3 ways to make your Sprintbase innovation project a success

So you know you want to run an innovation project remotely, and that you want to get amazing results from it. Well, you’ve come to the right place.

To get the best outcomes from your project, it’s vital that you kick it off in the right way. People ask us all the time how best to do that, so we’ve set out our top tips to help make sure your project is a success.

Step one: Figure out what you want you achieve and who you want to involve

It sounds obvious but before you get going, make sure you know what problem your innovation project is designed to help solve.

Are you looking for new ways to attract more customers? Are you trying to boost staff retention? Do you need to overcome a strategic challenge that has suddenly popped up? Before you start, make sure this is agreed.

Next you need to work out which people you want to help you find the answer. This includes your core team, colleagues you want to engage from the wider organization, customers, partners, subject matter experts, and anybody else whose insight or expertise you want the project to benefit from.

Getting these key things figured out before you kick off the project will make sure you’re able to hit the ground running.

Step two: Organize a formal kickoff meeting

When you’re eager to start digging into the problem you want to solve it can be tempting to just bring everybody together and crack straight on with the project. But we always recommend that teams hold a formal kickoff event first.

The purpose of this is to make sure everybody is aligned on the challenge you’re addressing, and the approach you’re taking, and to introduce people to Sprintbase.

Doing this gives you designated time to answer questions, which will otherwise come up when you’re trying to make progress with your project, and affect your timelines.

This also gives everybody space to get to know Sprintbase, the key methods you’ll be using at each stage, and each person’s responsibilities when it comes to uploading information, commenting, voting etc.

A great kickoff will give everybody confidence in the project ahead and their contribution to it, and make sure you’re all ready to start doing great work together.

Step three: Launch your project

Now that you’ve had your kickoff meeting and everybody knows what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how Sprintbase works, you’re ready to launch.

For this we recommend getting the date in everybody’s diaries and using email communication to build momentum in advance. Use these messages to tell people what they can expect from your first session and what needs to happen first to get the ball rolling with the project.

When you get everybody together, run a welcoming and invigorating launch session, (take a look at our suggested icebreakers and other facilitation tips to help you out) and send everybody off into the first phase of the project.

You’ll most likely leave the session asking people to start doing interviews with customers or other stakeholders to build empathy, so make sure everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them and where they need to capture their findings.

Follow these three steps and you’re away!

Interested in bringing your people together on Sprintbase to tackle a challenge? Get your free trial today.