Structuring the Front End of Innovation

Structuring and managing the innovation process represents one of many critical process-related factors traditionally associated with innovation success. The turbulent environment of the fuzzy front end (FFE) of innovation requires both flexible and structured processes. Carrying out activities by parallel rather than sequential processing, and both within disciplines as well as across disciplines, helps speed up innovation and keep the balance between creativity and the systematization needed. As a start, three of the numerous existing concepts and process models for the FFE are presented and analyzed. Subsequently, a new scalable, process-oriented framework is presented whose four modules (innovation strategy, technology development, concept development, and lean concept development) are characterized by openness in the sense of the open innovation approach and its fuzzy gates. Successfully implementing this abstract framework in an organization requires building a project team and carefully analyzing the current practices so that a company-specific process can be developed and implemented.