Community Forum – Screening Innovation Ideas

Resource Type
Survey (Community Forum)
Author
Innovation Research Interchange
Topics
Employee Innovation, Tools and Techniques
Associated Event
Publication

How do you screen innovation ideas?

How do you screen innovation ideas objectively and effectively? Who is involved in the idea screening process? Any recommendations on the best-in-class idea screening tools? – Scientist, global consumer products company

Community Responses

Vic Welch, GE
Screening is the most effective way to  optimize your innovation process.  It’s also the way to kill a lot of good ideas.  So be careful of what you wish for!   The most effective way is to ramp up slowly.  Seed ideas with small amounts of time and cash and see how they get on.  If they appear to be going well, carry on.  If they appear to be a poor idea, suspend them, don’t kill them.  The screen should be a simple measure of understanding.  3M and some GE groups use the filter Real Win Worth.  It is crude but will get you started before the formal stage gate process kicks in. 

Dr. Reinhard Effenberger, Chief Chemist, IMI-TAMI Institute for Research and Development
My thoughts:

  1. For screening an idea, never involve the company business-marketing representatives at this early stage (unless it came from them). The tendency here is to be skeptical, “we’ve already tried this” or it “costs too much”.
  2. Take the person who suggested the idea – and give him/her time to collect/summarise literature/patents  and access to technical/scientific staff – to run a first “feasibility meeting” – where the innovator presents the idea as clearly as possible and then the tech/scientific staff objectively (as far as possible) analyze the pros and cons. The innovator, with help from the meeting participants, summarizes and writes a recommendation.
  3. Positive scenario – based on the summary, a short “pet project” is opened (by the Innovation Leader) to check technical feasibility and evaluate process complexity (to estimate set-up and production costs). Negative scenario – the innovator could appeal to the Innovation Leader. Decision of the Innovation Leader is final.  
  4. Pet Project results positive, the Innovation Leader now involves company business/marketing staff to review the business aspects.

Main thing – keep the screening process as simple as possible, open doors and examine/discuss objectively. After you have the hard facts – involve the Business Unit.

Dennis J. Tsu, Senior Director, Innovation Programs, SRI International
SRI uses a process it’s developed internally called the Five Disciplines of Innovation (™).  This is described in a book called “Innovation, The Five Disciplines For Creating What Customers Want” – authored by Curt Carlson, our CEO, and Bill Wilmot.  As a non-profit research institution SRI scientists write up about 500 patent disclosures every year, we file about 200 patent applications, and our goal is to spin out 5 to 6 companies every year. SRI runs workshops on this process for other institutions.  If you’d like more information – please visit our website:  www.sri.com/innovation Hope this helps.  Thanks. 

Bernard North, Vice President Industrial Technology, Kennametal Inc.
Four methods come to mind; they may overlap to some extent –in parallel or sequentially.

  • Gate 1 of the new / improved product / process Stage Gate project management system. Gate 1 Keepers are mid level managers and they are organized by process or product specialization and are hence highly knowledgeable. Monthly meeting.
  • For ideas submitted for intellectual property protection, by a committee of Technical and Product Managers who meet monthly.
  • For a given family of technical processes, by peers in a competency team specific to said process types.
  • Informal discussion of technically knowledgeable people.