How one company found ways to innovate in the midst of reorganization

By Cara Woodland, Katie Steffy, Andrea Birkett | May 1, 2006

Reading time: 6 minutes

Abstract

In the midst of a massive reorganization process, one company found a way to use brainstorming techniques to develop new product ideas.

Research Topics:: Brainstorming/Idea Generation | Concept Development | Concept Research | Concept Testing | Product Development Research | Qualitative Research
Content Type: Research Methodology

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Drawing creativity from chaos

Editor’s note: Katie Steffy is a former project manager at Innovation Focus, a Lancaster, Pa., research firm. Cara Woodland, formerly with Innovation Focus, is division team leader in the customer behavior and insight division at Psyma International Inc., a King of Prussia, Pa., research firm. Andrea Birkett is project manager/innovation analyst at Innovation Focus.

Even with the most skilled individuals and teams, creating innovative new products can be a daunting task. Add to the mix the stress and confusion of a company reorganization, and innovation seems nearly impossible. Changes in teams, strategies and management can leave employees with an unsettled feeling. As a result, a team’s focus turns inward with concerns of possible job loss, relocation and new management. Once the dust settles, new leaders arise with a desire to blaze their own trail. When this happens, old but potentially good ideas can be lost with yesterday’s team.

One company not only overcame the obstacle of reorganization but was able to excel in developing innovative new products in the midst of change. A major manufacturer of snack foods chartered a cross-functional and domestically dispersed innovation team to create new and distinct product concepts for quickly growing brands. During the beginning stages of the project, the company announced its plans to reorganize. All teams would be moved to one centralized location. Employees had two weeks to decide whether to relocate themselves and their families, or find jobs elsewhere.

To alleviate the stress of making a major life decision while also focusing on the task at hand, the innovation team hired outside consultants to design and facilitate a process to meet their charter goals. A three-stage process was developed which would involve both current and emerging teams. The goal was to quickly drive the team to success before reorganization struck and the members dispersed.

Energy levels up

The first stage was a three-day, off-site brainstorming session. The session was designed to keep the team’s energy levels up through the use of immersion field trips, homework and creativity exercises. An off-site location was used to physically remove the team from the constant reminder of reorganization in the office. Choosing a new environment alleviates stress associated with the place of work and can also help to stimulate fresh ideas. It was apparent that relocating the team for the brainstorming session was a plus as soon as the session started; the team was energized and ready for innovation.

After the initial brainstorming session, the team participated in an immersion excursion. Teams of two to three people went on an idea hunt. Team members traveled to nearby locations, including Starbucks, Whole Foods, Barnes & Noble, a local spa/gym, and local restaurants offering either healthful or unhealthy fare. Team members were instructed to interact with patrons of the various facilities, order food and/or beverages, and immerse themselves in the scenario to derive information from consumers about likes and dislikes. Each team member generated two to three product concept ideas based upon this experience.

The immersion excursion, in addition to providing an opportunity for product development staff to make interesting connections with target consumers, also reinvigorated the brainstorming and product development process. By removing the team from the meeting session location, they experienced holistically and firsthand the marketplace in which they are trying to position their products.

Because each team hunted for ideas at a different location, it was imperative that they not only glean insight from their unique field site, but that they also report key learnings to the whole group upon their return. As such, excursion teams return to the meeting session with a slew of insights, ideas and developing concepts, as well as with samples brought from their field site location. For the excursion teams, samples included competitors’ products (cereal bars, crackers) as well as previously unconsidered product opportunities (squeezable marmalade, powdered drink mixes).

Outside strategic resources also participated in the brainstorming session; they brought new perspectives to the chartered task. The outside resources offered new product development and/or marketing insight from non-competing companies. By using carefully selected individuals who were the right fit, the session gained huge momentum from their naiveté to the subject. It guided the course of the brainstorming in new and unique directions. The team discovered that if chosen correctly, outside resources can be invaluable to both the process and content of a session.

Evaluating ideas

During the first two days over 550 seed ideas and 182 concepts were developed. The innovation team spent the final day evaluating all ideas based on criteria such as uniqueness of product, fit with brand, meeting consumer needs, feasibility and size of opportunity. The session ended with approximately 59 high-ranking concepts mapped onto a portfolio matrix of time and impact to the market. Following the brainstorming session, approximately 24 concepts from the portfolio were written into rough, consumer-friendly descriptions for developmental work with consumers. Within a week, those concepts were qualitatively tested with a small group of consumers and revised to use the consumer language garnered through the research. The polished concepts were then given rough images to illustrate the words.

The following week, Instant Response, a hybrid quantitative and qualitative research technique, was used to gauge consumer reaction to the revised concepts. The research was divided into two parts. The first (quantitative) piece brought 40-50 consumers to a central location where the concepts were presented. Consumers scored the concepts, based upon purchase intent, uniqueness and believability, using handheld punch pads. The team was able to view real-time results from a back room observation point enabling them to quickly understand how large (or small) an idea was. For the second (qualitative) piece, a select number of consumers were asked to stay and participate in a 45-60-minute focus group which used the quantitative results as fodder for discussion. The team was able to obtain qualitative feedback, giving them insight into why an idea was liked or disliked. The process was then repeated using multiple target consumer groups until statistically significant numbers were reached.

The use of Instant Response provided the team with an in-depth discovery of consumer behavior and reactions backed by valuable quantitative feedback on the concepts generated. The results from the process showed that 15 of the 24 concepts were highly desirable to consumers. With these results in hand, the team then conducted further confirmational quantitative testing with 14 of the top concepts, 13 of which came back with high ratings.

Road map

In our current economy, where reorganization is a standard and the market constantly demands new and innovative products, there is a great deal that can be learned from this company’s story. For any company facing a similar dilemma this article can serve as a road map, showing how to avoid a shutdown in the creative process during reorganization. The ability to successfully complete the process can be attributed to many different factors:

a cross-functional team with a mix of the new and old organizational structures;
a committed core team of decisive individuals that can dedicate the time and energy needed to see the project to completion;
a modified process to meet the changing goals of the team, i.e., compress the time frame or spread out the time frame;
completion of the project before any of the team disperse to other ventures;
the hiring of an outside facilitation group, which can help to remove extra work from an already anxious team;
the creation of a continuous plan to implement the developed concepts to keep the momentum going and ensure that previous hard work is followed through to a finished product.

Hard work

Not only was the company able to generate 182 concepts, create a portfolio to reference for future projects and test the concepts with quantitative and qualitative measures, the entire process was completed in less than two weeks, using less than five days of team time - all this during a major company reorganization. To date, four or five of the concepts are currently being prototyped and the remaining eight or nine are long-term projects. It is safe to say that everyone involved would hail the process as a great success. Due to the hard work, dedication and responsible planning from various outlets, a major snack food manufacturer not only survived reorganization, it thrived during it.