Innovation Cartography workshops are run in an experiential, learn-and-apply format in which participants will be introduced to various perspectives and frameworks that they will then practice and internalize by applying them to real-world technology commercialization challenges salient to the organization. Our workshop process and format has been tested and has evolved through several iterations during the past three years with hundreds of participants and dozens of technologies. Furthermore, portions of the process incorporated in the workshop have been developed and utilized by the creators, Dr. McNamee and Dr. Maxwell, over the past decade or more. Effectively, the process makes explicit a number of problem solving and decision making frameworks that the creators have utilized in generating, evaluating, and evolving thousands of venture and new product concepts in a wide variety of contexts.

Workshops

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There are a number of formats that Innovation Cartography Workshops can be run. Each accomplishes different objectives although the impact is generally proportionate to the amount of time and effort that an organization commits to introducing this perspective within the organization (i.e., more extensive Innovation Cartography programs have larger impact).

2 Hour Workshop

This format allows a demonstration of a couple of key steps of the Innovation Cartography process to be demonstrated and an overview of the entire process to be provided. This workshop format utilizes example technologies for demonstration purposes (i.e., there is insufficient time to work on real-world challenges of the organization).

Half Day Workshop

This format allows an organization to work in rapid-fire or demonstration format through one half of the Innovation Cartography process—either exploring alternative applications OR exploring alternative business models and go-to-market strategies. This format requires groups to move quickly and thus is designed to highlight unanswered questions and the innovation cartography decision making frameworks more than it is intended to actually progress the specific technology commercialization challenges of the organization.

1 Day or 2 Evening Workshop

This format allows an organization to work in rapid-fire or demonstration format through the entire Innovation Cartography process. In the first half of the workshop teams will explore alternative applications and in the second half they will exploring alternative business models and go-to-market strategies. This format requires groups to move quickly and thus is designed to highlight unanswered questions and the innovation cartography decision making frameworks more than it is intended to actually progress the specific technology commercialization challenges of the organization.

Three 1 Day Workshops

(Spread Over A Period of Time)

Workshops done during a single day or shorter periods of time are intended to demonstrate and test the process but do not allow sufficient time to move the organizations specific commercialization opportunities forward as much as would be possible with a more extensive engagement. This extended multi-day workshop model incorporates:

  • Short pre-workshop readings and videos on key concepts to be completed by participants
  • Three six-hour workshop sessions spaced out over a number of weeks
  • Participant-driven research into unknowns undertaken between sessions

The high-level topics for the three in-person workshop sessions as well as for the research between sessions and follow-up after the workshop are shown below. This format has a more significant impact because (i) incorporate pre-readings / videos will increase depth of understanding and perspective shifts prior to the start of in-person sessions and will allow more hands-on, collaborative time during the workshop sessions; (ii) spreading out the workshops over a number of days allows participants to generate additional ideas and complete necessary research to resolve unknowns and attack assumptions between sessions; (iii) the planed follow-up assures that the opportunities identified during the workshop are given a chance to be properly explored and enhances the chance of a breakthrough success.

4-5 Day Bootcamp

This bootcamp model achieves comparable outcomes to the three day model highlighted above in a more intensive but compressed format. As highlighted above, workshops done during a single day or shorter periods of time are intended to demonstrate and test the process but do not allow sufficient time to move the organizations specific commercialization opportunities forward as much as would be possible with a more extensive engagement. This extended multi-day bootcamp model incorporates:

  • Expanded daily lectures and discussions about key concepts and underlying perspectives
  • Daily experiential activities in which organization technology projects are explored
  • Participant-driven research into unknowns undertaken in afternoons and evenings The high-level topics and research effort spread over a 5-day Bootcamp format are shown below.

 

Engineering Senior Design

A specific flavor of the Innovation Cartography process helps engineering students envision senior projects that have a greater potential for commercial success. Many of the above formats can be utilized to enable this outcome. For example, a one day kickoff workshop can help form teams and select projects for the workshop or portions of this process can be spread over a number of nights in a semester-long seminar course. Senior Design implementations of the Innovation Cartography process can help identify novel applications for university or external technology (e.g., from NASA or NIH) that are worthy of the additional technical experimentation and prototyping incorporated in most senior design projects.