idea management

A lot of attention has been spent to the front-end of product innovation during the past decades. Different approaches to support the front-end were carried out from industry as well as in research. In parallel, the technological options in managing information and knowledge have been tremendously increased. This paper examines the question if - and how - the front-end of product-innovation can yet be supported by information technology: an overview on information objects in the early phases is given, standard software is evaluated and prototype - overcoming the shortcomings of existing software - presented.

The in-firm innovation process can be divided into four phases. The first phase (concept finding) is also called „fuzzy front-end“ as it is un-structured and activities are left to chance. However, case studies show that this phase can also be clearly structured and supported by adequate methods. For the stages of concept finding „strategic orientation“, „idea generation“, „idea selection“ and „pre-projects“ specific proved proceedings and methods are available. Idea management has to be integrated into the organizational set-up of a company: All ideas should be submitted to an idea collection unit. An idea manager takes care of them and pushes them forward. For the screening and evaluation of ideas a cross-functional committee should support the idea manager.