Innovation Brief – how to prepare it?

First steps

In my last article, I wrote about the Innovation 24H project – detailing how to make it happen and its beneficial outcomes. After speaking with many companies, I realised that the hardest part of joining our hackathon was the first step – finding some time and creating a brief for our innovation. They found it difficult to define the critical challenges and needed some external help – that’s why I decided to help them. Below, there is a list of points that should be covered by such an innovation brief.

The brief – questions to answer

#1 About the company

1. How big is your company?
2. Does it currently use any kind of technology or innovation?
3. Do you have a person responsible for innovation (like a Head of Digitalisation)?
4. Have you implemented any technology recently?
5. What positive impact can technology have on your business?
6. Have you tried to implement any new tech innovation? How did it go?

#2 Problem/ Challenge

1. What are the issues you are dealing with right now as a company?
2. Can they be solved by applying modern technologies?
3. Which challenge is the most urgent right now?
4. How would solving the problem change your company?
5. Could you please describe a problem you would love to share with the external experts?

#3 Persona – Owner of the problem

1. Who is the person responsible for dealing with daily issues?
2. What are their needs and goals?
3. Why is solving the problem important to this person?
4. What is important for such a person in terms of solving the problem?

#4 Expected outcome

1. What would you like to achieve?
2. How will you measure whether the 24H session was successful or not?
3. What would you like to get out of it – a report? A prototype? A presentation? – be specific.

#5 Team

1. What kind of skills and experience should people have to solve your problem?
2. Is there any specific knowledge they need to gain before the event?
3. What is your ideal team for solving the problem?

#6 Criteria

(if innovation is a form of competition like the Hackathon and there are a few teams competing against each other)

1. What parameters will you judge?
2. How will you choose the winner?
3. Are some criteria more important than others?

#7 Further steps

1. What is the next step after the 24H Innovation session?
2. How can you collaborate with the external team? Spin-off? Internal project? The external company specifically dedicated to developing innovation? Or something else?

That’s more or less everything. I know it’s a lot of points to consider, but it will clear your mind and allow you to focus on the important aspects. You can interview and give surveys to a few people in your company to see where you need to innovate and how to implement it to achieve success. Try to share as much as you can – the more precise insight you give, the better the response will be.

So feel free to use it and if you are not sure whether you have done it right or not, don’t hesitate to share your brief with me via damian.winkowski@leocode.com and I can help you polish it. You can also schedule a one-on-one conversation and we can have a chat.