{"id":66426,"date":"2019-01-10T02:08:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T10:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?p=66426"},"modified":"2019-01-10T02:08:15","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T10:08:15","slug":"what-does-an-innovation-department-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does an Innovation Department Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Innovation\"<\/p>\n

The business world is never at a loss for creating new departments and job titles, which is why between 2006 and 2015 the job title \u201cChief Innovation Officer\u201d increased in prevalence by 500% according to a ZipRecruiter analysis. These CIOs often come into an organization to lead <\/span>innovation departments<\/span><\/a> which are charged with making an organization \u201cmore innovative.\u201d But as with any emerging discipline, the roadmap for achieving this goal is sometimes unclear. Still, whatever the organizational goals or KPIs for a company\u2019s innovation department there are a few main functions that must fulfill:<\/span><\/p>\n

Research and Vision.<\/b> Competitors, customers, employees, and the market are providing multiple cues about where an organization needs to grow and improve. Innovation departments should be scanning the horizon for this information and using it to guide overall innovation strategy that aligns with a company\u2019s overarching business strategy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Innovation Training.<\/b> When an organization invests in its employees, not only do employees feel more valued and like they are growing at a company, but it creates a shared language and expectation that innovation is <\/span>everyone\u2019s<\/span><\/i> responsibility. So teach your staff how to brainstorm, how to support other people\u2019s ideas, how to recognize good ideas, and more. <\/span><\/p>\n

Collect Ideas.<\/b> Ideas can come from everywhere, but everyone needs to know where to take a suggestion when it comes up otherwise they stay on the cocktail napkin on someone\u2019s desk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connect Ideas.<\/b> Of course, once you have those ideas, the real work begins. You need to connect ideas to other ideas so that they grow into larger concepts and improve. As those concepts become new projects, you need to select the best ones for further refinement, research, and testing. Then, of course, the best ideas should be connected to the resources and leadership that help launch ideas into new products, markets, processes, and more. All innovation<\/a> departments serve some sort of matchmaking purpose in this way. <\/span><\/p>\n

Communicate<\/b>. Everything that we just listed above is something about which an innovation department should communicate. They need to be socializing research so that everyone can keep these new trends and information in mind as they do their job. They need to share best practices when they\u2019re working so that everyone can adopt them. They need to share \u201cfailures\u201d so that others can learn from them and celebrate the work that went into that discovery. They need to recognize the contributions from all the stakeholders that made these things possible so that others see that leadership is listening and input from everywhere is valued. If these things are properly communicated, then everyone starts to see a culture of innovation developing at their organization. <\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about Chief Innovation Officers and Innovation Departments download IdeaScale\u2019s Innovation Department infographic. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The business world is never at a loss for creating new departments and job titles, which is why between 2006 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":66427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does an Innovation Department Do? | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Get an insight into the role and responsibilities of the innovation department in a global organization. Here is a KPI checklist to follow.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does an Innovation Department Do? | QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Get an insight into the role and responsibilities of the innovation department in a global organization. Here is a KPI checklist to follow.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Innovation_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"992\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"594\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Hoehn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Hoehn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Robert Hoehn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb8c211f1c658dfb493beb425cf479e\"},\"headline\":\"What Does an Innovation Department Do?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\"},\"wordCount\":464,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Guest Post\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\",\"name\":\"What Does an Innovation Department Do? | QuestionPro\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"Get an insight into the role and responsibilities of the innovation department in a global organization. Here is a KPI checklist to follow.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/questionpro\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Guest Post\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/questionpro\/guest-post\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"What Does an Innovation Department Do?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"QuestionPro\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb8c211f1c658dfb493beb425cf479e\",\"name\":\"Robert Hoehn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/afb3225a503830d19c8f8ae02c5e3177?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/afb3225a503830d19c8f8ae02c5e3177?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Robert Hoehn\"},\"description\":\"Head of customer development. CEO and Co-founder of IdeaScale, an innovation management solution that inspires people to take action on their ideas.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/robhoehn\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Does an Innovation Department Do? | QuestionPro","description":"Get an insight into the role and responsibilities of the innovation department in a global organization. Here is a KPI checklist to follow.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Does an Innovation Department Do? | QuestionPro","og_description":"Get an insight into the role and responsibilities of the innovation department in a global organization. Here is a KPI checklist to follow.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/","og_site_name":"QuestionPro","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","article_published_time":"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":992,"height":594,"url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Innovation_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Robert Hoehn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@questionpro","twitter_site":"@questionpro","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Robert Hoehn","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/"},"author":{"name":"Robert Hoehn","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb8c211f1c658dfb493beb425cf479e"},"headline":"What Does an Innovation Department Do?","datePublished":"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/"},"wordCount":464,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Guest Post"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/","name":"What Does an Innovation Department Do? | QuestionPro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-10T10:08:15+00:00","description":"Get an insight into the role and responsibilities of the innovation department in a global organization. Here is a KPI checklist to follow.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/what-does-an-innovation-department-do\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"QuestionPro","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/questionpro\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Guest Post","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/questionpro\/guest-post\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"What Does an Innovation Department Do?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","name":"QuestionPro","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"QuestionPro","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","caption":"QuestionPro"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6eb8c211f1c658dfb493beb425cf479e","name":"Robert Hoehn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/afb3225a503830d19c8f8ae02c5e3177?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/afb3225a503830d19c8f8ae02c5e3177?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Robert Hoehn"},"description":"Head of customer development. CEO and Co-founder of IdeaScale, an innovation management solution that inspires people to take action on their ideas.","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/robhoehn\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Innovation_1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Innovation_1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Robert Hoehn","author_link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/robhoehn\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}