| | APRIL 201919CIOReviewIt's no secret that in today's hyper-competitive marketplace, organizations are under constant pressure to find ways to open new markets and better serve the ones they are in. New and emerging technologies have changed the landscape by redefining not only what is possible but also what is necessary for businesses to change and thrive. Because these are new technologies, operating under unproven assumptions and following trajectories that have never been mapped, their ultimate value and chance for success are unknown.This risk presents problems for innovation leaders constrained by limited budgets. Given scarce capital, how do we invest in these transformative technologies and have value to show when we are done?Small is the New BigA journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The bigger they are the harder they fall. I can go on and on with the clichés, but the truth is that if you're on a tight budget, you have to prove your case pretty quickly. This means you have to think small in two ways: team size and problem scope.Small Teams Win: Studies have shown that the optimal team size for decision-making, speed and productivity is between four and five people. It's no coincidence that one of the fundamental organizational bricks within the U. S. Army is the "fireteam", which consists of four to five soldiers, each with a specific skill oriented towards the mission. If you are fortunate enough to have a larger team, it may make sense to break them up, recognizing that there will be a bit more coordination required. Look for diverse skills that fall across a broad spectrum: business expertise, analysis, design, and software development. Communication skills are paramount, and individuals with multiple skill sets should be coveted. Co-location of the team in a designated space is essential for greater productivity.Seek Leverage: Seeking a problem small enough to tackle and solve within a relatively short time is important for quick wins, but even better is to find one that can be a springboard to similar problems of larger scope. For example, building a chatbot to enable employees to reset their network passwords is a narrow use case with low risk, but once proven it can spawn dozens of ideas with a huge impact on customer engagement. You will need a deep understanding of the business drivers and overall landscape to identify these opportunities, so partnering with business stakeholders is essential here.Assemble a ToolboxArm Your Team:The variety of new and emerging technologies powering digital innovation is overwhelming. Software innovation has moved beyond mobile apps to include IoT devices that can automatically sense and respond to events in their environment, machine learning software that can adapt based on experience, conversational AI that provides a more intuitive way of engaging users, virtual technologies that deepen knowledge through sensory experiences, and very small, inexpensive computers that can be configured to perform specialized tasks... and the list goes on. It is not necessary to have deep expertise in each of these, but it does require that the team stay current with technologies and understand the skills needed to employ them. No need to go it alone, as most vendors are only too happy to lend potential customers samples of their products along with technical assistance in the hope of gaining a sale upon a successful proof of concept.Facilitate Collaboration:A successful innovation team must continually take advantage of team knowledge to move forward at a rapid pace. Tools that facilitate DIGITAL INNOVATION ON A BUDGETMike BacaBy, Mike Baca, Director, Digital Transformation & Mobility, AmerisourceBergen
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