The Art of the Innovation Workshop

Published: 12 April 2019 ID: G00381853

Analyst(s): Nicholas Evans, Jackie Fenn, Peter Skyttegaard, Kristin Moyer

Innovation workshops can be an effective approach to imagining digital

transformation possibilities. However, there is an art to doing them well.
CIOs can use these best practices to lead strategic business change and
navigate the trade-offs.

Key Challenges
■ Innovation workshops may seem like a natural first step in an innovation process, but CIOs
need concrete guidance about how to conduct these sessions — particularly from a planning
and process perspective — to maximize productivity and results
■ Choosing from the hundreds of ways to design and execute an innovation workshop can pose a
challenge for CIOs. Identifying the best approaches for your goals and situation can mean the
difference between success and failure.
■ The stakes are becoming ever-higher for every workshop to be a self-standing success as
innovation workshops increasingly become one of the primary mechanisms for sourcing ideas.

Recommendations
To maximize the value of your innovation and strategic business change leadership:

■ Maximize outcomes by complementing ongoing, macrolevel enterprise innovation processes

with innovation workshops. Use these workshops to enable micro bursts of event-based
ideation focused on specific challenges and opportunities.
■ Run productive sessions with a high degree of participant involvement, interaction and
satisfaction by engaging best practices at each workshop phase across preworkshop planning
and workshop execution and postworkshop follow-up.
■ Design formal, structured workshops to support a variety of objectives by engaging agile
innovation workshop processes while retaining a high-bar on quality, consistency and
repeatability.

Table of Contents

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 Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 3
Sometimes Art and Science Go Better Together............................................................................... 3
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 4
Preworkshop Planning......................................................................................................................4
Objectives and Goals..................................................................................................................4
Scope and Focus....................................................................................................................... 5
Audience and Logistics...............................................................................................................6
Processes.................................................................................................................................. 7
Technology................................................................................................................................. 9
Workshop Execution...................................................................................................................... 11
Idea Identification......................................................................................................................12
Idea Categorization and Discussion.......................................................................................... 13
Idea Prioritization...................................................................................................................... 14
Idea Exploration........................................................................................................................16
Postworkshop Follow-Up............................................................................................................... 17
Customer Satisfaction.............................................................................................................. 17
Process Integration...................................................................................................................17
Measurement and Metrics........................................................................................................ 18
Governance..............................................................................................................................19
Continuous Improvement..........................................................................................................19
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 20
Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 20

List of Tables

Table 1. Framework for Innovation Workshop Best Practices..................................................................3

Table 2. Sample Scope for an Innovation Workshop Focused on Digital Transformation......................... 5
Table 3. Comparison of Innovation Processes at Workshop and Enterprise Levels..................................8
Table 4. Trade-offs and Recommendations at Various Innovation Workshop Process Steps................... 9
Table 5. Advantages of Software-Based Ideation Tools Over Manual Techniques..................................10
Table 6. Sample Innovation Workshop Formats ................................................................................... 12
Table 7. Typical Creativity Prompts to Help With Workshop Activities ................................................... 13

List of Figures

Figure 1. Innovation Workshop Process Steps........................................................................................7

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 Figure 2. Example Project Prioritization Matrix and Voting Criteria for a Top-Level Screen of Ideas........ 15

Introduction
Sometimes Art and Science Go Better Together
Most CIOs have become successful by being highly-structured and analytical. But at times, art is as
important as science. Innovation workshops are one of those times.

Innovation workshops are a powerful tool for internal innovation and for co-innovation with
customers and partners. These sessions are often the first stop for organizations as they progress
on their various digital transformation initiatives. However, designing and executing innovation
workshops effectively and efficiently is an art form that requires skills far beyond those of a typical
meeting.

Many options exist in terms of workshop goals and objectives, key focus areas, facilitators and
attendees, processes, timing, logistics and enabling technologies. Although there are hundreds of
ways to design and execute a workshop, getting these options right or wrong can mean the
difference between success and failure. As innovation workshops become more customer-centric in
nature and as business models become more ecosystem-centric, the result is an increase in
stakeholder involvement and visibility. Considering this, the stakes are becoming ever-higher for
every workshop to be a self-standing success.

CIOs and innovation leaders should use a set of proven planning and process steps to maximize
results. By following best practices in workshop planning, execution and follow-up, CIOs and
innovation leaders can master the art of the innovation workshop and use it as a powerful weapon
in their innovation arsenal (see Table 1).

Table 1. Framework for Innovation Workshop Best Practices

Preworkshop Planning During Workshop Postworkshop Planning

Objectives and Goals Idea Identification Customer Satisfaction

Scope and Focus Idea Categorization and Discussion Process Integration

Audience and Logistics Idea Prioritization Governance

Processes Idea Exploration Measurement and Metrics

Technology Continuous Improvement

Source: Gartner

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 Well-designed and well-executed workshops can provide flexibility (i.e., intrinsic agility) for a variety
of workshop objectives — as well as for a variety of ideas flowing through these sessions. They can
also simultaneously maintain a high-bar on quality and consistency in terms of overall workshop
efficiency and effectiveness.

This research is focused on event-based, highly-collaborative innovation workshops that last from a
couple of hours to a couple of days in duration. They complement ongoing, macrolevel enterprise
innovation processes.

These workshops typically include one or more process steps ranging from idea capture (i.e.,
ideation), to idea categorization and discussion (i.e., elevator pitches), to idea prioritization (i.e.,
voting) and then to high-level business cases and roadmaps.

The workshops may or may not use a form of ideation software. In this analysis, we provide
guidance as to the pros and cons of each approach.

Analysis
Preworkshop Planning
In formalized programs, innovation workshops can often be planned in a few hours — typically by
the workshop facilitators. Agendas can be informed by understanding and agreement on workshop
objectives and goals, scope and focus, as well as attendees and logistics.

The process steps for the workshop should be well-known and well-proven. Precise timing for each
step should be adjusted based on number of attendees, desired level of rigor at each step, and any
external timing constraints that the workshop needs to adhere to from upfront discussions with
stakeholders.

The technology used for the workshop may range from manual techniques such as whiteboards or
Post-it Notes to more sophisticated group decision support software or ideation software.

Objectives and Goals

Much like an official charter at the innovation program level, the objectives and goals statement
should outline the overall purpose of each workshop and its intended outcomes (see “What a
World-Class IT Innovation Charter Should Contain and Why You Need One”). It is useful to define
and agree on this at the planning stage with workshop stakeholders and to distribute to all
workshop attendees ahead of time as part of the formal workshop agenda. Alternatively, instead of
sending out agendas ahead of time have people spend the first few minutes of the meeting going
over the material, as is the case with Amazon.

The agenda will typically include objectives and goals, scope and focus, planned activities and
deliverables, and target outcomes, as well as assumptions and expectations. Distributing the
agenda one or two weeks ahead of time, can help set expectations with attendees and remind them
of any required prework or items to bring to the session.

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 Examples of workshop overarching objectives might include:

■ Creating a vision for new directions for a company business model, or new product or service
ideas
■ Prioritizing how the IT organization can be more effective in driving proactive suggestions for
using technology to improve the rest of the business
■ Generating and prioritizing ideas for a specific business function or problem, such as improving
the customer experience or shortening process cycle times
■ Identifying strategic (disruptive) and tactical (incremental) ideas that can add measurable
business value for the client’s near-term and longer-term strategic roadmaps
■ Deciding on the focus and approach of an innovation program

Secondary goals may also exist, such as opening communication channels between different
groups, helping a new team to bond, generating excitement and energy around a new initiative, or
improving levels of employee engagement.

Scope and Focus

Just like broader innovation campaigns, the scope of the innovation workshop needs to be planned
and defined ahead of time. The scope should address the key focus areas of the workshop from a
content perspective (i.e., typically four to eight major categories or topic areas for the brainstorming
within the overall umbrella established by the goals and objectives statement). Also, it should
address the types of innovation and levels of innovation that are being sought out.

Contrary to popular belief, with the appropriate discipline in place, it is perfectly acceptable for
workshops to span multiple (but limited) focus areas as well as multiple types and levels of
innovation (see Table 2). This is particularly beneficial in cases where the purpose of the workshop is
to gain a long-list of high-level ideas for subsequent discussion and prioritization.

Table 2. Sample Scope for an Innovation Workshop Focused on Digital Transformation

Scope

New business models, transforming the digital customer experience, enhancing the digital
Key Focus Areas*
workplace, gaining insights from analytics (all in scope)

Types of Innovation Business, process and technology innovations (all in scope)

Levels of Innovation Incremental and disruptive innovations (all in scope)

* All within the umbrella and context of the overall workshop objectives and goals

Source: Gartner

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 Audience and Logistics
Depending on the type of workshop being conducted, the target audience typically ranges from 10
to 25 participants for event-based ideation sessions. It can even range from five to 50 participants
for design- thinking-focused sessions that are more centered on finding solutions for a specific
business challenge or opportunity.

Facilitators are typically drawn from the core innovation team, from geographically-located
innovation centers, or from a trained pool of facilitators with suitable language and geographic
coverage. Facilitators for event-based ideation sessions may often be generalists with strong
facilitation skills, whereas facilitators for design thinking sessions may have additional training in
these specific areas.

As with other variables in the workshop design, there is often a sweet spot (hence an “art”) for
workshop success. This is driven by carefully managing and maintaining the most suitable number
of participants: too few and ideas and discussions are limited, too many and the session may
become less interactive.

When pulling in various subject matter experts (SMEs) from across the organization to support and
contribute to these sessions, use the key focus areas defined earlier in your planning to help drive
the SME selection. This ensures that you have the right people in place to cover the chosen topic
areas. Cross-pollination of SMEs from different business units and functional areas, and from the
outside for customer-facing workshops, is another best practice that can add to the quality of ideas
and discussions.

Running Virtual or Hybrid Sessions

■ In terms of logistics, one of the key design considerations is the relative mix of in-
person, virtual or hybrid formats for the workshop. In-person sessions can use
anything on the continuum from manual techniques, such as whiteboards or Post-it
Notes, to cloud-based software. Virtual or hybrid sessions are more suited to the
latter.

■ Since remote attendees interact with the same innovation software as in-person
attendees, they are likely to be well-engaged throughout the workshop (due to the
highly collaborative, interactive nature of these events). However, sessions lasting
longer than a half-day will be more of a strain on attention spans.

■ Internally-oriented workshops are more suited to highly virtual sessions, whereas

customer-facing workshops often necessitate at least some suitable level of face-
to-face interaction — even if just a subset of the overall set of attendees.

Attendees may be bringing their own equipment to the session. Therefore, as part of the overall
planning process it’s important to confirm room-specific logistics such as availability of suitable
seating, power outlets, internet access and audio-visual equipment.

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 Processes
Key process steps for innovation workshops can often be designed based on a scaled-down
version of the larger enterprise innovation processes — particularly at the front-end of the
innovation pipeline (see Figure 1). Variations of these process steps exist based on goals and
scope, but the core process is often divergence followed by convergence.

Figure 1. Innovation Workshop Process Steps

To support the reduced time frame of an event-based innovation workshop, idea capture is often
reduced to essentials such as title, description and category. Likewise, idea categorization and
discussion are often limited to a few minutes for “elevator pitches.” Idea prioritization is often
reduced to a workable number of meaningful voting criteria.

Table 3 illustrates a comparison of these innovation processes at the workshop and enterprise level,
as well as how the typical duration and formats vary accordingly. Enterprise innovation processes
come in on their own in the later stages of hands-on experimentation, MVP development and
scaling. It is important to remember that event-based workshop processes augment, but do not
replace, their enterprise process counterparts.

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 Table 3. Comparison of Innovation Processes at Workshop and Enterprise Levels

Innovation Idea Idea Idea Business Implementation

Process Identification Categorization Prioritization Case Roadmap
Step and Discussion

Example Typical Duration: Typical Duration: Typical Duration: Typical Typical Duration:
Workshop 30 minutes to 1 1-4 hours 30 minutes to 1 Duration: 2-4 2-4 hours
Process hour* Typical Time per hour* hours Typical Format:
(Micro Typical No. of Elevator Pitch: Typical No. of Typical One-slide summary
Ideation) Ideas: 50-100 1-10 minutes Voting Criteria: Format:
Typical No. of 2-6 (4 optimal) One-slide
Attributes: 3-4 summary or
business
model
canvas

Example Typical Duration: Typical Duration: Typical Duration: Typical Typical Duration:
Enterprise Days to months Days to months Days Duration: Days
Process Typical No. of Typical Time per Typical No. of Days Typical Format:
(Macro Ideas: 10-1,000 Elevator Pitch: Voting Criteria: Typical Formal document
Ideation) Typical No. of Minutes to hours 4-12 (6-8 Format: or enterprise
Attributes: 10-100 optimal) Formal software
document or
enterprise
software

*Timing for these process steps assumes individual idea submission and voting via online software, and that group discussion and
elevator pitches are conducted during the longer “idea categorization and discussion” process step.

Source: Gartner

Given the time constraints of an event-based session, consider the trade-offs at each process step.
Table 4 illustrates some of the more common trade-offs and corresponding recommendations.

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 Table 4. Trade-offs and Recommendations at Various Innovation Workshop Process Steps

Workshop Topic Challenge Trade-off Recommendation

Stage

Preworkshop People — What is the right Too few and not Typically, 10-25 for highly
Planning Attendees number of enough ideas/ collaborative sessions, which
attendees for a discussion; too many require strong individual
productive and participants move participation.
session? to listen-only mode.

Preworkshop People — What is the right Too few create Develop a demand plan for your
Planning Facilitators number of language and workshops. Train and deploy
facilitators to geographic gaps, and facilitators accordingly. Determine
achieve a global too many impact how many are full time vs.
footprint? quality because each volunteers and assume a suitable
facilitator will conduct degree of churn in your planning.
fewer workshops.

Workshop Technology — What tooling is Manual techniques can Look for ideation software that is
Conduct Tools most appropriate hamper productivity; almost invisible when in use with
— manual or automated techniques a rapid learning curve, so the
automated? require a learning focus is more on the ideas and
curve. their merits.

Workshop Process — What is the right Too few criteria hinder Typically, four criteria for the top-
Conduct Idea number of voting analysis, whereas too of-funnel innovation pipeline
Prioritization criteria? many criteria slow the helps enable development of
process and may cost-benefit matrices and similar
frustrate participants analytics.

Source: Gartner

Although the ideas that flow through each successive workshop may be different, the design
principle should be that the workshop methodology is consistent and provides necessary levels of
quality, consistency and repeatability. This enables innovation workshops to become an
organizational core competency and a capability that people are trained on internally so they can
run it in their own departments.

Technology
A well-run ideation session using a whiteboard or Post-it Notes will trump a less-effectively run
session using software every time. Therefore, it’s more about the facilitators and the overall process,
including the participant experience and engagement level, than their specific tools.

However, with all things being equal in terms of facilitation, software-based ideation tools can
improve your process over the more traditional use of manual techniques in several ways (see Table
5).

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 Table 5. Advantages of Software-Based Ideation Tools Over Manual Techniques

Benefit Description

Instant Visibility With software-based ideation, where everyone enters their ideas simultaneously into an
electronic flip-chart, you get immediate visibility into incoming ideas so that participants can build
on each other’s ideas in real-time. The downside with Post-it Notes is that you don’t necessarily
see the idea until the Post-it Note is shared with the group.

Faster Process With software-based ideation, go straight to elevator pitches and then to voting without having to
type in the ideas from the Post-it Notes. Discussion and prioritization of the ideas can therefore
be done quite seamlessly from a process perspective, without having to take a pause for writing
them on the whiteboard, and often within minutes of idea capture.

Location Compared with Post-it Notes, software-based ideation enables you to conduct sessions either
Independence completely in-person, completely virtually, or in a hybrid manner. The web-based interface means
everyone has a common view of all the ideas being captured and discussed via an electronic
whiteboard and has an equal opportunity to weigh in.

More Detailed With software, you can often capture more far detail around each idea in the form of a couple of
Descriptions sentences outlining the elevator pitch and business rationale for the idea as opposed to just a
few words via Post-It Notes. This can help to improve overall quality as well as general
understanding of the ideas.

Deduplication and With software-based ideation, it’s easier to spot duplicate ideas or ideas that are related to one
Merging of Ideas another and able to electronically merge them via cut-and-paste or other more sophisticated
mechanisms. This helps build more robust ideas and reduce the total number of ideas that need
to be voted on at a later stage.

Automatic With software-based ideation, ideas can be automatically classified as part of the idea
Categorization submission process. For example, by selecting an appropriate “key focus area” from a drop-
down as part of the idea entry step in the software.

More Compared with use of whiteboards and flip-charts for idea prioritization, online voting can be
Sophisticated conducted per person and across multiple voting criteria, so you can arrive at a more
Voting sophisticated assessment of your opportunities. Individual voting can show you the level of
consensus of the group. Multiple voting criteria can enable you to plot cost-benefit matrices, so
you can see quick wins and must-haves. These can be useful to help select ideas for the near-
term and longer-term project roadmap respectively.

Rapid With software-based ideation, it’s possible to have results out to participants the same day in the
Deliverables form of initial voting results. This gives them an electronic record of the session that they can
explore while your team develops a more in-depth executive summary observations and
recommendations.

Source: Gartner

Software-based ideation tools can also help you collect more ideas than manual techniques and
with higher quality. For example, it is common to see anywhere from 50 to 100 ideas captured in
software-based sessions lasting anywhere from two to four hours. This includes time for elevator
pitches as well as voting on the ideas; it is based on analysis of hundreds of sessions globally.

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 When selecting a suitable software package, it’s important to select a tool that’s suited to your
specific task — in this case event-based ideation as opposed to ongoing ideation. For fast-paced
ideation sessions, you’ll need a tool that enables rapid setup of individual sessions by your
facilitators and one in that your participants can be effective immediately.

If you’re scaling your workshops and need to train facilitators, employ a tool that’s easy to use from
the facilitator perspective. End users should be able to login using a simple group login and get
straight to the appropriate screens for entering ideas, discussing their ideas and then voting on
them. Doing so allows end users to focus on expressing and discussing their ideas with the group,
as opposed to dealing with intricacies of the software.

For these reasons, you may need a different package than for your ongoing corporate innovation
campaigns, which may be running for weeks or months and typically have hundreds of features.
Look outside the typical innovation software realm as well. With appropriate customizations, even
more general group decision support systems can be a great fit. Conversely, if you like the creative
experience of using Post-it Notes and want to replicate that in your software-enabled sessions, look
to some larger innovation software vendors that offer the Post-it Note look and feel within their own
tools. As a result, you can retain the experience of Post-it Notes while still benefiting from the
efficiencies of software automation.

Great ideation software should be almost invisible when in use, so the focus becomes exclusively
on the ideas and their merits. The software provides the vital functions of capturing and organizing
these ideas and presenting them in a way that cannot be duplicated with Post-it Notes or
spreadsheets alone.

Workshop Execution
Many workshops focus solely on idea identification (i.e., ideation). However, a best practice is often
to take this a step further with idea categorization and prioritization (i.e., elevator pitches and voting)
or even further still with the development of high-level business cases and roadmaps (see Table 6).

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 Table 6. Sample Innovation Workshop Formats

Workshop Type Light Standard Standard Extreme

Process Steps Three steps Three steps Three steps Five steps
(identification (identification (identification through (identification through
through through prioritization) prioritization) roadmapping)
prioritization)

Location Physical, virtual or Physical, virtual or Physical, virtual or Typical physical

hybrid hybrid hybrid

Typical Audience Internal Internal or external Internal or external Internal or external

Typical Number 10 to 15 15 to 20 15 to 25 10 to 25
of Attendees

Typical Duration ~2 hours ~4 hours 4 to 6 hours 2 days

Typical Number 40 with prioritization 60 with prioritization 80 with prioritization 80 with prioritization; 10
of Ideas to 15 high-level
business cases

Source: Gartner

The number of attendees and time available have a substantial impact on what can be covered
during the session. If you only have half a day, address the first three process steps of idea
identification through prioritization. If you have more time, start to explore and expand several of the
selected ideas in breakout sessions.

Idea Identification
Prior to launching into idea identification with attendees, it is important to set the background
context of the innovation workshop in terms of overall objectives and goals, as well as the key focus
areas under consideration. Often, it’s helpful to provide example challenge statements or
descriptions of the types of ideas that would be of interest within each key focus area or category of
the brainstorming. A common technique is to have the workshop sponsor and/or workshop
facilitator address the group and provide a quick walk-through of the goals and objectives, key
focus areas, agenda and expectations before diving into the brainstorming.

Ideas can be captured either manually or via software; both techniques have their pros and cons.
Manual approaches may include writing ideas down, calling them out or putting Post-it Notes on a
wall. If you opt for manual over software techniques, it is important to ensure everyone has input
and sufficient air time to voice their ideas.

Table 7 illustrates some typical creativity prompts to help form the goal or “problem definition” that
people would generate ideas against. As an example, instead of asking attendees to generate ideas
to improve customer service, you would ask them to generate ideas that would mean a customer

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 would never want to go to a competitor because their experience was so impressive (i.e., a stretch
goal).

Table 7. Typical Creativity Prompts to Help With Workshop Activities

Technique/ Why It Works Examples

Trigger

Set Stretch Goals People tend to think incrementally based on their
current situation and environment. Setting a goal
that is impossible to achieve through current
approaches forces creative thinking and novel
ideas, even if this stretch goal is not achieved.
Instead of “shorten cycle time” as the goal,
try “shorten cycle time from 2 weeks to 2
hours.”

Explore What-If Using a what-if technique forces people to think What if all our IT was cloud-first?
Scenarios With a about the impact of future changes on the What if we embedded facial recognition and
New Technology business. They can focus on the value rather than internet connectivity in every product?
debate how to get there (see “Toolkit: Accelerate
Digital Business With a Product Creative-Thinking
Workshop for Your Executives”)

Add, Remove or It’s tempting to believe that real creators put the
Invert a stamp on their genius on a blank canvas, but in
Constraint or the corporate world this is rarely effective.
Assumption Imposing a few well-chosen constraints ahead of
time spurs more creative, not less.
Put together a team that can produce a
solution in less than a week, find a solution
that costs less than $20 or delivers benefits
in under 6 months.
Remove the assumption that a solution
must use legacy systems or be developed
in-house.

Consider Use analogies from other agencies that may spark
Adjacencies and ideas — for example, a forklift company learned
Connections new practices from a musical concert logistics
company.
1
Consider how nature solves a problem — for
example, German robotics company Festo has
developed novel solutions inspired by living
creatures.
Identify other industries that have similar
problems to yours at the task level, then
visit those that are world-class. You may
need to move up a level to achieve this. For
example, replace “Who is great at CRM?”
with “Who is great at dealing with
customers through large numbers of small
transactions?”

Source: Gartner

Idea Categorization and Discussion

The purpose of the idea categorization and discussion stage is to socialize ideas with the group so
that they are well-understood prior to voting. These ideas are often discussed in elevator pitch
formats, where idea originators present the thinking behind their idea. Here, the ideas can also be
evaluated for potential combination with other related ideas.

Any innovation workshop will generate several duplicate, overlapping or related ideas. Since
deduplication and idea combination are important exercises, the workshop should have an effective
means to perform deduplication, but without detracting from the focus of the session.

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 For example, as ideas are discussed at the elevator pitch level and socialized with the group prior to
voting, having a co-facilitator on point for performing this deduplication in real-time can be useful as
discussions unfold. This can be achieved by moving Post-it Notes around, for example, or by
digitally merging ideas in an electronic equivalent.

Another approach is to have participants look for and add to (i.e., build on) any existing ideas in the
electronic system prior to creating a new idea submission. This is easily accomplished when an
electronic flip chart of ideas can be scrolled through by participants as part of the idea entry system.
To stick to allotted timelines for this process step, facilitators can speed up or slow down
discussions as needed by allocating slightly less or more time for each elevator pitch. They can do
so based on the level of group discussion and interest around each idea and the backlog of ideas to
be covered. For example, if time is running short, ideas deemed self-explanatory by the group can
be presented quickly by the idea originator within minimal group discussion. Those requiring more
explanation as to reason and rationale behind the idea can instead be explored in more detail.

Idea Prioritization
In top-of-funnel types of workshops for capturing a lot of ideas and quickly distilling them down to a
shortlist, idea prioritization can be a valuable step that provides a high-level screen for the most
promising ideas. The design decision at this stage is to determine the most appropriate number of
voting criteria to use within the workshop setting. The trade-off: Too few voting criteria means no
meaningful filter and too many criteria means too much time is consumed from the group in voting,
potentially frustrating them with the sheer amount of voting necessary. For example, if the workshop
generates 50 ideas and you use six distinct voting criteria, that equals 300 drop-downs per screen
that participants need to complete since they are rating each of the 50 ideas against six criteria.

We find that four points of criteria are typically the sweet spot for prioritization since they lend
enough detail for subsequent analysis without overburdening participants. Furthermore, these
criteria can often be broken down into two criteria related to business benefits and two criteria
related to ease of implementation. As a result, the cost-benefit matrices can be plotted to determine
ideas which are quick wins versus must-haves (see Figure 2).

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 Figure 2. Example Project Prioritization Matrix and Voting Criteria for a Top-Level Screen of Ideas

A best practice is to make it clear to participants prior to voting how the votes will be assigned. For
example, a scale of low, medium and high is easy to interpret for criteria such as financial value (i.e.,
high means high financial value — a good thing) but may require some further clarification for
criteria such as project risk and complexity.

In this case, a participant guide handed out at the start of the workshop can be useful to clarify
terms and conventions. Use of suitable color-coding within ideation software also can be useful to

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 visually indicate to participants what is a high/good score as opposed to a low/bad score (i.e.,
anything colored red should be interpreted as a low score or hard to do).

The approach described here with four voting criteria and a “1-3-5” scale is just one of many
techniques that can used for voting mechanics. Other techniques may include head-to-head
comparisons of ideas, ranked lists, a fixed number of votes assigned by each individual, or even
monopoly money used to invest in various ideas.

In terms of selecting some of the most promising ideas for subsequent investigation, take a portfolio
approach and select a suitable mix of quick wins and must-haves (see Figure 2). Quick wins
typically offer high business benefits and high ease of implementation, so they score well across the
board. Must-haves are typically high business benefit, but low ease of implementation, since they
are more risky, costly and time consuming. However, the must-haves are often the more strategic
projects compared with the quick wins, which are more tactical.

By taking a portfolio approach, CIOs can generate quick wins for the business in the near-term, but
also move the needle more strategically for the organization with the must-haves. The higher-risk
must-haves are also the ideas that often don’t get implemented without an innovation program, so
be sure not to throw out the bold ideas too soon.

Idea Exploration
After the idea prioritization phase, several options exist for subsequent idea exploration. These can
range from the development of high-level business cases and implementation roadmaps in cases
where there’s a broad portfolio of ideas to explore, to more focused design and prototyping
activities around specifically identified opportunities or challenges.

In two-day innovation workshop sessions, it is possible to take the most promising ideas identified
on the first day and develop high-level business cases and implementation roadmaps on the
second day for that subset of ideas. For example, this may involve looking at the top 15 to 20 ideas
from a longer list of 50 to 100 identified on the first day.

Dividing the team into a set of breakout groups such as five groups of four participants can be
valuable. Doing so will allow each group to spend enough time in discussing and fleshing out high-
level business cases and assigning three to four ideas per group. Simple formats such as single-
slide PowerPoint templates or a more formal business model canvas can provide a suitable level of
granularity. The intent is to flesh out the ideas from the first day in more detail, but still within the
time constraints of the event-based session.

Implementation roadmaps can be useful to help the group think through interdependencies between
project initiatives and timing of execution. For example, ideas voted as quick wins on the first day
are likely to be high business impact, yet easy to implement, so they may be candidates for the
near-term project roadmap. Ideas voted as must-haves on the first day are likely to be high business
impact, but more complex, costly and time-consuming to implement, so may be candidates for the
mid- or longer-term roadmap.

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 Postworkshop Follow-Up
What happens after the workshop is vitally important for several reasons. Most important is the
ideas generated must progress so that business value can be realized and to avoid common drop
points in the innovation process (see “How to Scale Innovation Beyond Pretty Prototypes”). If you’re
building an innovation workshop capability as a core competency of your innovation program, then
the topics of ongoing program governance, continuous improvement, measurement and metrics, as
well as customer satisfaction, are essentials for a world-class initiative.

Customer Satisfaction
It’s important to take a postworkshop survey to understand satisfaction with the workshop
facilitators and any presenters, as well as the overall workshop process itself. If some form of
ideation software was used during the workshop, then the same software can often be used to
capture this feedback. It can also be captured as part of the wrap-up on the day of the event. In
addition to capturing a numerical rating of facilitators and the workshop, it can be useful to capture
free-form comments from attendees to guide continuous improvement in the workshop process.

Example survey requests may include:

■ Please rate your level of satisfaction with the workshop facilitators (1 to 5)

■ Please rate your level of satisfaction with the workshop presenters (1 to 5)
■ Please rate your overall level of satisfaction with the workshop process (1 to 5)
■ Please rate your overall level of satisfaction with the workshop output and deliverables (1 to 5)
■ Please let us know any comments you have about what you liked about the workshop and any
areas for improvement

If you’re building an innovation workshop capability as a core competency of your innovation

program, then your customer satisfaction surveys can be built into your governance approach. Use
the feedback received and ongoing metrics to inform continuous improvement of the program over
time.

Process Integration
To ensure that ideas captured during the workshop process don’t fall off the radar after the event,
assign an owner, or set of owners, to be on point for postworkshop follow-up and suitable
dispositioning of the ideas. This may involve scheduling follow-up meetings with appropriate
stakeholders and subject matter experts to review the top-rated ideas and to collectively decide
how to help each one progress. Some ideas may require further investigation and others may
require a more in-depth business case. Some ideas may be suitable for moving forward into a
proof-of-concept and others may need to be folded or merged into existing projects. Yet, some may
be tabled, and others discarded.

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 The important thing is to have someone assigned to this task and a formal process behind it to
ensure the ideas are suitably dispositioned. In many cases, the ideas can be fed into the broader
innovation pipeline or database where enterprise innovation processes can help ensure that
dispositioning will take place. Idea management is the time-consuming, sometimes messy, part of
innovation — don’t under-estimate the amount of effort involved.

Measurement and Metrics

If your innovation workshop program is part of your broader enterprise innovation program, develop
and maintain reports to measure workshop success against quarterly and yearly objectives and
feed into the broader set of innovation metrics.

Treat innovation workshop metrics in a similar manner to these broader innovation metrics by
looking at three areas: culture (How innovation-friendly is your enterprise?), process (How many
ideas? How good is your process?) and innovation outcomes (What’s the final payoff?). For more
information, see “Overcoming Innovation’s Measurement Problem.”

Example metrics specific to event-based innovation workshops may include:

■ Culture
■ Amount of time participants spend being creative (within innovation workshop setting)
■ Degree of support by frontline employees, middle managers and senior managers (for
innovation workshops)
■ Ability to be open/unconstrained in the ideation process and willingness of the organization
to change
■ Process productivity
■ Total number of workshops (overall, per business unit, per region, per topic area)
■ Idea portfolio mix (incremental, disruptive, business, process, technology, topic area)
■ Attendee mix (business unit, department, seniority levels, customers, partners)
■ Average number of ideas captured per workshop (total innovation potential)
■ Average number of ideas per workshop turned into innovations (conversion rate)
■ Average time for workshop ideas to be turned into innovations (throughput)
■ Process quality
■ Overall workshop satisfaction ratings (process and deliverables)
■ Facilitator satisfaction ratings
■ Presenter satisfaction ratings
■ Percentage of workshops conducted using the formal tools and methodology

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 ■ Outcomes
■ Financial, operational or learning-oriented benefits (quantitative or qualitative)
■ Average total revenue or cost savings generated per workshop (or in the pipeline based on
estimated return)
■ Percentage of workshop revenue or cost savings as part of broader innovation program (or
in the pipeline based on estimated return)

Since innovation workshop outcomes are a lagging indicator, it may be several months or even over
a year before ideas originally surfaced within the innovation workshop setting are realized.

Governance
Just as you have overall governance for your innovation program, you’ll also want some basic
governance related to your innovation workshop program and team of facilitators. Postworkshop,
it’s important to collect feedback and see if any adjustments may be needed in the governance
approach.

For example, were the anticipated facilitators used and did they have the required geographic
proximity and language coverage to best support the session? Do you need to train up additional
facilitators in a specific region to meet demand? Did the requested subject matter experts support
the session satisfactorily or do they need more preparation or guidance next time around?

Governance also includes the rules for when you make workshops available, how to request them
and how to request the time of facilitators and subject matter experts to support the sessions. It
also includes the expectations that you have for workshop sponsors and those requesting the
sessions.

As your innovation workshop capability matures, expand your governance approach to include
formal training programs, communities and knowledge repositories for facilitators and a
corresponding playbook, or set of materials to run workshops in their own areas.

Continuous Improvement
Since all organizations have a constantly changing workforce, it’s important to continuously
communicate with this audience. Share with them your innovation workshop capability, describe the
approach, gain consensus and buy-in, motivate, gain feedback, prove the value, share best
practices and case studies, train and educate, and empower the organization.

With new leaders coming in and workforce changes, it’s important to re-educate the organization on
the goals and objectives of the innovation workshop program. Communicate to them what’s
available, what’s new, and how it can help them achieve or accelerate their business objectives.
Here you want to build strong relationships with all your innovation stakeholders. Prior successes
and case studies can be highly valuable in myth-busting and proving the value in cases where
corporate antibodies are present.

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 Overall, this human element is the most important for continuously improving any innovation
program and its associated set of capabilities such as innovation workshops. Pay close attention to
this human element to gain champions, and advocates and develop a culture that maximizes the
benefit of the program toward your corporate objectives.

Conclusion
For CIOs leading strategic business change, innovation workshops are a powerful tool to accelerate
innovation and enable microbursts of event-based ideation focused on specific challenges and
opportunities. These workshops don’t have to end abruptly after ideation and can be extended to
encompass the development of high-level business cases and roadmaps.

By paying attention to the various trade-offs in workshop design and delivery, CIOs can support a
variety of innovation objectives while retaining a high bar on quality, consistency and customer
satisfaction. Overall, the art of the successful innovation workshop is not only in ideation, but in the
end-to-end process itself and every design decision made along the way.

Gartner Recommended Reading

Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

“What a World-Class IT Innovation Charter Should Contain and Why You Need One”

“How to Scale Innovation Beyond Pretty Prototypes”

“Overcoming Innovation’s Measurement Problem”

Evidence
1 “Find the Right Expert for Any Problem” June 2015.

Evans, Nicholas D. “Mastering Digital Business: How Powerful Combinations of Disruptive

Technologies Are Enabling the Next Wave of Digital Transformation.” BCS, the Chartered Institute
for IT. January 2019.

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