Did you know that today is employee appreciation day?
Here’s your chance to show your employees their real value in the organization. Employees are excellent sources of new product ideas. The reality is, organizations still fail to source internally generated ideas from them.
Building an internal idea capturing process
Set up an internal idea capturing system. Though this may seem like an obvious method, this approach is often times poorly executed internally. The issues commonly lie in the failure to outline a detailed plan. As a result, organizations encounter several problems that interfere with proper ideas and innovation management.
Here are some suggestions so you never miss any potential product ideas from your employees:
Assemble an idea-monitoring committee: It is always a good idea to designate individuals to keep the process organized, and on track. Put them in charge of monitoring new ideas coming through and providing reports at the the end of each month.
Publicize the news: Let everyone in your company know that you welcome their product related ideas. Seems obvious, right? Still many organizations miss out on great product ideas because they fail to let the right people know whether an ideation system even exists!
Tips: Organize a meeting, send out a personal email or an organization-wide newsletter.
Be open to every idea: Everyone has a different perspective and a different flavor to bring to your products and services. Some of the greatest product successes are born from companies taking risks and going in new product directions. Avoid belittling and or shunning ideas and remain open to exploring unconventional ideas. Case in point, this game-changing product innovation.
Make the idea capturing process accessible to everyone: TThis article is about employee feedback, but you are also going to want to open up the process to customers and business partners, too!
We want to know: How do you involve internal stakeholders in your innovation and idea management process? What specific methods do you use to source their ideas?