An overflow of elements in your mapping will cloud your overview; prioritizing and interpreting relevant information and comparing your innovation projects will become challenging.
To avoid visual clutter, the first step is to set a clear definition of what an innovation project is. Aligning on this company-wide will be an internal challenge, as different stakeholders or departments might have different interpretations of the term. But going the extra mile to ensure everyone’s rowing in the same direction is important – not only for the mapping of projects, but as a company best-practice.
Differentiate your daily tasks from innovation projects
Distinguishing between tasks and innovation projects is how you avoid mapping conflicts between them. While every organization defines an innovation project differently, we have some guidelines on what we think an innovation project is (and what it isn’t).
Most times, innovation projects involve a clear start and end date. They are implemented to generate a product, service or process that differs from existing ones, resulting in serving a customer segment different from the ones currently served.
Understanding what an innovation project is will help you gain clarity of what it’s not — continuous optimization projects, improvement of existing offerings, or serving existing segments.
This definition is fluid, depending on your organization’s ambitions. As your organization matures in its innovation activities, this defition should evolve as well.
