As a product strategist, do you struggle with a sluggish innovation “process” in your firm? Do you think it takes too long to identify great ideas and turn those ideas into compelling new products and services for your customers? If you’re like most of your peers, the answer to both questions is probably a resounding "yes." That is exactly why Forrester’s Consumer Product Strategy practice developed The Open Innovation (OI) Playbook. 

Forrester defines open innovation as:

The act of innovating, whereby new ideas or methods are requested from three broad participant groups: employees, partners, and customers.

This approach to innovation is in stark contrast to the typically closed and often secretive product innovation practices that most firms still use today. Our OI playbook provides you with an end-to-end framework, organized in twelve easy-to-find modules, and designed to give you the insight, tools, and best practices that you need to successfully adopt an open innovation approach within your organization.

To get started, I suggest reading the Executive Overview: “Revolutionize Products And Services Through Open Innovation”.  This report will set the stage at a high level for you. Then, depending on where you are in your open innovation journey, you can “pick your spots” by navigating directly to the most applicable chapter for your needs. In general, the OI playbook is divided in to four phases as follows:

1.       Discover. In this phase, you will learn how firms such as AT&T, P&G, and others have already embraced open innovation successfully. You’ll also uncover the opportunities that open innovation presents to you and your firm.

2.       Plan. In the second phase, we’ll show you how to plan an effective OI strategy. From defining your business objectives to determining which stakeholders to engage, and how to engage them, this phase will guide you through it all.

3.       Act. Here, we explain how implementing different forms of open innovation can result in different outcomes. One size definitely does not fit all, so how you choose to act will be up to you – but we’ll give you the tools and insight you need to successfully meet your objectives.

4.       Optimize. Measuring innovation is one the top challenges reported by product strategy professionals. This final phase of the OI playbook uncovers the ways in which you can measure, benchmark, and integrate your open innovation programs.

So take a look around at our Open Innovation playbook, and please tell us what you think. We are always open to feedback, and our one and only goal is to make you successful as a product strategist.