A Toolset to Support the Early Stage of Innovation

1. A Toolset to Support the Early Stage of Innovation ERIMA 2008 2008-11-6/7 Porto Alexander Hesmer BIBA hes@biba.uni-bremen.de

2. What is the Early-Stage of Innovation?

3. The Early Stage Innovation Innovation Facts “Research is making knowledge out of money - innovation is making money out of research” Per Eriksson, Director for the Swedish Agency for Information Systems 85 % of product development time is invested in products which never reach the market. Reinhold Bauer: Kein Bedarf für Plastikräder. Freitag 43. Only 18 % of the innovations brought into the market prove sustainably successful. Innovation Network Austria Study. 2005.

4. The Early Stage Innovation Innovation Process

5. Todays Support of the Early-Stage Innovation

6. The Early Stage Innovation Innovation Process 75 % ofinnovationworkersusetheinternetforinformationissues but: Specificsoftwareand IT toolsforinnovationmanagementareseldomadopted (NovaNet 2006)  Laboranovafocusses on users real needsusers

7. Evaluating the Real Needs of Innovators

8. IT Support of Users Work Routines

9. BIBA, June 2007 Identified Routines Idea Generation by an Individual Topic Research Result Presentation Think/ Represent Ideas Evaluation Re-Think Review Laboranova 2007

10. Identified Routines Idea Generation/ Development by an Individual Initial Idea/ Transformed Idea Idea Representation Feedback Evaluation Idea Sharing Feedback Extraction Feedback Gathering

11. Identified Routines Idea Generation in Groups Topic Topic Presentation Capture Topic Discussion Idea Evaluation Brainstorming Structure Ideas

12. Identified Routines Knowledge Exploration Topic Information Gathering Information Evaluation Reading and Annotating Experience- Led Idea Generation Experience Share Talk Represent Commit Initial Idea Representation Idea Representing the Idea Transform Gathering Filter

13. Initial Conclusions from Interviews • Early-Stage Innovation is much about: • … experience to generate ideas • … communication to generate ideas • … representing ideas  Sketches, Powerpoint, Textdocuments • … sharing ideas with others  Mail with attachements. • … discussing ideas  Mail, Phone, VoIP, Meetings • … getting feedback for idea development  Mail, Phone, VoIP, Meetings Ideation Connection Evaluation

14. The Laboranova Toolset

15. The Laboranova Toolset Example: Scenario in 4 Phases Team Building Searching and Adding Information Idea development and Evaluation Idea Generation

16. Phase 1 Team Building Team Building

17. Phase 1 - Tools Team Building (Connection) InnoTube  Video-based Channel and Profile-related Connection Game.  Closed environment where profiled users can watch / load their videos or other ones, coming form other sources  Allows to visualise 3 kind of videos (Innovation Awareness, Ideas and Innovators) and to navigate / explore the Network represented by the users, the videos and the related tags and the connections among them via the embedded Network Visualisation and Navigation Tool, NVNT. Xpertum  Interactive web-based tool for visualizing social networks which uses basically force-directed and bipartite graph algorithms.  People can visualize data and relationships between two entities- competences and individuals - through different views in order to analyze important aspects in the current social network. To facilitate the integration with other tools, a xml data file is required as parameter to proceed with the visualization.  The visualization of relationships between entities help to graphically see the significance related to competences and individuals.  The colour, size and shape have been used to emphasize the relationships between entities.

18. Phase 1 - Tools Team Building Who is the best in user experience area?? Now, somebody on International Business Development mmm… more experience in International Strategy No doubt, Byron should be in. Ok, just one more on marketing… Ah, Elisabeth, she’s the one Bernardo is the best here Well, I’ve built the right team!

19. Phase 2 Idea Generation Idea Generation

20. Phase 2 - Tools Idea Generation refQuest - Game  refQuest with its gaming approach allows the collaborative generation of ideas in locally dispersed teams  It structures the process of idea generation and it allows the incorporation of creativity methods; thus it is more than a distributed brainstorming tool  Users (players) are observed by a moderator, who has the option to steer the ideation process Melodie Melodie is based on the concept of a idea box. All ideas are shown as a cartography which visualizes all results. There is a semantic system which links all similar topics between them, as we can better assimilate results. Moreover, people can improve idea by entering ideas of innovation. All ideas have a listing and people allowed to access to Melodie are permitted to modify till the idea is finalized. Idearium  Next Slide

21. ...like experiencing another world... Ok, we generated plenty of ideas Let‘s check with the boss. A Fairy tale land, as well.. ...create a new area in the store? Are you ready? Yeah, we did it! Maybe... Candyland? Yes, I‘m in. I‘ve got it, an Underwater Kingdom! Well done! Something more eye-catching... ...a Christmas factory... Let‘s group them all together Interesting ideas, indeed We‘re waiting for you. Let‘s start! …30 minutes later… Idea Generation

22. Phase 3 Searching and Adding Information Searching and Adding Information

23. Phase 3 - Tools Searching and Adding Information INNOTUBE  Video-based Channel and Profile-related Connection Game.  Closed environment where profiled users can watch / load their videos or other ones, coming form other sources  Allows to visualise 3 kind of videos (Innovation Awareness, Ideas and Innovators) and to navigate / explore the Network represented by the users, the videos and the related tags and the connections among them via the embedded Network Visualisation and Navigation Tool, NVNT. Collaborative Web Search  Allowing the whole team to share specific queries and search results with other team members, as well as to comment on the gathered ideas

24. Phase 4 Further Idea Development and Evaluation Further Idea Development and Evaluation

25. Phase 4 - Tools Further Idea Development and Evaluation Idem  People can put their ideas on internal prediction markets (PMs) and thereby explore and participate in a collaborative evaluation process.  The participants can bet on the future success of ideas using virtual stocks representing future events whose price is a function of transactions representing individual probability-estimates of the event happening.  The result is a prediction market that aggregates knowledge from many individuals in order to involve a broad base of insight in the evaluation of new ideas and concepts.  Users are motivated by winning, teams are encouraged to transfer knowledge and organizations profit from a collaborative evaluation harnessing the “wisdom of crowds”

26. All Phases Further Tools

27. All Phases Distributed Feedback Tool  List of innovation videos from InnoTube on a certain topic  Idea overview (idea history, comments, people, connections to other ideas, etc.) Prediction Market widget example: (final data to be agreed)  List of markets in which my idea has been submitted (open, closed)  List of all open markets  Market information widget  Notification when my idea has been evaluated in a market (market closed), and the results Data Entry Widget  Widgets for entering an idea / comment / sending email Monitoring and notification widgets:  List of all ideas / my ideas  Updates on ideas I select to watch  Notify me when a new idea has been entered  Notify me when a comment has been posted on my idea Notify me when my idea has been evaluated in a market Prediction Market feedback  Innovation statistics

28. All Phases Further Tools under development •  Idea Repository - central storage of ideas, comments • Mash Up - common, personalised entry point • Collaborative Intelligence and Exploration Tool • Unisprat • TheWrap • Hunch Machine • Rich Knowledge Meeting - audio, video, chat, shared whiteboard, shared application •  MindReader • Conex - Concept extraction tool • InnoTube Agents - suite of connection agents • InnoTube Games • InnoTube NVNT - Network Visualisation and Navigation Tool • SNA - Social Network Analysis • InnoJam • IES - Idea Evaluation System • TheTakeover - Disruptive innovation game to support brainstorming

29. The Laboranova Project says: Thank you!