How do you use your product innovation partners to create unique ideas?

As innovation is a process that involve information exchange and management, among stakeholders, it is highly advised to discuss and sign off non disclosure agreements. These documents should be customised case by case. NDAs are pre requisites for product exclusivity.

Having partner(s) helps bring diversity of perspectives which can be very useful. Often times the passionate innovator will lack objectivity as the vision of the future is something that they alone can see in their mind's eye. Loss of objectivity leads to myopic decision making that is rarely good for the consumer, product, or business as a whole. At Acumen CPG, we see the different professional disciplines involved in bringing a new product to market falling into one of two buckets: Commercial (i.e. brand, marketing, finance, etc) or Technical (i.e. design, engineering, production, etc). When selecting a partner, consider choosing somebody who’s discipline is different to your own. They’ll be able see things that you simply can not.

My experience is that often the most valuable and innovative ideas come from "unexpected in context" partners. The typical innovation session in an FMCG structure may consists of marketing, research, R&D & sales… These can also be separate sessions with consumers or customers. But if invite representatives from other functions to such meetings - administrative, supply chain, accounting - you will get a huge influx of fresh, working ideas! My conclusion is that the more "diverse" a company gathers, the richer the outcome of such a meeting will be. Because each new person will bring their own experience, their own unique view, give their own unique examples - and the fact that this greatly expands the views!

First, any new product that needs to enter the market must have some element of innovation. In order to determine which element of innovation should have, we must be well acquainted with qualitative, quantitative and financial market information in that category, more precisely, before we come up with an innovative idea, we must have an estimate of how the market will react to it. If the innovative idea has received the "green light", we approach the formation of the implementation team. The in-house team should bring greater reliability, and a good choice of external partners in a good number of cases brings better creativity and market results, but also greater unreliability, which is not easy to curb even with the best contracts.

Another way to innovate is to realize what is in process now and identify each set of the process, including talent. Often small changes within the product life cycle and the right mindset will yield quick results, thus continuous innovation. Innovation without implementation is just a dream.

Define your goals with a long-term vision in mind, aligning them not only with immediate objectives but also with your organization's broader mission and values. This will ensure that your product innovation partnership contributes to your strategic growth and sustainability, fostering a sense of purpose and shared values among all stakeholders involved.

At Acumen CPG, we strongly believe in the principal of working backward from a declared goal that is both measurable and time bound. Working backwards helps drive discipline, shortens schedules, and in general prevents scope creep/drift. Commercialization of a new product idea is a long and winding road that is anything but predictable and moving forward with good intention and passion rarely works out. Start by asking what you want to do with your innovation. Do you want to produce a product and compete in the market place? Perhaps you want to license the idea or sell it outright to somebody else? Each path will require a different approach and resources… do yourself a favor and begin with your destination in mind.

In my experience, the more variety in the source choice, the better: - Define who could influence your innovation scope: Mindmap all potential groups, like retailers, consumers, public opinions, suppliers, manufacturers, agencies, Inno influencers, etc. - Select 1-2 reps from each group, build a virtual brainstorm team - Crowdsourcing teams in parallel also an option

Your goals should be at the intersection of customer needs and the organizational goals. That is exactly why you want to stay close to your customers to understand their needs and pain points, but at the same time also have a crisp understanding of the strategic goals and objectives of your organization.

Certainly, and a responsibility assignment matrix or RACI matrix comes handy in describing each team member’s role clearly, leaving no room for misunderstandings.

I love to share a CHECKLIST: 20 Tips for a perfect brainstorm: 1. Define a relevant challenge. 2. Create with the sponsor an assignment 3. Create momentum 4. Invite people for whom it is relevant. 5. Invite people for content as well as decision-making 6. Include outsiders 7. An mix of participants 8. Invite the senior problem-owner 9. A special venue 10. An safe environment 11. Never at the office 12. Spend twice as much time on the convergence - as on the divergence process. 13. Combine idea-generating techniques 14. Be open to suggestions 15. Make sure it is enjoyable 16. Time box 17. Keep up the pace 18. Appoint an expert facilitator 19. Make the output concrete 20. Creating together to generate buy-in

Creativity should be fed by data. It Is not possibile to develop a commercially successful product without: - market review - trends and their rationale - latest technological advancements And any other background information to define innovation targets.

When generating ideas, it is crucial to get different perspectives into the process. Welcome diversity, even when it bring discussions and disagreements, remembering always to be respectful of each others’ point of view. The heart of the partnership, as said before, is to complement each other, you can’t have that when everyone around the table agrees on everything.

In this phase do not worry about the "how" or the technical feasibility. This is a muscle you often have to build over time, especially if you come from a technical background. Bring the best cross-functional experts together and facilitate the flow of ideas. The best ideas can come from anywhere!

Great innovation is based on solving an actual pain point in a new and unique way that leverages strategic strengths. Ideally in a way that will create high barriers of entry. So in the process of generating ideas, a useful method to use it the combination of Unique strengths with Market trends/pains. Focus on the market first, then identify to which areas you can contribute the most, and lastly think about the optimal solution for this intersection.

In development od product concepts the "open" model to suppliers and customers Is Ideal, in most of cases. Mostly, on customer side, It Is not easy to achieve their collaboration. On the supplier end the issue of a product brief defines, clearly, the starting point with all product quality attributes and standards. This documenti, shared under protected terms of NDA, Is collaborative and allows identification of technological gaps and possibile areas of improvement.

Evaluating an idea for its likelihood to enjoy commercial success is best done in an antiseptic/analytical way. This help temper passions and reduce bias. I use an approach that I crafted over a 30 year period working within a wide range of established product companies and startups across many different industries & product categories. I’m most interested in the following: does the idea solve a fundamental unmet consumer need? Are market conditions/size favorable? What does the competitive landscape look like? Is the idea technically feasible? Will access to resources be a barrier? Is the timeline realistic? Do you have a realistic revenue model? Will you be able to enjoy satisfactory margins?

Now that you have a list of ideas, it's important to objectively assess them and rank them. One commonly used technique I lean on often is Impact vs Effort. What is the level of impact of the idea on both the Customer and your Organization and what is the level of Effort involved. Sometimes, an idea may have potential for impact but the level of effort involved just does not justify investment. This is exactly where as a Product Manager, you must lean into your core skill of ruthless prioritization.

When evaluating ideas, it's important to consider factors like alignment with strategic goals, practicality, potential impact on the market or industry, anticipated trends, scalability, and resource requirements. Ideas should be assessed based on their novelty, differentiation from existing solutions, and potential to solve real customer pain points. Cross-functional teams, comprising representatives from both your organization and your innovation partners, can collaboratively evaluate ideas, bringing diverse perspectives to the table. Be thorough and employ structured evaluation frameworks to objectively assess the merit of each idea, considering both quantitative and qualitative aspects.

Consider three main questions when evaluating ideas: 1. What will be the impact of this idea 2. How will this idea fit with strategic market trends 3. Why should we be the ones to execute this idea

How implementation is handled is largely a function of organization’s size, technical/commercial capabilities, track record of past efforts, systems, access to resources, bandwidth/capacity, and culture. The best ones hold transparency, courage, and honesty as their primary traits. Rather than using good intentions or a “all hands on deck” approach… have clear roles & responsibilities defined based on the abilities and capacities of the group and assign a point person who can act as the de facto “project manager”. The project manager can float across different disciplines and communicate project status and potential threats/barriers. Finally, operate with clear goals, a defined development schedule, and a budget in hand.

What about timelines and perfection? Do you prioritize progress or do you obsess about creating that perfect product ? If you are still figuring out the product market fit, it's better to be agile, launch early, learn and continually iterate to improve the product as opposed to sweating over the tiniest details. You can reserve those for future iterations, once you know your product solves a key customer painpoint/meets a gap and customers are willing to pay for it.

Pending the innovation scope and risk, consumer research could be helpful prior to launch to avoid future failure. There is many qualitative and quantitative methods available.

MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS in an open innovation project is crucial. Here are 7 TIPS TO HELP YOU: 1. Clear communication: Maintain transparent and open lines of communication. 2. Build trust: Focus on building rapport and positive relationships by being reliable, honest, and delivering. 3. Encourage collaboration: Encourage sharing of ideas, insights, and expertise. 4. Engage stakeholders: Actively involve stakeholders throughout the process. 5. Reward contributions: Celebrate successes, publicly give credit where it is due, and offer incentives. 6. Manage intellectual property: Clearly define agreements and expectations regarding IPR. 7. Foster a learning culture: Promote knowledge sharing, reflection, and encourage experimentation.

When sharing learnings or simply listening to your partner be aware of the cognitive biases. These are human qualities forged in you but with some practice you can minimize them. Also, I think these are very human traits that AI cannot master. It is very hard to recognize them properly and naturally. I share 3 types: 1)Anchoring bias: you rely in the first piece of information you receive. 2)Endowment effect: you value things more when you own them. 3)Confirmation bias: you favor information that confirms your existing believes. These there are egocentric in my opinion and if you wnat to learn shutdown your own perception that you have the best knowledge. Bonus: Recency effect, you give more weight to the latest information or experience.

The success of a product innovation partnership can be measured through a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics. Quantitative indicators include metrics like the number of new ideas generated, successful idea implementations, increased revenue or market share, and improved operational efficiency resulting from implemented ideas. Qualitative measures include the level of knowledge transfer between partners, and the increasing usefulness of internal innovation capabilities. Regular feedback loops, post-project evaluations, and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) tied to the innovation objectives can provide insights into the partnership's effectiveness and its impact on driving unique and valuable ideas

True innovation usually takes time to implement and see results. When going for product innovation projects - align resources and expectations in order to have the bandwidth to educate the market and see results grow at a slow pace at first

It is also important to establish potential innovations for future refreshments of the new product or service. One example is monopolization: Apple created the iPod, iPad and iPhone in a period of ten years. By doing this the system being offered becomes irresistible.