How do you show the impact of innovation projects?

I think innovation is a function of defining clear roles for colleagues accountable for the growth of the relevant metric and providing enough autonomy for them to solve their own problems and not solving growth funnels for them 1. You define the scope of the project with the relevant stakeholder 2. Provide them with enough accountability and identify their blind spots 3. Help them structure a valuable experiment which can be statistically signifacnt 4. Measure and test it across in a mathematical manner Eventually the projects innovation is measured as the impact of the experiment you do + the impact of the folks who contribute to the same on the lines of the global vision

As some other contributors have alluded to, any project – whether innovation or not – needs to align with, and contribute towards, the organisation overall strategic objectives. So define your innovation project not only in terms of the project’s expected outcome but also how your project will contribute towards the organisation’s overall vision and make sure that these additional benefits are both tracked and communicated.

Here are some of the ways I encourage clients to measure the pre- and post-change impact of work practices or workplace changes on innovation. • Diversity of employee networks—Ask employees: How many people do you know outside your team, department, location, ethnic group, etc.? How often do you collaborate with them? • Measures of trust within teams which is essential to innovation • Value derived from patents, trademarks • Ratio of R&D dollars to new product sales • Length of innovation cycle • Gross profit per product (to capture any process improvements or efficiencies) • Time available for thinking? playing? • Willingness to fail

Some ideas to consider: - What potential future revenue will this bring that’s measurable. - Can we measure how it’s increased productivity, downtime, more efficiency?

Don't forget to collect data (and anecdotes) BEFORE the project rolls out to users/customers so you have something to measure impact DURING and AFTER the project.

Listen to what your information is telling you, including when it may be time to recommend a pivot (abandon the current vision/solution for a different one), or to stop the project entirely (kill the project and reallocate its resources to a different project). Organizations with robust innovation cultures recognize and celebrate these types of decisions as 'wins' especially when they occur early in the process and provide a lesson that can be captured into their innovation process for others to benefit by.

Stories which have a clear human impact are more likely to spark change and impact than stories which are dry and merely numbers driven. When telling the story, don’t forget the human side. Often we see stories involving data and metrics which miss the human impact of the project. When presenting the story, think of the people involved in the project and what was their impact on the project as well as the projects impact on them. You will notice that such human stories will go a long way in leaving a lasting impact on the audience and therefore on your business.

When I was a reporter, my senior editor gave me a valuable tip for writing great business articles: View business through a human lens. I strongly believe that every business has a story to tell. People do not buy your product, they buy relations, stories & values. Throughout my professional journey, I have dedicated years to searching for the perfect story, organizing it effectively, and delivering a clear message to the target audience. And I'd love to do it for my whole life.

Innovation by its very nature involves changing business as usual. Business as usual is often supported by clearly defined internal or external guidelines, processes and procedures, and technical Standards, ensuring performance, durability and sustainability of products or services, and enabling correct implementation. To ensure impact is realised from innovation, parallel efforts should be made to revise, update or develop guidelines, such that innovations can be transferred into business as usual and aren’t simply “shelved” following development or investigation. Measuring impact can then include, amongst other things, measuring tangible changes to processes and procedures, which would indicate likelihood of future adoption / uptake.

Do more than showing the likely benefits of the innovation: higher sales, better margins, stronger competitive position, etc. Also show what would happen WITHOUT the innovation. Things might look good now, but the lack of innovation might hurt the company's future. An innovation can be a great move even if it seems not to improve anything, because the alternative -- NOT innovating -- can make things worse.