The new 4 Forces of Innovation Management
4FIM – A visual innovation management method to share where innovation initiatives are at, throughout discovery and product development in your business.
The four forces of flight are in use every day. In both the natural world in the form of birds, and by marvelous engineered contraptions in the sky. The four forces are in effect when you play frisbee, and when you jump off a cliff in a wingsuit.
In the large enterprise innovation is complex, as there are a different set of forces in play. Porter’s 5 forces shape business strategy. Commoditization, digital revolution, social media, globalization, the turbulent world and acceleration are sometimes referred to as forces or change or innovation.
When managing the innovation in the large enterprise, Lean, SAFe and other practises are available, however, I propose the following 4 Forces of Innovation Management (4FIM) technique to give your enterprise daily transparency of how the initiative is progressing, which is particularly relevant when proving out the problem or opportunity, before you enter the delivery or build cycle.
The primary concepts of the 4 Forces of Innovation Management (4FIM) this article will take you through, are:
- Weight
- Thrust
- Drag
- Lift
The secondary concepts this article will take you through, are:
- Pilots
- Crew
- First Class Passengers
- Business Class Passengers
- Economy Class Passengers
- Runway
- Initiative Control Tower
- The Hangar
The visual method I have designed, the 4 Forces of Innovation Management (4FIM), allows for the common hurdles of enterprise life to be managed when encountering resource changes, unforeseen blockers, incorrect sizing or effort, prototyping progress and testing outcomes. It also assumes the sweet spot of innovation for the enterprise is between the three circles of innovation as defined by IDEO; desirability, feasibility, viability.
The visual method assumes the innovation idea to be in it’s absolute earliest form, maybe nothing more than a hypothesis or “how might we” statement. From these early days through to the first go to market concept, the innovation manager will want to be seeing momentum, and the forces against that, as well how close the idea is to proving out the riskiest assumptions around desirability, feasibility, viability, before taking the idea into delivery. Additionally, guessing at the complexity of the idea, based on discovery or research needs, technical complexities and possible financial modelling variants, may assist with foreseeing the time and/or effort needed to support the idea.
Having existing visual systems in place, such as initiative walls, will make engagement of the technique easier, as the teams and organisation will already be familiar with the value of getting together to review the visual system, or be taking time to individually review it.
The 4 Forces
Weight
The weight of an initiative, could be compared to sizing in agile. Be aware that weight is at tension with lift (covered below). The heavier the weight of an initiative, the more thrust (covered below) may be needed to gain lift.
Be careful though. A “large” initiative doesn’t not necessarily weigh a lot, and a “small” initiative may be very heavy.
Factors that affect weight, would include number of internal stakeholders, team members and customer groups needed to be involved in the initiative (the more, the heavier). Weight can change during flight also, as you discover and learn, as some internal stakeholders, team members and customer groups, prove to be no longer valuable (think of them as parachuting out, reducing your weight, or parachuting in to your initiative mid-flight, James Bond style.)
Thrust
Thrust is critical, especially for take-off. If you want to create lift for your initiative, you have to have thrust. The heavier the weight of the initiative, the more thrust will be required. Thrust as no value if it appears too little, or too late.
Thrust is the energy, momentum and support of the initiative. When weight increases (more people getting involved, or you learn you need to test with more customer segments), thrust is what maintains and increases your lift.
Thrust can be in the form of executive sponsorship, financial goals, competitive movement or cost of delay.
Once you have significant lift, you may be able to continue with little to no thrust, essentially gliding, because you have achieved enough lift.
Drag
Drag is the force that doesn’t like to be talked about. Drag can be often be blamed on weight, but it shouldn’t.
At the start of an initiative, drag is often forecast to be minimal, however, as thrust is applied, no matter how little or much, drag is identified.
Drag is what causes difficulty in achieving thrust and then in-turn, lift, and once identified should be removed as fast as possible.
Unexpected drag can exist, because of lack of collaboration, miscommunication, miscalculation of weight, and often, complexity of the initiative (or it’s technologies).
Lift
Lift is achieved through the provision of thrust, and the gaining of factual insights. The strongest insights that fuel lift are from proof of customer demand for the initiative.
There are 3 altitudes markers the initiative needs to be lifted through in order to achieve mark of innovation; Desirability, Feasibility, Viability. They can come in any order, and can may grouped together. When trialling this way of working I propose the order above for 3 altitude markers; 1 – Desirability, 2 – Feasibility, 3 – Viability.
I propose setting desirability as the first altitude marker, because without desirability coming first, waste is produced by discovering feasibility and viability. We would be discovering how to build and what the cost would be of something we have not proven customers want. Not good.
To reach the proposed first altitude marker of desirability, requires the use of any number of methods in the customer research framework of our choosing, however desirability must be proven, before aiming to gain further lift.
Desirability can also be the hardest altitude marker for enterprises to achieve, as historically, incumbent enterprises have focused on the build estimates/scope and financial models, without engaging customers until the product is in market. With lean startup and design thinking principles being adopted in many enterprises today, this should now be a more familiar concept.
What “proving desirability” means, and therefore gaining enough lift to break through the desirability altitude marker, may be defined differently in each enterprise.
You may find that you are close to breaking through an altitude marker, and need to reduce weight, remove drag, or increase thrust, in order to reach that goal. In particular, don’t be afraid to reduce weight (reducing stakeholders or customer segments), as weight can be increased once the ceiling as been achieved, if desired.
And after all altitude markers have been met?
You’ve proven out desirability, feasibility and viability, brilliant! You may still be proceeding with some assumptions and hopefully they are not to risky.
Depending on the innovation approach the enterprise has adopted, you have already, or been preparing to create a lean canvas, business canvas or business case, that makes a compelling read as to why it makes sense to start looking at producing a minimum viable product (MVP), or other low-risk, low-cost concept, to test with the market, to determine a product/solution fit, or, you may of used the 4FIM approach.
Supporting roles of 4FIM
Pilots
You may identify a Pilot, and co-pilot if required. These may be business owners, product managers or founders, but regardless of their job title, they are the ones who pilot the initiative. They need to be able to know how to determine and change the weight, when to apply thrust and how to maintain it, how to reduce drag swiftly, and have an ability to be brave enough to create lift, and push the initiative through the altitude markers.
Should the initiative need to land and take off again (pivot), they need to be comfortable and accepting this as a potential part of the journey ahead.
Lastly, should the initiative fail to meet 1 or more of the altitude markers, and need to be landed indefinitely, the pilots should be the people who tell everyone else this will be happening. How gracefully they land (or crash) the initiative indefinitely, is up to the pilots.
Crew
The Crew are your cross functional team that are going to ensure the pilots get the support they need to do their job. The Crew may have specialised skills and, may need to change roles as the initiative gains lift.
You may find some crew members need to change on the journey to, so be brave enough to ask them to parachute out or in, as you progress, to ensure your weight is optimal.
First Class Passengers
Taking the typical stakeholder matrix, but applying an analogy, your First Class Passengers, are the stakeholders you need to look after with the most care and attention. When they buzz you for attention, you attend them swiftly. The pilots may find it valuable to engage often and in detail with these passengers, and address them individually, as well as a group (such as showcases).
Business Class Passengers
These passengers require care and attention, but not to the same level as First Class Passengers. The pilots should still engage with these passengers, but also be comfortable letting the crew engaging with them on their behalf. Addressing these passengers as a group is acceptable (showcases etc.), however, they may require, and the pilots may find it beneficial to also spend some one to one time with them.
Economy Passengers
Economy passengers are the broader people teams in the enterprise who need to know only the basics, and typically in a just-in-time fashion. They are however a large group, and can create significant weight, and drag, if not engaged with at all. Being a large group they can be easily underestimated in terms of the disruption they can cause, if not considered at all, by the crew or pilots.
Other concepts for 4FIM
Runway
Runway is the amount of time, or money, you may have to achieve lift. How much lift needed before an initiative hits back down on the runway will vary from enterprise to enterprise. I’d recommend ensuing the pilots and crew are consulted on how much runway is available before getting started. The experience of the pilots and crew may be able to advise whether the runway assigned is enough, for the weight and expected drag of the initative. This may prevent running out of runway, which is detrimental to pilots, crew, and all passengers on the initative.
Flight time
Flight time is how long you think your pilots, crew and passengers will need to be on-board the initiative for. Useful for shared resources, or capacity constrained resource model, this forecast may help reduce drag later on. Be aware though that true innovation is about heading into the unknown, so allow for this.
Initiative Control Tower
Your Initiative Control Tower is the central governance or management base that needs occasional updates via either a push or pull method. This may be the enterprise’s project management office (PMO), lean governance office (LGO), or maybe the General Manager. The Initiative Control Tower may or may not also control what comes out of The Hangar (covered below) or the strategic themes that intiatives fall into.
The Hangar
The Hangar is where initiatives in the enterprise wait until there are pilots and crew ready to take them to the runway. Initiatives in The Hangar may also be grouped into strategic themes that the enterprise is working towards, so the right pilots can easily identify what initiative they may be picking up next.
Thoughts and Feedback
I’m extremely interested and excited to hear your comments and thoughts on this concept.
If you try adopting this approach to enterprise innovation, please get in touch with me, I’d love to hear what worked, what didn’t and how you’d change it.
