
Innovators and designers are quick to preach the power of empathy in their work, immersing in the wants and needs of their users and consumers. And yet that same sense of empathy is rarely extended to your colleagues and “customers” in the core business of your organization.
In fact, Big Co. innovation groups often cite “the core business” as the leading source for innovation failure, often nicknaming them Corporate Antibodies or Middle Management Permafrost.
Simply put, this “us vs. them” sentiment is counterproductive, and sadly a key reason for why so many innovation labs fail. Your core business colleagues are not “corporate antibodies” to be blamed. They are your partners, internal customers and, most importantly, the keys to your innovation group’s long-term success.
Core business people have positive intent, but at first glance they often have different incentives, priorities and perceptions than you—the one responsible for innovation.
Frankly, it’s not without good evidence that they often perceive innovation as slow, expensive, risky, resource-intensive and, most importantly, failing to deliver results.
But if the fate of your innovation group’s ambitions is dependent on your core business colleagues (and it is), then it’s your job to understand their priorities and perceptions of innovation, and then square your ambitions with their priorities.
Eager to get the creative juices flowing and get those “quick wins,” innovation groups prematurely jump to applied innovation: uncovering consumers’ needs, then generating and testing ideas without understanding or alignment on matters like:
We understand leaders of innovation groups don’t have the luxury to take months to wax poetic about their group’s ambitions—nor should they.
What these innovation leaders really need is a straightforward way to quickly and comprehensively define their group’s structure, internal customer, purpose, metrics and value proposition. With this company-wide alignment, they can get busy turning those big ambitions into results.
To help answer that very question, we created the Innovation Group Definition Canvas, a straightforward guide to defining and clarifying your group’s structure, purpose and value proposition to your organization.
Inspired by the Business Model Canvas, these 11 dimensions uncover your organization’s most palpable needs and communicate your innovation group’s crystal-clear, compelling value proposition to your internal customers.
1. Internal Customers: Who are your group’s internal customers and early adopters? What are their pains and gains?
2. Organizational Context: What is your organization/leadership history related to innovation? What is your organization’s appetite for change and risk, and how will that impact your group?
3. Internal Relationship: Where does your group fit in the overall organization structure and process?
4. Assets & Advantages: What exists and should be leveraged by your group?
5. Expectations & Outcomes: Quantifiably, what is success in the eyes of your leadership, your internal customers and your group in years 1, 3, 5? What are your key metrics?
6. Value Proposition: What value do you deliver to your internal customers? What pains are you solving, what gains are you enabling?
7. Scope & Key Activities: How does your group deliver value?
8. Team & Resources: What resources, talent and support do you need to succeed?
9. Innovation Portfolio: How will you prioritize your opportunities and allocate precious resources?
10. Scaling Up: How will you pilot, develop and scale up your solutions?
11. Cost Structure: How will your group be funded in the near- and far-term? How will you justify your need for more funding?
As an innovation leader, you know the power of empathizing with your end-users and consumers to uncover their unmet needs and co-create solutions that succeed in market.
But empathy isn’t just reserved for your end-users and consumers. Extend that same empathy to your organization, internal customers and partners. You’ll be amazed by the support you’ll receive, the collaboration that is created and the real value your group is able to deliver.-
We are a coveted brand and innovation consultancy. A collective of curious minds and creative souls. But this is not simply a place. It’s a direction; a movement pointed ever forward. Here, each of us leads by doing. We inspire our fellow specialists, but also our clients and industry colleagues. The work we create means something and makes something: makes minds change. Makes needles move. Makes watershed moments.
You are different here, and you’ll keep on changing. You will grow here. You will be smart, brave, closer to the truth.
And your transformation will also be ours—a progression paved by following your deepest passions and wildest ideas.
Because here, you own a piece of what happens next. Here, we’re united in the belief that LPK is never finished. We are ravenous for the new, the emerging, the uncharted. We know what we hold sacred. And clinging to that, we charge ahead.
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