"A project is a problem, scheduled for a solution" - J.M. Juran

So I'll admit right up front on this blog entry that this topic is near and dear to my heart.  As a Project Management Professional (PMP), it has been my career goal to change problems into solutions through an orderly set of management processes.  My experience has mostly been with complex information technology hardware and infrastructure projects, although I have honestly lost track of the number of information technology software, process improvement, strategic, people-change management and other types of projects I have managed over the past 15 years.

As my passion for creative problem solving and innovation was set ablaze, it was logical for me to apply my formal education in project, program and portfolio management to this new set of problems.  What is amazing to me, is that it seems most organizations don't make the same logical connection.  They attempt to manage their ideas and innovation systems as "one-offs" or special events, when they should be managed as an orderly set of processes.

Let's start off with what I see as the Nine Basic Steps of Innovation:

1. Root Cause Analysis & Problem Definition
2. Application of Existing Knowledge to a Problem
3. Application of Idea Generation Techniques to Gain New Knowledge
   
4. Idea Submission
5. Idea Feasibility Analysis
6. Idea Selection
7. Idea Pilot, Prototype, Implementation
8. Idea Feedback
9. Idea Modification

Each step along the overall process requires management of a set of tasks, resource availability/time, issues and risks, decision points, etc.  In essence, project/program/portfolio management skills.  If you have ever worked with a good project manager, you know that they are worth their weight in gold.

Now, when we marry the skills of a project manager with the skills of an idea generator, we have the ingredients for successful innovation.  A dreamer...matched with a doer.  Additionally, when we match the discipline of project management with the free-wheeling excitement of idea generation, we have increased the odds of innovative success.  Unbridled enthusiasm...matched with a set of tasks leading to an end.

Those organizations who already have successful project management programs in place are miles ahead when it comes to matching their innovation efforts to an Innovation Portfolio Management Program.  There are a number of additional things to consider, however, when establishing an Innovation Portfolio Management Program:

1. Define your portfolio approach
• A portfolio is nothing more than a logical collection of strategically similar projects
• An innovation project is simply the management of an idea as defined above in the nine step process
  
2. The organization should develop a strategy or risk profile on incremental vs. breakthrough innovation efforts
3. The Innovation Portfolio should match the incremental vs. breakthrough strategy mix
• For example, if you decide that your organization should devote 70% of the time to product extensions and 30% of the time on new-to-market products, your innovation portfolio would have a 70/30 mix of these types of new idea projects
4. Ensure that you have a broad range of involvement on the Innovation Portfolio Management Team from across your organization. 
   
5. Ensure that you have Senior Leadership (preferably a strong decision maker with authority) engagement
6. Ensure that you constantly compare the Innovation Management Portfolio against the organizational strategy
7. Hire and retain GREAT project, program and portfolio managers!!!

For those of you who have followed this blog for some time well know, I am not a huge fan of strict processes.  I hold special disdain for rigid and singular process management methodology.  The application of project management discipline to idea and innovation management is no exception.  While it adds a degree of rigor and direction to ideas in order to ensure the common definition of innovation, it should also be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs and strategy.  That is how I successfully manage projects...technical, innovative, strategic or otherwise.


Have a GREAT week!!!