Interviewee: P1, researcher
Role: portfolio-manager
Date: —
Interviewer: —
Interview Summary
Portfolio manager role
it’s very diverse. If you look at innovation — and especially the multi-actor aspect, where government is one of the actors — there are different combinations. You have government that needs to innovate itself; in that case the government is the portfolio holder. But governments also sometimes have a mandate to innovate not for themselves, but for the market or a particular sector. Then they are more organising innovation. So I recognise the role of innovation manager, and multi-actor is the case almost everywhere. Practically speaking, it’s everywhere: multi-actor challenges where government is one of the players — sometimes as the provider, sometimes as the driver.
Definition of innovation goal of innovation
Most people look at new things and doing things in new ways. But I think a lot already exists, and that it’s more important to stop doing things. That’s the hardest part. Innovation is, in my view, really a behavioural change and an organisational change, where things like digitalisation can be a huge support. But all those actors do have to want to use current capabilities to do certain things better, smarter — and preferably stop doing some things. Because if you don’t do it anymore, you can’t make mistakes; it costs no money and no time. Most innovations are often incremental: very small improvements on the existing system.
Decision making
there are two types of portfolio managers. The ones who manage a spreadsheet—and you see a lot of them in big departments with hundreds of small innovation projects. They keep a kind of scoreboard: who is doing what, how much time it costs, and then in that spreadsheet they try to prevent too many people from colliding with each other. And then you have the innovation manager who actually has a mandate—who is more managerial/leading. That person will take a different course: they will focus less on whether everything is administratively recorded on paper, and more on whether it leads to value and whether it’s actually adopted. So I do see two types of innovation managers. And the larger the organization, the bigger the risk that a collection of innovations is called a “portfolio.” But that’s not quite true. If you have a portfolio, you must be able to manage it—meaning you can say: this project and that project conflict; we shouldn’t do both, because that’s waste. That requires a very different role and responsibility. With a spreadsheet you can signal it, but you don’t really have authority over it.
Overview of what info
Instead of plans and hours, give me the concrete stepping stones. If you want to inform or show something, then show: which concrete stepping stones have you realized in your innovation? The risk of focusing on hours is: ‘we spent 1,000 hours’—okay, but what did you get out of it? People don’t ask that. I don’t think ‘information’ is the right word in the innovation world. I’d put communication at the center rather than information. In innovation, you’re communicating and aligning with each other on how you will implement change. Reports aren’t the best way to do that. Innovation managers don’t get information, they have to go and collect it, that is something you don’t get from reports
Monitoring progress
The ones who manage a spreadsheet—and you see a lot of them in big departments with hundreds of small innovation projects. They keep a kind of scoreboard: who is doing what, how much time it costs, and then in that spreadsheet they try to prevent too many people from colliding with each other. And then you have the innovation manager who actually has a mandate—who is more managerial/leading. That person will take a different course: they will focus less on whether everything is administratively recorded on paper, and more on whether it leads to value and whether it’s actually adopted. What they need is a platform—a platform to get in touch with people and align. That’s talking, not just receiving information. So you need to meet regularly—physically or online—to establish: where are we? Then you can see progress and whether new opportunities are emerging. Core message: the best way to track progress is through direct, regular contact — not through administrative tracking systems.
Sharing learnings knowledge
No response recorded.
Communications relations within community
Innovation managers bring people together. And then they say: ‘That’s interesting—now we see new connections between these two projects. You can work on things together and avoid duplication.’ They don’t only make the plan from outside-in… they also talk with people on the work floor, and with customers; they talk with competitors; they talk with suppliers and partners. They are very active.
Systematizing collaboration replicating structural approach
it’s important to have an approach upfront. you can explain that it’s smart to connect to BOMOS, which is an open standard approach offered by Logius. So BOMOS can be used as an approach—but it’s still a very high-level one. if you procure every time, you lose all the knowledge you had. the single-budget approach is extremely helpful to stimulate innovation— suggesting a structural financial model that enables continuity rather than restarting each time.
Role in the innovation process
No response recorded.
Tooling needs
No response recorded.
Time lost
No response recorded.