Innovation: managing ideas at scale

Over the years, different approaches to innovation have taken the lead. “One model was the CEO genius,” Matlins explains. “This person was the primary source of ideas for the company, and that model is also typical of startups.” In the 1970s, so-called skunkworks were popular—an independent team working within an established company to drive innovation. “Given the dynamic nature of work today and the distributed nature of the workforce, it makes sense to tap into a broader resource,” she maintains. “With the help of innovation management software, it can be done at scale.”

Many people assume that ideation as a business practice is owned by the innovation department, but according to Matlins, that is true only half the time, and companies are ideating in almost every business area in an enterprise. “Most enterprise customers are running nine to 10 challenges or communities a year, but more mature ideation programs run almost double that amount,” she continues. “This is where the automation and machine learning technology comes into place. To be successful and agile, organizations need some help surfacing the most valuable ideas from programs of this scale.”

Establishing a true culture of innovation requires commitment and consistency. “You have to build the muscle,” Matlins says. “There is evidence that the more frequent ideation efforts are, the more employees feel engaged and the more profitable the company becomes. In addition, frequent ideation and acceptance of the ideas has a great bearing on whether a company is going to grow.” The links between engagement, profit and growth are strong, and companies that use them effectively will have a definite competitive edge.

Mapping the mind for brainstorming

iMindQ from Seavus takes a different approach, as a mind-mapping solution that visualizes ideas using mind maps, concept maps, flow charts and other visual representations. iMindQ users can describe a concept in a template and then incorporate information such as input from colleagues, attach documents and add links,” says Magdalena Joveska, marketing specialist with Seavus. “This panel helps put all the information into one interface so any relevant facts are easily accessed.” The brainstorming mode is more free-form, with a digital whiteboard interface. (See chart on page 9, KMWorld July/August 2017, Vol. 27, Issue 7 or download chart.)

Optus, an Australian provider of integrated communications services, uses iMindQ across the enterprise for brainstorming and information sharing. The marketing team at Optus uses iMindQ to generate new ideas for campaigns and to plan them. It supports creativity by documenting and tracking ideas so that everyone in the department can share their ideas and contribute to the overall effort. It can also be used for project tracking and can import Gantt charts to provide details that reflect the progress of projects, a feature that has been well received by managers at Opus.

iMindQ can save a brainstorming meeting as an HTML map and share it to any device. “Users can then modify it within the browser itself and send it back,” Joveska says, “where it can be re-imported in iMindQ or used in HTML format.” Because iMindQ is integrated with most of the tools from the Microsoft Office suite, users can create a task in iMindQ and send it directly to Outlook, where it can be tracked as a task showing the description, status and percent completed. PowerPoint presentations can also be imported into iMindQ either as a complete file or as individual slides, which can themselves become topics to which other information can be linked.

Although it is used extensively at the enterprise level by organizations such as Volvo, retail chains and universities. iMindQ is also suitable for use by individuals. “We have seen a lot of uptake recently by students for research purposes,” Joveska says, “because it is an effective tool for organizing resources and ideas.” iMindQ is also used by independent consultants and creative industry professionals for increasing personal productivity. A free online version is offered on the web so potential users can utilize it to create and share mind maps.