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

A fellow "Twitterite" (is that right?) recently asked me about my Twitter tag line, "Working at the intersection of innovation management and project management."  She didn't make the connection between project management and innovation.  She made the all too common assumption that coming up with ideas (read...brainstorming) was the limit to creative problem solving and innovation.  When I asked her how she thought those ideas became products or services, she simply replied, "Oh, I thought that's what those guys in R&D and Product Development did."  Sure they do...with a little help from processes that look and feel a lot like project management.

I am simply amazed at the number of people who continue to miss the fundamental step of action in the innovation equation.  You remember the innovation equation don't you?

Ideas + Action + Need = Innovation

Ideas come from creative problem solving, problem identification, idea generation and creativity.  Action comes from the process and activity surrounding making the best ideas become real things.  Sometimes the action results in the form of prototypes, or test software or models.  To get there most reliably, you need the type of rigor found in project management or new product development processes.  The final factor in the innovation equation is Need, or the simple fact that your idea-made-real provides value to someone, value that might even be worth paying money to receive.  Once you get your innovation into the real-world, you need to constantly defend it from competitor attack and marginalization...and to do that, you need a quality and process improvement mindset. 

Here...let me show you what I mean:


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Those of us in the innovation management profession need to be conversant in many different, but complimentary, management disciplines.  The combination of Idea Management, Project Management and Quality Management provides a comprehensive, well-ordered, repeatable and reliable total innovation management business process.

In my skewed opinion, project management excellence provides the greatest innovation advantage.  If you can have a well-managed portfolio of innovation-related projects in your new product/service development pipeline, you are going to be a market leader.  Period.  Project management deals with making things happen on time, on budget and within scope.  Project management allows for risk and overlapping work streams to be overseen and controlled.  Project management provides points of communication and quality control.  I have often said that if you want innovation to happen in your organization, you should match a dreamer's ideas with the work plan of a project manager. 

For more information on the intersection of project management and innovation, click HERE to download the "Innovate or Die" article from the October 2009 issue of PM Today, the official publication of the Project Management Institute.  For those of you who are already members of PMI, watch for the new Innovation & New Product Development Community of Practice coming soon!