The process of managing ideas can be best described as an idea or innovation pipeline in which "best of breed"
organizations apply a systematic and repeatable series of idea management or innovation processes to advance an idea
from its inception to delivery.
Idea management processes vary from one organization to another, and they are dependent on the product management
method that the organization uses (such as Stage Gate or Pragmatic Marketing).
Sources of ideas
As the Product Management Hub diagram in Figure 1 depicts, there can be numerous sources of ideas and product
requirements. It is essential that the idea management process to be employed for managing product
portfolios include the identification of the sources from which ideas are required (or expected) to be collected,
as well as the process by which they will be captured.
Figure 1. Product Management Hub and potential sources of ideas and products
requirements
A key objective of managing ideas is to establish a process framework that effectively supports the receipt and
advancement of ideas in a manner that is responsive to market needs and profitable to the organization.
Receiving and qualifying idea submissions
The process defined for receiving and registering ideas should strive to systematically capture vital information that
facilitates the validation of the idea's worthiness for consideration. Information such as the market problem
addressed, strategic alignment, affected markets, risk, and return on investment (ROI) are examples of data points that
help to ensure that an idea is qualified to be considered for selection.
Prioritization of ideas and requests
For all product and project portfolios, the challenge is to balance scope against the constraints of schedule, budget,
staff resources, business needs, and quality goals. For the trade-off decisions that need to be made to achieve an
optimal balance, you must give consideration to what information and data points must be provisioned so that you
can judge and measure the relative importance of one idea or request in relation to others.
To enable management to distinguish the relative values of different ideas, it is essential to consider information
such as strategic alignment, estimated value contribution, risk and cost to implement, competitive advantage,
compliance and regulatory implications, and so forth.
If the organization has adopted and established SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) data for
its various products, the ability to determine how an idea or request improves a product's SWOT position will also help
to ensure that the right ideas or requests rank higher in the selection process.
|