Defining Success for Innovators

It should be obvious, but defining success is a critical step for any business or project. But it’s often either forgotten in the excitement of innovation, or is otherwise a major source of misalignment that can doom innovation initiatives.

Thinking about how the team will define success for an innovation initiative aligns teams, ensures stakeholders' expectations are understood, and simplifies decision-making processes. Without a clear understanding of what success looks like, it becomes difficult to track progress or gain buy-in from key decision-makers. The "Define Success" tool is an effective framework to set clear, measurable, and agreed-upon success criteria for projects, products, or innovations.

This guide will help you use the Define Success tool to streamline your planning, prioritize options, and align your team’s goals with broader organizational objectives.

Key Benefits of Using the Define Success Tool:

1. Align Team Goals:
   This tool fosters coordination and unity by ensuring that everyone on the team has the same understanding of what success looks like for the project.

2. Understand Stakeholder Expectations:
   It helps ensure that the needs of the organization, management, users, and other stakeholders are identified and considered. This understanding makes it easier to gain buy-in from decision-makers.

3. Simplify Decision-Making:
   By defining success early, you can prioritize and select the most relevant options, reducing confusion or indecision during the project.

4. Create Measurable Success Metrics:
   If you desire to track progress, the tool helps you set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that provide measurable benchmarks to assess the success of your project.

Credit: Design Thinking Toolkit

How to Use the "Define Success" Tool

Step 1: Define Key Questions (Left Column)

Start by preparing a list of relevant questions that will help you define success. Consider aspects such as:

• What are the project’s primary goals?

• What does success look like from a customer or user perspective?

• What key outcomes must be achieved for the project to be deemed successful?

• How do organizational and management expectations fit into the definition of success?

Example Questions:

• How will our innovation benefit our customers?

• What internal processes need to improve for success?

• Are there specific financial targets we need to meet?

Step 2: Brainstorm Answers (Middle Column)

Once the key questions are defined, brainstorm potential answers with your team. This phase encourages creativity and collaboration to ensure that every stakeholder’s perspective is considered.

Example Answers:

• Increase customer satisfaction by 20%.

• Deliver a product that reduces the processing time by 50%.

• Achieve market share growth of 10% within the first year.

Step 3: Evaluate and Select (Right Column)

Next, evaluate the answers from your brainstorming session. Here, you define the key success characteristics by prioritizing the most important answers. Use this stage to focus on what success looks like from multiple perspectives—customers, stakeholders, and the team itself.

For example, a key outcome may be customer success, such as ensuring a product delivers on its promises, or an internal success metric, such as hitting specific deadlines or budget targets.

Step 4: Define Measurable Outcomes (Bottom Section)

Finally, record the agreed-upon outcomes at the bottom of the tool. These are the specific, measurable results that will define the success of your project. If applicable, create KPIs that can be tracked over the course of the project.

Example Outcomes:

• Launch product by Q2, achieving a 95% on-time delivery rate.

• Reach $1 million in revenue by year-end.

• Obtain a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 60 from customers.

Conclusion

Using the Define Success tool will help you achieve clarity on the goals of your project, ensuring that your team is aligned and that stakeholders’ expectations are met. By clearly defining what success looks like, you can streamline decision-making, set measurable outcomes, and increase your chances of achieving project goals.

Reach out for more at innovation@growthinnovationstrategy.com.