponsibility of the Innovation direc- small projects which will develop
tor, and his/her Innovation team is your innovative organization. For
responsible for maintaining and up- ­ example, when you train people,

70
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATIONLANDS

Every month, Mitchel discusses the In- Some projects in the roadmap are con- members who make up the most impor-
novation roadmap with both his innova- nected to each other. For example, the tant business unit(s) are on the Innova-
tion team and the Innovation Board. Innovation ‘Data Integration between tion board.
With each month that shows progress, business units’ is necessary to complete
the roadmap is updated. Mitchel likes before the innovation of Dashboards Dependencies are not a problem when
to do the updates with his team, so can start. Also, projects in the rest of the there is communication. Most commu-
everyone is aware of the progress and company are linked to the Innovation nication challenges can be overcome
the changes everyone is making. roadmap. by implementing rhythm in the meet-
ings. For example, every week, every
At the end of the year, they have clear Often, innovations are more dependent two weeks, or once a month. On top of
goals (defined in the innovation strategy) on the team of Innovation sprint mas- that, a good agenda and preparation
and everyone has had a role and a re- ters who can carry out only two to three will result in less time spend on commu-
sponsibility in it. Mitchel is the end-ac- innovation projects at the same time. nication, fewer issues, and more fun in
countable for achieving the goals and Also, the resources form the business the cooperation.
executing the strategy. have a dependency on the Innovation
roadmap. Therefore, the Innovation Board

71
9

INNOVATION
within your organization, you deter-
mine how tight or loose the assess-
ment criteria should be.

EXECUTION
The model outlined here applies
again to small and large organiza-
tions and to complex and less com-
plex innovation projects. The pro-
Now that the setup has been com- the three phases of the ‘Innovation jects are managed by the Innovation
pleted, you’re ready to start your Fuzzy Front End’. It then goes through Manager. The innovation projects
project. Every project has several the delivery phases in your existing are carried out by Innovation sprint
stages, which will be explained in the project management: business case, masters (in the Fuzzy Front End) and
next chapter. As you have learned, development, and delivery. by Innovation project leaders (through
every innovation project has a pro- Innovation delivery).
ject leader and a dedicated team to You can see these phases as specific
execute the innovation. stages where you have to, and want The innovation teams include experts
to, get approval between each phase and innovators who are trained to
When you decide to actually carry (an intermediate delivery) in order get innovation results in a short turn-
out an innovation project, it’s created to proceed to the next phase. De- around time.
here. The project first goes through pending on the quality and culture

72
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

9.1

INNOVATION
STAGE PROCESS

The innovation process should be a End is, of course, the phase where tion that can be realized in the final
practical one. Enter the Innovation the actual solution is still fuzzy three stages.
Stage Process, which includes the around the edges and not yet de-
below stages. fined. This is the phase where you The first three stages can be deliv-
do the problem finding, solution ered within weeks. To move from one
As you can see, the last three stages finding, and concepting. These are stage to the next, you need approval
are familiar within organizations when necessary to help find the real prob- from the Innovation manager or the
it comes to managing projects. The lem and manage the process of Innovation Board.
first three stages are referred to as generating ideas, selecting the best
the Fuzzy Front End. The Fuzzy Front ideas, and developing a solid solu-

73
 INNOVATION EXECUTION STAGE PROCESS

INNOVATION FUZZY FRONT END INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
PROBLEM SOLUTION EXPERIMENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY
FINDING FINDING PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION

PILOT ADOPTION

DISCOVERY DEFINITION IDEAS SELECTION EXPERIMENTS

DISCOVERY SPRINTS

PLAN

PROTOTYPE MVP

PROBLEM STATEMENT 1–3 SOLUTIONS PROOF OF CONCEPT APPROVED PLAN PRODUCT READY IMPLEMENTED

INNOVATION SPRINT(S)

74
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

1 2 3

PROBLEM FINDING SOLUTION FINDING EXPERIMENT

Most organizations often skip stage This is where you generate as many In this phase, the concept is convert-
1, but it’s the most crucial step in the ideas as possible with as diverse a ed into an experiment and tested in
success of an innovation. They don’t group as possible (employees, cus- a variant to see if further develop-
skip it because they don’t think it is tomers, external parties, and other ment is needed. Consider technical
important, but because they are more stakeholders). Most companies gen- feasibility but also, for example, test-
attracted to finding a cool solution. erate too few ideas and start too fast, ing legal regulations or financial fea-
Take time to discover the real prob- without really exploring many possi- sibility. This ultimately manifests it-
lem that needs to be solved. With- ble options and choosing the best self in a Proof of Concept.
out assumptions. The result is a vali- strategy. A good brainstorm with the
dated Problem Canvas that includes right people and a good facilitator
a “problem statement”. This way, you can generate a minimum of 300 to
can continue to compare the result 1000 ideas within a few hours. After
of the next steps with the initial generating ideas select/categorize
problem. the best ideas and develop the con-
cepts. The result is one or more vali-
dated solutions.

75
 4 5 6

BUSINESS CASE DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY

After a successful experiment, a busi- Based on the innovation itself, the The goal is to have the solution im-
ness case will be created in which development of the innovation is plemented and adopted. Delivery is
the financial picture is also com- carried out with a clear view to the complete when the end user values​​
plete. Together with the result of the desired result. This can be done the result with an 8 or higher. A pilot
experiment, the business case and ­traditionally with a waterfall meth- is often carried out before the actual
the plan of approach for develop- od (end result is clear) or based on product is delivered to the custom-
ment and delivery, innovation devel- more flexible methods such as Lean, ers/end users.
opment, can start. Agile, or Scrum (end result is less
clear). The result is validated regular-
ly by the target group, stakeholders,
and sponsor.

TIP: DOWNLOAD THE INNOVATION TOOLBOX

Use all the models and canvasses to make this process easier.
Every stage has one or more convenient turn key canvasses to use.
A Canvas is a one-pager that guides you though the process
of getting the result done-done.

76
 “THE MAN WHO ASKS A
QUESTION IS A FOOL
FOR A MINUTE, THE MAN
WHO DOES NOT ASK IS
A FOOL FOR LIFE.”
Confucius

“INNOVATION
DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN
A LEADER AND A
FOLLOWER.”
Steve Jobs
“I HAVE NOT FAILED.
I’VE JUST FOUND
10,000 WAYS THAT
WON’T WORK.”
Thomas A. Edison

“INVENTION IS 1%
INSPIRATION,
99% PERSPIRATION.”
Thomas A. Edison
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

10

INNOVATION
SPRINTS
The Innovation Sprint is a timeboxed Use this sprint in the Fuzzy Front End long to develop a solution that is
period (within 1–4 weeks) to develop to deliver a fantastic result in a short steady for execution; the wrong team
three possible solutions and assem- period of time. From problem/idea is on it; there is no problem or mar-
ble proof to decide which concept is to a concrete concept in just five ket; or the process is unclear. Please
the most valuable and feasible. This steps. The Innovation Sprint offers a remember that enthusiasm, energy,
is one of the most powerful tools of short lead time with maximum, con- and focus in the project are neces-
innovation because you can focus crete results. sary to reach the finish line.
with a small, dedicated team for a
couple of days on the innovation it- Some of the problems heard most In the process of finding and defining
self. about innovation include: it takes too the real problem that needs to get

79
 INNOVATION EXECUTION STAGE PROCESS

INNOVATION FUZZY FRONT END INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
PROBLEM SOLUTION EXPERIMENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY
FINDING FINDING PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION

PILOT ADOPTION

DISCOVERY DEFINITION IDEAS SELECTION EXPERIMENTS

DISCOVERY SPRINTS

PLAN

PROTOTYPE MVP

PROBLEM STATEMENT 1–3 SOLUTIONS PROOF OF CONCEPT APPROVED PLAN PRODUCT READY IMPLEMENTED

INNOVATION SPRINT(S)

80
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

solved, it’s easy for some people to An innovation Sprint is a perfect tool tion Sprint Master has experience
lose energy or get lost in the process. to test whether an innovation idea is with executing innovation sprints and
Just know that this is necessary to go executable. Even if the innovation can work as a project leader to fol-
through for a good end result. idea sounds really good, always put low all the steps to the finish line.
it through the Innovation Sprint pro- The ISM doesn’t also have to be the
Manage expectations and really go cess. Within weeks you will have a subject matter expert. Rather not, so
for it! Most times, it comes down to clear result. What’s more, you can the ISM can focus on the process
people not being familiar with this make a decision as to whether the and the end result.
kind of work (or they simply don’t problem and the possible solution(s)
like it). can really be executed and will de- The Innovation Sprint team should
liver the business value necessary to be as small as possible. The bigger
invest in. the team the longer it will take to get
“INNOVATION IS NOT to the finish line and the more ex-
An Innovation Sprint can be executed pensive it will become. The smallest
THE SAME AS GAMBLING.
from start to finish in a lead time of 1 team is two (ISM + Subject matter
IF YOU WANT RESULT,
month. A small core team can exe- expert) the advisable max is five
NEVER PUT A CREATIVE cute all five steps of an innovation. people.
PERSON IN CHARGE
OF AN INNOVATION” The start is selecting an Innovation Keep in mind that this core team will
team and connecting them with an gather input from all different sources
Innovation Sprint Master. An Innova- like customers, other subject matter

81
experts, etc. to make decisions based The Innovation Sprint team is not start formally. The leader of this meet-
on the input that will be harvested. dedicated to the sprint for the whole ing is the Innovation Sprint Master.
They don’t have to be creative peo- month. They only work fulltime in
ple. For example, in the problem the sprint itself, and they are work-
finding phase, the core team will do ing full time with each other. For ex- TIP
customer and employee interviews ample; if every phase in the Sprint is
and draw a conclusion out of those. one day (this is the minimum advisa- Always use the same
ble), the team will be working full- room for the Innovation
In the idea generation phase, the team time on the innovation on those Sprint team. Use inter-
will brainstorm with extra people to days. Most of the time this means nal and maybe even
generate ideas. After that, the core that week 3 and week 4 of the month external marketing and
team will build three possible solu- include planned sprint days. communication to
tions and will validate them with the let other people know
target group and the business owner. The first important milestone of an a team is working on
innovation Sprint is the Sprint Brief- innovation in this place.
In the end, the business owner and ing. This is the meeting between the
maybe even the innovation board business owner and the innovation
will decide what solution they think team that will execute the innovation.
is the best fit before proceeding with Here, the scope and all the depend-
the innovation project. encies for success will be decided
upon, so the Innovation Sprint can

82
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION SPRINT MODEL

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
PREPARATION PROBLEM IDEA SELECTING CONCEPTING PRESENTATION
FINDING GENERATION

A B
C

SPRINT BRIEFING KICK-OFF SCRIPTING ANALYSING, CONVERGING SOLUTION BUILDING VALIDATING

PLANNING PROBLEM ANALYSIS CREATIVE SESSIONS GROUPING COPYWRITING REWORK

RESEARCH PROBLEM DEFINITION DIVERGING SELECTION ROUNDS DESIGNING FINAL RESULT

SPRINT PLANNING PROBLEM STATEMENT HUNDREDS OF IDEAS TOP 3 IDEAS 3 SOLUTIONS FINAL RESULT

83
10.1

SIX STEP APPROACH OF

INNO­VATION SPRINTS
Here’s a look at every step of a generic Innovation Sprint

1 2 3

PREPARATION PROBLEM FINDING SOLUTION FINDING:

This is where the innovation core This is one of the most crucial steps IDEA GENERATION
team is appointed and together with when it comes to really making an This is where you generate as many
the business owner (problem owner), innovation succeed. Discover what ideas as possible with as diverse a
the core team discuss the scope and the real problem is that needs to ­be group as possible (employees, cus-
define the innovation project. The solved. Without assumptions. The tomers, external parties, and other
essential things to align are the prob- result is a validated Problem Canvas stakeholders). The result is numerous
lem to solve (high level), expected including a ‘problem statement’. That ideas that fall within the scope of the
result, who to involve, definition of way, you can always compare the assignment.
done, and the team. result of the next steps to the initial
problem.

84
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

4 5 6

SOLUTION FINDING: CONCEPTING PRESENTATION

SELECTION The concept/s is/are built into a con- In this step, the final result is present-
In this step, the ideas are scaled back crete result. This can be a design, ed to the stakeholders for validation,
to the best concept, or the best three working app, animation, infographic, and the customers/end users give
concepts, in a number of SMART se- basic application, mock-up, or a sam- their feedback. The feedback is pro-
lection rounds. The essence of these ple. The information is then packaged cessed in the canvasses and in the
concepts is then described in a Solu- in such a way that the stakeholders working product. At the end of this
tion Canvas. can form a clear picture of the final day, the final result is ready for the
result. next phase: testing whether it can
go on to an extensive proof-of-con-
cept phase or to the business case!

Starting with an Innovation Sprint is

a perfect tool for collaboration be-
tween innovation and business, and
also between business units. Typical-
ly, those teams include people from
different business units.

85
 TIP EXTRA TIP

Innovation Sprint Book Keep track of all insights during the Innova-
You can dive deeper in tion Sprint. This will boost making the
Innovation Sprints with right decisions for the project and will create
the book: 'A simple book more business value.
to master Innovation
Sprints' Kickstart this by training your Innovation
Team and maybe even project leaders in
your organization. Remember to use this
tool for management. They have to trigger
these kinds of small projects instead of
just rushing to start execution. Most times,
they don’t know it can be done better
than that.

86
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

10.2

INNO­VATION
SPRINT MASTER

An Innovation Sprint Master guides The sprint master prepares every­ An Innovation Sprint Master:
the innovation process from start thing and ensures that the process
(initiation) to finish (result). In a sprint, runs smoothly, so that the right re- •  Is: a process supervisor, project
it’s important to have everything sults can be achieved. The Innova- leader, facilitator, someone who
well planned and organized. The goal tion Sprint Master has been trained has a lot of experience in innova-
is to have as little distraction as pos- and is a trusted expert in guiding in- tion
sible so that as much attention as novation sprints. Is not: a creative person, idea gen-
• 
possible goes to the content and erator, business owner, sponsor,
creativity. or a risk manager

87
HOW AN INNOVATION SPRINT Based on the scope of the sprint HOW TO SPOT A GOOD INNO­
MASTER WORKS (problem finding, solution finding, VATION SPRINT MASTER
The Innovation sprint master always proof of concept), a solid planning is
starts by taking in the innovation made and people are scheduled for Structured and planned — Can
• 
project in its entirety. Every project the work. One of the most important produce clear schedules and is
starts with a clear goal. Usually, it things in preparing the sprint is the structured in the approach.
starts with an idea or a problem that clear planning and organization of
needs to be solved. Either way, the everything that revolves around the Experienced — Has a great deal
• 
sprint master goes over the project sprint. In this way, the sprint team of experience in innovation pro-
and then determines who the inter- (core team) can really focus on the jects and sprints.
nal and external stakeholders will be content.
and who will join the core team. Communicative skills — Can com­
• 
The sprint master starts and ends municate well with the innova-
The core team usually consists of each day with a kick-off and touch- tion team and with stakeholders.
two to five people and has at least down-of-the-day meeting and shows
one person from the business. Where where the team stands currently in •  Flexible — Can handle change
possible, a customer or user also the sprint. The sprint master also well. Even if the planning is good,
takes place in the innovation sprint. keeps those involved in the loop with things can change.
additional communication.

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A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

Results-oriented — Knows how to

•  Every organization needs internal
manage the process and project Innovation sprint masters. It’s these
needs in such a way that the end people that validate ideas and prob-
result is achieved anyway. lems that fall within the scope of the
business strategy as quickly as pos-
Energetic — Knows how to make sible. Additionally, the sprint masters
• 
people enthusiastic and how to also decide whether the ideas may
manage the energy well. be further elaborated, and whether
any investments have to be made.
Facilitator — Can supervise brain-
• 
storming sessions very well and It’s a good idea to ensure that a
also guide the decision-making number of sprint masters have been
process. trained within your organization,
and that those people can gain ex-
Collaborative — The sprint master perience in running in-house sprints.
• 
never works alone. He/she knows Before you have your internal people
how to build a team in a short in place and fully trained, use exter-
time and how to produce a good nal Innovation sprint masters.
result together.

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 INNOVATIONLANDS

During last month’s Innovation Board implemented. These three ideas are
­ After this month, both Innovation sprint
meeting, Mitchel presented an updated about new main attractions for the park. masters will have performed their first
Roadmap. Now he has two extra people All of them fall within the scope of the Sprint and will then execute an innova-
in his team. Those two are currently in strategy. tion Sprint the next month on their own.
training and Mitchel wants to follow up
directly to let them execute an Innova- Mitchel’s proposal is to start next month So, within a month’s time, the three Inno-
tion Sprint. with the first Innovation Sprint that will vation Sprints will be executed. Thereaf-
have a lead time of one month from ter, the decision will be made about
Michel presents three innovations to the start to finish. Both of his new Innovation whether to proceed to the experiment
board. He advises that they start with team members will execute this Sprint phase with two of the innovations.
three, so based on the experience with together as sprint masters, combined
two innovations, they will proceed to with a team of three subject matter ex- Michel received approval on the plan
the next stage: experiment. perts. and then updates the Innovation
roadmap. After that he initiates the first
Most likely, one of those two innovations Innovation Sprint by briefing his two
will fail in the business case and one will new collogues and planning in a Sprint
be executed into a result and will be briefing meeting.

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A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

11 11.1

EXTRA HERE’S A
This part of the book includes
some handy extras. For example,
MISSION FOR YOU
what kinds of events you can
While reading this book, you’ve probably
organize, what tools to use, and
noticed that there are a lot more resources
the best way to collaborate
‘out there’ to help you innovate. Mitchel from
with your partners.
Innovationlands has a mission for you.

INNOVATION SOFTWARE SIMPLE ARTICLE AND

START YOUR FREE TRIAL INFOGRAPHIC TO
OF ACCEPT MISSION CREATE A MISSION

91
 INNOVATIONLANDS MISSION

Hi! Mitchel here. All your agents/selected colleagues will Each agent receives XPs (experience
receive an invitation to join this mission. points). After completing this mission,
Now that you have reached the end of After they accept the invitation, they you will probably think of many other
this book, you are getting to know more must choose an avatar. Yes, they need to uses for Accept Mission.
about Innovationlands. I’d like to ask go undercover. This makes it more exit-
you to help me with some new ideas for ing, and it will boost the creativity. Accept Mission is easy to use. At Innova-
attractions in our theme park. tionlands, we use it all the time. From
After your agents have their secret iden- coming up with ideas for our yearly
My mission for you is to sign up for a tities, they will receive a short briefing company holiday or gathering ideas for
new and free subscription with Accept that explains Innovationlands and the new attraction names, project evalua-
Mission, and to start your own mission goal of the mission. The mission consists tion, SWOT analysis, etc.
based on a template called: ‘Innova- of one brainstorm objective: to find new
tionlands demo mission’. ideas for attractions. After this brain- Your mission, should you choose to
storm objective, everyone will be asked accept it!
Set up your mission start date, select/ to score the ideas. Then comes the big
invite your agents (colleagues), and pub- moment… who will win the mission. Good luck agent,
lish the mission. Mitchel, Head of Innovations
@ Innovationlands

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A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

11.2 some creative sessions with your

EVENTS YOU
customers.

INNOVATION EXPERIENCE DAY(S)

CAN ORGANIZE
Learn what innovation do for your
organization by this event where
you get presentations and experi-
ences of other organizations. A day
Marketing and communication INNOVATION CRASH COURSES or day full of presentations, train-
will help in building awareness. Train your innovation team well. Re- ings, workshops, interviews, etc.
Also it will help in executing member to train the management
elements of the Innovation team(s) in innovation culture and in CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS
Framework. accepting and facilitating ideas and Train your employees to be more
problems. Also train the Innovation creative. Some people need extra
Board to facilitate a healthy innova- support to feel more comfortable in
INNOVATION TRAINING DAYS tion process. coming up with and building a story
Train the board, management, inno- and sharing their ideas.
vation team and inspire all employ- INNOVATION DAYS
ees in innovation and creativity. This Organize innovation days where sup- PITCHING CONTESTS
will help in building an innovation pliers, employees, and customers can Giving a good presentation of a solid
culture and will deliver many innova- seek out innovations that inspire idea will definitely help your organi-
tion ideas in the process. them. This is also a perfect day to do zation to accept new ideas and

93
changes. You can help people pres- better to start a new business out- us? Most Hackathons last between
ent their ideas. As you know, a good side the big organization. You can one to three days. For example,
presentation is based on information make this a big execution or an easy (concept) developers work in teams
and shape (story) and is authentic transition. In most cases, the organi- to solve an important case or think
(believable). When these elements zation is frequently the investor of up new solutions based on available
are present, the audience is more your new venture. data. At the end, a jury decides who
likely to accept a new idea and bring the winners are and who will take
it a step forward. INNOVATION LABS home the prize.
Do you have a specific name for your
INNOVATION AWARDS innovation team? Where do you all QUESTION:
Reward your organization in various meet? In an innovation lab of sorts? There are many more kinds of events
ways. For good ideas and problems. This is where all the company’s inno- to organize. What are your ideas?
For ideas that solved the case, for vations are born and brought a step
­facilitating innovations, and for not further. This is where you mount and
quitting even when everyone else share the wall of fame, which includes SHARE FEEDBACK
wants to give up. Reward employ- the innovators and/or the successful
ees, customers, partners, suppliers, and failed innovations.
spouses… everyone!
HACKATHON
CORPORATE VENTURING What will happen when we invite a
Everyone likes to feel the magic of a lot of people from outside the or-
brand-new startup. Sometimes it’s ganization to think up a solution with

94
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

11.3

TOOLS YOU CAN USE

Tools for innovation can be cataloged into many categories:

BRAINSTORM TOOLS IDEA MANAGEMENT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

Tools to help you brainstorm better. Manage ideas in the organization. These tools can help you manage
These tools can be used in the real Like managing the inbox of ideas. the whole innovation process. From
world or to help you generate ideas Most of the time, these tools inte- strategy to execution.
anytime and anywhere, independently. grate with an intranet.


95
DECISION MAKING KNOWLEDGE SHARING COLLABORATION SOFTWARE
These tools help you make better, We use these platforms to share who Software to collaborate and share
clearer decisions. For example, if you has what knowledge. Then it’s easier insights and ideas among people
have many innovations you want to to find what knowledge there is and and in groups.
start, you invite a group of people to who the subject matter experts are.
score the concepts based on multi-
ple variables. The result is a better
understanding of value and clearer
decisions.

96
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

12

ABOUT US "OUR BHAG: WE EXECUTE

1.000.000 INNOVATION
MISSIONS WORLDWIDE BY
2025."

Allow us to introduce ourselves. We Only one to five percent of all inno- execute some projects together,
are an ambitious innovation agency, vations are successful. Our goal is to start a training, or do a Mission in Ac-
founded in 2010 and located in Rot- help expand this to 10 to 20 percent cept Mission. It all helps us to
terdam, the Netherlands. We’re pas- and boost innovation in a fresh, effi- achieve our goal: to make more or-
sionate about facilitating innovation cient way for every organization. ganizations successful with Innova-
projects with our clients and optimiz- tion!
ing the innovation way of working. OUR MISSION
We execute 1.000.000 Innovation We have a great team and work with
To us, almost nothing compares to missions worldwide by 2025. This is a broad clientele. Our services in-
building a successful innovation en- not an easy job but we’re working clude:
gine and culture, so that every organ- hard to accomplish i­t. Let’s cooper-
ization can achieve its full potential. ate and start working together. Let’s

97
INNOVATION CONSULTANCY innovations with a team of experts. idea generation sessions. Digitally
Innovation Management: Services to We step in to the innovation execu- and with gamification and decision-­
develop an innovative organization tion and therefore we speed up pro- making software, the digital innova-
way of working. We help innovation jects and bring experience and cre- tion inbox and easy-to-use innovation
teams to reach the next level and re- ativity. In our role as Innovation Sprint boards help you execute innova-
alize successful innovations. We do Master, we help teams so that they tions and get the success you need.
this by, for example, building an In- can focus on the subject itself instead
novation roadmap (with projects to of the process.
improve the innovation way of work-
INNOVATION SOFTWARE
ing). After building this roadmap we INNOVATION SOFTWARE (IDEA
START YOUR FREE TRIAL
help with tools, methods experience, GENERATION / MANAGE­
OF ACCEPT MISSION
templates and advising, and coach- MENT) — ACCEPT MISSION
ing people to reach the next level. Because we built a state-of-the-art
We position ourselves as your Inno- innovation method, we also provide
vation partner to speed up and bring tools that will help make you smile.
in external experience. This saves Accept Mission is our innovation plat-
lead time and improves the overall form. Join us and share your ideas
quality. about how we can grow this platform
to facilitate all of your innovation
Innovation Execution: We also deliver work. Accept Mission delivers tools
Innovation Sprint Masters to execute to help you carry out outstanding

98
A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

INNOVATION TRAININGS • Innovation masterclasses

Inspiring and energetic training that • Innovation Management
builds on an innovation culture and (board of directors, manage-
delivers results. ment, board of innovation,
innovation team)
If you want to develop a culture of • Innovation Sprint Master
innovation for the long and short • Problem finding workshop
term, it’s wise to not only train the in- • Creative facilitator training
novation team but also the board of • Accept Mission training
directors, Innovation Board, man-
agement, and everyone you want to
include in the innovation process. INNOVATION
Our trainers are not just focused on TRAININGS
training. They are consultants with
years of experience who also give
excellent trainings.

99
13

THE END
THE BEGINNING

I hope you enjoyed this book and answer? Please be sure to give your
will get a ton of use out of it! Please feedback on this book, so that we SHARE FEEDBACK
share your thoughts and ideas with can continue to help you.
us for innovation. We are interested
in hearing your take-aways. Would
you like to see more information on
any specific area? Do you have any
burning questions you’d like us to

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A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

I would also like to thank the team of portant insights and point out any Innovation is not something you do
Creatieve Koppen for all their good blind spots, so that this book would alone. Success is always based on
input, the discussions we had, and better resonate with you as the reader. team work. Let’s connect our work to
the support they gave me while I more successful innovations!
was writing this book, all while we As you can see, innovation is my
continued to carry out work for our passion. I created an innovation com-
clients. Special thanks to Judith pany with consultancy, innovation
School­meester, Eelco van Hemmen software, and innovation trainings
and Fleur Eras. As one team, we so that we can help many organiza-
­created this book in its entirety and tions with their innovation challeng-
are proud to deliver it to the market es. We have taken in a lot from all the
together. cases, and we’re still learning. We
will never stop learning and we will
I also want to thank: Albert Buurlage, never stop helping organizations.
Peter de Haas, Lesly Broekaart, Susan Our mission is to help as many or-
de Vree, Rault Harmeling and Marcel ganizations to innovate and create
Wilschut for reviewing this book and increase more business value
throughout the process. They were with innovation success.
willing and able to give us very im-

101
"IDEA GENERATION IS SIMPLE;
THE REAL CHALLENGE
IS TO FIND THE PROBLEM.”
 A SIMPLE GUIDE TO ORGANIZE INNOVATION

Idea generation is simple. The real challenge is to find

strategic issues to solve and create business value. Turn
your organization into an effective innovation engine
with this simple and powerful innovation book.

This book shares the secrets of developing an innova-

tive organization. Based on the Innovation Framework, “Many innovation books are about models and
the next steps become clear and will lead to solid im- remain abstract. In this book, innovation is put into
plementation and increased business value. practice through the model. A ‘call to action’.”
Marcel Wilschut, Innovation Manager,
Albert Schweitzer Hospital
Steven Kop is founder of Creatieve
Koppen, an innovation company “A fresh look at Innovation in theory, and a handhold
founded in 2010. Steven is specialized for adaptation in contemporary practice.”
in innovation. His methods are based Rault Harmeling, Innovation Director, CGI
on both science and practical
experience. This also led to the Innovation software
platform Accept Mission. He is passionate about
moving people and generating real business value in
combination with a great experience.

Steven Kop
CREATIEVE KOPPEN