May 3, 2012. Paul Hixon
One of the internal struggles for creative management is trying to balance the relatively informal working methods of research and development with the process orientated work of other projects delivery departments. In this article I’ll show you what the challenges are and two techniques for trying to apply some process to ideation.
It is key to any innovation strategy that research and development is constantly encouraged in order to open new products and features. However, creating new ideas for products cannot be scheduled or planned as easily as the majority of other projects. Having effective project management controls reduces the risk in delivering projects so is ultimately worth having.
The key way for creative management to encourage some process control in idea creation is as follows. First, it is essential for research and development teams to understand that their work has to fit in with the processes and norms of the rest of the organization.
This should include greater involvement and communication between research and implementation departments. This is essential in order to ensure that product deliveries are executed according to the original innovative ideas and concepts are created by research. It also gives the research teams more buy-in and ownership of the ultimate delivery of the product (rather than then simply throwing the ideas over the wall/partition to the implementation groups).
Secondly, all research and ideation projects need to be managed effectively using well-defined proposal templates. These should include details of the amount of manpower that are necessary, the associated costs, any risks that have been identified and deadlines.
It will not always be possible to stick to these milestones and requirements but at the very least it should be used as a touchstone for what exactly the project was meant to grow into. It can then be dynamically altered as and when changes occur and can be used at later stages for better planning research work.
Updated May 3, 2012. Published January 30, 2011. Paul Hixon
