When it comes to businesses in the twenty-first century, innovation is the name of the game. Companies must either innovate or perish in order to compete effectively in the marketplace of this decade. As a result, innovation has become the latest buzzword in the business world. There are three stages to the innovation cycle when it comes to product management:
These three stages must be carefully managed for effective innovation to work in the company's favour, and this is where the product manager comes in. The product manager must guarantee that the innovation value chain, which is represented by these three steps, is not broken. As a result, the product manager's job is to ensure that the complete chain is strong because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Here are the connections between the three stages of the innovation cycle. The first step is the idea generation stage, during which the focus should be on creating ideas from a variety of sources, including within business units, across the firm, and even from consumers and end-users. The idea conversion step is when the lists of fresh ideas that have been developed are reviewed for commercial viability and the type of business they will bring to the company. The concept conversion stage also includes vetting the generated ideas for technical feasibility and determining whether the organisation has the resources and bandwidth to move the ideas forward to the next level, which is product development.
Finally, the idea diffusion stage is where the ideas that have been sourced must be validated, funded, and permissions sought from both internal and external parties. The idea diffusion stage is the final stage of the concept stage, thus the product manager must ensure that all of these stages operate together as a single coherent link to reduce friction between the chain's many components.
As a result, the product manager is in charge of managing the innovation value chain, which includes taking the product to the incubation stage. Any organisation that is unable to manage the innovation value chain should consider forming a product management team or hiring a product manager to oversee the process. The notion is that the innovative value chain must be enhanced, and a unified and consistent value proposition must be developed. To do so, the product manager must assume total control of the product management function, which includes the duty of managing the innovation value chain as a subset. To summarise, the flaws in the innovation value chain must be addressed by the thorough and intentional application of management principles, and this is where the product manager's knowledge in the process can assist firms in innovating better, quicker, and stronger.
Originally published on Prosple India