Phase IV of Air Force Innovation: Prepare for Scale
At this point in the process, you identified a problem, and developed and tested a workable solution. Most projects never reach this phase.
Now, the difficult work begins — you’ll have to scale up. Even if your solution works perfectly on a small scale, when you apply it on a large scale, new opportunities and challenges are inevitable.
Share and Communicate Your Success
The first step to scaling your solution is communicating the solution. Your communication plan is the framework you use to communicate your objectives, outcomes, and metrics.
In any communication plan, the first thing to consider is the audience. Who are you communicating with? Senior Leaders, Airmen, individual units and industry partners all have different priorities. If you hope to reach them, you’ll need to use different tactics.
Just as you did when you were developing your solution, determine your measure of success in your communications. This will help you determine if the conversation was a success or a failure.
Eight-Step Approach to Documentation
Don’t underestimate the importance of documentation. The path that led you to where you are now has a significant influence on where you are headed. Documentation is your roadmap, showing you where you have been and where you’re going.
Writing clear documentation is a skill and not everyone is great at it.
The approach for improving processes uses a technique of documenting clearly and cleanly in the following eight steps:
1. Clarify & Validate the Problem
2. Break down the Problem & Identify Performance Gaps
3. Set Improvement Target(s)
4. Conduct Cause Analysis
5. Develop Countermeasures & Implementation Plan
6. See Countermeasures Through
7. Confirm Results and Process Change
8. Standardize Successful Processes
Developing an effective solution is only the beginning. Documenting the solution so others can understand and implement it in their own operations is the key to scaling up.
Product Strategy
As you move to scale your solution, it’s necessary to develop a product strategy for your solution. The product strategy describes the way that your solution fits into the existing infrastructure and how it shapes the future.
In essence, it’s a description of how you plan to achieve your vision. Sometimes, achieving your vision means passing the torch to the next generation. A well-documented, thoughtful product strategy can help ensure that your solution lives on.
Going beyond the Early Adopters
It’s not difficult to convince early adopters to try a new, innovative solution. These individuals enjoy the thrill of living on the leading edge.
If you want your solution to become widespread, you need to consider the majority of users. Early adopters may choose your solution simply because it’s innovative. If you want to attract and engage new users, you’ve got to demonstrate why and how your solution solves their problems.
Developing innovative solutions to challenging problems is a long-term process. It starts with identifying problems. It may take many iterations to hit the perfect solution.
If you find a solution that works, the challenge evolves. Now, your task is to communicate the solution to others.
Undoubtedly, Air Force faces many challenges. Overcoming these challenges depends on innovative thinking at every level.
That’s all the phases of innovation! Head back over to the initial blog on the Four Phases of Air Force Innovation to start again.
Check out our Innovation Handbook for more in-depth information on how to innovate in your organization.
