Developing Your Idea

there is also the challenge of uncertainty

Having picked your idea and decided to back it as an innovation project, you now have the challenge of turning it into a real product, service, or process for people. This is where you need to put in place structures and systems to help manage projects effectively. But it's not just managing in terms of resources and budgets -- there is also the challenge of uncertainty.

In innovation there is not such thing as guaranteed success -- you might find out after you start that the technology that looked so exciting at the start actually doesn't work or do what you want it to do. Or else you might find that the market you thought was there for your new idea actually isn't that interested.

Or maybe a competitor has come up on your blind side and offered something better. Or the government has changed the rules of the game on you. Or some other unexpected thing has happened -- remember Murphy's Law -- if something can go wrong it probably will.

ACTION POINT: Understand that uncertainty is part of innovation.