Why Innovate? Getting to Point B How & why to get past the assumptions, understand the benefits, and become “innovative”
Oct 19, 2014
Why Innovate?
Getting to Point B
How & why to get past the assumptions, understand the
benefits, and become “innovative”
Session description (from LavaCon program)• ―Maybe you are like us, and have been mandated by those-
on-high to ―innovate‖. Maybe you‘ve subscribed to the myth that innovation is good for its own sake. Or maybe you‘ve got disgruntled customers.
• What does it mean to ‗innovate‘? How can it help you get from your current state to a better one? Can a department that is already resource- and budget crunched carry out true innovation? How does innovation align with and support overall department or corporate strategy? What are the real benefits of innovation?
• Hear how one team is using social/digital media (among other enabling technologies) in a corporate context to support the stages of baseline analysis, market/ customer study, strategic process analysis, team visioning, and finally innovation.‖
Today‘s session will cover…
• About us
– Point A: Where we are
– Point B: Where we want to be
• (Re)Definitions
– Defining ―innovation‖
– Redefining ―social media‖
• Getting there
• On the road
ABOUT US
Part 1
Who we are
Jim Smith
• Technical Communicator, 20+ yrs, including—
– 7 at IBM
– 11 at Platform Computing
– 2 as Manager of ID/UX Team at Platform
• Starting PhD in Linguistics at University of Toronto
Vivian Aschwanden
• Technical Communicator, 13 yrs, including—
– 7 at Leitch/Harris Broadcasting; 3 as group leader
– 6 at Platform Computing
• Project Manager (CAPM)
– 3 yrs
5
What we do
• Information development at Platform Computing:– Plan, design, write, deliver user
documentation for all Platform software products
– Participate fully in all phases for product development from initial product requirements to user experience design to packaging delivery
Point A – Where we are
Jim’s Perspective
• Mature, creative team
• Resource constraints keep team at capacity with project work
• Not enough time to contact customers
• Goals:
– Improve efficiencies, performance, & customer satisfaction
Viv’s Perspective
• Strong (but complacent) senior team with untapped potential
• Inconsistent, immature processes
• No singular vision
• Goal:
– Improve processes to better manage doc projects and improve quality
Point B – Where we want to be
• Take better advantage of team‘s maturity and capabilities to meet goals
• The end of our journey will be ―some kind of innovation‖ by ―some method or definition‖– For example, a new technology to help advance
our processes, free up resources
• Expect to use collaborative tools, social media, and other enabling technologies to get there
(RE)DEFINITIONS
Part 2
Defining ―innovation‖
• New ideas and concepts that create value
• Value/benefit could be financial, but also social, environmental, etc.
• Can be incremental or radical
• Common types of innovation:– Product/service innovation
– Process innovation
– Marketing innovation
– Business model innovation
Why innovate?
• Avoid ―The Twelve Death Signs‖1 –resuscitate with innovation!
• Grow your personnel, dept, company before resuscitation is required!
– ―There are two ways to grow: … either through mergers and acquisitions or through innovation‖2
1 http://innovationwiki.brighton.ac.uk/index.php/The_Twelve_Death_Signs2 "The New Organisation - A survey of the company", The Economist, p.8, January 21st 2006
Benefits of innovation3
• Promote higher customer satisfaction
• Increase productivity
• Improve delivery reliability
• Improve quality conformance
• Improve customer relations, and
• Reduce costs
3http://innovationwiki.brighton.ac.uk/index.php/Continuous_Improvement:_Lessons_and_Challenges
How innovative are you?4
Incremental Innovation Radical Innovation
Exploits existing technology Explores new technology
Low uncertainty High uncertainty
Focuses on cost or feature improvements in existing products or services, processes, marketing or business model
Focuses on processes, products or services with unprecedented performance features
Improves competitiveness within current markets or industries
Creates a dramatic change that transforms existing markets or industries, or creates new ones
4 http://www.innovationtoolbox.com.au/why-innovate/innovation-can-be-incremental-or-radical
Redefining ―social media‖
• Collaborative, real-time communication tools that are frequently web-based
• We prefer ―communicative and collaborative media‖
Why collaborate?
• Collaborate to:
– Improve processes
– Reduce constraints keeping team at capacity
– Find more time to connect with customers
– Envision & define stable set of processes
– Re-energize & innovate team
• Result of collaboration:
– Encourage innovation through the use of collaborative tools
Burning question
• How can collaborative tools, social mediums, and other enabling technologies help you to innovate?
GETTING THERE
Part 3
Enabling technologies
• Business tools we use that fit our definition– Wikis, SharePoint– LiveMeeting– Google Documents– Skype– eSupport Knowledge Base – Community websites (HPCCommunity.org)– CMS workflows– Facebook– Twitter
Real examples
• LiveMeeting – Used for remote install and config assistance
between field engineers/support/sales and our customers
• Eclipse– Rree downloadable window into development
team repository – used for collaborative content editing
• Twitter– Product uses portlets within status dashboard;
Twitter message board included so users can communicate in real-time with admins
Real examples (con‘t)
• Free & shareable Google documents great for
– Estimates
– Schedules
– Brainstorming documents
– Flow charting
– Reviews
– Remote meetings
– …any collaborative work
ON THE ROAD
Part 4
Achieving our goals
• How can we use social media and other enabling technologies to perform…
– Baseline analysis
– Market & customer studies
– Process analysis
– Team visioning
Process analysis & team visioning
Phase 1
June/July
Identify basic ID process
Checkpoint
December
Assess process
Phase 3
Oct
Create support pkgs
Phase 4
February
Discover gaps, ways to meet other corpobjectives & innovate
Phase 5
Mar/Apr
Implement improvements & innovation opps
Phase 2
Sept
Align with corp & dept goals
Are we there yet?
• Questions:– How do we know we've innovated? – Is simply doing something different "innovation―?– Can social media help to innovate?– Do we need collaboration to innovate?
• Our answer:– Starting with the small seeds these social media
tools give to us, and through collaboration and the resulting generation of new ideas, innovation springs forth naturally