What are some of the common pitfalls and risks of running an innovation competition?

I was fortunate to be involved in designing and delivering Innovation competitions inside of Airbus's BizLab Accelerator. One key learning was to get clear on 'Why' you are running the competition (this 'Why' question also extends to why open an incubator or accelerator in just the same way). When you get clear with senior leadership on why the org is doing this, you are better placed to define achievable objectives. If you why is, 'to expose our workers to innovation mindset and processes' the achievable objectives and the ‘what and how’ will look quite different from those that come from a 'why' of, 'we want to identify ideas adjacent to our core business that have the potential to create billion dollar valuations within a five years'.

Aligning objectives in an innovation competition is an essential task for achieving desired outcomes. It begins with a clear articulation of what the competition aims to achieve, such as creating novel solutions to specific challenges, fostering creativity, or driving technological advancements. It's crucial that these goals align with the broader strategic objectives of the organization. From there, competition guidelines, evaluation criteria, and incentives should be designed to direct participants' efforts towards these objectives. It's equally important to communicate these goals effectively to all stakeholders, including participants, judges, and sponsors, to ensure shared understanding and concerted efforts towards the set objectives.

Before any innovation competitions or hackathons, the judges must be very particular with their criteria they set. If the objectives are not created, the competitors will not know what to align their project to.

Na minha experiência, é fundamental definir claramente os objetivos da competição de inovação desde o início. Uma boa prática é comunicar esses objetivos de forma transparente aos participantes para evitar confusão e frustração. Isso garante que todos estejam alinhados com os resultados esperados e maximiza a eficiência dos recursos investidos.

As an innovator and an entrepreneur, I've found that running an innovation competition can come with pitfalls like overemphasizing winning over learning, unclear goals, and insufficient resources. There's also the risk of IP and confidentiality issues, struggling to translate results into actionable insights, and managing stakeholder expectations. To avoid these, I prioritize clarity, support, and alignment with our product strategy, ensuring the competition drives meaningful innovation and growth.

For internal innovation competitions, be extremely careful about the incentives - there's plenty of research about the surprising demotivational power of monetary rewards for certain types of work. Also, remember that while there may be some winners there will for sure be many more NON winners. Don't make them feel like losers.

Designing incentives in an innovation competition is a strategic task that greatly influences the quality and quantity of participation. These incentives should not only be attractive but also align with the competition's objectives. For instance, cash prizes are a common and effective form of incentive, but others can be equally motivating, such as mentorship opportunities, exposure to industry leaders, or the possibility of implementing the winning idea. Remember, the incentive doesn't always have to be financial; recognition, networking, and learning opportunities can be compelling rewards.

We have found that the greatest motivations are intrinsic. So, things like mentoring and connections are valued more than cash prizes in general

There are too many "Winner takes all" types of competitions. Before incentives you need to think of compensation for time spent and expenses. You can then offer a proposition that is a compensation for all and an incentive for the winners, with very clear and transparent judging criteria. Incentives do not have to be purely monetary as long as it is valued by the participants.

💡Two years ago I competed and won in Accenture’s Idea-a-thon to find use cases for the Boston Dynamics Dog. 💡 - While there was no “formal prize,” it was a chance to interact with the senior leaders who were hosts and gain informal mentorship.

In my experience as innovation facilitator THE BIGGEST PITFALL RUNNING INNOVATION CONTESTS … is disappointment among top management, which occurs for an avoidable reason: “No or the wrong briefing of all participants”. INNOVATION is a vague and ambiguous business buzzword which means something different for a lot of people. The solution is to, before you start, to draft a so-called: INNOVATION ASSIGNMENT. How? Answer together with all the stakeholders the following questions on what the contest has got to deliver: 1. Why do we need to innovate? 2. What are we looking for? 3. Who is the target group? 4. When do we want to launch it? 5. Where: in which countries? 6. Which (financial) criteria the new offering has to meet?

Innovation competitions can energize employees, provide opportunities to impress leadership, and can help educate team members about the strategic and technological goals of the company. But there is one thing that can erase these benefits in a hurry. When leadership fails to follow thorough on moving a winning idea forward, employees begin to see such contests as a form of "corporate PR" that was never intended to do anything other than make employees think that there is a culture of innovation. To avoid this, make sure that at least some part or phase of the idea is implemented. This usually requires little money/resources. Once that is done, *meet with the innovation team* to decide whether to move forward to the next phase.

When in doubt, always over-communicate. Make sure you clearly lay out guidelines so that everyone can be informed and have consistent results.

While I agree that ensuring participants are adequately briefed and aligned is critical to the success of an innovation challenge, so is ensuring that the leadership team overseeing the success of the challenge also need to be adequately briefed and aligned. I can't tell you how many times I have heard people complain that the solutions they saw at a hackathon or innovation competition weren't what they expected to see. Well that is the point! If you knew what you wanted or needed, why would you engage in the challenge to begin with? A hackathon or challenge is all about finding unexpected and surprising solutions. Your judges and your executives need to go into the program with open minds and be ready to embrace unexpected results.

Set realistic expectations about the outcomes of the innovation competition, including the timeline, scope, and potential impact of winning ideas. Unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment among participants and stakeholders.

For corporate innovation competitions with employees, one of the biggest gripes that I hear from participants is that they don't fully understand the criteria being used to judge the competition. For example, a team that creates an innovation resulting in a huge cost savings competing against a team that generated modest revenue gains is going to be pretty disappointed if they discover too late that the competition criteria weights revenue gains much higher than cost savings. Provide a list of all judging criteria clearly spelled out before teams start their innovation projects.

Anyone who evaluates projects needs to sign an agreement such as a Non-Disclosure Agreement to ensure that the IPs evaluated are protected. Also it is important to have a balanced set of evaluators who are able to judge the innovation's feasibility in different dimensions (e.g. economic, technical, ethical etc. )

-💡Two years ago I competed and won in Accenture’s Idea-a-thon to find use cases for the Boston Dynamics Dog. 💡 -They had a rubric that was clearly outlined so that all the participants knew what they were working towards and were judged fairly.

Evaluation process needs to be totally transparent to all. Written results with reasoning should be provided and as earlier noted, NDA should on place.

Implement transparent and equitable processes for evaluating and selecting winning ideas to ensure fairness and maintain trust among participants. Avoid biases or conflicts of interest that could undermine the credibility of the competition.

Engaging stakeholders in an innovation competition requires a thorough understanding of their interests, goals, and the value they can derive from the competition. Start by clearly communicating the competition's objectives, potential benefits, and how these align with the stakeholders' interests. Then, create opportunities for them to be actively involved, such as being part of the judging panel, mentoring participants, or sponsoring prizes. Regular updates and communication channels should also be established to keep stakeholders informed about the competition's progress and outcomes.

Engaging stakeholders in an innovation competition requires a thorough understanding of their interests, goals, and the value they can derive from the competition. Start by clearly communicating the competition's objectives, potential benefits, and how these align with the stakeholders' interests. Then, create opportunities for them to be actively involved, such as being part of the judging panel, mentoring participants, or sponsoring prizes. Regular updates and communication channels should also be established to keep stakeholders informed about the competition's progress and outcomes.

This is crucial. Constant communication can help balance expectations with reality, while still maintaining enthusiasm and support.

Its important to get applicant feedback on how they felt the evaluations were carried out and whether they received constructive feedback which may contribute to improvements in their own products, incase they are not successful in the competition. While all of them may not be relevant, look out for commments which discuss any limitations of your programme which may have lead to disadvantages to certain applicant segments.

Que le concours d'innovation prenne la forme d'un hackathon ou une autre forme, il est important que les résultats soient reconnus et utilisés, que les participants voient leurs efforts valorisés. Dans le cas contraire, malheureusement fréquent, les participants sont déçus. Si le phénomène se répète, les participants ne se présentent plus au concours, car ils savent déjà que leurs efforts ne serviront à rien.

A common oversight in running innovation competitions is failing to capture learnings and iterate on the process. Without a mechanism to gather feedback from participants and stakeholders or to analyze the effectiveness of the competition format and execution, organizers miss valuable opportunities for improvement. This can lead to repeating mistakes in future competitions and stagnating the potential for increased engagement and innovation. Incorporating a feedback loop is crucial for refining the competition design and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

Every innovation competition will provide you with the opportunity to learn a lot. So go for it! Failing is learning. Become obsessed with learning and improve quickly.

Algo extremamente importante em competições de inovação é o forte alinhamento das pessoas da banca avaliadora com os objetivos do programa e os critérios de avaliação. Nesses eventos é comum que sejam convidadas pessoas de outras áreas da empresa ou até mesmo especialistas externos. Apesar dessas pessoas poderem ser referência no assunto abordado na competição e nas soluções apresentadas, essas pessoas podem não ter a noção clara dos critérios de avaliação estabelecidos pelos organizadores, uma vez que não participaram do processo de desenho do desafio. Essa situação pode causar uma avaliação desproporcional aos objetivos do desafio, podendo prejudicar os participantes.

Often innovation competitions do not lead to breakthrough as there are designed as "innovation theatre". Is there a real budget, a process, a timeline, a project champion and a receptive team willing to take the winning solution onboard, for a pilot and more importantly, beyond that? What are the KPIs for success and how do we define it? What happens if it does not work as planned?