The document discusses challenges of building an effective innovation team within an established company and strategies to address those challenges. Some challenges include internal inertia, politics, and lack of understanding of innovation processes. Strategies suggested to mitigate these challenges include getting executive buy-in, establishing a separate innovation team with its own culture and metrics focused on customers rather than quarterly goals, and designating time for engineers to work on innovative projects.

1. The Best Organizational Structure
For An Innovation Team
Session Notes 5/12/2018
Session Leader: Dana Bullister

2. Some challenges of building an effective innovation team
within an established company or industry
˜ Internal Inertia -> entrenched processes, high-level decision
makers, risk aversion, metrics that are not bought into the strategy
needed for product discovery
˜ Politics, Perceived Threats to Existing Products -> perception (or
reality) that new, innovative services/products steal customers
from existing solutions
˜ Lack of Understanding -> about how to conduct product discovery
and fuel an effective innovation team

3. Some Strategies for Mitigating These Challenges
˜ Executive Buy-In -> innovation investment from the top down
˜ Lean Culture -> involve powerful contributors with experience in product
discovery who can shape the culture and strategy of the team
˜ Engineers As Problem Solvers, Not Just Implementers -> challenge and
empower engineers to generate their own ideas about addressing market
problems
˜ Separate Innovation Team -> separate designated innovation team from
the rest of the business with regard to strategy, culture, budgeting,
metrics, expectations, office space
˜ The Right Metrics -> for an innovation team, look at existing, paying
customers, understanding of addressable market rather than quarterly
numbers

4. Some Strategies for Mitigating These Challenges
˜ 20/30% Time? -> designated time for engineers to innovate
˜ Structured Internal Competition -> intentionally have teams pitch their
competing ideas/prototypes to win formal company investment
˜ 1 Manager For Competing/Complementary Products? -> to encourage
decisions fueled by value to the consumer, not head butting
˜ Long-Term Focus -> look beyond short-term stats to larger market trends
˜ Quantify The Cost of Doing Nothing -> Rather than innovating, provide
monetary justification for innovative approach
˜ Customer Focus -> rather than internal competition
˜ Appropriate Innovation -> that is ultimately complementary to rest of
company, aligns with deeper goals