IRI Workshop: Innovation in Action: A Case Study Workshop on Disciplined Innovation 

This 75-minute interactive professional development workshop is designed to prompt conversations among R&D, innovation, and technology management practitioners on how exemplary cases of innovation can help them approach and think about innovation in their own contexts. This session is built around active participation, so expect to collaborate, analyze, and discuss as you explore an innovation case study. 

Workshop topic:

The session will focus on how companies utilize Amazon’s renowned Amazon Working Backwards (AWB) approach to revitalize and future-proof their business. AWB emphasizes the importance of defining the desired customer experience first, then working backward iteratively and through rapid, small-scale experiments to uncover what customers want and need, ultimately shaping the solution that best serves them. This approach has critical success factors like customer centricity and clear vision, yet it’s prone to potential pitfalls like competing priorities and fear of failure. 

The session will feature a case study on the application of the AWB approach at a Fortune 500 global energy group which works on producing and delivering sustainable energy solutions and offering a wide range of advanced products and technological solutions, such as solar panels and electric vehicle charging facilities. Since 2021, this company has formed 143 teams and identified 58 innovation projects using the AWB approach. The study features three major themes in applying the AWB approach: a disciplined focus on customers, process, and people. 

This workshop is offered in collaboration with the Research-Technology Management (RTM) Journal. We encourage you to read the RTM article that discusses the case study before the workshop: https://iriweb.org/resources/disciplined-innovation-a-case-study-of-the-amazon-working-backwards-approach-to-internal-corporate-venturing/. 

Workshop format:

Each session will feature a short presentation that summarizes the case study’s main concepts and applications. Then, the participants will be assigned to small groups and tasked with discussing and identifying common challenges, available methods, and creative solutions related to the session’s case study and theme. The attendees will return to the plenary and engage in a facilitated conversation to share key takeaways from their small-group discussions, highlighting areas of convergence and divergence and connecting the session’s takeaways back to their work. Seating for this workshop is limited, so we encourage you to register soon. If you have any questions, please contact Besher Al Makhlouf (balmakhlouf@nam.org). 

This workshop is designed for current IRI members. If you are not a member, please contact Clayton Warnke (cwarnke@nam.org).