An expert from the Association for Consulting Expertise advises a reader looking for a way to systematize — both in product development and overall business improvement.
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Q: The pandemic and other workforce challenges have made us rethink our company’s systems and processes as we strive to develop new products. It’s been a while since we tackled this. What would you recommend as an approach?
ACE advises: You have no doubt heard of three leading process improvement methodologies: Lean, which eliminates non-value add activities; Six Sigma certification, which ensures a process yields consistent results; and Innovation Engineering, which starts with people and ends with innovative solutions tailor-made to suit their needs. Of these three, Innovation Engineering’s “user first” approach makes it a leading candidate for developing organizational system improvements.
Innovation Engineering is often associated with product development but is a particularly powerful methodology improving systems for how we work. According to Renee Kelly, assistant vice president for innovation and economic development at the University of Maine, “Innovation Engineering is a disciplined, systems-thinking approach that can also be applied to improving systems and processes in an organization.”
Innovation Engineering brings a new product to market only if it fills a customer need. Likewise, it changes the organizational chart, checklists and processes with only after clearly identifying the internal issues to be resolved. Not surprisingly then, the first step is to understand why a change is important. “This includes gathering any quantitative data or insights from your team,” says Kelly.
As part of this, clear objectives and boundaries for potential solutions are set. Having identified the problem(s) you then identify solutions that start from the user’s viewpoint and only then lead to the new systems and structure. The solutions should be simple, easy to explain, easy to verify and easy to adjust.
Innovation Engineering develops measurable objectives. “It’s important to identify a single metric that reflects the aim of your innovation. While it’s valuable to measure a variety of outcomes, trying to maximize all outcomes at the same time usually lowers the performance of your primary aim,” says Kelly.
Tove Rasmussen is an ACE member and a Portland-based consultant with Partners Creating Growth, where she helps clients identify key growth opportunities, and make them happen. She can be reached at tove@partnerscreatinggrowth.com.
