Designing Your Innovation Portfolio

Designing an innovation portfolio requires a managerial discipline and a thinking process. The process involves identifying the rate of external change, setting growth goals, and designing the selection process. The rate of change helps forecast the speed at which current products and services become obsolete and the impact of change on existing revenue and profit flows. The next step involves identifying growth goals for the organization in terms of revenues and profits. This helps determine the impact of the rate of change on future revenues and the growth goals the innovation process must achieve. The final step entails designing a systematic, orderly method for evaluating ideas and deciding which ones to invest in. A set of evaluation criteria is used to assess each of the innovation projects that are already underway, as well as all new proposals, to help accomplish the goals set for the organization.