Markets Insider Features Jake Carter on Pairing Creativity & Structure to Drive Innovation

Ariel Hooper

Innovation is a concept known far and wide across the business universe. And like most concepts, it’s an abstract idea begging to become something tangible. Bringing along themes of spontaneity, creativity, and fluidity, innovation compels us to see where our “aha” moments take us, without following the bureaucracy we see so often in business. Jake Carter, Credera’s Chief Innovation Officer, challenges this notion by bringing innovation to life through a deliberate and replicable approach called Structured Innovation.

Markets Insider recently featured Jake Carter and Credera’s three-step framework to create successful, lasting innovation strategies.

Step 1: Teams Choose Where to Focus Their Efforts

During the planning phase of innovation, the big ideas and “aha” moments are shared and collected, each one a valuable, potential innovation. It’s here that these ideas are screened against three questions, otherwise known as the Innovation Prioritization Matrix:

Does this innovation meet an unmet need by the user?
Is this innovation realistically doable, meaning, do the necessary capabilities, resources, and skills exist?
Is there a potential for financial or strategic return?

By setting guidelines for determining which ideas to pursue, the threat of wasting resources, effort, and enthusiasm dissipates.

Step 2: Teams Test Their Creative Concepts With Users

With the winning ideas in hand, teams begin to prepare for prototyping, or design sprints, that are based on data rather than intuition. This is a chance for real-world users to interact with the designs that have been brought to life, resulting in valuable, meaningful feedback. This is where critical analysis occurs, gaps are identified, and standout innovations prepare for implementation.

Step 3: Teams Implement Successful Concepts

In the final stage of the Structured Innovation approach, the remaining ideas have shown a promise deserving of money, time, and manpower. By reserving resources for only the winning ideas, loss and stagnation are avoided. Should new ideas surface or hidden pain points emerge, teams can head back to the prioritization step to assess the best path forward.

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Driving Value Through Structured Innovation

Wondering how you add structure to your innovation process? Through our experiences working with different industries and types of organizations, we’ve learned to help companies build a structured innovation process that turns creativity into tangible outcomes. If you’re interested in learning more about how Credera can help you, please reach out to us at findoutmore@credera.com.