The idea(s) and the funnel
A particularly interesting discussion on idea management was opened (but not closed) during the annual Continuous Innovation Network Conference and related workshops. Since the purpose of the Conference is to gather academics and practitioners, those of us who don’t read papers on a regular basis had the chance to catch up with the latest and greatest. For the rest, I assume, it was a useful exercise anyway as measuring innovation is never a plain black and white debate.
So, researchers says you need solid knowledge to approach innovation but innovation specialists swear you have to be playful instead - a true clash of the titans! An efficient and accountable, therefore superior stage-gate process must be measurable and most often compares the incoming and the outgoing (volumes). However, involving experts late in the process or directly at the go/no go evaluation point involves the...