By Luigi Morsa and Richard Maltzman
September 26, 2024
Introduction
In a former article on this Blog, we discussed how Artificial Intelligence (AI) software intersects with Project Management [1]. In that article, we highlighted how AI can assist with daily Project Management work, and more specifically during the typical tasks of planning, monitoring, scheduling, resource allocation, KPI reporting, risk analysis, customer and sponsor reporting, and so on. In this article, the aim is to discuss another interesting aspect of the current features of AI software, namely the possibility to contribute to Innovation.
Traditional & Innovation Project Management
As described by Dr. Harold Kerzner in his book “Innovation Project Management” [2], Innovation is often unstructured and focused on free thinking, creativity, brainstorming, and alternative analyses. Project management, on the other hand, is very structured, with a focus on well-defined scope, and often with a very low tolerance for any creativity or brainstorming that is believed to be out of project scope. For this reason, it is recommended that Innovation is managed by a new actor – an Innovation Project Manager. Innovation project management is therefore being recognized as a career path discipline that may be more complex and challenging than traditional project management practices. Traditional project management is often seen as standardized processes for planning, scheduling, controlling and (sometimes) risk management. Innovation management requires a different mindset than the linear thinking model that has been used consistently in traditional project management practices [2].
Why Innovation
The first question to answer is why Innovation is so important for a company. Peter Drucker, who spent the last century contributing enormously to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern management theory, made a very profound observation: “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs” [3]. Henry Chesbrough (born 1956), famously coined the term Open Innovation, more cynically said: “Most innovations fail. And companies that don’t innovate die” [4]. Therefore, innovation is simply something that all companies need to both seriously consider and pursue constantly without hesitation. Innovation is something that tends to be complex in order to be successful and the evidence is given by the fact that many innovations fail [5] [6]. The reasons could be numerous and varied – such as the misinterpretation (misreading) of the market or introduction into the market later than competitors [7] and so on. In order to avoid failures, it is extremely important to collect as many ideas as possible and to be able to select the most promising of those ideas. To aid in successfully following this path, Innovation Management Software can be a very powerful tool.
Innovation Management Software
Innovation management software (often casually referred to as “idea management software”) consists of platforms meant to help companies manage the entire lifecycle of collecting ideas and fostering them into implementable innovations [8]. In the most common platform, all users (typically employees of the company, but recently this has been extended to possible customers as well) can freely ‘deposit’ their proposals or opinions about possible new ideas. Then each new proposal generates an online debate or discussion with the effect to improve it. Once a certain number of ideas is reached, the selection phase starts. This phase is conducted by innovation project managers with the support of sector experts and business unit people, with the intent of evaluating the feasibility from a technical and business point of view, respectively. Finally, this committee selects the ideas that are worthy of an investment [2].
The Figure below outlines the overall workflow in the application of innovation management software.
Figure 1: Innovation Management Software Process
The main benefits derived by the use of the Innovation Management Software can be summarized as follows:
- Improve Employee Engagement. Having the possibility to contribute to the innovation process, employees feel more connected to the success of the business, and therefore develop a sense of belonging to the company.
- Encourage Collaboration. Because the ideas are visible to everyone, the ideas´ originator can be contacted by colleagues who can offer help in achieving the goal.
- Simplify Employee Recognition. Undoubtedly the possibility to have the idea selected for implementation gives visibility. It must be underlined that this cannot be the only parameter for recognition. Some employees may not be particularly inclined to propose new ideas, but, nevertheless, their contribution is precious as well.
- Help companies to increase their speed to market. Being willing to embrace new challenges and to be open to hear from employees and customers is something that can help to launch new ideas quickly and to the (right) market.
AI and Innovation Management Software
The Innovation Management Software was developed before the high adaptation of Artificial Intelligence, but now, since AI has been integrated into pretty much everything, some companies, like Accept Mission and KETO Software have started to successfully apply AI to Innovation Management Platforms.
As described on its website [9], Accept Mission uses Generative AI, a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on creating new content or data from scratch. Generative AI can help to:
- Produce many ideas in a short time by generating text, images, audio, or video that can inspire new ideas or challenge existing assumptions.
- Generate new product ideas or features based on customer feedback, market trends, or competitor analysis.
- Generate realistic data sets or scenarios to simulate the performance or feasibility of a proposed product or service – realistic and diverse scenarios for market analysis, competitor assessment, and risk evaluation.
- Generate documentation, reports, or presentations to communicate the value proposition, benefits, or impact of a concept or solution.
- Generate code or scripts for software development or automation using natural language specifications or examples.
- Generating content or media for marketing, education, entertainment, or communication purposes.
In a nutshell, Generative AI can accelerate the innovation process by reducing the time, cost, and effort required to develop and evaluate a proof of concept.
Another interesting example of AI and Innovation Management Software is given by KETO Software. As written on their website [10], Keto AI+ Platform is an all-inclusive Strategic Portfolio Management software that empowers organizations to manage their strategic programs and projects more effectively. After a training phase, Keto Software is able to answer questions like “Can you provide me three new ideas for future projects?”. In such an example, documented in a demo available on YouTube [11], the software replies with three answers, describing in depth the ideas and providing the benefits that the proposed ideas could bring.
AI and Open Innovation
According to Chesbrough [12], Open Innovation is the cooperation between several companies that share resources, knowledge, and skills for a creative goal. Especially in the case of product innovation and in the high-tech field, the effort of a “single” company would not be enough to promote the development of new technologies.
The start-up PatentPlus is an example of how Artificial Intelligence can be applied to Open Innovation. To elaborate, PatentPlus is an AI-powered platform, that matches companies’ innovation challenges with available technologies, external research experts, and innovation suppliers to speed up product development [13]. The user can write a detailed text about the desired technology innovation they wish to develop. The software is then able to search for the most suitable partners among research centers, universities, companies, and so on. In addition, the software also checks if there are Patents already available that could be used to develop the desired idea.
Conclusions
We have described some AI tools useful for Innovation Project Management. Such software will help to facilitate the work of the project manager while also fostering the innovation process. As underlined by Larry English on Forbes [14] in an article with a meaningful title “AI Will Save—Not Kill—Project Management”:
- Project managers will still need to tweak what comes out of an AI tool, but having a baseline to start from will save tons of time.
- AI is not going to replace the Project Manager, but it will make the PM more efficient and effective. AI offers an opportunity to free up project managers time and allow them to do what they do best—lead teams and get the very best out of people.
To this, we must add that, as highlighted in the sections above:
- Generative AI will provide an additional source of ideas and, in general, a way to accelerate the innovation process.
- The search for potential partners in an Open Innovation environment will be tremendously facilitated by an automatic tool.
In conclusion, AI for Innovation is something to embrace because it can only bring advantages. As wisely observed from many sources “AI is not going to replace people, but people that use AI may be replacing those that don’t” [15] [16] [17]. To add on, Maltzman spoke about synergy: “…it’s not about incorporating AI into existing workflows or replacing human roles with machines. It’s about fostering a dynamic and synchronized environment where AI and humans are harnessed together to drive project success” [18]. It is indeed the back-and-forth collaboration between AI and humans and not a ‘handoff’ to AI that will provide the maximum benefit to innovation and innovative projects.
Want to learn more about this exciting topic? Dr. Luigi Morsa and Richard Maltzman will be speaking on a full-length presentation on International Project Management Day 2024!
References
- Luigi Morsa, Richard Maltzman, “Artificial Intelligence and Project Management: The First Step”, IIL Blog, October 25, 2023.
- Harold Kerzner, “Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects”, John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
- Jack Trout, “Peter Drucker On Marketing”, forbes.com, Jul 13, 2012.
- Khanh Pham-Gia, “Radical Innovation and Open Innovation: Creating New Growth Opportunities for Business”, Diplomica Verlag GmbH, 2011.
- Editorial staff of Valuer.ai, “50 Brands that Failed to Innovate”, July 28, 2022.
- Frederik Vandenweghe, “7 modern examples of corporate innovation failures (and how to avoid them)”, cosmoscollective.com, 2023.
- Seim Mol, “6 Major companies that failed to innovate in time”, groundcontrol.com, December 9, 2021.
- Leonardo Varella, “6 Innovation & Idea Management Software (2024 Comparison)”, innovationcast.com, 2024.
- acceptmission.com
- ketosoftware.com
- AI in Project Management – The Future Has Arrived! (youtube.com)
- Henry Chesbrough, “Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting From Technology”, Harvard Business School Press, January 2003.
- patentplus.io
- Larry English, “AI Will Save—Not Kill—Project Management”, forbes.com; Dec 27, 2023.
- Annabel Murphy, “Adobe: ‘AI is not going to replace people, but people that use AI may be replacing those that don’t’”, euronews.com, 18/06/2024
- Lakshmi Varanasi, “AI won’t replace human workers, but ‘people that use it will replace people that don’t,’ AI expert Andrew Ng says”, businessinsider.com Jul 28, 2024
- Karim Lakhani, “AI Won’t Replace Humans — But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI,” Harvard Business Review, August 04, 2023
- Ron Schmelzer, “How Project Management Power Skills Can Make Or Break AI Projects”, forbes.com, Aug 5, 2024
Luigi Morsa (Ph.D.) is an Aerospace Engineer and Project Manager working in the Aircraft Industry in Germany. The passion for project management has led Luigi to contribute to two books by Dr. Harold Kerzner, the pioneer and globally recognized expert in project management.
Luigi wrote two case studies about the Aircraft industry for Project Management Case Studies, 5th and 6th Editions (Wiley, 2017, 2022), two sections (Open Innovation in Action; The Project Manager’s Role in Developing Innovation Skills and Ideas in People) and the chapter “Innovation Management Software” for Innovation Project Management 1st and 2nd editions (Wiley, 2019, 2023). He wrote with Richard Maltzman, PMP and Master Lecturer at Boston University Metropolitan College, the chapter “10 Lessons Learnt from Irresponsibility in Project Management” for the book De Gruyter Handbook of Responsible Project Management (De Gruyter, 2023).
In 2018, Luigi was a speaker at the Project Management Institute EMEA Congress (Berlin) to discuss the complexity of the aircraft industry market, with particular emphasis on the relationship between product and customer needs. He has presented at the 18th Annual Project Management in Practice Conference (Boston, 2024) the latest achievements of the Artificial Intelligence software in Project/Innovation Management.
Luigi has been contributor for the International Institute of Learning Blog since 2019 with articles that cover themes related to Employee Engagement, Innovation, Team Management, Risk Management, Conflict Management, Agile, AI.
Richard Maltzman considers himself a ‘pracademic’ – currently (and for the past 10 years or so) Master Lecturer at Boston University, an author, and a consultant, providing clients with deep learning experiences and improved results. Richard “retired” from a 40-year career in telecom, mainly in engineering and project management. At the University level, and in consulting, his focus is always on converting weaknesses into strengths while teaching clients/students how to apply learned skills to everyday situations. In 2010, he co-founded EarthPM, LLC, a company devoted to integrating sustainability thinking into project management. His integration of a holistic, global view of project management has resulted in international consulting and worldwide speaking engagements (Costa Rica, South Africa, Malaysia, China, Mexico, Canada, India, Italy, The Netherlands) in which the focus is the long-term success of projects, with an eye towards ecological and social systems. His blog at PMI’s projectmanagement.com (People, Planet, Profits, and Projects) site has become very popular, and he has also started a podcast, “B’yond PM” on Spotify.
A co-author of seven books on project leadership, including the recent Great Meetings Build Great Teams, and the upcoming GreenPMO, He is a former VP of Professional Development for PMI Mass Bay (the Boston area PMI Chapter), and was on the Review Committee for the 7th Edition PMBOK® Guide, helping to assure that sustainability thinking finally made it into the Standard and the Body of Knowledge.
