time to innovate: reflections and recommendations on time management for innovation managers

Effective time management is a critical success factor for most projects; however, it is particularly challenging for projects involving substantial innovation. For most projects, time (i.e., the schedule) becomes a management "red flag" that signals when something goes wrong or gets out of control. The challenge for projects involving significant innovation is that one or more critical activities may be of an unknown duration or involve factors outside the normal design process and require "red flagging" from the outset. Managers of innovation projects have to distinguish between those activities or work packets that are a part of “business as usual” and those that involve innovation. They must identify and quantify the schedule risks and develop strategies to mitigate them. For example, one strategy to manage time-related risk is to decouple the innovation value as perceived by the customer (innovation output) from the technology innovation that is needed to deliver the product value in a cost-effective manner (innovation input). This strategy should take into account the likely consequences of longer-than-anticipated innovation time. Two common risks associated with poor time management for innovation are running out of financial runway to reach sustainable revenue and missing a critical market window. In this article, the author reflects on almost 30 years of experience in the Canadian innovation system across several industry sectors and provides some practical recommendations on time management for innovation managers.