Evaluating your Innovation Portfolio at each stage.

Innovative ideas get evaluated, and if they are worthy of development, get nurtured and taken through a series of steps to see how they might turn into products.

Different organizations have different ways of handling the vetting. Google uses an idea management system that allows any employee and even users to comment on and rate ideas. Other companies use a much smaller evaluating team, typically known as the Innovation Council or some similar title, to conduct the evaluations. Which ideas or projects will get funding to progress to the next level? Which will go back for more refinement? Which will be licensed or sold to other firms?

As projects or ideas enter the Portfolio Funnel, the Innovation Council evaluates whether or not they should be nurtured. If they are approved for further development, they are assigned to an Innovation Advisor and monitored regularly.

"Building an Innovation Evaluation Process for Your Organization," two-weeks of intensive work with your Innovation Team request schedule

"Instilling an Innovative Mindset," a full-day workshop for individual contibutors. You will learn

• to promote and foster an environment where innovation flourishes,
• to step back, look at trends and the big picture, and analyze what the trends indicate
• to adapt, learn new things and grow
• to inspire others with your personal passion

For more information, request schedule

"Leading Innovation," a two-day workshop for engineering managers, delivered by Leslie Martinich. Participants will learn practices listed above as well as

• how to build an innovation ecosystem
• the role of relationships, networking and customers
• the skills required for participation in an innovation hub
• dealing with failure
• how to manage an innovation portfolio
• metrics to measure

For more information, request schedule

"Premature opitimization is the root of all evil." --Donald Knuth

"Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine, Bala Iyer and Thomas H. Davenport, Harvard Business Review, April, 2008.