Trying to build something new - or initiate a major upgrade of an existing product - within the context of a larger (meaning, non-startup) company turns out to be remarkably challenging. This should not be the case. After all, the resources available to an established company, particularly in the form of customer relationships and industry expertise, ought to make it the perfect environment for innovation.

It was with that in mind that I kicked off a workshop for an internal project last year with the following list of easy ways to kill an innovation project. I'm sure that more could be added, but these are the top 6 that came to mind:

1. Think about yourself instead of your customer.
2. Fight over who owns what in the project.
3. Don't worry about delivering product on a schedule.
4. Starve the project of resources.
5. Get lost in the details.
6. Avoid having fun while innovating.

Larger software companies with lots of active customers spend so much time and effort insulating their engineering teams from the rough and tumble of direct customer interaction during ordinary release cycles that when it comes to build something new - a time when direct customer interaction provides the inspiration, drive, justification and yes, fun, in a project - there is an eerie silence that makes it easy to fall into these traps.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 21, 2005 at 8:26 AM.