Idea screening as part of service innovation process
Vesanen, Pinja (2024)
2024
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024082824446
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024082824446
Tiivistelmä
Idea screening is one of the most strategic parts of the innovation process, because deciding where to put development effort can have an influence on financial performance, workforce and technical resources, achieving objectives, and more. It is important to aim for a systematic and consistent idea screening, so that fuzziness in the front end of innovation can be reduced, and a justified and transparent focus can be maintained.
The main objective of the thesis was to help the commissioner become more systematic and consistent when screening ideas in their service innovation process. The goal was to produce recommendations that can be utilized when continuing with further steps of developing the process. The thesis focused on commercial services and the perspective of business development. The thesis excluded the actual contents of ideas as well as the action of idea generation.
The thesis project was conducted as a case study between December 2023 and May 2024, and it followed the general technique of explanation building based on theoretical propositions. Therefore, preparatory data was first collected and analyzed with thematic analysis of documents, and intermediate findings were produced. Next, main data was collected with exploratory semi-structured interviews, and analyzed with qualitative content analysis. To form the final findings of the thesis, these two data sources were combined with the theoretical topics.
The results show that in this case study, instead of one definitive idea screening phase, there are many screening activities that happen at different points in the process. It is important that general focuses and goals for innovation are determined to support reasoning in idea screening. Collaboration should be promoted early in the front end of innovation. Several sources of ambiguity or fuzziness were identified in the process, as well as many ways to reduce it and to increase systematicity and consistency. Several methods were introduced for idea screening, as well as a holistic collection of factors and criteria that could be utilized in further development.
The main objective of the thesis was to help the commissioner become more systematic and consistent when screening ideas in their service innovation process. The goal was to produce recommendations that can be utilized when continuing with further steps of developing the process. The thesis focused on commercial services and the perspective of business development. The thesis excluded the actual contents of ideas as well as the action of idea generation.
The thesis project was conducted as a case study between December 2023 and May 2024, and it followed the general technique of explanation building based on theoretical propositions. Therefore, preparatory data was first collected and analyzed with thematic analysis of documents, and intermediate findings were produced. Next, main data was collected with exploratory semi-structured interviews, and analyzed with qualitative content analysis. To form the final findings of the thesis, these two data sources were combined with the theoretical topics.
The results show that in this case study, instead of one definitive idea screening phase, there are many screening activities that happen at different points in the process. It is important that general focuses and goals for innovation are determined to support reasoning in idea screening. Collaboration should be promoted early in the front end of innovation. Several sources of ambiguity or fuzziness were identified in the process, as well as many ways to reduce it and to increase systematicity and consistency. Several methods were introduced for idea screening, as well as a holistic collection of factors and criteria that could be utilized in further development.