This outlines a game plan for systematically building a world class Innovation Engineering CAPABILITY. A
combination of Cycles to Mastery EDUCATION and Intelligent TOOLS will provide you with Innovation
Engineering Black Belts who can lead and coach innovation projects with increased speed (up to 6x) and decreased
risk (30 to 80%).
Today, the increased speed of change, sparked by the Internet connected global marketplace, turns products and
services into price driven commodities at record speed.
Innovation Engineering addresses the commodification challenge by applying the systems thinking of Dr. W.
Edwards Deming to innovation, strategy, and how people work together in the organization. As Dr. Deming taught,
97% of the opportunity for company improvement lay in these areas. Innovation Engineering is a global movement.
It is taught as a new field of academic study by 20 Universities. The program is grounded in 35+ years of real world
projects. Since it was introduced commercially in 2009, over 30,000 people, have been trained at various levels in
the Innovation Engineering discipline. To learn more visit www.InnovationEngineering.org.
There are three strategic options for addressing the innovation challenge: 1) Hire an Expert to help with Innovation
CREATIVITY, 2) Build internal innovation CAPABILITY or 3) Grow and Innovation CULTURE. Innovation
Engineering supports all three strategies. Based on our experience with over 30,000 innovations all three strategies
have benefits and serious pain points. The truth and consequences of each strategy are detailed in Attachment I.
Only you can decide what is right for your organization at this point in time.
Deliverables: From this effort to build world class Innovation Engineering Capability you will realize:
1. Expertise to Increase Speed to Market & Decrease Risk. This will be driven by advanced education and
certification of Innovation Engineering Black Belts. Your Innovation Engineering Black Belts will teach
employees through the Innovation Engineering Green Belt program.
2. At Least One Significant Project Accelerated Through Define, Discover and Into Development For Each Black
Belt Candidate Trained. Note, these are formal projects that have had Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles as part of
them. Ideally, they are focused on a Very Important Opportunity with new or current customers or a Very
Important System project for how your company employees work together.
3. The Knowledge and Resources to Develop Enhanced Alignment, Collaboration, Fail FAST Fail CHEAP and
Patent ROI. At the start, you will be provided a standard InnovationEngineeringLabs.com portal. As your teams
use the system, your Innovation Engineering Black Belts will customize it to enhance the system’s value even
further. In time, the system will become a valuable and proprietary innovation asset.
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Innovation Engineering Capability Building Game Plan
1. Cycles to Mastery Education
Your Innovation Engineering Experts and workers will achieve mastery of innovation skills through the world’s
most reliable and effective innovation curriculum and teaching technology.
The Innovation Engineering Curriculum covers the 48 skills that make up the body of knowledge that is required for
increasing speed and decreasing risk with innovations from idea, through development, to delivery. This is critical,
because the true business challenge with innovation is rarely designing or starting up ideas. The real challenge is
getting ideas to market while maintaining their meaningful uniqueness. Research finds that the average innovation
loses 50% of it’s value as it moves through development as a result of “sandblasting off originality” so to make it fit
the corporate way. In contrast, ideas entering the Innovation Engineering development system increase in value by
28% on average as participants have the education, tools, and mentoring to transform ideas instead of
compromising.
Most important of all, this is a live and living curriculum. The Innovation Engineering Institute, the governing body
for the curriculum on campus and off, funds and leads the world’s largestInnovation Systems R&D effort on
methods to: 1) increase speed to market, 2) decrease risk, 3) develop and validate new methods for reducing
variation in the process, and 4) research and develop new ways to teach and sustain innovation.
Innovation systems R&D is guided by the world’s largest database of innovations (26,000+) and real world projects
($8.2 Billion). The benefit to you is that while innovation gurus and fads come and go you can be confident your
organization is learning systems grounded in data - proven reliable and, most important of all, continually updated as
new discoveries are made. Continuing education, twice a year, provides a structure for upgrading your teams’ skills.
The Cycles to Mastery Learning System enables everyone who is willing from all functions in the company, no
matter what their level in the organization or education background, to develop world class innovation skills. It’s a
patent pending methodology. Universities teach the curriculum as an undergraduate minor (6 courses) or graduate
certificate (3 courses).
The patent pending Cycles to Mastery approach blends the work of Bloom, Formative Assessment, Deming’s
Quality System principles and an Internet-based digital hub. The result is both an increase in the number of students
achieving mastery and a process for never ending increases in the mastery standard. In effect, Cycles to Mastery
delivers “learning inflation” instead of “grade inflation.”
It’s based on a sequence of DIGITAL, LAB, APPLICATION, REFLECTION and EXPERIENCE Classes. The full
curriculum education begins with 100+ Digital Classes (averaging about 7 minutes long) covering the 48 skills as
outlined below.
CREATE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Meaningful Uniqueness
Stimulus & Diversity
Exploring Stimulus
CREATE Sessions 1.0
Unrelated Stimulus
Patent Mining
Insight Mining
Market Mining
Advanced Create
Methods
10. Future Mining
11. Wisdom Mining
12. CREATE or Problem
Solving Session
COMMUNICATE
13. Blue Card Strategy Activation
14. Yellow Cards
15. Synergy of the Concept System
16. Meaningful Uniqueness Clarity
17. Feedback Systems
18. Smart Concept Decisions
19. Patent Translation & Trademarks
(Patent 2.0)
20. Advanced Benefit & Proof
21. Meaningful Marketing Messages
22. Professional Grade Marketing
Piece
23. Real World Communications
24. Proactive Selling Pitches
Experience I: Define to Discover
COMMERCIALIZE
25. Drive Out Fear
26. Fermi Estimating
27. Cost & Price Estimating
28. Forecasting
29. Smarter Math Estimates
30. Patent 3.0
31. Innovation Operating System
32. Innovation Rolls & Coaching
33. Design of Experiments 1.0
34. Fail FAST Fail CHEAP
Prototyping
35. Problem Solving not
Compromising
36. Professional Grade Business
Opportunity with Prototype
SYSTEMS
37. Fundamentals of Systems
Thinking
38. Systems Solutions
39. IE Operating System
40. Fail FAST Fail CHEAP
Systems
41. Collaboration Cafe Systems
42. Patent ROI Systems
43. Strategy Activation Preparation
44. Strategy Activation - Doing It
45. VIO Strategy - Preparation
46. VIO Strategy - Doing It
47. VIS Strategy - Preparation
48. VIS Strategy - Doing It
Experience II: Development
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Education of your employees, managers, and leaders will involve the following certifications:
Innovation Engineering BLACK Belt: This course is designed to enable Change Agents to lead and coach
innovation projects with increased speed and decreased risk. It is also popular with company executives
whose style is to “lead from the front.” It involves four elements: 1) Attendance at Innovation College watching the 100+ Digital Classes and participating in the 5 days of Lab Classes, 2) Completion of all Lab
assignments to a grade of 100%, 3) Completion of Application Classes that apply the learning to real world
company situations, and 4) Completion of a summative Experience serving as Project Leader of an innovation
project from initial definition, through discovery, and at a minimum, through the first phase of development.
There are two levels of support available to assist candidates following Innovation College: 1) Basic Support
consists of online and remote phone coaching and 2) Acceleration Mentoring which includes Basic Support
plus on-site, hands-on help with leading the change of mindset of the culture and support for Innovation
Engineering Black Belt candidates. This proposal includes Basic Support for your Innovation Engineering
Black Belts. Basic support is significantly less expensive than on site Mentoring. The consequence is it
usually takes longer to build confidence and capability, especially with LEAP innovations.
Innovation Engineering GREEN Belt: This course is designed for front line employees and managers. It’s
designed to give them the basic education they need as members or leaders of innovation project teams. It is
taught and certified by your organization’s certified Innovation Engineering Black Belts. It involves three
simplified Digital Classes on how to Create, Communicate and Commercialize innovations with increased
speed and decreased risk. These are followed by a one day Lab class, three homework assignments, plus
participation as a member on the key tasks involved with being an active project team member.
OPTIONAL Innovation Engineering BLUE Belt: This course is critical for growing an Innovation
CULTURE and optional, but highly recommended, for building CAPABILITY. It is designed for company
executives who will be leading the company’s CULTURE change efforts, but it is also suitable for leaders
who will serve as Management Coaches for innovation projects. It provides a deep understanding of the
entire 48 skills through Digital Classes and Lab Classes.
Impact of Cycles to Mastery Method: University research has found Cycles to Mastery to be 400% more
effective at educating than the classic university teaching methodology. The following quotes from college students
articulate the advantage they see in the new approach.
How is this better? Less stress, don't really learn anything in other classrooms, whereas this allows the
information to stick in your head so you don't forget it. The applying is the important part that makes it stick.
No more information regurgitation.
Failing isn't a bad thing here. You lose your fear of failing here, because it's okay. Because you are doing
live grading, it's like you (the instructors) are working with us, not against us.
We have to change how we teach eventually, so why wait? Just do it. The current system of teaching doesn’t
work.
Compared to old classes, here you are learning a new way to think, not just the content. Working on
changing the mind instead of cramming it with information.
This is the best thing that ever happened to any college.
What I enjoy about this class... I often feel frustrated because I have a lot of goals in life, but I don’t know
how to get there because of fear of failure. By taking this class, I am beginning to see I can go forward with
my ideas, I have the groundwork laid to make ideas happen.
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2. Intelligent Tools
Intelligent tools help you and your staff work quicker, smarter, and more creatively. They amplify the impact of the
Innovation Engineering Education and help turn the new mindset into a cultural habit. The tools are accessed
through a private InnovationEngineeringLabs.com web portal established just for your organization.
They are designed to work naturally, effortlessly saving time and energy, not making life more difficult. The tools
contain dynamic artificial intelligence that improves the ability of your people to do innovation research, write
persuasive concepts, create risk adjusted and validated sales forecasts, write a patent in about an hour, and find
stimulus. They also include proprietary databases for collaboration and sorting patents as idea stimulus.
Importantly, the tools are ready to use instantly with no complicated “set up” required. However, they also grow
into a valuable, proprietary advantage as they become customized by your Innovation Engineering Black Belts
through use. You can feel confident in the security of your customized data, as the InnovationEngineeringLabs.com
portal has passed security clearance by the USA National Institute of Standards and Technology. A list of tools are
detailed in Attachment II. They are divided into five groups
1. Create, Communicate, Commercialize Tools: This includes 50+ tools focused on the Innovation
Engineering Create, Communicate, and Commercialize classes. The tools are useable instantly but most are
also customizable. Customized versions can be archived in your personal or company Memory Bank.
2. Alignment Tools: Alignment tools drive vertical alignment, connecting strategy to tactics, or as we call it
“Blue Cards” to “Yellow Cards.” Horizontal alignment is driven by an advanced project management
system that helps you accelerate both CORE (close in) and LEAP (game changing) innovations.
Standardized Death Threats and Milestones for projects are detailed including not only WHAT needs to be
done to move a project forward but also WHY it is important as well as HOW to accomplish it. The net
effect of this documentation is a standardization of innovation work and a dramatic reduction in variation in
your innovation system.
3. Collaboration Cafe Tools: Collaboration is the most powerful innovation leverage tool there is. It’s also
one of the hardest concepts to implement. The InnovationEngineeringLabs.com tool is the most advanced
collaboration system on earth. It incorporates “many to many” idea requests to drive quality at the source.
A four tier security system drives out fear and enables private networks. Tools and metrics drive the all
important intrinsic motivation that is critical for driving innovation. A gateway is provided from your portal
to the Global Innovation Engineering collaboration community. A Fortune 500 company’s R&D group
found that they generated 6 high quality leads for innovation problem solving within a few days when they
used the Innovation Engineering community.
4. Fail FAST Fail CHEAP Tools: The purpose of these tools is to make it easy for project teams to get
feedback and most importantly data on how to improve their ideas. The tools range from qualitative
systems such as an Idea Doubling systems that makes it easy to get fresh insight. Quantitative systems such
as Insight Mining with video cross tabs give teams insights on customer problems and reactions to idea
starters. Smart advice is provided from tools like Idea Coach and Idea Scan. They make it easy to make
smart and meaningful improvements to innovations. Validated decision support systems such as Truth
Teller and Rapid Test help teams make smarter investment decisions.
5. Patent ROI Tools: These tools help teams build wealth by turning their ideas into tangible intellectual
property. Invention Blueprints helps teams identify great deals and stimulus for new ideas. The Ideas to
Patents system helps them write a provisional patent application in about an hour. Technology translation
and valuation systems accelerate the buying and selling of technologies.
Quarterly System & Strategy Summits: All tools work instantly. Quarterly System summits drive improvements
in the tools through customization. These meetings are often held concurrent with Strategy Summits where the
leadership team and your Innovation Engineering Blue / Black Belts stop, think, and improve the company’s
innovation efforts.
Semiannual Update Training: The Innovation Engineering Network will provide a day of on site training in the
latest techniques and tools twice a year.
ATTACHMENT I: The Three Innovation Strategies - Truth & Consequences
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There are 3 strategies for finding, filtering and fast tracking innovative products or services:
1) Hire an outside expert to help facilitate CREATING IDEAS and put them into your existing system.
2) Create an internal innovation CAPABILITY to create ideas and blend into your existing system.
3) Create a CULTURE of Innovation that transforms the cultural mindset towards innovation.
The Innovation Engineering movement is ready and willing to support you with any of these strategies. All three
are paths to success. However, it is important to note that all three strategies result in some significant managerial
pain because of the inherent resistance adults have towards change. Only you can decide what of the three different
types of pain you have the energy to work through.
Need Innovation IDEAS
Deliverable: Fresh ideas for growing the business defined, refined and selected based on quantitative concept
testing and sales forecasts.
Method: Innovation Engineering CREATE session (for incremental “CORE” innovations) or Innovation
Engineering ACCELERATOR project (game changing and patentable “LEAP” Innovations).
Pain Point: The pain of moving the mountain of negativity toward change that exists as ideas move into the
corporate culture for management, development and delivery. The existing cultural mindset classically focused on
preventing risk at all costs. Change has elements of uncertainty that must be worked through or else you will face
mind numbing time to market and/or compromising of your idea to the “same old stuff.”
Need Innovation CAPABILITY
Deliverable: Internal experts who can lead both CREATE sessions (for incremental “CORE” innovations or
Innovation Engineering ACCELERATOR projects (game changing and patentable “LEAP” Innovations).
Method: Innovation Engineering Black Belt Education, Intelligent Tools and demonstration projects to grow the
internal experts’ confidence and capability.
Pain Point: The pain is mediating the family feud between internal experts and the corporate culture for
management, development and delivery. The existing cultural mindset is to prevent risk at all costs. This is done
through open opposition, “devils advocate delays” or passive aggressive resistance to any change that has any
uncertainty.
Need Innovation CULTURE
Deliverable: An organization that enables innovation by everyone, everywhere, every day, resulting in increased
speed to market and decreased risk.
Method: A methodical “diffusion of innovation” enrollment program across the culture at a pace that builds
momentum but reduces odds of the “empire striking back” against change. The change is accomplished through
Innovation Engineering Green, Blue & Black Belt Education, Intelligent Tools and Mentoring of Leadership, Black
Belts and Managers to accelerate the start up, rollout, and sustainability. .
Pain Point: The pain of teaching old dogs new tricks.
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Attachment II
Page 1 of 3
Create, Communicate, Commercialize Tools
• Ebscohost Database - A pre-paid subscription to the best databases we have found for finding full text
academic articles, magazines and journals that you can use as stimulus for creating ideas or problem solving.
• Spark Deck Generator - Allows you to build a stimulus spark deck in about 60 seconds from patents.
• TRIZ Interactive & Worksheet - A fast and easy way to use TRIZ to invent and problem solve challenges.
• Business Model - A check list of business model options that will open your mind to new ideas.
• Innovation Leadership - A spark deck that opens your mind to ideas for leading innovation.
• Process Improvement - A check list of process improvement stimulus.
• Osborn - The classic checklist for idea creation by Alex Osborn.
• Marketing Message - A checklist for improving marketing messages.
• Red White Blue (666) Tool - A tool for forced association between 3 related/unrelated stimulus prompts.
• Mind Mapping - A tool to map your thinking in a two dimensional way that reflects free associations.
• Lawbreaker - The best tool for forcing dramatically different ideas.
• Stimulus Processing - An Idea Engineering tool for processing stimulus.
• Numeric Benefit - Adding a Number to your Benefit Promise will increase your odds of success by 52%.
• Do One Thing Great - A tool that encourages FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS.
• Don’t Sell Me - A tool to help the team turn your product's features into Benefit promises.
• Analogy I / Equation - A simple way to use analogy for problem solving.
• Analogy II / How To - A second way to use analogy for problem solving.
• Po Lateral Thinking - The classic lateral thinking tool.
• Visual Analogy - Dr. VanGundy’s classic system for using images to stimulate ideas.
• Guided Excursions - A work sheet and audio recordings for opening your mind
• Matrix Mixing Interactive - The fastest way to make idea connections.
• Take Over Time - Adopt a new frame of reference, what would x company do?
• PICL List - Dr. VanGundy’s proprietary stimulus list.
• Stimulus Two Step - This tool uses a two-step approach to process unrelated stimulus.
• Mind Dump - Get current ideas out of your head and onto paper.
• Gauntlet - A tool that facilitates idea builds and fresh perspectives.
• Infomercial - A tool that causes teams to step back and think deeper about their idea.
• Pass the Buck - The classic version of Dr. VanGundy’s 4 square forced association tool.
• Idealized Redesign - Create your own Idealized Redesign.
• 10 Minute System Map - Create your own 10 Minute System Map.
• Ideas to Paper - Two work sheets designed to spark deeper thinking about strategy or ideas.
• Sales Forecasting Tool - Fourt Woodlock tool for estimating annual sales of innovations.
• Lines of Evolution - An advanced way to look into the future for innovation inspiration.
• Grade Level Calculator - A simple way to check for clarity of your idea.
• New Market GPS - A tool that helps you identify what markets offer opportunity for profits.
• Memory Bank - This provides an easy access database to the customized tools you’ve created, stimulus
spark decks and company research. It allows for sharing with your work group, company or the world.
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Attachment II
Page 2 of 3
Alignment TOOLS
• InnovationEngineeringLabs.com - This is the digital operating system. It provides a dashboard on your
entire innovation pipeline. Most important of all it helps teams work smarter. It works because intelligence
has been built into the digital platform to help nudge people to the right behaviors and actions as they take an
innovation from idea to reality.
• Blue Cards - Drives alignment between your strategy and front line ideas.
• Innovation Engineering Strategy Activation Session - A session template that helps activate your strategy
by translating it into clear and motivational missions.
• Innovation System Check Lists - Check lists drive alignment across departments. Each check list defines
what needs to be done to move an innovation forward, why it needs to be done and how to do it. Best
Practice lists and Simplified check lists for CORE, LEAP and SYSTEM projects make it easy to get started.
They also make it easy to edit and create your own check list customized for you and your organization.
• Yellow Cards - These are the backbone of the Innovation Engineering Operating System. They provide a
common language for defining innovations.
Fail FAST Fail CHEAP Tools
• Insight Mining - This research tool makes it easy to gather quantitative data to identify customer and non
customer perceptions of problems as well as beginning idea starters. Test set up is easy, fielding is easy and
statistical analysis fully automated. It even allows you to create video cross tabs so to gain qualitative insight
into the customer data.
• Idea Doubling - The fast way to get fresh ideas for your concepts or your math estimates.
• Idea Coach - This tool provides INSTANT advice on how to improve your concept to make it clearer and
more persuasive. It’s powered by an artificial intelligence engine similar to the ones used to evaluate SAT
and LSAT essays. Best of all the system is private so that “ego’s are not bruised.” Research finds that the
average idea improves by 40% with use of this system.
• Idea Scan - This tool provides quantitative feedback on your idea from all team members. The results help
you manage alignment and provide data to drive an advanced monte-carlo driven sales forecast on the
potential for your innovation.
• Truth Teller - The first concept testing and innovation sales forecasting system to be approved by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology.
• Rapid Test - A complete concept and use test tool for in person research. It makes fielding research painless
as the set up, administration and statistical analysis is fully automated. A patent pending video cross tabs
system gives you the ability to understand the “why” behind the numbers.
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Attachment II
Page 3 of 3
Collaboration Cafe TOOLS
• Idea Request Platform - A super simple and easy to understand system for getting ideas and advice from
those inside and outside of your organization.
• Innovation Supply Chain Database - A simple way to find experts with specialized knowledge or who can
help with prototyping, manufacturing, research or design work you may need. The base system contains
experts from the global Innovation Engineering Network. Your organization has the ability to add your own
experts.
• 4 Tier Security System - A four tier system that links to your Innovation Supply Chain database to make it
easy to manage collaboration confidentiality.
• Tools to Bust Collaboration Fear - To help overcome fear of collaboration (recall 9 out of 10 managers
don’t collaborate) this system includes the ability to create private networks, to post responses publicly or
privately, easy sharing standards, and a help desk that educates employees on what can and can’t be shared.
• Private Blog System - Your company and work teams can create private blogs for idea sharing easily.
• Brain Brew Blog - A private blog for Innovation Engineering Black Belts to connect around the world.
• London Coffee House - A private blog for Innovation Engineering educators to connect.
• Company Coffee House - A private blog for your Innovation Engineering Green, Blue and Black Belts.
• Innovation News - the official blog of the Innovation Engineering movement.
Patent ROI
• Invention Blueprint - Free Stimulus! Patents are a rich source of stimulus, showing you not only things that
are meaningfully unique but also giving you the “blueprints” to make them. However, today you have to be a
patent attorney to quickly find the ones that matter - change that and take control yourself. Invention
Blueprints mines a database of over 10,000,000 patents to quickly find the 50 or so that matter to you.
• Patent Flea Market Alerts - Using our propriety algorithm, we provide you with weekly updates on the
types of patents that are important to your organization. It allows you to identify patents that there is a high
likelihood that the inventor has given up on and has not paid maintenance fees on — making for great buying
opportunities.
• Patents to Ideas - Be more nimble than your competition, and take advantage of the United States’ First-ToFile patent system. Be able to quickly go from concept to provisional patent application ready-for-filing in
about an hour.
• Provisional Patent Stacking System - Take your own provisional patent applications and continuously
improve them based on your cycles of learning. By refiling your filed provisional patent applications with
your improvements, you ensure you are quickly and legally protected, while continuing to block or leapfrog
your competition.
• Patent Translations - A one-page business opportunity report that allows you to understand a patent in 2
minutes or less. Innovation Engineering Black Belts learn how to create these for your organization.
• Patent Valuation System - In about 30 minutes you can create an idea, determine the potential market size,
find the fair market royalty, and determine the company valuation if you are to pursue the idea.
• Patent Negotiation System - Buying or selling patents can painful. This system, developed with support of
the Kauffman Foundation uses education and data to accelerate fair market deals in weeks instead of months.
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