Your innovation: By accident or by process? A quick scorecard.

Do your innovative ideas start and advance by process? Or by accident? A short diagnostic below to score yourself. Give yourself 0 or 1 points, depending on your answer to each question. We are halfway through the year, and the next 6 months might be a great time to make a change if it is needed.

1 Do you have a set of steps (i.e., a process) for your innovation,

0 or does each person “just do what I think is next” (0)?

1 Do your ideas usually launch by the date you plan,

0 or are they late?

1 Does your innovation process usually add substantial value for customers

0 or do your compromises usually give lower value?

1 Do you express your ideas using prototypes,

0 or just as paper ideas?

1 Does your innovation team consist of a diverse group of functions (e.g., R&D, manufacturing, marketing, legal, safety-regulatory, leadership)

0 or only one or maybe two of these?

1 Is your team spending part (e.g., 10-25% or more) of their time learning and “becoming more”,

0 or are you always “producing”?

1 Are all your known risks expressed as questions,

0 or do the most vocal or senior opinions guide the way?

1 Do you have educated guesses (hypotheses) for your questions,

0 or are you mainly “seeking to gain understanding”?

1 Do you have one primary goal and 5-7 subgoals,

0 or a list of “to do” or task items?

1 Are your goals public so that everyone can see them and comment,

0 or are they in the bowels of your computer or on a sheet of paper in your desk drawer?

1 Do you meet and adapt your goals and methods weekly, and together,

0 or do you email your needs as they arise?

1 Do you have a scorecard of success for how you’re meeting goals?

0 or do they happen or not?

1 Do you review your portfolio of prototypes each quarter,

0 or do you have an 18 month (or longer, or never) review?

1 Do you have a regular review of your team members’ situation, needs, and goals,

0 or do you simply assess their productivity?

1 Do you make selections and choices based on maximizing growth rate with probabilities,

0 or do you just check expected ROI and take it from there? 

There are 15 questions here. If you scored below 14, contact me and we can assess your situation more fully using our STREAMS process. If you scored less than 11, contact me this week -- you might be leaving a lot on the table. If you scored less than 8, contact me right away -- you might need help immediately!