For
more than 100 years, ‘the phone company’ has been innovating new
services for residential and business customers across the country.
Recently Qwest, one of the largest telecommunications companies in
the U.S. and the incumbent local exchange carrier for 14 Western states,
led an effort to streamline new product development and expand product
creation by feeding the company’s product development team new and
original ideas.
To
do this, the team developed a Web-based tool featured on the company
intranet that was essentially a “new product suggestion box.”
The suggestion box allows the innovation team to collect ideas
about new services and products from across the company, evaluate them,
and implement the best ideas efficiently.
Sounds
simple – however designing the suggestion box and creating the process
for managing the submission was a complex task.
During
the design phase the team realized that the following criteria must be met
to make the box successful:
-
The
submission process must be simple enough for all company employees to
use regardless of their technical expertise.
-
The
suggestion box should be the single place to submit any product idea.
-
Submitters
should have the option to send an idea anonymously.
-
The
person submitting the idea, if known, should get immediate feedback
regarding whether the idea will be implemented, declined, or
further evaluated.
-
All
ideas should be saved for future reference.
-
Ideas
should be evaluated by a cross-functional team comprising members from
different Qwest groups.
-
Ideas
should be evaluated on several criteria and given a score that can be
used to help in prioritization.
-
A
log with comments should be kept on the progress of every idea – and
should be viewable by the idea submitter.
-
A
periodic report should be generated and widely distributed to product
managers, product development teams, executives, legal counsel and
others with an interest in new product ideas.
The new product development team should use the report as a
source for qualified ideas that have already gone through a level of
evaluation.
Qwest
has been able to meet these goals effectively with the Web-based
suggestion box tool. Here’s
how it works.
For
simplicity, the idea submitter is asked to give the idea a name, describe
it, and suggest the customers who might find the product or service
valuable. A simple web-based
form is used. Submitters may
enter their name, e-mail address and phone number or choose to submit the
idea anonymously.
As
soon as the idea is submitted, it is stored in a database and a Web page
appears with a tracking number so the submitter may check the status.
Also, an e-mail message is automatically sent confirming the idea
was received. E-mail updates are sent every time the idea is evaluated or
advanced through the next stage of the development process.
Comments from the reviewer are included in these updates.
Submitters also can check on the status of all their ideas anytime
by searching on their name, e-mail address, phone number or the tracking
number.
Once
the idea is received, a number of tools help with efficiently evaluating
it. Through a secure login,
only administrators and reviewers can access the administrative site and
begin the evaluation process.
The
initial page of the administrative site lists the ideas that are assigned
to the particular reviewer. A
drop-down box allows the reviewer to see ideas assigned to other reviewers
or to see the complete list of submitted ideas.
Each idea is listed with its score, rank, creation date, last
changed date, and the name of the assigned reviewer.
The ideas can be sorted by any of these parameters by clicking on
the column heading. Clicking
on an idea will pull up a detailed view.
In
the detailed view, reviewers can see all the information available on the
idea including information entered by the idea submitter, reviewer
comments, the idea’s scores in each of six categories (explained below),
a log of each change, and a section for entering new comments, changing
the status, and assigning a different reviewer.
A
cross-functional review team meets weekly to review the ideas submitted
and to update the status of ideas being implemented.
Updates are entered through the administrative site.
All reviewers present their assigned ideas to the group for
discussion. Ideas are rated
(1 to 5) on their impact in the following categories: strategy, market,
finance, technology, operations and customer benefit.
The assigned reviewer proposes scores in each category and solicits
comments and debate from the group. Scores
for new ideas are compared with others and the new idea is ranked. The score helps in the ranking, but ideas can be ranked
independent of their scores allowing the team to use some discretion in
cases where the score does not reflect the real value of the idea.
After
each meeting, the team generates a report that summarizes their progress
and tallies the number of ideas submitted, reviewed and outstanding.
It also highlights the top-ranked ideas overall.
So
far, the results have been encouraging.
Although the tool has intentionally been distributed to only a
small group to date, the ideas are interesting, and the process is
efficient enough that ideas can be reviewed in just a few minutes.
Despite
the fact that only a small number of the submitted ideas will become
products, those that are implemented help add value to Qwest and its
customers. Another satisfying
result of the suggestion box is that the spirit of innovation is spread
throughout the company – not limited to R&D. Idea submitters appreciate getting immediate feedback and the
cross-functional nature of the review team is helping build a sense of
community across groups that previously had less interaction.
An added bonus is that the product development team can concentrate
on ideas that have already gone through a level of qualification.
Qwest’s
plan is to distribute the product suggestion box to a wider audience.
The team anticipates a dramatic increase in the volume of ideas,
which will be difficult to manage, but the sense of community and the
spirit of innovation instilled in the company will continue, making the
new complexities worthwhile. It
is through great ideas – no matter where they are generated – that
Qwest will continue to be a leading communications provider.
Done
© 2009 Planning Innovations Inc |
