Our #lessonslearned: working on an innovation project.
6 #lessonslearned after our Innovation Days 2019 event — why some ideas stop, why some ideas are on the way to become a business product.
What was Innovation Days 2019?
It was a 3-days corporate event gathering 15 ideas and around 80 people, idea owners and contributors, wanted to promote their ideas and to gain experience. The ideas were meant to solve a METRO business related need or a METRO business related problem. During the event, the participants had access to different resources: mentors, stakeholders, business knowledge, innovation team knowledge regarding the process. Each team created a PoC(Proof of Concept), prepared a presentation and pitched the idea in front of the audience in order to gain as many votes as possible and to win the contest. The big reward for the winner: visibility and possibility to get funds and time to implement their idea. By the end of the event, there were two winners.
What is #lessonslearned 2020?
Today, one year later, the innovation team wants, before organizing the next Innovation Days event, to have a closure for the projects which didn’t have progress, to reach some conclusions for a fresh new start , to understand the lessons learned by the participants during the past year and to review its own lessons regarding the process during the event and after that.
#LessonsLearned1 — The power of Idea owner’s grit
Grit is the combination between passion and perseverance for long-term ideas. An idea owner believing in his/her idea will be the main motivator for the team.
One of the winners had a powerful idea owner, always ready to jump into the breach, always ready to promote the idea during any event, in front of CEO and wherever she believed she can make a difference. The ultimate goal: to get funds for the idea. It wasn’t easy. The team participated to a similar event, 2 years ago, but they finished in the second place. They overcame this obstacle and adapted their idea, learned from the feedbacks received and continued to refine it and they won next year.
The idea owner was the main driver, she believed in the idea and in the team and the team believed in her. The team got the funds during the second part of last year and they became a product team working on their idea at this moment.
A contributor of another idea was less motivated to work on it because the idea owner was less visible. The idea stopped, but he had a great motivation to work on his own idea, which didn’t participate in the last year event, but which is implemented and is already in production.
#learnings
A very good idea is not enough. The passion and perseverance of the idea owner and of the team turn an idea into product.
The contributors are less motivated when the idea owner is out of the picture.
#LessonsLearned2 — Chemistry of the team
The collaboration and the diversity make a difference during the process of transforming an idea into a product. Having a growth mindset, being passionate, being able to adapt or change the idea on the way, listening the others and taking decisions after having discussions inside the team are some of the main characteristics of the innovators.
There were two winners at the end of event but two different experiences after one year. One team had the members collocated, some were even working together in the same product team before winning and they were passionate ofthe same technology areas. The other winning team had members from different cities, they didn’t work together before and they had knowledge from different technology areas. After one year, one idea received funds and became a product team, the other idea stopped.
The tensions inside the team, the resistance in listening to each other and in changing the idea on the way were some factors which made other ideas to stop.
#teamslearnings
· “The drive of our team and willingness to transform our idea into a reality” .
· “Changes can also become chances.”
#learnings
· Good and reliable connection between the team members make a difference in moving on with the idea and transform it into a product.
· Do changes on the way based on customers’ feedback.
#LessonsLearned3 — Customer Constant Feedback
I remember an idea from the third-place winner: “Even we didn’t win the event, the feedback we got after our pitch, motivated us to continue”.
Having constant feedback from the customer is one of the keys of the agile way of working. In innovation it is an important factor for early and best decisions when you want to transform an idea into a product. One team met their stakeholders late during the process, after development was already done. After the stakeholders’ feedback, they shifted to another idea which fitted better the customer needs.
During the #InnovationDays2019, another team got the feedback that their idea doesn’t fit the company business. Their decision was to drop it off and to focus on other better and more appropriate ideas.
The last year’s winner team didn’t win the first event 2 years ago, but having constant feedback from different domains and customers helped them to transform their idea to better fit the customer needs and in the end to win at the second participation.
# teamlearnings
· “The stakeholders pressure made a difference in SmartParking.”
#learnings
· Constant feedback from different customers and stakeholders save time and encourage focus on the best ideas.
#LessonsLearned4 — Use all available resources
During the event, the teams had access to stakeholders, mentors and business knowledge. They had the support of the innovation team to understand the process and have a good pitch in order to engage the audience and win the votes.
Some of the teams used these resources fully and created a network during the event. This network helped them after the event too because they had already built connections with stakeholders for constant feedback and with the mentors when obstacles aroused on their way and they needed support and advice.
Not only the external resources helped, but also the internal. The diversity inside the teams (technical knowledge, business knowledge, different roles with different visibility inside the company) made the ideas to have real progress.
#learnings
· Using all the available resources and creating a network of stakeholders and mentors can make a big difference in overcoming different types of obstacles.
#LessonsLearned5 — Support from the managers in a corporate environment
The journey of innovation in a corporate environment is different than outside the corporation. Inside the corporation, innovators work in their product teams on a daily basis. The involvement in the innovation projects happens mostly because they are passionate, because they want to work hard and give something valuable back. On one hand, corporate innovators have a safe place to experiment and easy access to the stakeholders, mentors, business knowledge and innovation process knowledge. On the other hand, they need to find time, motivation, availability, synchronicity in order to work for the product, but also for their new ideas. And above this, they have to find the support and encouragement of their managers in this journey.
One team stopped working on the idea because it was difficult to find the right time to develop it during the working hours: the pressure from their managers who wanted them to focus only on the product team (and this is expected from a good coordinator to focus on high quality services) was too high.
Another team had members in a department where the manager encouraged them and gave them time to work on their own idea also.
#learnings
With a strong innovation culture inside the company and a team of management supporting the teams innovation will eventually pay off.
#LessonsLearned6 — Clear innovation process in a corporate environment
In a corporate environment the innovators have expectations. They started to need a clear view of the entire innovation process when they engage in this journey. Otherwise, the lack of transparency in the innovation process leads to a lot of frustration and demotivation.
The experience of one team raised my attention. They received a great international feedback from our customers and the team succeded in deploying the solution in two countries. The customers’ enthusiasm was high. The team is still waiting to receive the funds to continue their project. The innovation team takes its own lessons from here: to make the process clearer also for the teams which didn’t win the contest, but who had great ideas with great feedback.
#learnings
· Teams have bigger expectations from the innovation team in a corporate environment. A clear view of the steps during the innovation journey will keep the innovators motivated and happy.
During our retrospective sessions, we learned what worked and what didn’t work during the latest years, what made the teams to progress or to stop, how the innovation process in a corporate environment can be improved and how we can help the innovators to continue their ideas. But we also understood, that their grit and their passion are not solved by any process. This is something which is deep inside their mind and structure and the most important thing that we learned from the #lessonslearned is to create an auspicious environment, a strong innovation culture in our organization and a transparent innovation process in order to meet their expectations on their journey.
So keep an eye on innovators. And also on the Innovation Team.
