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EmailIdeas drive innovation. But how do you decide which ideas to implement first?
Learn how to prioritize your employees’ ideas so your organization can begin innovating.
How to Prioritize Ideas
In a previous blog post, we explained how you can gather ideas from your employees. Once you’ve gathered ideas from your employees, it’s time to prioritize those ideas to decide which ones to implement.
To get started, come up with a process to prioritize and evaluate ideas. Don’t make the mistake of choosing to implement idea submissions that have the most votes for “best idea.” Votes on submissions can only tell you so much about the idea. A large number of votes on an idea doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best one to implement right now.
Instead, examine ideas based on their potential to improve whatever process they were first suggested to improve. Here are two prioritization processes that you can use in your organization…
Prioritization Process 1:
According to this helpful blog post from InnovationExcellence, some factors to consider when prioritizing and ranking ideas include…
- Market attractiveness
- Strategic fit
- Sales growth
- Product advantage
- Reward vs. risk
- Cost and time to implement
Prioritization Process 2:
Another prioritization process for ideas is InnovationManagements.se’s recommendation: V-SAFE screening. This process helps weed out ideas that don’t meet your basic selection criteria. V-SAFE stands for…
- Value: Does the idea deliver tangible benefits to the organization?
- Suitable: Is the idea consistent with strategy and the current situation?
- Acceptable: Will stakeholders support it?
- Feasible: Are there sufficient resources or time? Can the innovation be managed within existing budgets or will additional funding be required?
- Enduring: Will the idea deliver value in both the long and short term?
Adapt the above processes for your organization and use it to prioritize your employees’ ideas.
Whatever process you choose to implement should be understood by everyone in your organization – from those submitting ideas, to those evaluating them. This way, you can be sure that everyone is on the same page.
Gather Ideas in an Idea Management System
Having a process to prioritize employee ideas is a great way to get started and begin innovating. But, it can also become overwhelming to manage and prioritize a lot of idea submissions. This is where an idea management system can help you out.
An idea management system allows you to gather employee ideas in one central place. With an idea management system, you also can easily manage, prioritize and quickly capitalize on your employees’ ideas.
Start Innovating
After you have gathered and prioritized idea submissions, start innovating. Begin managing and evaluating your employees’ ideas to turn them into innovations and gain a competitive advantage. Download our free white paper to learn how to keep your idea management system successful. Or, get started with your idea management system today by getting a free trial of IdeaGlow.
Suggested Next Steps:
- Get new information we publish on innovation management right in your email inbox, sign up for FREE email newsletter packed with useful info.
- Companies of all sizes (from Fortune-500s to growing startups) use IdeaGlow software to build their own idea management systems. IdeaGlow is affordably priced & relatively easy to implement. If you’re interested, you can apply for a FREE 30-day trial of IdeaGlow software.
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