Navigating Idea Management Processes

Creating an effective Idea Management Process is crucial for businesses and organizations looking to foster innovation and stay competitive in today’s rapidly changing marketplace. In this blog post, we will delve into the essentials of selecting the right idea management process that aligns with your organization’s goals and culture.

Effective Idea Management: Realizing the Full Potential of Creative Minds

The right idea management process not only helps in capturing and organizing ideas but also ensures that these ideas are evaluated, refined, and implemented effectively. This results in a multitude of benefits for any organization:

1. Enhanced Creativity and Innovation: A structured idea management process encourages employees to think creatively, knowing that their ideas are valued and considered. This leads to a more innovative culture within the organization.
2. Improved Problem-Solving: With diverse ideas being shared and discussed, the organization is better equipped to tackle complex problems with unique and effective solutions.
3. Increased Employee Engagement: When employees see that their ideas are taken seriously and can lead to real changes or improvements, it boosts morale and engagement.
4. Strategic Alignment and Efficiency: Effective idea management ensures that the ideas that are pursued align with the organization’s goals and strategies, leading to more efficient and focused efforts.
5. Competitive Advantage: By continuously innovating and improving through effective idea management, organizations can stay ahead of competitors and adapt quickly to market changes.

For a more in-depth understanding of what idea management is and its importance, feel free to read our other blog post Idea Management – A Quick Overview. This article offers an elaborated exploration of the concept of idea management and how this takes place in a digital world.

Best Practices for Selecting Your Idea Management Process

Define Innovation Goals

Define your company’s innovation goals: Determine what you hope to achieve through innovation. Are you seeking to develop new products, services, or processes? Are you trying to reduce costs or increase efficiency? Are you looking to enter new markets or stay ahead of competitors? The type of innovations you are looking for influences your idea management process. Different topics, might require a different approach to follow up on ideas.

Assess Resources & Capabilities

Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your organization’s existing resources and capabilities, such as your team’s skills and expertise, your budget, your technology, and your infrastructure. Consider whether your organization has the necessary resources (time, budget, skills) to support the chosen idea management process. Design and plan your stages and gates according to what is feasible in terms of resources and operations. Ensure that you can free up time for people to work on ideas, otherwise this will be counterproductive for your overall engagement. 

Assess your company culture

Consider your company’s culture and values. Choose an idea management process that fits well with your company culture and is likely to be embraced by employees.

Consider your industry

Consider the industry you operate in and the competitive landscape. Choose an idea management process that is best suited to your industry and the challenges you face.

Monitor and evaluate results

Once you have chosen an idea management process, monitor and evaluate its effectiveness. Use data and feedback to make adjustments and improvements as needed.

Start Simple – Engagement first, the rest will follow naturally

It’s not necessary to design everything upfront. Instead, you should prioritize the initial steps and user onboarding. Having inflow means you can evaluate what you have and what you need to move forward. If you design a complex process all up-front and you don’t use any of the elaborated steps, you have wasted time. Work iteratively, improve, adapt as you go. The only constant in life is change, so there’s no gain in being too rigid with your idea management process.

Communicate with stakeholders

Communicate with stakeholders, including employees, management (decision makers), investors and customers. Get their input on the idea management process and ensure they understand the benefits of the chosen process.

Conduct a pilot test

Consider conducting a small pilot test of different idea management processes before committing to one. This can help you evaluate the effectiveness of each process and make a more informed decision.

Be open to change and experiment

Be open to change. If the chosen idea management process is not achieving the desired results, be open to trying a different approach. Innovation is a continuous process, and it may take several iterations to find the right approach for your company. Innovation is about experimentation and taking risks. Don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment with different idea management processes. Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and improve. Innovation requires a willingness to take risks and try new things, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box and experiment with different approaches.

Ad-hoc or Timeline Process?

When it comes to implementing an idea management process in your organization, one of the critical decisions you’ll face is choosing between an ad-hoc approach and a structured, timeline-based process. This decision is pivotal as it shapes the way ideas are generated, evaluated, and implemented, directly impacting the innovation capacity of your organization.

Ad-Hoc

An ad-hoc idea management process is more spontaneous and flexible, allowing ideas to flow and be considered as they arise. This approach is often favored in environments that prioritize creativity and rapid innovation, where rigid structures might stifle the free flow of ideas. However, it can also lead to challenges in tracking and systematically evaluating these ideas.

Some of the key characteristics of ad-hoc idea management processes:

• Continuous Idea Collection: Allows for ongoing submission of ideas, ensuring that the idea management process is always accessible and receptive to new inputs.
• Pace Adaptation: Each idea progresses at its own pace through the idea management process, accommodating the unique nature and development timeline of individual ideas.
• Year-Round Culture of Innovation: Fosters a consistent culture of innovation, encouraging creative thinking and idea generation throughout the year.
• Ideal for Incremental Ideas: Particularly effective for incremental innovations, where ideas build on existing processes or products.
• Broad Campaign Themes: Well-suited to innovation campaigns or topics with a broader scope, allowing for a wide range of ideas to be explored.
• Diversity of Ideas: Results in a greater diversity of thoughts and concepts, enriching the innovation pool.
• Volume and Variety: Leads to a larger volume and variety of ideas in the long term, providing a rich resource for innovation.
• Increased Flexibility: Offers more flexibility in managing and developing ideas, adapting to the evolving needs of the organization and market.
• Continuous Improvement and Feedback: Enables ongoing improvements and refinements through regular feedback, enhancing the overall quality and relevance of ideas.

Timeline

On the other hand, a timeline-based idea management process introduces a more systematic approach. It sets specific periods for idea submission, evaluation, and implementation, which can help in organizing and prioritizing ideas effectively. This approach suits environments where decisions need to be aligned with strategic planning and resources are allocated based on predefined schedules.

Some of the key characteristics of timeline idea management processes:

• Consistent Pace for All Ideas: The idea management process progresses uniformly for every idea, ensuring a standardized approach.
• Fixed Interval Reviews: Ideas are evaluated simultaneously at predetermined intervals, creating a structured review process.
• Equal Development Time: Once approved, each idea receives the same duration for further development and elaboration.
• Clear Expectations and Timelines: Provides transparency in terms of deadlines and milestones, facilitating easier planning and support.
• Focus and Participation: The time-bound nature helps in driving focus and increasing short-term participation in the process.
• Sense of Urgency and Momentum: A set timeline instills a sense of urgency, potentially boosting creativity and engagement among participants.
• Better Innovation Outcomes: This structured approach can lead to more effective and efficient innovation results, as it encourages focused effort and timely execution.

Hybrid

In a hybrid idea management process, which ingeniously blends the flexibility of an ad-hoc approach with the structure of a timeline-based system, organizations can harness the strengths of both strategies. Typically, this process involves a limited timeframe for idea collection, particularly during focused momentum campaigns, to instill a sense of urgency and encourage active participation. This periodical collection drives a concentrated burst of creativity, ensuring a dynamic influx of fresh ideas within a specific window.

Concurrently, the organization establishes a rhythm of structured review meetings, such as a monthly innovation board review, where these ideas are systematically evaluated. This recurring evaluation not only maintains a consistent pace in processing and refining ideas but also ensures that the ideation pipeline remains vibrant and continuously fed with new thoughts. This hybrid approach strikes a balance between spontaneous idea generation and methodical assessment, leveraging the benefits of both ad-hoc flexibility and timeline-driven focus.

Choosing The Best of Both Worlds

While choosing between an ad-hoc and a timeline-based idea management process can seem like an either/or decision, many organizations find that a mixed approach best meets their needs. This method combines the structured efficiency of a timeline with the spontaneous creativity of an ad-hoc system, offering a comprehensive solution.

Recurring Campaigns with Timelines

For specific, goal-oriented initiatives, a timeline-based approach can be highly effective. By setting clear timelines for submission, review, and implementation, organizations can focus resources and attention on targeted areas. These could be annual innovation challenges, quarterly brainstorming sessions for specific business problems, or regular calls for process improvement ideas. The key is to create a sense of urgency and focus, driving participation and aligning ideas with strategic priorities.

Year-Round Ad-Hoc Submissions

Concurrently, maintaining an ad-hoc channel for idea submission ensures that innovation is not limited to scheduled campaigns. This approach welcomes ideas at any time, encouraging continuous creativity and ensuring that valuable insights are not lost simply because they didn’t align with a specific timeline. It’s ideal for capturing unexpected breakthroughs or ideas that fall outside the scope of structured campaigns.

Balancing Both Approaches

Successfully mixing both types requires a clear understanding of the organization’s innovation goals and the flexibility to adapt processes as needed. It’s important to communicate the purpose and expectations of each approach to all stakeholders. While the timeline-based campaigns can be focused on addressing specific, immediate business needs or challenges, the ad-hoc process should be seen as an open platform for long-term, potentially transformative ideas.

This hybrid model leverages the strengths of both approaches, ensuring that while there is a structured process to address immediate and specific innovation needs, there is also room for spontaneous, out-of-the-box thinking. By doing so, organizations can create a dynamic, inclusive, and comprehensive idea management ecosystem that drives continuous innovation and adapts to evolving business landscapes.

The role of the Facilitator

The role of a facilitator in idea management processes, whether ad-hoc, timeline-based, or a hybrid of the two, is critically important for several reasons:

1. Guiding Discussions: A facilitator helps guide brainstorming sessions and discussions, ensuring that all voices are heard and that the conversation stays on track. This is crucial in generating a diverse range of ideas and maintaining a productive flow.
2. Encouraging Participation: Facilitators play a key role in encouraging participation from all members, especially those who may be less inclined to speak up. They create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas.
3. Managing the Process: In timeline-based or hybrid processes, facilitators are responsible for keeping the idea management process on schedule. They ensure that deadlines are met and that each phase of the process transitions smoothly into the next.
4. Resolving Conflicts: During idea evaluation and development, differing opinions and conflicts may arise. A facilitator can mediate these situations, ensuring that the focus remains on constructive and collaborative solution-finding.
5. Synthesizing Information: Facilitators are adept at synthesizing information from discussions, ensuring that key points and innovative ideas are captured and appropriately documented for further action.
6. Providing Feedback: They provide feedback and guidance to participants, helping refine and develop ideas into actionable plans.
7. Ensuring Alignment with Goals: Facilitators ensure that the ideas generated and developed align with the organization’s goals and objectives, steering discussions and efforts towards relevant and strategic outcomes.
8. Fostering a Culture of Innovation: By managing these processes effectively, facilitators help foster a culture of innovation within the organization. They set the tone for open communication, collaboration, and creative thinking.

In essence, facilitators are the linchpin in idea management processes, crucial for maintaining momentum, ensuring productive engagement, and driving towards meaningful and innovative outcomes.

Matching Topics

The idea management process is highly dependent on the specific topic or objective of the innovation campaign, as well as the type of ideas that are being sought.

In the upcoming slides, examples of different idea management processes and the types of topics and ideas that are commonly associated with them will be presented. By using these processes and understanding the types of ideas that are typically generated through them, innovators can increase their chances of finding innovative solutions that are relevant and effective for the specific topic at hand.

Idea Management Process Examples

EXAMPLE #1 – EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CHALLENGE

DESIRED OUTCOME
Participation Driven – A larger number of smaller, incremental ideas + boosted employee engagement (through high participation, easy accessible topics and recognition) 

CAMPAIGN / PROCESS OWNER
Mostly HR or Internal Marketing given the topics and engagement focus

EXAMPLE TOPICS
The Employee Engagement Challenge process can come in handy for the following topics:

• How can we reconnect our employees?
• How can we improve employer branding (inside/outside)? 
• How can we improve our communication?  
• How can we improve our Corporate Social Responsibility?
• How can we increase safety @ work?
• How can we improve our customer contact?
• How can we encourage employee creativity and idea generation?
• How can we use technology to streamline our business processes?
• How can we improve our talent management?

THE PROCESS
In this simple five-stage idea management process, we kick off with an inclusive four-week window for idea submission that’s open to everyone in the company. This is followed by a decisive week of shortlisting by the challenge owner, leading into a dynamic two-week voting period, where the best ideas rise to the top as the company casts their votes. The process peaks with a transparent week of winner selection, guided by clear criteria and additional reviewers, before transitioning into the hands-on ‘doing’ phase where the winning idea is brought to life by the project owner. This well-orchestrated process is designed to capture the collective creativity of our team while ensuring a fair and efficient progression from conception to execution.

EXAMPLE #2 – INTERNAL HACKATHON 

DESIRED OUTCOME
Solution Driven – Depending on the company size and resources we see a variation of 15 – 100 hackathon teams and a working prototype by the end of the hackathon, on both new and existing products / services / operations.

CAMPAIGN / PROCESS OWNER
Business Owners / Product Owners

EXAMPLE TOPICS
The Internal Hackathon process can come in handy for the following topics:

• Developing innovative products/product extension and services that solve a customer pain point
• Leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance customer experiences
• Developing innovative solutions for employee training and development
• Using blockchain technology to improve supply chain management and traceability
• Creating new tools and applications that streamline employee communication and collaboration
• Developing innovative approaches to workplace safety and health
• Leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality to enhance customer experiences
• Developing innovative approaches to sustainability and corporate social responsibility
• Improving the company’s internal processes and workflows for greater efficiency
• Creating new business models that will drive growth and profitability

THE PROCESS
Our most popular “Internal Hackathon” idea management process commences with a structured four-week period dedicated to the submission of ideas, proceeding into a two-week interval for strategic team assembly. Subsequently, a rigorous three-day hackathon ensues, leading to a week-long session of demonstrations and collective voting, which then transitions into a final week where expert evaluations determine the winning prototypes that promise to innovate our operational landscape.

EXAMPLE #3 – OPEN INNOVATION CHALLENGE

DESIRED OUTCOME
Solution Driven – Typically to solve a specific problem where external expertise is required / it is cheaper to find and adapt an existing solution rather than developing the own solution

CAMPAIGN / PROCESS OWNERS
Business Owners / R&D department / Innovation Team (facilitating for others, sometimes consortium of different companies)

EXAMPLE TOPICS
The Open Innovation Challenge process can come in handy when scouting for:

• Start-ups with / external ideas for innovative & sustainable waste/energy/mobility/… solutions
• Looking for a technology partner (AI/AR/Cybersecurity/IoT/…) to solve [Problem] … (e.g. Early Warning System to prevent collision detection in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges)

• …

THE PROCESS
The “Open Innovation Challenge” idea management process describes a six-stage process, commencing with a four-week idea submission phase that demands detailed implementation plans, followed by a three-week shortlisting period utilizing criteria like cost and viability. A two-week stage for refining a 10-page solution description precedes a week-long prototype selection, after which a one to six-month prototyping phase, including A/B testing of at least two prototypes, takes place. The journey culminates with the winner implementation, where the selected solution is not only executed but also potentially celebrated with a cash bonus.

EXAMPLE #4 – CONTINUOUS INNOVATION

DESIRED OUTCOME
Continuous Opportunities – Frequent input of new ideas of all kinds, improvement Ideas for daily operations. Incremental product and service updates, larger opportunities (horizon 2 & 3 ideas, moonshots,…) and solutions. 

CAMPAIGN / PROCESS OWNERS
Topic Owners / Department Leads/ Product Owners / … 

EXAMPLE TOPICS

• Departments: IT, Facility, HR, Marketing, …
• Focus Areas: Communication, Wellbeing, CSR, Sustainability, Safety, Operations, Digital Transformation,NWOW, …
  Company Values: Customer Excellence, D&I, Teamwork, Community Engagement, Efficiency, …

THE PROCESS
The Continuous Innovation process is an ongoing cycle that begins with an open-ended idea submission phase, followed by a qualification step where ideas are evaluated ad-hoc or on a recurring basis. Ideas are then elaborated upon in an ad-hoc manner, reviewed with the same flexibility, pitched periodically, and, if selected, move forward to a structured implementation phase where they can be molded into tangible projects.

EXAMPLE #5 – LEAN IMPROVEMENTS ON THE JOB

DESIRED OUTCOME

Continuous Improvement Driven with a focus on the own job – Improvement Ideas for daily operations. Incremental product and service updates spotted while performing the own job.

CAMPAIGN / PROCESS OWNERS

A combination of a steering lean team + corporate hierarchy (+1, +2) of the innovator

EXAMPLE TOPICS
Safety, Energy Saving, Cost Saving, Efficiency, …

THE PROCESS
The Lean Improvements on the Job idea management process encourages constant idea submission, with confidentiality checks and reviews conducted on an ad-hoc basis. It emphasizes practical, incremental changes, where ideas undergo a thorough vetting process and, once implemented, are regularly evaluated to ensure they achieve the desired impact, encapsulating the ethos of continuous improvement.

EXAMPLE #6 – SUPER FAST SOLUTION FINDING

DESIRED OUTCOME
Fast Solution Driven – Often part of a momentarily campaign due to some last-minute opportunity or problem that requires solving. Also often used to boost engagement in combination with a small idea tournament.

CAMPAIGN / PROCESS OWNERS

Topic Owners / Department Leads/ Product Owners / Innovation Team / …

EXAMPLE TOPICS

• It’s smart mobility week! Which adaptations can we introduce to improve our impact on traffic?
• We are looking for a new logo/slogan for our innovation campaign. All ideas are welcome!
• We are looking for a new name for [Product X]. Submit your ideas now!
• Which small changes can make a big impact on our ecological footprint?
• What is costing you a lot of time and can be fixed with a simple solution?
• Don’t waste (y)our Energy! Ideas to save energy are welcome!
• We cannot go to the office. How can we maintain high morale and encourage collaboration among our team?

• We are remodeling our office! What are some changes or additions that you would like to see implemented to improve our workspace?

• What are some 3D printed tools or equipment that could be useful for our job? (You’ll receive the first prototype!) 

• What are some creative ways to engage with customers and build stronger relationships with them?

THE PROCESS
The Super Fast Solution Finding idea management process is a brisk and focused approach that starts with a 3-4 week idea submission window to spur momentum, followed by ad-hoc community support gauging. A straightforward yes/no evaluation includes feedback, and ideas that garner enough interest quickly move forward, embodying the organization’s drive for agile and rapid innovation.

Conclusion

As we’ve explored the multifaceted landscape of idea management processes, it’s clear that the path to selecting the right one for your organization is as unique as the ideas you seek to pursue. Whether you gravitate towards the structured rigor of a timeline-based approach, the dynamic spontaneity of an ad-hoc system, or a hybrid model that captures the strengths of both, the key is to align the process with your organization’s culture, goals, and operational rhythms.

The journey doesn’t end with selection but rather begins anew with implementation. It’s about creating an environment where ideas are not just generated but are also nurtured, evaluated, and brought to fruition. By fostering a culture that values innovation at every level, and by establishing processes that turn the seeds of creativity into the fruits of tangible success, your organization can not only adapt to the demands of an ever-evolving business landscape but also drive the change that defines the future.

As we look ahead, the digital transformation of idea management presents a compelling frontier. Embracing a digital idea management platform can revolutionize this journey, providing tools that streamline submissions, foster collaboration, and offer analytical insights to elevate the decision-making process. These platforms can become the conduits through which ideas are meticulously cultivated, thoroughly evaluated, and seamlessly integrated into the fabric of your business operations.

In closing, remember that the most effective idea management process is one that is lived and breathed by its participants, continually evolving and improving. It’s more than a procedure; it’s a commitment to continuous growth and a testament to the collective potential of your team. Choose wisely, implement effectively, and may your organization’s stream of ideas flow ever onward towards success.

This article is part of our Innovation Glossary, designed to give you a clear understanding of the key concepts commonly used in Idea Management and Innovation Management.