Main Challenges

As with all external facing projects, one of the primary challenges of the Leckey-Firefly project was providing an engaging and accessible user experience, while also maintaining a positive brand identity. While most platforms allow basic customization of the idea management user interface, including the use of brand colors and logo placement, in this case the client required a higher degree of control over design aspects.

While some companies choose to use their own brand for their idea management project, many initiatives create a unique brand especially for the initiative. In this case, Leckey-Firefly decided to launch its project under a brand titled “Hatch.”

As part of this brand identity, the plan was for Qmarkets' platform to be placed within a larger “Hatch” website, and for there to be a seamless transition between the two environments. This posed a unique challenge, as it meant developing custom elements from scratch especially for this project. While this meant additional work for Qmarkets development team, the customer was extremely happy with the result.

Role of Innovation Management Software

To prime the platform to maximize ideation, we worked closely with the joint company to ensure the gamification features of our software were configured to meet their needs. The gamification strategy developed was twofold. First, users would be incentivized to contribute by being given the opportunity to earn a percentage of the royalties should their idea be selected and actualized. This monetary-prize strategy would be complemented with a smaller-scale gamification element, where users could earn points for every idea submitted. The users with the most points would receive set prizes.

Aside from acting as a gamified ideation accelerator, the platform would also have to present clear data, which an expert panel would use to ascertain project viability. This panel would be comprised of engineers, medical professionals, therapists, as well as parents, all of which would eventually select the ideas best suited for implementation.

To address these requirements, we implemented our Q-open solution. This is our product designed specifically to cater for open innovation initiatives. First, the platform we developed with Q-open acted as an accessible, user-friendly hub in which anyone could posit solutions to challenges, vote on ideas, and interact with members of the community. Second, it served as an engagement amplifier, allowing the joint company to incentivize participation via prizes. Finally, the platform made it easy for an expert panel to identify the ideas with the most potential, develop them further to ensure they complied with company requirements, and then implement them.

The Results

This project was considered a huge success by everyone involved. Not only did the initiative deliver a huge increase in the number of ideas for new products, it also allowed Leckey-Firefly to understand the level of market demand for each new product, helping them to prioritize their pipeline. The community developed through the Qmarkets platform was hugely appreciative of this initiative, and there was certainly an increase in brand loyalty among participants. Finally, the project also generated significant media coverage and recognition, giving the client a great deal of exposure that it would not have received otherwise.

Main Challenges

As the NHS is such a large and old organization, there are many cultural and bureaucratic barriers to innovation that were challenging to overcome. The first major challenge was persuading health-care organizations and individuals (many of whom were reticent about large-scale innovation) that an open exchange hub could yield real value without risk. After this, the real challenge was to create a thriving collaborative ecosystem, where users would not only submit their own ideas but also develop the ideas of others together through voting and commenting.

Role of Innovation Management Software

The Q-open idea management platform offered by Qmarkets serves as an intuitive one-stop shop for medical innovation in the region. In essence, a user can log in, see what challenges have been posed, and submit ideas or business solutions to address them quickly and easily.

The simplicity and streamlined nature of the Qmarkets-supported exchange helped tackle the problem of fostering collaboration and open innovation across multiple departments. After the results indicating the exchange's effectiveness were established—a task made easier by the robust ROI analytics capabilities of the platform—the AHSN was able to drive a campaign on social media. This, in turn, has helped grow usage rates on the exchange, as well as help change the mindsets of organizations who were previously hesitant about the innovation project.

In addition to acting as a reliable system in which ideas could be collected and developed by senior staff to best address challenges, the online innovation exchange also served as a hub for sharing stories. By having a dedicated platform in which patients, staff, and academics can share ideas and give feedback, engagement has been fostered in a way that other crowdsourcing methods (i.e., online questionnaires) could not achieve.

The Results

In the first months following its release, the WMAHSN project gathered 381 ideas from 665 system users. Of these, 24 ideas were approved and 13 implemented.

Testament to the wide-reaching effectiveness of the exchange is the fact that ideas submitted under certain categories were readily adopted by other entities. For example, a solution submitted by an organization that assists patients with exercise for managing their own health, was found to have an application suitable for diabetes-related challenges. This resulted in the organization being able to garner new contacts and raise funding for their brilliant initiative.

The exchange also proved to be extremely efficient when it came to connecting health-care professionals with organizations that could improve their workflow processes. One hospital involved was able to improve its staff management and resource allocation procedures by connecting with a company that could replace its outdated spreadsheet system with a companion app. As such, the Qmarkets system ensured that the innovation exchange functioned both as an efficient idea collector and a platform for engaging users via collaboration and the pairing of requirements.

Conclusion

Project management in the health-care sector—where lives are very much in the balance—requires that solutions proposed to improve workflows and resolve issues be meticulously supported with data. As we have seen, having efficient innovation software in place can break down silos, encourage creative problem solving, and help ensure that the best ideas are refined for optimal impact. It also serves as a great medium for bringing the concerns of patients and health-care providers to an optimal synthesis, supported by hard data.

Main Challenges

Total, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, decided to implement Qmarkets' software after determining that the ideas it had gathered with an internal tool could be complemented by external ideation. Total also needed a means to ‘humanize’ its brand (i.e., make it more approachable and relatable to the day-to-day energy consumption requirements of customers).

Because the platform would be rolled out internationally, scalability was a significant challenge. Auto-translation and multitenancy subsystems would be required to facilitate open innovation in multiple regions worldwide.

Taking these challenges into account, the platform was to serve as a hub where ideas could be submitted and voted on by users. It would also act as an open conduit where customers could interact with company representatives, collaborate on projects, and contribute suggestions for better sustainability practices.

Role of Innovation Management Software

To help achieve the “humanizing” objective, as well as encourage engagement, Qmarkets augmented the open innovation project with best-practice gamification features. The methodology involved users choosing from three categories (my car, my fuel station, and my home). After selecting a category, users could then view the set challenge associated with it and contribute ideas as to how the company's offerings (e.g., home energy products) could be improved. All activity undertaken on the platform—from submitting and upvoting ideas, to contributing reviews—earned the user points and badges. The submitters of the top three ideas also receive physical prizes, ranging from gas cards to iPhones and iPad devices.

As with other projects, the platform we developed using Q-open made it easy for decision makers to identify the ideas with the most potential, incubate them, monitor their development, and ensure they are implemented efficiently.

Aside from proving effective purely as a scalable online open innovation hub —facilitating international ideation and collaboration with auto-translation—our software served well for onsite crowdvoting activities. When the platform was officially launched at a major Paris auto show, attendees had the opportunity to use it to fill in a survey relating to the kinds of services they would like to see at the service stations run by the company. This ‘in the field’ approach resulted in 300 attendees registering to the platform directly.

Results

Qmarkets open innovation platform allowed Total to generate approximately 1500 ideas in the first few months of operation. Of these, 50 were implemented as viable ideas. The number of successful ideas yielded is testament to the platforms ability to improve communications between the energy company, its external stakeholders, and its customers.

Conclusion

This project demonstrated how open innovation can serve as an extremely efficient means of ‘feeling the pulse’ of your customer base. By engaging clients, making them feel valued, and giving them a quick and easy means to contribute their insights, you can kickstart value-driving ideation.

As we have seen, using a highly configurable field-proven innovation management system can greatly enhance the process of launching and managing an open innovation campaign. It allows you to set the parameters of the campaign to align with company objectives, safely collect input from multiple streams, gather key metrics, and nurture viable ideas to fruition.

Platform Goals and Alignments

As one of the first actions, the Airbus Innovation Cell wanted to offer an open platform for all employees to engage in collaboration and idea sharing. This platform became the digital space for innovation management, and helped to promote the spirit of innovation across organizational boundaries. Like many large organizations, document and knowledge management tools such as SharePoint and Wiki's were already in place, with sporadic adoption and use. But a global system, with a defined process and workflow for managing innovations, did not exist. Markus Durstewitz, corporate innovation manager at Airbus, began searching for a tool that could scale to support all Airbus employees over time. After looking at several platforms, they decided to run a series of trials with different vendors. Finally, HYPE Innovation's Enterprise platform was selected, based on its scalability and high degree of flexibility, which would be needed to support the ambitions of the Innovation Cell over time. In 2010, HYPE Innovation's platform was branded as IdeaSpace and launched to a select group within the engineering area only.

The Innovation Cell team aimed to create a self-growing system, where employees would virally spread the message about the tool, and bring more departments on board. To achieve this, they needed to ensure the platform was not seen as a side project, but rather a tool that helps you deliver better results in your day job. They looked at the strategic priorities set out by the Airbus board, and went searching for sponsors who had key challenges to solve in support of those priorities.

Idea campaigns were launched with sponsors who had a clear need, and a budget to fund the follow-up and implementation of selected ideas. This helped employees to see that activities on the platform were linked to real needs, and ideas were taken seriously. Initially, there was no direct promotion of IdeaSpace, but only the specific idea campaigns, which helped to foster an action-oriented approach for using the tool.

Since launching with just 50 users, IdeaSpace grew rapidly across the Commercial Division, with approximately 50,000 users now having access. In 2013, the Airbus Innovation Cell was expanded to become Airbus Corporate Innovation. The intention was to broaden the focus beyond engineering, R&D, and emerging technology, to other functions such as sales and marketing, ultimately creating a more business centered innovation mindset. Today, the next step for the IdeaSpace platform is to go group-wide, including the other divisions, Airbus Helicopters, Airbus Defense and Space, and Airbus Headquarters (which includes central functions), totaling around 133,000 employees.

As well as focused, time-bounded idea campaigns, the platform now also supports the concept of idea channels. Each primary business function has an always-open idea channel, where related ideas can be submitted, and designated caretakers will manage the ideas through an end-to-end process. Table 6-1 shows the growth in the idea generation process. The Corporate Innovation team has also provided many supporting resources, including physical spaces for workshops, prototyping labs, recommended methods and tools, a catalyst network, and workshops for sprints, bootcamps, and other formats to help employees mature their ideas and foster collaboration.

The Collaborative Innovation Canvas

The Collaborative Innovation Canvas is a simple way to map out the key components of an innovation management platform. It focuses on three main aspects: alignment (with the larger strategic goals around innovation); people (the stakeholders, advocates, and general audience); and process (selecting, funding, and tracking ideas). The canvas captures the big picture, and the crucial elements needed for success. It allows everybody involved to easily understand and share the big picture. Therefore, it lends itself well as a frame for exploring the development of an innovation program.

Strategy

The innovation management program is aligned with overall company strategy goals for innovation. The strategy for Airbus Corporate Innovation can be defined under three points:

1. Focus. Provide focus for what is important in terms of value for customers. Every year the company will issue the top priorities, which the team will then use as the hunting grounds for innovation, and the definition of challenges for IdeaSpace campaigns, thus linking corporate strategy directly to the activities within IdeaSpace. It's important to have the direct backing of the CEO for this kind of initiative, as it provides the authority to challenge different departments about their innovation activities, and increase their focus on the core strategy.
2. Engage. Provide a place to foster collaboration and raise awareness in relation to corporate challenges. The key is to build engagement between people beyond individual departments and organizational boundaries. A digital hub like IdeaSpace has the scalability to support this aim.
3. Accelerate. The process for innovation should itself be designed for speed —limiting the number of phases and gates—but the mindset of the people involved is the most important factor for Airbus. Corporate Innovation provides resources and support throughout the end-to-end workflow, which help to foster the entrepreneurial mindset. Acceleration will then come from the empowerment of individuals and teams, and creating a sense of ownership for their innovations.

Top-down versus Bottom-up Support

A bottom-up approach can work, up until a certain point and a process must be simple to be effective. As stated by Durstewitz:

To keep a big enterprise platform moving, you need top-down support. When it becomes an objective for senior management, then the rest will follow. For the team running the platform, reporting directly to the CEO's office gives you the necessary level of visibility and a certain amount of authority to go out there and get things moving. This in itself is crucial for innovation at a large organization. Large organizations establish complex processes over time due to growing complexity of their business. New fresh ideas do not comply with these processes and tend to be killed from the start. Therefore, innovation at an early stage needs a fast track process providing the flexibility to try out things beyond the obvious.

Success for IdeaSpace is determined by the impact of the end-to-end process. Engagement and adoption of the platform has always been good, but it is equally important that ideas are going all the way through to implementation, and innovation is visibly happening throughout the company. IdeaSpace is the hub where innovation activity is recorded and made transparent to the organization, which, in turn, builds belief in the innovation team's capability, the innovation community and the IdeaSpace platform itself. Furthermore, if business leaders are requesting to run more campaigns, it means the process is helping to solve their challenges and meet their goals. Additionally, the introduction of Idea Channels has helped to grow usage beyond the campaigns, creating an always-on place to go for ideation and collaboration. Growing usage and impact of both campaigns and channels is a further measurement of success for the program.

Need for Physical Space

There comes a point where the resources, methods, physical spaces, and budgets must come together to support the program. As stated by Konstantin Gänge, corporate innovation manager:

If you only use a virtual space, it will be quite hard to really implement innovations. At some point you need to make your ideas tangible, and you need to put people together.

Airbus Corporate Innovation is a central team dedicated to providing Airbus with support for innovation. There are four components to that support: the physical space for innovation; the community platform; methods and tools for innovation; and the resources of the team itself:

1. Physical space. When ideas are developed into concepts, it is necessary to bring people together physically to work on the idea. There are various physical spaces to support the different stages of idea development, for example: a business space to host innovation projects, and work collaboratively on methods such as the business model canvas; and a prototyping lab, complete with 3D printers; a rapid architecture lab; and ideation spaces.
2. Community platform. IdeaSpace is the virtual home for innovation, acting as the repository to store both the online and offline activities. The platform is adapted overtime as new use cases arise, so it always meets the needs of changing innovation practices. Idea Channels—always-open spaces for ideas relevant to particular departments—were implemented, for example, because departments saw a need to handle ideas that arose outside of the focused remit of idea campaigns.
3. Methods and tools. Airbus Corporate Innovation wanted to provide standardized methods and tools, to make it easy for employees to practice innovation. It took around two years for the team to research, experiment with, and determine the best tools for the job together with the users. This shortlist of methods and tools were then refined, and made more applicable for Airbus employees. For example, the use of design thinking personas is one element that helps the engineers to build an idealized customer since they typically do not have access to users in the operational environment. Nevertheless, human-centered design and co-innovation is of growing importance. Gänge says:

   Sometimes you have consultants come in and pitch their tools. They then go away, and the employees find it hard to work with these tools as they are too abstract and too far away from their actual working environment. So it's important that we adapt any method ourselves to make them more relevant and easier to use for our employees in their specific working environment.

4. The corporate innovation team. Altogether, there are around 25 people in the Airbus Commercial Corporate Innovation Team (henceforth Airbus Corporate Innovation). These are divided into three primary groups, which align to stages of the innovation process:
   • Approximately 10 people working on culture change, the methods and tools, and support for innovators. This group also contains the team which manages the Idea-Space platform (see below). Their background is change management, and expertise in innovation methods.
   • Approximately 10 people working as project leaders, helping to prototype and proof of concept ideas. Their background is mostly from engineering and project management.
   • Approximately 5 people working with startups, focusing on the back-end implementation side, helping to bring ideas to market. Their background is mostly business and marketing, with project management and lean experience.

IdeaSpace itself has three to five people managing the operations of the platform, with the following roles and characteristics:

• A platform and process architect, who oversees the program, manages the team, and refines the process. This individual is also responsible for managing stakeholders.
• A campaign manager dedicated to supporting and facilitating idea campaigns and providing knowledge of methods and tools.
• A community manager, providing training and awareness sessions, and continuously looking to stimulate the network. The role is closely aligned with communications and change management.
• A platform administrator, who focuses on the IT aspects of IdeaSpace, such as further configuration and development of capabilities based on user feedback.
• Communications are a key skillset. The campaign manager has a communications background, and the core Innovation team has links to the corporate communications department, making use of their skills and reach.

Gänge states:

If you cannot put headcount behind an initiative like this, then you should leave it alone. Otherwise you will quickly build up momentum, and then quickly build up frustration when nothing happens.

Stakeholders

The key individuals involved in supporting the program and innovation in general, including campaign sponsors and management stakeholders. The IdeaSpace platform is there to support the goals of the sponsors. Sponsors can request idea campaigns, and each one is treated like an individual project, which Airbus Corporate Innovation will manage. There is a checklist for sponsors to complete before a campaign can be launched. The sponsor must provide one person fully dedicated to facilitating the campaign, evaluation criteria must be predefined, and the problem statement must be clearly stated. At the end of a campaign, a lesson learned document is written up, and it is used to improve future campaigns.

Although it only takes a few minutes to set up and launch an idea campaign in the software, the preparation work behind the campaign can be much more significant. For sponsors running their first campaign, it can seem like a lot of work. But the steps are in place to ensure high-quality output that benefits the business, and maintains belief in the system and the process. After running campaigns a few times, it becomes more of a routine for sponsors and a trusted mechanism for solving challenges or seizing opportunities.

The Airbus Corporate Innovation team reports directly to the chief innovation officer, who reports to the CEO. The team believes this is a critical factor in the success of their program. It immediately lends credibility, helps to raise the profile of the activities and get others involved, and can make communications easier. Continuous adoption of the platform has also contributed to senior management providing more support.

As stated by Durstewitz:

It's all about connecting people and ideas. Thus, it is important to get all stakeholders on board of a campaign by (a) reaching out to the community to gain a good level of interest and participation and (b) getting buy-in of the specialists and the business owners to ensure follow-up and implementation of selected ideas. The good balance of the team makes the difference.

The innovation team developed a series of checklists to ensure a consistent approach to running campaigns. Some examples of the checklist items are given below.

Checklist for Campaign Sponsors

• Define scope, objectives and the campaign question.
• Identify the potential customers for the ideas that will be submitted.
• You and your boss understand that you will spend at least 12 hours per week working on the campaign (with peaks at launch and closure).
• Arrange a kick-off meeting with the main stakeholders.

Campaign Leaders Launch Checklist

• Campaign overview and audience teaser
• Campaign objectives
• Seed idea owners
• Campaign moderators
• Set the date for the evaluation briefing session
• General background information (What should the audience know?)
• Basis for ideas to be selected
• Next steps after campaign (What is going to happen with the ideas?)

Campaign Leaders Closure Checklist

• Provide a summary about the campaign was published in the IdeaSpace blog.
• Send highlights of the campaign, including top ideas and next steps, to all invitees.
• Get a final statement from the sponsor to be used for communications.
• Organize an evaluation session no later than two weeks after closing the campaign.
• Provide the IdeaSpace team with the communication material (including emails) that were used during the campaign (for best practice collection).
• Provide your personal feedback and lessons learned to the IdeaSpace team so they can improve the tool and support.

Audience

Who is invited to use the platform, whether it's internal only or also open to externals? Who can help you expand the success of the program, such as innovation advocates?

IdeaSpace was initially open to 50,000 employees in the Airbus Commercial division, but rolled out to the whole Airbus Group during 2016, totaling around 133,000 employees. Sponsors can choose to make their idea campaigns private to only selected groups or individuals. However, while Airbus Corporate Innovation recommend to direct communications to those you specifically want to invite, they strongly advise to keep campaigns visible and open for everybody to participate. Campaigns often benefit from having employees in other areas bring their perspectives and add to the collaboration. This is the essence of innovation at large organizations (i.e., to connect the dots).

The Airbus Corporate Innovation team knows that it cannot build a culture of innovation alone. It must have the help of people who promote and drive culture change and others who support innovators and help to move innovation projects forward throughout the company. They fall into the two following groups:

Caretakers

• Experts in different areas of the business, who are able to review ideas in their field, take responsibility for pushing those ideas to the right people and seeing that a decision is made on whether to progress or not.
• Caretakers operate mostly in the Idea Channels, rather than Idea Campaigns. Managing ad-hoc idea submissions.
• The Airbus Corporate Innovation team works closely with caretakers, reviewing the activity and impact of their channel (see measurements), and sharing best practices with all caretakers.
• It is also possible to be a caretaker for just a single idea.

Catalysts

• A network of around 150+ employees who spend part of their job working on innovation, act as promoters and enablers for innovation initiatives.
• There are three levels of catalysts: advocate, agent, or facilitator.
• When nominated a catalyst, they will benefit from a specific training and education program organized by corporate innovation and the catalyst network in place.
• There is one person dedicated to working full-time on orchestrating the catalyst network. Here, IdeaSpace is used as the bridge between idea owners and the catalysts who can help develop their ideas.

Gänge says:

IdeaSpace is really a big part of the catalyst story—it keeps the network alive. It allows us to manage all of the local initiatives they are running, and it enables innovators to connect with the catalyst network.

Communications

How to communicate effectively, create momentum, and build trust with your audience and stakeholders is critical. Gänge states:

I would say that the communications aspect is something that goes across everything. It's important for all the areas of the innovation program. You have to communicate on the strategy, the resources, the stakeholders, the process. You have to communicate about all the elements to be successful.

Elements of communications include:

• When communicating with employees at Airbus, the Innovation team takes the approach of communicating the specific activities, such as idea campaigns, rather than a generic push for the platform. This focuses attention on how employees can contribute immediately, rather than generally promoting an innovation platform.
• A monthly newsletter is compiled by the Innovation team, which provides information about measurements, latest activity, and lessons learned. The newsletter is primarily aimed at stakeholders, caretakers, and a selection of senior management.
• A campaign guide booklet, which serves as a comprehensive guide to understanding the benefits of idea campaigns. It containing practical tips for the campaign leader on how to frame the challenge, how to launch it effectively, what to do when in submission mode, how to set up evaluation sessions, when and how to organize an award ceremony, celebrate success, and finally, how to wrap-up the campaign and document lessons learned.
• Airbus Corporate Innovation runs an annual IdeaSpace user convention, which brings the IdeaSpace community together. Special attention is given to testimonies, best practice sharing, and improvement proposals of IdeaSpace lead users, experienced campaign leaders and sponsors. One part of the user convention is to look ahead and propose ways how to further improve the platform. HYPE Innovation actively takes part in the event, an occasion to provide insights about the tool evolution roadmap and to get direct user feedback.
• Airbus has deployed lean methods across engineering and manufacturing. It uses SQCDP boards (safety, quality, cost, delivery, people) to monitor and steer daily operations. IdeaSpace is now listed on the SQCDP board of the head of engineering, helping to raise the awareness and health of the platform at a very prominent level.
• A webinar is run monthly to introduce the platform to newcomers. These webinars are open for everyone but are targeted specifically at new catalysts, caretakers, or sponsors. The Innovation team is often asked, “Can you tell me more about IdeaSpace?” The webinar is an ideal way to inform all of those who are interested in learning about the program in more depth.
• A further detail that has proven important is to personalize the email templates in the platform. The emails are automatically sent to inform people of changes to their ideas or projects, or if an update is required on their progress. The emails have a lot of useful information, and are specific to the context. They have proven to be useful in nudging people to update and take action.

Decision Making

Decision making includes how ideas will be judged, selected, and improved; also who is involved, and what criteria and process should be used.

Idea Campaigns

• A community graduation feature, which allows the crowd to promote the best ideas to management, is sometimes used for campaigns, if the volume is high. However, it is less useful when the ideas are of a highly technical nature. In this case, an expert panel of evaluators is required to judge the ideas fully.
• Online evaluation tools are seen as crucial to the process, because they help to avoid groupthink, or following the sponsor's opinion, which are significant challenges when reviewing in person.
• After an evaluation session is completed, it is recommended that the team sits together to discuss the results and decide.
• There are some cases where the innovation team asks that the sponsors stay out of the process, because their opinion is too strong and can skew the results. The sponsor still has the final say, but the goal is to let the team make a compelling recommendation.
• It's also important that the sponsor agree up front what the decision-making criteria should be. This helps participants understand what is being looked for, and how evaluations will work.
• There is the possibility to play a “wildcard,” for example, if a sponsor finds an idea very attractive and wants to provide budget and resources to follow-up and implement it.

Idea Channels

• Each channel will appoint their own pool of experts to review ideas.
• Because ideas are submitted at any time, the process for handling them is more ad-hoc. Each channel works in a slightly different way. For example, the Cabin & Cargo department meets every two weeks to go through all recent ideas, making a decision whether to proceed. This ensures a timely response to every idea, and allows promising ones to move through the process quickly. Other departments do it differently, but the important factor is that IdeaSpace is used to track the decisions and status changes, so there is one single source of truth for innovation activity.

Bootcamps

• Bootcamps are one of the formats used to accelerate ideas through the back-end process, offering a fast track to build a team and turn ideas into concepts.
• Bootcamps typically last from three days up to one week. At the end of the bootcamp, the teams have the opportunity to pitch their concept to potential sponsors from senior management.

Execution

• Execution involves how ideas are iterated upon and developed toward implementation:
• Initially, the innovation team went looking for ideas that are targeting incremental innovations, which could quickly be implemented. This approach allowed them to build momentum and credibility. But now, the focus has been switched to 10X projects with big impact if not disruptive innovations. In 2016, Airbus ran a dedicated campaign to find potential 10X project candidates.
• Because of the iterative nature, a design-thinking approach has become central to the whole process for Airbus. It helps to closely observe and understand user needs. Herein, iterative prototyping is a key enabler. It is encouraged at every stage. Some engineers see a prototype as something tangible, but in the context of the innovation process, it's communicated as anything from a slide deck, a paper figure, or a 3D printed design. The point is to focus on user insights, gaining feedback and, where necessary, adapting the idea to meet the nature of the problem.

Measurements

• Measurements determine what key performance indicators (KPIs) are important to measure, and how you can track and judge success over time.
• The innovation team is aware that they need to measure the performance of the innovation program, even though this may sound paradoxical. However, it's important not to use the same KPIs as for operations, but think carefully about useful innovation-specific
• KPIs. This means setting incentives for culture change toward accepting and generating new ideas as well as helping the maturation and implementation of these ideas. With the launch of IdeaSpace, it was not clear which KPIs should be used, so the team just let it run for a year to observe and see the reaction from employees and management.

Today, Idea Campaigns and Innovation Channels are measured, where activity is the volume of ideas, comments, and contributors, and impact is a score made up of points based on the progression of ideas through the stages. Initially they had used weighted scoring for impact, but it became too complex and created confusion, so it was reduced for simplicity.

The priority remains on ensuring a good level of activity (Activity = Number of ideas and comments submitted) and the right speed of implementation of ideas (Impact = Number of gates passed or ideas stopped). Although, they track many other indicators, only these two are used to form the monthly Innovation Scorecard: activity and impact.

The scorecards make it easy for the innovation team to monitor global activity; if a channel is showing high scores on impact, they will go and ask why, and what can be learned from that? Similarly, if a channel is showing low activity levels, there might be a problem that needs addressing. In either case, the aim is to find new learnings that can be shared with all channel owners. To maintain trust and credibility in the platform, transparency is key. That's the reason why the scorecards are visible to everybody in the community.

Gänge states:

With IdeaSpace, it is now possible to track the progress of ideas after the implementation stage. But measuring innovation is not easy, and you can end up with many KPIs which don't really make sense. Keeping it simple is really important.

Key Advice for Innovation Project Managers

Gänge and Durstewitz offer 10 points of advice for fellow innovation managers:

1. Set the focus first. What does innovation really mean to you and the organization? What do you/the organization want to achieve with innovation? Create a clear sense of purpose.
2. Define strategic innovation areas and select specific themes to get initial buy-in from potential sponsors.
3. Focus on idea campaigns first. They will deliver immediate results and success stories.
4. Frame the problem and define the challenge together with the business sponsor to create a win-win and meet their needs.
5. See yourself as a service provider. Build your competences and service offer around specific methods and formats supporting culture change and fast track implementation.
6. Define clear governance and clear roles with your process. Identify the campaign leader, channel leader, evaluator etc.
7. Support, train, and educate them accordingly.
8. Install a community manager to foster and animate the community, to organize network events and trainings.
9. Put special attention on communications to increase reach and motivate employees to take an active part in the community.
10. An innovation scorecard is a good means to create visibility for and to maintain buy-in of top management.