Navigating The Innovation Landscape

Samuel Clemens achieved fame under the pen name “Mark Twain” which he earned during his days as a steamboat pilot on the mighty Mississippi River. The moniker "Mark Twain" was derived from the leadman's call signaling safe water, denoting a depth of two fathoms. In this context, a fathom equated to the span of a man's outstretched arms, approximately six feet, while 'Twain' represented the number two. Thus, “Mark Twain” essentially meant "mark two" or "two fathoms deep."

Effectively measuring pre-market innovation portfolios poses a significant challenge for large organizations. This task demands a delicate equilibrium, wherein accelerating time-to-market must be harmonized with risk mitigation through evidence-based decision-making.

Pre-market innovation portfolios are ripe with initiatives, projects, and concepts in various nascent stages of development. Unlike traditional product portfolios, which center around existing products or services, pre-market portfolios focus on future potential and disruptive opportunities. These portfolios serve to strategically innovate while safeguarding the core business and prioritizing efforts for long-term success.

The crux of optimal innovation portfolio management lies in balancing the conflicting demands of expediting product development cycles and derisking critical business assumptions. Achieving this equilibrium is elusive, as moving too swiftly may lead to uninformed decisions, while proceeding too cautiously risks missing market opportunities. Striking this balance stands as the key to effective innovation portfolio management.

But, how can you strike the balance? How can you ensure a product is developing at the right time with the right evidence? Moreover, how can you measure one developing product against another?

It is used as a single “metric that matters” in measuring the progression of a pre-market initiative and is the most important indicator of post-market business model opportunity. We measure the Progress Metric over time as a new initiative progresses through a structured product development model. In the simplest terms, Progress Metrics measure early stage concepts through objective confidence in the market opportunity of that concept.

Pioneering Progress Metrics has brought forth numerous benefits:

Single Source of “Truth

”Progress Metrics offer a quantitative, singular metric that becomes the cornerstone for measuring the pre-market portfolio's progression. Tracking historical scores and combining them with relevant project information creates a comprehensive landscape for informed resource allocation.

Progressive De-risking

By providing a standardized evaluation criteria for developing business models, Progress Metrics empower organizations to progressively increase confidence in a concept by systematically reducing inherent risks within the business model.

Objective Product Development Comparisons

Standardization through Progress Metrics enables objective comparisons and diverse data views, fostering balanced decision-making. This centralized hub facilitates a holistic understanding of the portfolio's progression, performance, and advancement.

Project Accountability

Progress Metrics hold teams accountable to customer-centric evidence through a standardized progression criteria. This transparency in the development process removes the "black box" stigma, aligning leaders and teams in decision-making criteria.

Much like the leadman calling out the depths of the great Mississippi, an innovation portfolio can better navigate the uncertain waters of pre-market product development using objective measurement.

Stay tuned for the next installment in this series, where I will delve into the functional application of Progress Metrics and the quest for optimal implementation.

## Unveiling Progress Metrics For Pre-Market Product Development Portfolios

### What Are Progress Metrics?

### Striking A Delicate Balance

### The Challenge: Measuring Progress, Not Performance

### The Big Picture: Making Better Decisions