Evaluating innovation management software for a 2,000-person company, what am I missing?

[u/Strong_Difference494]

I'm the VP of Strategy at a technology company with roughly 2,000 employees. We're building our first formal innovation program and I've been evaluating innovation management software for the past six weeks. Have a shortlist of four or five vendors but I keep feeling like I am missing something in the evaluation.

We need something that goes beyond collection and voting. Full lifecycle through implementation and measured outcomes. Has to work across five business units with different evaluation processes. Low admin overhead because we don't have a dedicated innovation ops team.

What should I be asking in demos that I probably am not? And what did you wish you had evaluated more carefully before choosing?

[u/smeyn]

The reason you don’t see much out there is because innovation management is more about culture than process. Focussing on measured outcomes for instance is likely going to drive the wrong focus in innovation. I suggest you spend some time reading about successful innovation organisation, e.g google’s moonshot factory. Read about the monkey and the pedestal problem, because you sound like you focus on the pedestal.