Technology innovation management setup project: Meeting templates
Initial meetings
Business case meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management business case meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management business case meeting. The business case includes basic information on what technology innovation management is, why it’s useful to set it up, and how we could start doing this.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Overview
- Technology innovation management ensures that our organization has access to new technology to increase revenue and reduce costs and risks.
- The technology innovation management setup project sets up a distinctive capability to find, assess, and test technology solutions for our organization.
- The technology innovation management setup project explains the procedures and sets them up in our organization.
Goal
- We learn good practices for finding, assessing, and evaluating technology solutions for our organization.
- We facilitate thinking about how important technology is for our organization.
- We incorporate our employees in finding technology solutions for our organization.
Objectives
- Maximize the number of considered technology solution categories.
- Maximize the number of evaluated technology solutions.
- Minimize the time it takes to evaluate a technology solution.
Challenge
- Startups create new technology solutions every day.
- We don’t know what technology solutions are available and which could be useful for our organization.
- Organizational functions don’t cover this organizational challenge in a systematized way yet.
Possible solutions
- We continue managing technology innovations ad-hoc without a distinctive process.
- We conduct a quick-fix solution, pretending to manage technology innovation in a proper way.
- We set up a technology innovation management process to properly find, assess, and evaluate technology solutions for our organization.
Solution recommendation
- We set up a technology innovation management process.
- We test the process and incorporate stakeholder and employee feedback.
- We continually improve our technology innovation management process.
Benefits
- We find better innovative technology solutions fitting our organization’s needs.
- We find, evaluate, and test innovative technology solutions faster.
- We find cheaper technology solutions in comparison to what we use now, and in comparison to other market-available solutions.
Limitations
- Technology innovation management doesn’t work without the input of stakeholders and employees due to the high number of technology solutions and their categories.
- Technology innovation management is resource-intense because of the fast changes in the corresponding technology markets.
- Technology innovation management focuses on finding and evaluating solutions. Other teams procure these solutions, implement them, and manage existing suppliers.
Procurement
- Technology innovation management is accountable for finding and evaluating new solutions, but not for procuring, implementing, and running them.
- The project includes costs for external consultants supporting us to set up the technology innovation management process.
- The project doesn’t include any costs related to the procurement and implementation of technology solutions.
Budget
- We recommend a budget of 1/2 FTE per 100 employees for technology innovation management, respectively 2 FTE per 1,000 employees.
- We recommend an initial budget of 20k EUR for external consulting services.
- We recommend starting the discussion about our technology landscape and possible investments.
Risks
- We don’t see the value in systematically managing technology innovations.
- We can’t commit the resources for a long-term technology innovation process.
- We can’t measure the outcomes of technology innovation management to communicate our successes.
Risk mitigation
- We show examples and case studies of other organizations’ successful technology innovation adoption.
- We reduce the price for technology innovation management and calculate ROI examples.
- We make assumptions when calculating outcomes.
Outline plan
- We ask stakeholders about their views.
- We develop a technology innovation strategy.
- We set up a technology solution research procedure.
- We ask our supplier for potential technology solutions.
- We set up an internal technology innovation community of practice.
- We determine a technology innovation pre-implementation procedure.
- We set up a technology innovation network together with partner organizations.
Required resources
- We assign two internal part-time technology innovation managers.
- We work with external consultants to execute this project.
- We need some time from many operational people and stakeholders of various teams and functions.
Timescale
- We’ll need approx. three to six months for the initial setup project.
- We aim to make progress step by step on a weekly basis.
- We’ll offer individual support to organizational units based on their demands and schedule.
Project management
- We manage this project, including all activities necessary to make it a success.
- We continually report to all involved stakeholders about the current status and changes to the plan.
- We develop technology innovation management good practices for future use by our organization.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management business case follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your time learning about the technology innovation management business case. We hope we could give you an impression of why technology innovation management is relevant for us. We’ll stay in contact with you and would be happy to answer your questions. We’re open to any feedback that comes to mind. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us.
Best, Max
Project planning meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management project planning meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management project planning meeting. We’ll discuss the overall project plan and answer your questions. The project plan includes the following parts: Project integration, Project scope, Project schedule, Project costs, Project quality, Project resources, Project communications, Project risks, Project procurement, Project stakeholders.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Project integration
- We lead and manage this project by reducing the friction that could occur working with several project teams and/or sub-projects.
- We coordinate the project with the project team, in collaboration with superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project team includes the people who will later manage the technology innovation management process, reducing friction from project to process.
Project scope
- The project aims to set up a technology innovation management process to find and evaluate innovative technology solutions for our organization’s improvement and innovation.
- The project includes all tasks until technology innovation management operations are up and running.
- The project doesn’t include setting up activities that are considered technology innovation management activities by some management frameworks (e.g., business modeling, technology solution development).
Project schedule
- The goal is to execute the project in the next six months.
- The schedule includes all the steps from the first meeting to achieving a working technology innovation management process.
- The project has external dependencies, especially aligning with other teams and functions.
Project costs
- The project has calculatory internal costs.
- Hiring an external consultant costs 20k EUR - 50k EUR.
- The ongoing technology innovation management process will account for approx. one FTE.
Project quality
- The project will conduct evaluation activities before designing and implementing the final technology innovation management process.
- The project will be in close contact with a wide array of stakeholders to elicit and implement their requirements with the desired quality.
- The project team will determine and discuss project quality criteria and is open to feedback from employees, superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
Project resources
- We set up a project team integrating the different work streams of this project.
- The project team is the single point of contact for all superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project team will (partly) transition to the process team and/or will properly train the process team.
Project communications
- The project team is the single point of contact and the single source of truth for all employees, superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project team values high-quality written documentation in addition to verbal explanations in meetings.
- The project team will use mass distribution communication to inform employees about the project, including future processes.
Project risks
- The project has some risks regarding the internal project team’s expertise and experience in technology innovation management.
- The project has risks regarding the interests, wants, and needs of the various stakeholders.
- The project has risks regarding the time and effort needed to fully execute the project until the technology innovation management process is running.
Project procurement
- The project includes the procurement of consulting services.
- The project doesn’t include the procurement of a technology innovation management software tool.
- The project doesn’t include the procurement of innovative technology solutions (this is part of individual projects).
Project stakeholders
- Sponsor: The project sponsor has a true interest in improving the organization’s technology innovation management process.
- Future users: Future users will use the established process to find and evaluate innovative technology solutions.
- Primary stakeholders: The primary stakeholders are the other teams and functions in need of innovative technology solutions.
Follow-up
Subject: Technology innovation management project planning meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for participating in our technology innovation management project planning meeting. We value your input and will implement your suggestions. We continually update our project plan and the corresponding approaches and tasks following an agile project management approach. Feel free to drop us your questions and feedback at any time. Please also have a look at our wiki page, which contains all the information about this project.
Best, Max
Project C4I meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management project C4I meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management project C4I meeting. We’ll explain and discuss this project's approach to communication, coordination, cooperation, collaboration, and information.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Project communication
- We communicate via email with a shared inbox to ensure that we receive all emails and everyone stays in the loop.
- We communicate via an email distribution list to internal stakeholders to ensure that we don’t forget anyone.
- We communicate regularly so that everyone stays up to date.
Project coordination
- We coordinate activities with sponsors, internal stakeholders, and external suppliers.
- We coordinate the project and all activities centrally due to the small project size.
- We coordinate the task distribution in written form and with regular meetings, instead of ad hoc.
Project cooperation
- We cooperate with our project sponsor to ensure all targets are met.
- We cooperate with internal stakeholders, especially service operations teams.
- We cooperate with external suppliers to include their expertise and experience in our future processes.
Project collaboration
- We collaborate in shared text documents and tables.
- We collaborate on wiki pages to see changes in real-time.
- We prefer cooperation instead of collaboration on documents, in order to reduce discussions about written output.
Project information
- We update our sponsor and internal stakeholders regularly and communicate any new information immediately.
- We inform external suppliers about this project and our target of setting up a process.
- We inform our project members about new developments in time, preferably through written asynchronous channels (e.g., email, wiki chapters).
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management project C4I meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management project C4I meeting. We discussed and aligned the project’s approach to communication, coordination, cooperation, collaboration, and information.
Best, Max
Meeting title
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management stakeholder alignment meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management stakeholder alignment meeting. We’ll provide you with an overview of our organization’s future technology innovation management capability and how we’ll get there. This meeting doesn’t require any preparation from your side. We welcome your questions and feedback.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Technology innovation management in a nutshell
- Effectiveness: We find innovative technology solutions, making our organization and its customer solutions better, faster, and cheaper.
- Efficiency: We find innovative technology solutions with less effort through a structured process.
- Sustainability: We don’t forget innovative technology solutions due to a lack of information management.
Technology innovation management setup project
- Explanation: We explain technology innovation management and how our organization can profit from it.
- Setup: We set up the technology innovation management process and initially test it.
- Sharing: We share our experience internally and with affiliated external organizations.
Technology innovation management habits
- Finding technology innovations: We find innovative technology solutions suitable for our organization.
- Evaluating technology innovations: We evaluate innovative technology solutions to progress with the best-fitting ones.
- Setting up internal and external communities: We set up an internal technology innovation community to exchange good practices on technology innovation.
Advantages of technology innovation management
- Better: Better technology solutions improve and innovate our organization and make our customer solutions better, faster, and cheaper.
- Faster: Faster search, testing, and implementation preparation bring innovative technology solutions to our organization quicker.
- Cheaper: Cheaper technology solutions let us realize cost savings with the same technology quality.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management stakeholder alignment meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management stakeholder alignment meeting. We value your questions and your feedback. We’ll deepen our collaboration in the upcoming weeks and months. Feel free to have a look at our wiki page, where we publish the latest information regarding this project and the future process. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Best, Max
Stakeholder interviews preparation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management stakeholder interviews preparation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management stakeholder interviews preparation meeting. Although the name of this meeting is long, the concept is simple; we want to prepare the interviews we’ll conduct inside our organization as part of our technology innovation management setup project.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we conduct employee interviews?
Organizational challenges elicitation
- We elicit our organization’s challenges regarding technology innovation management.
- We prepare our technology innovation management setup project.
- We receive helpful feedback before we get into the details with individual teams.
How will we conduct employee interviews?
Invitation
- Invitation via email.
- Broad selection of appointment dates and times.
- Flexible date and time change possible.
Appointment
- One-hour web meeting.
- No preparation needed.
- Time for Q&A and individual feedback.
Execution
- Semi-structured interview.
- Ten questions in one hour.
- Feedback at the end and updates after the interview.
What questions will we ask?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding technology innovation management?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding our (technology) innovation strategy?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding researching and evaluating innovative technology solutions?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding innovating together with existing suppliers?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding organizational-internal exchange about technology innovation?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the procurement, implementation, and adoption of innovative technology solutions?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding setting up external innovation partner networks with other organizations?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management stakeholder interviews preparation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management stakeholder interviews preparation meeting. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. Feel free to visit our project’s wiki page, which always has the latest information.
Best, Max
Stakeholder interview meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management stakeholder interview meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to a personal 1:1 stakeholder interview as part of our technology innovation management setup project. We would like to discuss approximately ten questions with you. The questions contain your views (challenges, requirements, preferences) regarding technology innovation management and its concrete implementation. I selected a free meeting spot in your calendar. Please send me a calendar change request if you would like to change the meeting date and/or time. In case of any questions in the meantime, feel free to contact me.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Question 1
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding technology innovation management?
Question 2
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding our (technology) innovation strategy?
Question 3
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding researching and evaluating innovative technology solutions?
Question 4
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding innovating together with existing suppliers?
Question 5
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding organizational-internal exchange about technology innovation?
Question 6
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the procurement, implementation, and adoption of innovative technology solutions?
Question 7
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding setting up external innovation partner networks with other organizations?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management stakeholder interview meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your participating in our interview. We value your feedback and will incorporate it into our technology innovation management setup project. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. Feel free to have a look at our wiki page from time to time.
Best, Max
Employee survey meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management employee survey meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to prepare the employee survey as part of our technology innovation management setup project. With the employee survey, we want to learn how our employees think about technology innovation management in our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why
Why will we conduct an employee survey?
- Awareness: We create awareness for the need for technology innovation management as an organizational capability.
- Feedback: We collect feedback about the current situation and possible future changes.
- Participation: We practice participatory decision-making with this survey.
How
How will we conduct an employee survey?
Invitation
- We’ll define the to-be-invited group instead of creating a list of names.
- We’ll invite participants via email and will remember them with additional emails.
- We’ll give invitees at least two weeks to participate in the survey.
Software tool
- We’ll use an already-implemented software tool, if available.
- Alternatively, we’ll use an external cloud software tool and provide a clear data protection hint to the invitees.
- We’re open to survey software tool ideas.
Evaluation
- We aim to formalize the survey to make it halfway statistically useful.
- We aim to evaluate the closed survey in the following two weeks.
- We’ll share the survey results first with the stakeholders, then with all employees.
What
What questions will the employee survey include?
Technology innovation management ensures that the organization has access to new technology solutions for improving and innovating its business. Technology innovation management structures the process of finding, assessing, and testing new technologies in cooperation with internal stakeholders and external suppliers. New technology solutions can increase revenue or reduce costs and/or risks with relatively low risk in comparison to business model innovations. Technology innovation management is an essential tool to keep the organization competitive.
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding technology innovation management?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding our (technology) innovation strategy?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding researching and evaluating innovative technology solutions?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding innovating together with existing suppliers?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding organizational-internal exchange about technology innovation?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the procurement, implementation, and adoption of innovative technology solutions?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding setting up external innovation partner networks with other organizations?
Survey invitation text
Subject: Technology innovation management survey
Dear colleagues,
Technology innovation management aims to find innovative technology solutions for the organization. With our project, we want to set up a technology innovation process for our organization. To understand your requirements for technology innovation management, we kindly invite you to participate in this survey. The survey takes approximately 30 minutes.
Please follow the link to participate in the survey: <<LINK>>
Best, Max
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management employee survey meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for joining our meeting preparing our technology innovation management employee survey. In this meeting, we collected your feedback about the upcoming survey. Therefore, the survey will reflect your needs and desires to set up an organizational library.
Best, Max
Interviews and survey results meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management interviews and survey results meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation employee interviews and survey results meeting. We’ll present our technology innovation management interviews and survey results to you at this meeting.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Interview results
- Technology innovation management is an important topic for our organization.
- Technology innovation management is an underrepresented and underestimated topic for our organization.
- We should improve our technology innovation management capabilities.
- It’s worth it to investigate deeper.
Survey data
- 123 survey participants
- 100 completed surveys
- 7 questions answered on average
- 10,000 words written
- 12 additional feedback emails received
Question 1
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding technology innovation management?
- We don’t have a structured technology innovation capability/process/function yet.
- We don’t connect business model innovation and technology innovation with each other.
- We don’t have honest discussions about the need for faster (technology) innovation management.
Question 2
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding our (technology) innovation strategy?
- We don’t have a technology innovation strategy, or I don’t know about it.
- We aren’t currently discussing a technology innovation strategy.
- We don’t have people working on a technology innovation strategy.
Question 3
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding researching and evaluating innovative technology solutions?
- We don’t have a structured process for researching and evaluating innovative technology solutions.
- We don’t have good practices for researching and evaluating innovative technology solutions.
- I don’t have the resources to do this in addition to my current tasks.
Question 4
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding innovating together with existing suppliers?
- Innovating with our suppliers isn’t a primary topic for me.
- I have no idea how to start innovating with our suppliers.
- Our suppliers aren’t able to innovate with us/anyone.
Question 5
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding organizational-internal exchange about technology innovation?
- We don’t have an organizational-internal information/knowledge exchange about technology innovation.
- I don’t have the resources for more meetings/workshops/emails.
- We have enough exchanges, but without effective and efficient progress.
Question 6
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the procurement, implementation, and adoption of innovative technology solutions?
- Innovation is only a minor topic when procuring technology solutions.
- Our implementation and adoption practices need improvement and innovation, too.
- The whole process from search to adoption is split between various functions/teams.
Question 7
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding setting up external innovation partner networks with other organizations?
- External innovation partner networks aren’t a topic for us yet.
- External innovation partner networks sound too far away for our organization.
- We don’t have the right organizational culture for cooperation or even coopetition.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management interviews and survey results meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management interviews and survey results meeting. We hope we could give you a good impression of the employees’ thoughts about technology innovation management in our organization.
Best, Max
Solution options meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution options meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management solutions options meeting. We’ll discuss possible options for moving forward with our technology innovation management setup project.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Option 1: Minimum technology innovation management capability
We set up a minimum possible technology innovation management capability.
- The minimum capability includes basic process steps for recording innovative technology innovations that have been discovered.
- The minimum capability includes a small number of basic standard operating procedures to communicate innovative technology solutions to stakeholders.
- The minimum capability doesn’t include a process to find, evaluate, and discuss innovative technology solutions.
Option 2: Standard technology innovation management capability
We set up a standard technology innovation management capability.
- The standard capability includes process steps to systematically research innovative technology solutions.
- The standard capability includes process steps to evaluate innovative technology solutions on a basic level, and communicate their potential value to stakeholders.
- The standard capability doesn’t include the sophisticated evaluation procedures and process steps required to prepare implementation and set up technology innovation communities and partner networks.
Option 3: Strategic technology innovation management capability
We set up a strategic technology innovation management capability.
- The strategic capability includes sophisticated search, evaluation, and implementation process steps to support innovation through technology end-to-end.
- The strategic capability includes steps to prepare technology innovations for the procurement, implementation, and adoption process and sets up internal communities and external partner networks to implement all possible stakeholders’ information and knowledge early in the process.
- The strategic capability leaves sourcing, procurement, business model innovation, process innovation, and other functions with other teams, but integrates these capabilities as much as possible.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution options meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management solutions options meeting. We want to thank you for supporting our project and participating in the discussion. We’ll keep you updated in the few next weeks. Feel free to have a look at our wiki page from time to time.
Best, Max
Function alignment meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management function alignment meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management function alignment meeting. We’ll discuss and align the demarcation lines between the different functions/teams. We’ll also gain an understanding of each other's accountabilities and how we’ll work together in the future.
Best, Max
Meeting information
What the sourcing/procurement function does
- Discusses service requirements with business units.
- Develops contracts, procures new services.
- Onboards new suppliers.
What the supplier management function does
- Manages existing supplier relationships.
- Executes closed contracts.
- Ensures proper service delivery.
What the (business model) innovation function does
- Designs and tests new business models.
- Develops minimum viable products/services.
- Researches market and business modeling trends.
What the line-of-business functions do
- Determine solution needs.
- Determine areas of necessary improvements.
- Provide an overview of general market trends in their area.
What the partner management function does
- Develops new partner relationships to develop solutions together.
- Develops partner-based innovations.
- Determines the need for innovative technology solutions for partner-based innovations.
What the technology innovation function does
- Researches industry and market trends in horizontal and vertical technology solution areas.
- Finds and evaluates innovative technology solutions together with the above functions/teams.
- Sets up innovation communities and partnerships with other organizations to develop and adopt technology innovations together.
What we do together
- Understanding each other's processes.
- Designing common process interfaces.
- Developing shared templates and workflows.
How we meet and align
- Meeting regularly and aligning processes.
- Developing our functions together.
- Explaining our tasks and accountabilities to business stakeholders together.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management function alignment meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management function alignment meeting. We discussed and aligned our functions so that every team works on its original topics, and we can combine our information and knowledge to more than the sum of the teams.
Best, Max
Strategy meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management strategy meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management strategy meeting. We’ll discuss the foundational strategy of our new technology innovation management function and decide what kind of technology solutions we’re looking for, and what we aren’t looking for.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Better technology solutions
- We find technology solutions that are more effective in getting things done.
- We find technology solutions that are easier to use and automate our processes.
- We find technology solutions that measurably improve our business outcomes.
Faster technology innovation adoption
- We find technology solutions we can adopt faster organization-wide.
- We find technology solutions people like to use.
- We find technology solutions people don’t need training for.
Cheaper technology solutions and adoption process
- We find technology solutions that are cost-efficient.
- We find technology solutions that have a price based on usage (instead of per-user licensing).
- We find technology solutions with low implementation and adoption costs.
What we are looking for
- Innovative technology solutions in the areas we want to renew our technology landscape.
- Innovative technology solutions in areas we want to extend our business.
- Innovative technology solutions in process areas we want to automate.
What we aren’t looking for
- Innovative technology solutions that are fancy but don’t bring true value to the organization.
- Innovative technology solutions in fancy bullshit bingo areas.
- Technology solutions that use fancy bullshit bingo terms but aren’t anything new.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management strategy meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management strategy meeting. We discussed and aligned the strategic goals for our technology innovation strategy meeting. We focused on explaining what we’re looking for, as well as what we’re not looking for.
Best, Max
Research meetings
Current organizational technology landscape elicitation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Current organizational technology landscape elicitation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our current organizational technology landscape elicitation meeting. We’ll discuss and align on how we currently manage our technology landscape and how this is connected to future technology innovations.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Who maintains an overview of our technology landscape?
- We set up clear competencies to elicit, monitor, and manage our technology landscape.
- We align this competency with our enterprise architects, application managers, and technology innovation team.
- We regularly communicate between these teams, maintaining a common understanding about ongoing activities.
How do we maintain an overview of our technology landscape?
- We maintain internal lists of technology solutions in use.
- We manage interdependencies between technology solutions.
- We regularly collect feedback about the technology solutions in use.
What are the solution categories we currently have in use?
- What technology solutions do we currently have in use?
- What technology solution categories do we currently have in use?
- In which areas do we most urgently need technology innovations?
Follow-up email
Subject: Current organizational technology landscape elicitation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our current organizational technology landscape elicitation meeting. We discussed and aligned how we currently manage our technology landscape and how this is relevant to future technology innovations.
Best, Max
Market trends meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management market trends meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management market trends meeting. We’ll explain and discuss how and why we should observe market trends and show examples of current trends.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why observe market trends?
- Innovations don’t come to us. We must find, develop, and adopt innovations.
- Markets are changing faster than ever.
- The high number of markets and market trends makes it hard to see trends without a clear process.
How to observe market trends
- Reading technical and non-technical newspapers
- Reading books
- Subscribing to paid research newsletters
- Reading white papers of suppliers/providers/vendors
What are some current market trends (examples)?
- Data analytics for everyone (with much less technical expertise needed)
- Low-code/No-code software development
- Robotic process automation
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management market trends meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management market trends meeting. We explained and discussed why and how we observe current market trends and showed examples of current market trends.
Best, Max
Focus areas meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management focus areas meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management focus areas meeting. We’ll discuss the need to focus on specific areas of technology innovation.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we determine our research focus areas?
- We cannot research market trends and innovative technology solutions in all possible markets.
- We focus on the areas that are relevant for our organization.
- We research market trends in different detail layers (all as an overview → small numbers in detail)
How do we determine our research focus areas?
- We ask our organization about its needs.
- We ask our supplier about their opinion.
- We ask our customers and our competitors about their views.
What are our research focus areas?
- Our organization’s industry
- Our technology solutions’ markets
- Our people/process/technology needs
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management focus areas meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management focus areas meeting. We explained and discussed the need to focus on specific areas of technology innovation and how we can achieve this.
Best, Max
Organizational focus areas meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management organizational focus areas meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management organizational focus areas meeting. We’ll discuss and align on possible focus areas for our organization’s technology innovation research.
Best, Max
Meeting information
What are our industry/market focus areas?
Focus areas
- Professional services
- Consulting services
- Outsourcing services
- Industries we serve
Non-focus areas
- Product organization
- Hyperscaling organization
- Industries we don’t serve
What are our functional focus areas?
Focus areas
- Human resources, especially recruitment
- Internal command, control, communication, coordination, cooperation, collaboration
- Internal information & knowledge management
- Digital marketing
- Digital service delivery
Non-focus areas
- Internal procurement
- Sales support
What are our solution category focus areas?
Focus areas
- Collaboration and information management software tools
- Low-code/No-code software tools
- Digital marketing & client communication software tools
Non-focus areas
- New CRM tools (salespeople don’t want to change)
- Additional sales management tools (salespeople don’t use them)
- Procurement software tools (our partners don’t like them)
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management organizational focus areas meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management organizational focus areas meeting. We discussed and aligned on focus areas for our organization’s technology innovation research.
Best, Max
Innovation research meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management research meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management research meeting. We’ll discuss possible innovative technology solutions as preparation for our future interview series and employee survey.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we research innovative technology solutions?
- Researching market trends is necessary but not sufficient.
- We need a list of concrete innovative technology solutions for evaluation.
- Concrete innovative technology solutions are the input for evaluation, community discussion, and procurement preparation.
How do we research innovative technology solutions?
- Startup news observation (e.g., TechCrunch, Crunchbase News)
- Vendor/solution directories (e.g., Crunchbase)
- Web search for “list of XYZ solutions”
What are some examples of innovative technology solutions for our organization?
Innovative technology solutions for professional services firms
- Low-code/No-code: Bryter, Microsoft Power Apps, Retool
- Asynchronous communication: Threads, Tipi, Twist
- Information management: Coda, Microsoft Loop, Notion
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation research meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management research meeting. We discussed innovative technology solutions for our organization as examples for our future continual technology innovation research project.
Best, Max
Research interviews preparation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management research interviews preparation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management research interviews preparation meeting. We’ll prepare our research interviews by explaining to you the goal, the format, and the questions we would like to ask. We’re open to your questions and feedback for an optimal interview series preparation.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Goal
- Research interviews collect market/industry trends and innovative technology solutions from our stakeholders and employees.
- Research interviews collect possible technology innovation management process improvements.
- Research interviews are part of the preparation of the research survey by identifying focus topic areas.
Format
- Around 20 research interviews throughout our organization.
- One hour per interview.
- One hour follow-up for creating written notes.
Questions
- How do you perceive the current state of our organization’s technology innovation management?
- What should be the focus of our organization’s technology innovation management?
- What are the current industry/market trends our organization should look at?
- What are the current functional trends you see in your function?
- What are the current technology solution (category) trends our organization should look at?
- What would you like to have an innovative technology solution for?
- What technology solutions do other organizations in our industry/market implement?
- How can our organization better search, find, and monitor technology innovation trends/developments for our organization?
- How can our organization procure, implement, and adopt innovative technology solutions quicker?
- What else is important for you?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation research interviews preparation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management interviews preparation meeting. We explained and discussed the interview goal, format, and questions. We'll welcome your email if you have any additional questions and/or feedback.
Best, Max
Research interview meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation research interview meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to an interview as part of our ongoing technology innovation management. We would like to discuss approximately ten questions with you. The questions explore your knowledge about innovative technology solutions for our organization. I selected a free meeting spot in your calendar. Please send me a calendar change request if you would like to change the meeting date and/or time. In case of any questions in the meantime, feel free to contact me.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Question 1
- How do you perceive the current state of our organization’s technology innovation management?
Question 2
- What should be the focus of our organization’s technology innovation management?
Question 3
- What are the current industry/market trends our organization should look at?
Question 4
- What are the current functional trends you see in your function?
Question 5
- What are the current technology solution (category) trends our organization should look at?
Question 6
- What would you like to have an innovative technology solution for?
Question 7
- What technology solutions do other organizations in our industry/market implement?
Question 8
- How can our organization better search, find, and monitor technology innovation trends/developments for our organization?
Question 9
- How can our organization procure, implement, and adopt innovative technology solutions quicker?
Question 10
- What else is important for you?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation research interview meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your time for our interview. We value your information and will incorporate it into our future technology innovation management process. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. Feel free to have a look at our wiki page from time to time.
Best, Max
Research survey meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management research survey meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management research survey meeting. We’ll prepare our research survey on collecting potential technology innovations for our organization. In addition, we’ll use this survey to explain the technology innovation management function to more people in our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why will we conduct a research survey?
- We’ll collect various information about possible technology innovations from our employees.
- We’ll receive information from many employees, instead of only from key stakeholders.
- We’ll receive additional feedback on how to collect more information from our employees in the future.
How will we conduct an employee survey?
Invitation
- We’ll define the to-be-invited group instead of creating a list of names.
- We’ll invite participants via email and will remind them with additional emails.
- We’ll give invitees at least two weeks to participate in the survey.
Software tool
- We’ll use a software tool that is already implemented, if available.
- Alternatively, we’ll use an external cloud software tool and provide clear data protection information for the invitees.
- We’re open to survey software tool ideas.
Evaluation
- We aim to formalize the survey to make it somewhat statistically useful.
- We aim to evaluate the closed survey in the following two weeks.
- We’ll share the survey results with the stakeholders first, then with all employees.
What questions will the employee survey include?
Introduction
Technology innovation management ensures that the organization has access to new technology solutions improving and innovating its business. Technology innovation management structures the process of finding, assessing, and testing new technologies in cooperation with internal stakeholders and external suppliers.
New technology solutions can increase revenue or reduce costs and/or risks with relatively low risk in comparison to business model innovations. Technology innovation management is an essential tool to keep the organization competitive.
This survey collects your market expertise about potential technology innovations for our organization. We’ll use your survey response to look at the mentioned technology solutions and prepare further steps to make them available to our organization. The survey doesn’t require additional activities from your side.
- How do you perceive the current state of our organization’s technology innovation management?
- What should be the focus of our organization’s technology innovation management?
- What are the current industry/market trends our organization should look at?
- What are the current functional trends you see in your function?
- What are the current technology solution (category) trends our organization should look at?
- What would you like to have an innovative technology solution for?
- What technology solutions do other organizations in our industry/market implement?
- How can our organization better search, find, and monitor technology innovation trends/developments for our organization?
- How can our organization procure, implement, and adopt innovative technology solutions quicker?
- What else is important for you?
Survey invitation text
Subject: Technology innovation research performance survey
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation research survey as part of our ongoing technology innovation management activities. The research survey makes your market expertise available to our technology innovation process/function/team. To learn about potential technology innovations for our organization, we kindly invite you to participate in this survey. The survey takes approximately 15 minutes of your time.
Please follow the link to participate in the survey: <<LINK>>
Best, Max
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management research survey meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management research survey meeting. We collected your feedback about the upcoming survey. The survey will reflect your requirements to collect information about potential technology innovations for our organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Best, Max
Research interviews and survey results meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management research interviews and survey results meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management research interviews and survey results meeting. We’ll present our research interviews and survey results to you in this meeting.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Interview results
- Technology innovation management has potential for improvement.
- People understand our market, their functions, and current trends.
- We gathered lots of good technology innovation ideas.
Survey data
- 56 survey participants
- 42 completed surveys
- 15 questions answered on average
- 10,000 words written
- 3 additional feedback emails received
Question 1
How do you perceive the current state of our organization’s technology innovation management?
- Not much activity so far
- Room for improvement
- The steps after innovation are identified are unclear
Question 2
What should be the focus of our organization’s technology innovation management?
- Many solutions exist, why don’t we try more?
- Faster evaluation, procurement, implementation, adoption
- Organizational bureaucracy slows down technology innovation adoption
Question 3
What are the current industry/market trends our organization should look at?
Industry/market example: Professional/outsourcing services
- Open information
- Faster implementation
- Self-service technology requires less consulting and outsourcing
Question 4
What are the current functional trends you see in your function?
Function example: Marketing
- Content marketing
- Marketing automation
- Clients decide before they contact us
Question 5
What are the current technology solution (category) trends our organization should look at?
Industry/market example: Professional/outsourcing services
- Asynchronous communication software tools
- New wiki software tools
- Low-code/no-code software tools
Question 6
What would you like to have an innovative technology solution for?
Industry/market example: Professional/outsourcing services
- Create faster quotes
- Communicate earlier with potential new clients
- Design new professional services business models
Question 7
What technology solutions do other organizations in our industry/market implement?
Industry/market example: Professional/outsourcing services
- Professional services automation
- Marketing automation
- New internal/external communication tools
Question 8
How can our organization better search, find, and monitor technology innovation trends/developments for our organization?
- Internal communication and information & knowledge exchange
- Listening to our clients
- Monitoring industry news
Question 9
How can our organization faster procure, implement, and adopt innovative technology solutions?
- Clear accountabilities and processes
- Clear business cases
- Solutions with usage-based pricing
Question 10
What else is important for you?
- Technology innovation is important for us
- Business model and technology innovation work best together
- We must innovate faster and more aggressively to stay ahead of the competition
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management research interviews and survey results meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for joining our technology innovation management research interviews and survey results meeting. We hope we gave you a good impression of the employees’ thoughts about potential technology innovations for our organization. If you have any more questions and/or feedback, feel free to drop us an email.
Best, Max
Table structure meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management table structure meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management table structure meeting. We’ll discuss the data and information structure to collect one-time and ongoing technology innovation information. We value your input and feedback due to the number of different implementation options.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why
Why do we need to determine technology innovation management table structures?
- We maintain technology-innovation-related information in several tables to maintain an overview.
- Table structures are a possible framework for processes and procedures and work in conjunction with standard operating procedures.
- Table structures are the input to create forms and templates as part of process/workflow management.
How
How do we determine technology innovation management table structures?
- What information do we want to collect?
- What information do our internal stakeholders need?
- What information do our existing suppliers need?
Trends table
- Trend name
- Identifier
- Status
- Category
- Organizational function
- Description
- Organizational impact
- Opportunities/risks
- Trend owner
- Organizational response
Solution categories table
- Solution category name
- Identifier
- Status
- Category
- Organizational function
- Description
- Potential for organization
- Opportunities/risks
- Solution category owner
- Solutions (rollup)
Innovative technology solutions table
- Solution name
- Identifier
- Status
- Category
- Description
- Evaluation
- Potential costs
- Business case
- Opportunities/risks
- Solution owner
- Solution category (rollup)
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management table structure meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management table structure meeting. Your feedback helps us in setting up an information architecture that fits the whole organization instead of just the technology innovation management function. If you have any additional questions or feedback, feel free to drop us an email.
Best, Max
Supplier innovation meetings
Supplier innovation process meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management supplier innovation process meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management supplier innovation process meeting. We’ll explain and discuss how and why we ask suppliers for potential technology innovations and decide which suppliers have the most potential to innovate our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we ask suppliers for technology innovation?
- Companies know their markets and suppliers have the interest of gaining business (or making a good impression at least).
- Suppliers have connections to a network of companies, like what we have for our customers.
- By asking our suppliers for help, we make them happy and maintain our organizational relationship.
How do we ask suppliers for technology innovation?
- We set up distinctive technology innovation meetings to discuss our challenges.
- We give them time to come up with ideas on how to help us.
- We challenge consulting and outsourcing firms in particular because and have high standards for their advice to us.
Which suppliers do we ask for technology innovation?
- Which suppliers are the most interesting/promising to introduce us to innovative technology solutions?
- Which consulting/outsourcing firms work for us?
- Which suppliers actively market their innovation competence?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management supplier innovation process meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management supplier innovation process meeting. We explained and discussed how and why suppliers can innovate our organization through technology, and which suppliers are most promising for this purpose.
Best, Max
Supplier portfolio meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation supplier portfolio meeting invitation
Dear supplier,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation supplier portfolio meeting. We’ll discuss potential additional relevant elements of your portfolio that fit the needs of our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we want to learn about your portfolio?
- We prefer working with suppliers we already know instead of onboarding new suppliers and explaining our organization from scratch to them.
- We know you offer more than we receive today from you, and we don’t want to miss opportunities to innovate with you.
- We value modularized, systematized, and standardized offers compared to individually negotiated solutions.
How do we want to learn about your portfolio?
- Please provide us with an portfolio update of your organization.
- Please send us updates about new portfolio elements as soon you’re ready to sell them to us.
- Communicate the maturity of your portfolio elements openly to us so that we know if we’re a test customer or a laggard.
What elements of your portfolio are relevant to our organization?
- Please provide a portfolio catalog as a (horizontal) PDF file.
- You know our organization. What do you recommend to us?
- What portfolio elements aren’t relevant to us and why?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation supplier portfolio meeting follow-up
Dear supplier,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation supplier portfolio meeting. The presentation of your additional portfolio was quite interesting for us. We’ll discuss our talk internally and share your documents with additional stakeholders.
Best, Max
Supplier innovation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Supplier innovation meeting invitation
Dear supplier,
We kindly invite you to our supplier innovation meeting. We’ll discuss current organizational challenges and invite you to introduce us to technology innovations you, your partners, or organizations you know about offer.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we want to innovate with you?
- You know our organization and the industry/market.
- We value our business together and appreciate your regular open feedback.
- You offer a portfolio of interesting solutions and have a broad and deep partner network you could introduce us to.
How do we want to innovate with you?
- We explain some current business challenges to you and listen to your advice.
- We invite you to introduce us to your additional portfolio and/or your partner network.
- You can come back to us at any time for another discussion about your ideas.
What are our current organizational challenges?
- We want to automate our internal processes.
- We want to modularize, systematize, and standardize our portfolio and the corresponding service delivery processes.
- We want to innovate our marketing with useful information and advice instead of content and sales meetings.
Follow-up email
Subject: Supplier innovation meeting follow-up
Dear supplier,
Thanks for joining our supplier innovation meeting. We’re happy to have the chance to discuss our need for technology innovations and get your input. We appreciate your open-minded thinking and your willingness to innovate our organization together. When you have any additional ideas about technology innovation for us, feel free to send us an email and we’ll jump on another call with you.
Best, Max
Supplier partner introduction meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation supplier partner introduction meeting invitation
Dear supplier,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation supplier partner introduction meeting. We want to learn about your partner network and how some of your partners may be interesting as a supplier to us.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why are we interested in your partner network?
- We’re always looking for additional business opportunities to innovate our organization.
- Your partners ideally complement the solutions we already receive from you.
- Your partners have a business relationship with you, simplifying the implementation and adoption of additional technology solutions.
How can we profit from your partner network?
- You know our organization and can filter which organizations in your partner network could be relevant for us.
- You introduce us to your partners in case this could be a contributing new connection between our organizations.
- We provide feedback to you about (un)successful partnership initiations (e.g., projects, purchases).
Which of your partners are relevant for us?
- We’re especially interested in partners that supplement the solutions we already receive from you.
- We’re interested in solutions that are simple to test, procure, implement, and adopt.
- We differentiate between your suppliers and partners. In this case, we’re looking for the latter.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation supplier partner introduction meeting follow-up
Dear supplier,
thanks for joining our technology innovation supplier partner introduction meeting. We discussed opportunities for working more closely with your partners. We always want to broaden our network and value your contribution to this effort.
Best, Max
Community meetings
Organizational culture meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management organizational culture meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management organizational culture meeting. We'll explain and discuss the need for a technology innovation culture for our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we need a technology innovation culture?
- Technology innovation is highly relevant to our organization and a key element in keeping us competitive.
- Hundreds of markets/industries, thousands of potential suppliers, and millions of potential solutions make it incredibly complex for us to keep an overview.
- Our employees observe current market trends and are at the frontline to see the potential for additional technology solutions to improve our work outcomes.
How do we create a technology innovation culture?
- We raise awareness of the need for technology innovation through town hall meetings, workshops, and other community events.
- We invite our people to submit potential innovations and provide feedback on their submissions.
- We explain the need and the interdependence for culture, process, and business model change in addition to new technology solutions.
What are the concrete steps to create a technology innovation culture?
- Town hall meeting with process introduction.
- Employee participation meetings with specific functions/teams.
- Setup and regular meetings with a dedicated technology innovation community.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management organizational culture meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management organizational culture meeting. We explained and discussed the need for a technology innovation culture and steps on how to create one in our organization.
Best, Max
Employee participation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management employee participation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management employee participation meeting. We’ll explain and discuss how we can create a list of potentially useful technology solutions and suppliers/providers/vendors with the help of our employees.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we need our employees’ participation in finding technology innovations?
- There are too many technology solutions in too many fields for a central to find and assess.
- Our employees have experience in other technology solutions our organization currently uses.
- Our employees know best the requirements new technology solutions must fulfill to contribute to our organization’s outcomes.
How do we include our employees in finding technology innovations?
- We ask for your help in this meeting and will send out a form/table for you to fill in about potentially useful innovative technology solutions for our organization.
- We’re open to your feedback but kindly ask you to keep the initial workload low.
- We ask you to point us to specific technology solutions we could use in the initial evaluation process.
What are the next steps to include our employees in finding technology innovations?
- We share our innovative technology solution form/table with you, including instructions on how to use it.
- We kindly ask you to use this form/table to point us to relevant innovative technology solutions and/or suppliers/providers/vendors.
- We’ll share our feedback and/or come back to you with additional questions after we’ve had a first look and completed a general requirements check.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management employee participation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management employee participation meeting. We explain and discussed how our employees can help us create a list of potentially useful innovative technology solutions as a precondition for further evaluation, procurement, and implementation.
Best, Max
Community setup meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management community setup meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management community setup meeting. We’ll explain the need for and the approach to setting up a technology innovation management community.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we need a technology innovation management community?
- We need regular exchange about industry/market trends in addition to hints about concrete innovative technology solutions for our organization.
- Our organization needs leaders who support our employees in finding and initially assessing innovative technology solutions.
- We want to foster the exchange on how to find, select, and initially assess innovative technology solutions for our organization.
How do we set up a technology innovation management community?
- We’ll ask our employees who is interested in joining our technology innovation management community.
- In the first meetings, we’ll discuss the technology innovation management community's goals, scope, and approach.
- We collaboratively decide how we want to work together and also accept passive community members primarily reading/listening to what is going on.
What are the first steps to setting up a technology innovation management community?
- An initial email to all employees about our aim to set up a technology innovation management community.
- A first meeting to establish a foundational cooperative and collaborative work approach.
- Regular discussion and decision about how we can adapt our innovative technology solution elicitation process, including the central form/table to collect information about solutions/suppliers/providers/vendors from our employees.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management community setup meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management community setup meeting. We explained and discussed the need for and approach to setting up a technology innovation management community.
Best, Max
Regular community meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management regular community meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management regular community meeting. We’ll discuss successes and challenges and how to improve our technology innovation management activities.
Best, Max
Meeting information
What are we doing well?
- What are our successes since the last meeting?
- How did we improve our organization?
- How did others appraise us?
How can we improve?
- What are our failures since the last meeting?
- Where didn’t we make the progress they hoped for?
- How did others criticize us?
What are the next steps to improve?
- What are our upcoming activities until the next meeting?
- How will we become even better in the future?
- How will we communicate our progress to stakeholders even better?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management regular community meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management regular community meeting. We discussed our successes and challenges since the last meeting and how we’ll improve our technology innovation management in the future.
Best, Max
Community results presentation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management community results presentation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management community results presentation meeting. We’ll present the latest accomplishments and discuss the future activities of our technology innovation community.
Best, Max
Meeting information
What have we achieved so far?
- We initiated a technology innovation community.
- We started collecting innovative technology solutions for our organization through a distributed elicitation and feedback process.
- We discussed potential additional activities for our community.
What will we do in the future?
- We’ll increase our efforts to gain an overview of innovative technology solutions for our organization.
- We’ll further systematize and standardize our elicitation process.
- We’ll inform stakeholders about the innovative technology solution evaluation process on a broader and deeper level.
What are the next steps?
- We’ll document our innovative technology evaluation process for our employees.
- We’ll market our activities more broadly, to gain more “passive” community members.
- We’ll work with stakeholders and executives to start discussing the procurement and implementation of innovative technology solutions.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management community results presentation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management community results presentation meeting. We presented our latest achievements and discussed the next steps for our technology innovation community.
Best, Max
Evaluation meetings
Solution requirements meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution requirements meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management solution requirements meeting. We’ll explain the need for solution requirements management and discuss a first draft of the collected requirements.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we elicit solution requirements?
- We structure our solution evaluation process.
- We make objective decisions.
- We make the solution selection plausible and traceable.
How do we elicit solution requirements?
- We don’t(!) write down a hundred requirements, like classical requirements engineering documents.
- We compare the relevant solutions on the market and find approx. 20 key differentiating features and characteristics.
- We compare the solutions in the category/market by comparing smarter instead of harder.
What are our solution requirements?
Professional services automation software service
- Software as a service
- Hosted in the European Union for data privacy reasons
- Self-service subscription
- Extended expense reporting features
- Support for new/other consulting revenue models (e.g., retainer pricing model)
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution requirements meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management solution requirements meeting. We explained the approach to comparing technology solutions in a specific category/market and discussed a concrete example.
Best, Max
Solution presentation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution presentation meeting invitation
Dear supplier,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management solution presentation meeting. We’ll discuss a technology solution with a supplier.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we invite suppliers to present their solutions?
- We want to get into contact with the supplier’s sales team.
- We want to understand how the solution works and feels to use.
- We need a foundation for our (also partly subjective) solution comparison meeting.
How do we let suppliers present their solutions?
- We introduce suppliers to show us how their solutions work.
- We ask suppliers to point to the main differentiators of their solutions.
- We respect their presentations but focus on our own requirements, comparison, and evaluation.
What are the topics of the solution presentation meeting?
- What are the key differentiators of your solution?
- Please show us how your solution works.
- Where do we get comprehensive written information about your solution?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution presentation meeting follow-up
Dear supplier,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management solution presentation meeting. We learned about a potential technology solution that is potentially useful for our organization.
Best, Max
Solution comparison meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution comparison meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management solution comparison meeting. We’ll explain and discuss how we compare technology solutions in one category with each other. This is the foundation before moving forward and evaluating individual solutions.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we compare the available solutions?
- We need to make objective decisions.
- We want to choose the right solution for our organization.
- We consider the interests of a high number of stakeholders, instead of just selecting the right solution for the technology innovation management team.
How do we compare the available solutions?
- We use our elicited requirements and analyze the available solutions.
- We include additional requirements and comparison factors after learning about the suppliers and seeing the solutions in action.
- First we exclude the solutions that do not meet core requirements, then we select approximately three leading solutions for further comparison.
What are the steps for comparing the available solutions?
- Rework the requirements based on the suppliers’ presentations.
- Analyze the available solutions that fit our requirements.
- Exclude solutions based on hard factors.
- Compare the remaining solutions; add requirements if necessary.
- Ask suppliers for additional information if necessary.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution comparison meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management solution comparison meeting. We explained and discussed how we compare technology solutions in the same category, and we are now ready to move forward and evaluate some of them.
Best, Max
Customer reference meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management customer reference meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management customer reference meeting. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of a specific technology solution with a vendor’s reference customer.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we talk with reference customers?
- We want to learn about the disadvantages the vendor doesn’t tell us about.
- We want to learn about migration paths and challenges.
- We want to learn about the further ecosystem customers have built.
How do we talk with reference customers?
- We receive the reference customer’s details from the vendor.
- We conduct a call without the supplier, in order to be able to ask tough questions.
- We make structured notes as part of our solution comparison.
What are the questions we ask reference customers?
- What are the disadvantages of the solution?
- What other solutions have you evaluated?
- Why is this solution better than all the others?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management customer reference meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management customer reference meeting. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of a specific technology solution and will include our findings in the further technology solution evaluation process.
Best, Max
Solution evaluation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution evaluation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management solution evaluation meeting. We’ll explain and discuss why and how we evaluate technology solutions before proceeding with more detailed and resource-intense steps.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we evaluate technology solutions?
- We want to test the look & feel, the features, and the overall usability of a technology solution.
- We want to confirm the vendor and the reference customers’ explanations.
- We start small with test activities before spending money in a proof-of-concept project.
How do we evaluate technology solutions?
- We write tests we want to conduct with the technology solution.
- We conduct the tests in a “test environment” provided by the vendor.
- We rework our notes so that stakeholders can review our test results.
What are the questions we ask in the evaluation?
- Which tests do the solution accomplish? Which tests does it not accomplish?
- What do we learn about the solution’s general usability?
- What do we learn about the solution’s features?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management solution evaluation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management solution evaluation meeting. We explained and discussed the necessity of a thorough solution evaluation before moving forward.
Best, Max
Proof-of-concept preparation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management proof-of-concept preparation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management proof-of-concept preparation meeting. We’ll explain and discuss the necessary steps to prepare a possible technology solution proof-of-concept project.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we prepare a proof-of-concept project?
- The proof-of-concept project is necessary to show the technology solution’s capability to bring value to our organization.
- The proof-of-concept is a cost-efficient deep dive before a possible procurement project.
- The proof-of-concept can be part of a “smart” public procurement strategy.
How do we prepare a proof-of-concept project?
- We collect all created information for overtaking by a new project.
- We introduce the current state of the solution evaluation to the new project team.
- We provide ongoing Q&A to the proof-of-concept project team.
What are the steps to preparing a proof-of-concept project?
- Collect all created documents into one file plus attachments.
- Set up a meeting to introduce the proof-of-concept project team to the consolidated information.
- Check in regularly with the proof-of-concept project team to offer support.
- Support the proof-of-concept project team in case they need an additional/outside view.
- Support the proof-of-concept project team with the final solution evaluation at the end of the project.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management proof-of-concept preparation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management proof-of-concept preparation meeting. We explained and discussed the necessary steps to prepare a possible technology solution proof-of-concept project.
Best, Max
Procurement preparation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management procurement preparation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management procurement preparation meeting. We’ll explain and discuss the necessary steps to prepare a procurement project.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we prepare a procurement project?
- The procurement project selects and purchases the new technology solution for our organization.
- The procurement project has a view of the legal and financial challenges of procuring technology solutions for our organization, but needs technological information and market insights as input.
- The procurement project needs input from the technology innovation management process and corresponding projects (e.g., technology solution proof-of-concept project).
How do we prepare a procurement project?
- We collect all created information for overtaking by a new project.
- We introduce the current state of the solution evaluation to the new project team.
- We provide ongoing Q&A to the proof-of-concept project team.
What are the steps to preparing a procurement project?
- Align with the proof-of-concept project about the existing documentation landscape.
- Collect all created documents into one file plus attachments.
- Set up a meeting to introduce the procurement project team to the consolidated information.
- Check in regularly with the procurement project team to offer support.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management procurement preparation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management procurement preparation meeting. We explained and discussed the necessary steps to prepare a procurement project for a new technology solution.
Best, Max
Organizational adoption preparation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation organizational adoption preparation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation organizational adoption preparation meeting. We’ll explain and discuss possible early activities to support our employees’ adoption of the new technology solution.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we prepare for the organizational adoption of the new technology solution?
- An implemented technology solution that employees don’t use is a waste of money.
- User adoption is the most challenging task in some software categories.
- Use adoption needs active work by organizational stakeholders instead of just a little training.
How do we prepare for the organizational adoption of the new technology solution?
- We start early with user adoption supporting actions.
- We plan various activities that serve a high number of user needs.
- We include stakeholders early to align on user adoption meetings.
What are the possible adoption-supporting actions?
- Determine responsibilities and accountability for user adoption.
- Plan various user adoption support activities (e.g., meetings, workshops, training, town hall meetings, Q&A sessions, usual user support).
- Outline the need for information creation for user adoption support activities.
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation organizational adoption preparation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation organizational adoption preparation meeting. We explained and discussed possible early activities to support our employees’ adoption of the new technology solution.
Best, Max
Partner network meetings
Partner categories meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner categories meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management partner categories meeting. We’ll discuss and decide on partner categories for future technology innovation cooperations.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we define partner categories?
- External organizations have different relationships with us that reflect different interests.
- Different organizations have different needs that need specific management approaches.
- We don’t want to share information with all external partners in the same way.
How do we define partner categories?
- We analyze and compare our potential partners and our interests.
- We categorize potential partners we want to work more closely with.
- We conduct meetings with internal stakeholders and the external organization to check if our assessment is correct.
What questions should we ask to define partner categories?
- What are our potential technology innovation partners?
- What are some possible technology innovation partner categories?
- Which questions can we use to test/validate these partner categories?
- What are the potential consequences if we define these partner categories wrong?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner categories meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management partner categories meeting. We discussed and decided on partner categories for future technology innovation cooperations.
Best, Max
Cooperation models meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management cooperation models meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation cooperation models meeting. We’ll explain and discuss the need for partner categories as a precondition for effective and efficient partner management.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we develop partner cooperation models?
- Different partner categories need different cooperation models.
- The cooperation models systematize and standardize the work with the partners of a category.
- Partner cooperation models ensure that the technology innovation team reflects the internal stakeholders’ interests in the partnership.
How do we develop partner cooperation models?
- We define the expected outcomes from the partner category.
- We align with stakeholders on cooperation formats.
- We discuss the partner cooperation model with the partners.
What questions should we ask to develop partner cooperation models?
- What are the interests of our internal stakeholders for a specific partner category?
- What are the interests of the partners of a specific partner category?
- What information do (not) we want to share with the partner category?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management cooperation models meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management cooperation models meeting. We explained and discussed the need for partner categories as part of our upcoming technology innovation partner management.
Best, Max
Partner requirements meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner requirements meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management partner requirements meeting. We’ll explain and discuss requirements for potential future partners for technology innovations.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we define partner requirements?
- We want to work with partners with whom we can create mutual value.
- We want to assess potential partners based on clear requirements to communicate our decision to internal stakeholders and the (potential) partner.
- We must adhere to compliance requirements (e.g., in competition law).
How do we define partner requirements?
- We ask our internal stakeholders about their expectations of working with external partners.
- We ask potential partners about working with our organization.
- We align clear to differentiate partner requirements to make decisions on additional partners fast and traceable.
Which questions should we ask to define partner requirements?
- What ambitions should our partners have?
- What values should our partners have?
- What relative competitive position should our partners have?
- What commitment should our partners bring with them?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner requirements meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management partner requirements meeting. We explained and discussed requirements for potential future partners for technology innovations.
Best, Max
Partner research meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner research meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management partner research meeting. We’ll explain and discuss how we will search for and find additional partners.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we search for additional partners?
- Our partner landscape is currently limited but needs to grow.
- We don’t take the full value from our partner network that we could.
- We need to prepare for organizations leaving our partner network.
How do we search for additional partners?
- We search for organizations according to our requirements per partner category.
- We guess common interests and mutual profits from a partnership.
- We contact potential partners early to reduce the workload between finding a partner and setting up the partnership.
What questions will we ask to search for additional partners?
- What are the search terms to find possible additional partners?
- What directories can we use to find possible additional partners?
- What information do we collect about possible additional partners?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner research meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management partner research meeting. We explained and discussed how we can search and find additional partners for our organization.
Best, Max
Partner introduction meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner introduction meeting invitation
Dear potential partner,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management partner introduction meeting. We’ll explain our aim to find partners to develop technology innovations together and discuss whether cooperation could be mutually beneficial.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why are we assessing technology innovation potential with you?
- We’re in search of partners (not suppliers) with whom we could procure and/or develop technology innovations.
- We shortlisted you for fitting into a specific partner category for us.
- We want to ensure that a potential partnership is mutually beneficial for both sides.
How will we assess the technology innovation potential with you?
- We understand each other's customers, suppliers, and technology innovation approach.
- We compare our technology innovation roadmaps, discovering overlaps.
- We understand each other's organizational culture in relation to the openness of information and technology sharing.
What questions will we ask to assess the technology innovation potential with you?
- Who are your target customers?
- Who are your key technology innovation suppliers?
- What is your information and technology sharing experience with other organizations?
- What is your organizational culture in relation to information and technology sharing?
- What are your fears in relation to a technology innovation partnership?
- What are your goals if you partner with us?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management partner introduction meeting follow-up
Dear potential partner,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management partner introduction meeting. We explained our aim in finding technology innovation partners to improve our customer solutions, lower costs and risks in technology innovation procurement/development, and increase the technology innovation development/implementation/adoption speed.
Best, Max
Cooperation proposal meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Technology innovation management cooperation proposal meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our technology innovation management cooperation proposal meeting. We’ll decide on the fundamentals of a cooperation proposal for a potential future partner.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we create a cooperation proposal for our potential partner?
- We want to show the potential partner our commitment to this future partnership together.
- We want to clarify the status of the discussion with the potential new partner.
- We want to provide a document for discussion with our internal stakeholders and the external potential partner.
How do we create a cooperation proposal for our potential partner?
- We collect the information we’ve generated so far.
- We create a concise draft version and collect feedback from our internal stakeholders.
- We share the draft version with the potential new partner to receive feedback.
What questions will we ask to create a cooperation proposal for our potential partner?
- What is the goal of the partnership?
- What are the gains for both sides of the partnership?
- What are the topics to include in the partner cooperation proposal?
Follow-up email
Subject: Technology innovation management cooperation proposal meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our technology innovation management cooperation proposal meeting. We discussed and decided on a cooperation proposal for a potential future partner.
Best, Max