You're leading innovation initiatives in business operations. How do you gauge their success?

First & foremost is fundamental alignment of the innovation initiatives with the overall vision, without it all efforts will go haywire! Next is to get all the relevant stakeholders to get on same page on the Why of these initiatives, and get everyone to run for common goal - this reduces friction while executing the program. After both of these are set as two foundation pillars; - Quickly get to defining success metrics (on revenue, growth, customer, operations) - Using tools to measure them smartly & efficiently - Monitor > evaluate > assess > iterate & again repeat the loop to keep improvising and that is how you can get the best & result oriented outcome from the new initiatives you are driving.

Establish clear, measurable goals to track the success of your innovation initiatives, such as productivity improvements, cost savings, or customer satisfaction. Ensure these metrics align with your overall business objectives.

New initiatives require a means to evaluate the potential opportunity's objectives, goals and return on investment. Establishing proposed bench marks from which to measure the new concept should influence the grading scale. While some aspects of the work may be cut and dry, other components maybe tough to put to numbers. For example, rolling out a new marketing campaign is more than just clicks and views because you cannot simply connect a one action with a reaction - such as sponsoring an event to land a new client. It may be repetitious marketing that further establishes your brand and influences recognition that lands that new client - the "accumulation" affect versus the "single shot" approach.

Dashboards for Business Operations KPIs can take a lot of forms and it's very easy to go overboard: track so many things that nobody has the bandwidth to also interpret and derive meaning from what is being tracked. My advice is to constantly ask about and evaluate the usefulness of your metrics (and with them, of your dashboards and reports); prune and/or adjust them to be as useful as possible to all your stakeholders.

In my experience, innovation requires a mindset, a headspace, and a level of availability and clarity (as in, time to think) that are often at odds with the fast-pacing, often chaotic way in which Business Operation teams work. Allow your team to take time to reflect, think, work together and brainstorm. Help them manage their workload. Provide them with the resources and support they need to contribute effectively and stay motivated.

Once the initiatives are implemented, assess the results by comparing them to your initial goals. Look for trends and insights that can help you understand what worked well and what didn’t, while mindful of the statistical relevance aspect of what you're analyzing.

Based on your analysis, make necessary adjustments to your strategies. This might involve refining processes, reallocating resources, or adopting new technologies to drive effectiveness.