The Innovators Tool Kit Website - A valuable resource for making innovation work for your business

Introduction: How to Make Organic Growth an Everyday Event
-- Systematizing Your Innovation Process

Every organization struggles with consistently achieving organic-growth targets, but understanding a few key concepts can begin to change all that:

Focusing on innovation's fuzzy front edge.
Adopting organic growth strategies.
Developing a balanced project portfolio.
Understanding how human's solve problems.
Establishing a process for innovation.

Techniques and Tools for Organic Growth -- 55 techniques to make organic growth and innovation an everyday event in your organization, divided into four key phases.

Section One: Define the Opportunity

Define Phase Summary

*Techniques and Tools for identifying high-potential innovation projects:*
1.	Jobs To Be Done - Determine the human need you're trying to fulfill.
2.	Outcome Expectations - Give customers more of what they desire.
3.	Value Quotient - Identify opportunity gaps in the marketplace.
4.	Ethnography - Observe your customers to uncover unarticulated needs.

*Techniques and Tools for scoping and focusing innovation projects:*
5.	Heuristic Definition - Draw a picture of your system and its parts to focus ideation.
6.	Nine Windows - Looking at your opportunity through nine different lenses.
7.	Job Scoping - Broaden or narrow your innovation focus.

*Techniques and Tools for effectively managing people, projects and innovation ROI:*
8.	Stakeholder Management - Get key influencers involved and on your side.
9.	Cognitive Style - Leverage the diversity of your exploiters and explorers.
10.	Project Charter - Keep your innovation team focused and on track.
11.	Innovation Financial Management - Constantly improve your assumption-to-knowledge ratio.

Section Two: Discover the Ideas

Discover Phase Summary

*Techniques and Tools for refining innovation opportunities*:
12.	Resource Optimization - Make sure you use all available resources.
13.	Functional Analysis - Scrutinize your system for innovation.
14.	Trend Prediction - Learn from evolution's genetic code.
15.	Creative Challenge - Sacrifice the sacred cows.

*Techniques and Tools for leveraging brainpower and turbo-charging creativity:*
16.	HIT Matrix - Compare existing solutions to spark new breakthroughs.
17.	SCAMPER - Ask eight important questions.
18.	Brainwriting 6-3-5 - Encourage equal opportunity ideation.
19.	Imaginary Brainstorming - Get silly for the sake of creativity.
20.	Concept Tree - Leverage current ideas to generate many ideas.
21.	Random Stimulus - Use an unrelated picture or word to spawn new ideas.
22.	Provocation and Movement - Step over the roadblocks in your thinking.

*Techniques and Tools for exploring all human knowledge and nature:*
23.	Structured Abstraction - Guide your innovation using 40 proven principles.
24.	Separation Principles - Split your innovation problem in four ways.
25.	76 Standard Solutions - Learn how substances interact with fields to form solutions.
26.	Biomimicry - Seek nature's eons of experience to find answers.

*Techniques and Tools for selecting the best ideas for further development and design:*
27.	KJ Method - Group and organize ideas by their natural affinities.
28.	Idea Harvesting and Treatment - Organize and shape ideas to improve their yield.
29.	Six Thinking Hats - Evaluate your solution ideas in six different ways.

Section Three: Develop the Solution

Develop Phase Summary

*Techniques and Tools for formulating an initial design:*
30.	Performance and Perception Expectations - Identify what customers want in your solution.
31.	Axiomatic Design - Transform what customers want into the best products and services.
32.	Function Structure - Identify how the solution functions in its whole and its parts.
33.	Morphological Matrix - Generate solution concepts by combining design alternatives.
34.	TILMAG - Pair ideal solution elements to create new design concepts.

*Techniques and Tools for selecting the very best design to pursue:*
35.	Paired Comparison Analysis - Rank design concepts against each other in pairs.
36.	Pugh Matrix - Evaluate all your design concepts to create the invincible solution.

*Techniques and Tools for optimizing and finalizing designs:*
37.	Process Capability - Guide your innovation using 40 proven principles.
38.	Robust Design - Split your innovation problem in four ways.
39.	Design Scorecard - Learn how substances interact with fields to form solutions.
40.	Design FMEA - Seek nature's eons of experience to find answers.
41.	Discrete Event Simulation - Seek nature's eons of experience to find answers.
42.	Rapid Prototyping - Seek nature's eons of experience to find answers.

Section Four: Demonstrate the Innovation

Demonstrate Phase Summary

*Techniques and Tools for evaluating how new products/servicesperform prior to their release:*
43.	Prototyping - Build a fully functioning model of your new product to test & perfect it.
44.	Piloting - Build a fully functioning model of your new service to test & perfect it.

*Techniques and Tools for evaluating how new products/services perform prior to their release:*
45.	SIPOC Map - Identify the key inputs and outputs of your processes.
46.	Process Map/Value Stream Maps - Flesh out the details of your process.

*Techniques and Tools for making sure processes are optimized for efficient and flawless operations:*
47.	Measurement Systems Analysis - Make sure you know your measurements are valid.
48.	Work Cell Design - Configure the workspace for flow and optimization.
49.	Mistake Proofing - Install measures to prevent human and system error.
50.	Design of Experiments - Analyze input & output variables to identify the critical few.
51.	Conjoint Analysis - Compare solution attributes to cull out customer preferences.

*Techniques and Tools for problem diagnosis and improvement prior to commercialization:*
52.	Process Behavior Charts - Monitor process performance to keep the new solution in control.
53.	Cause & Effect Diagram - Investigate the root causes of performance problems.
54.	Cause & Effect Matrix - Identify the key input-output relationships in need of attention.
55.	Control Plan - Ensure that your new solution becomes commercialized as planned.