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About: This article gives your a framework for the implementation of strategic roadmapping. Success comes not only from the techniques and processes but from good planning and change management.
Value: Get faster results from your strategic roadmapping, create more momentum and a virtuous circle of delivery.
Strategic roadmapping – implementing the right framework
Increasing volatility in the business environment has made strategic planning and innovation management more challenging. This rapid change requires that strategies are flexible and responsive.
I’ve made the argument for the need and improved results from a strategic approach to technology and innovation planning. Implementing strategic roadmapping directly benefits organisations; not only for improved strategy development but also for organisational development and to accelerate innovation systemically.
The work of Bob Cooper (Cooper 1999) and others link the quality of strategic planning to firm performance. It follows that by employing better planning techniques companies achieve higher levels of business performance.
This article gives you two things,
ONE: Inspiration for starting your strategic roadmapping and toolboxes in your business.
TWO: A guide to improving what you are already doing and moving through higher levels of maturity and performance.
The source materials come from recent research in the implementation of strategic roadmapping and toolboxes by the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University (Hirose et al. 2020b; Hirose et al. 2020a; Gerdsri, Vatananan, and Dansamasatid 2009) and my own experience of change management and innovation and technology roadmapping. It also draws on examples from deploying roadmapping in technology-intensive companies.
Factors to consider in the implementation or improvement
Having taken the first step, that of an inspirational belief on your way to technology mastery, how should you effectively plan your first efforts?
How do you improve the situation if you have used roadmapping in your organisation but perhaps it’s not firing on all cylinders? How do you build the roadmapping and toolbox maturity to get business benefits?
In the implementation of strategic planning, we need to consider the unique context of an organisation. That uniqueness comes from a combination of the business environment and its unique history, resources and ways of working. Your business system is unique, your innovation system will be unique and so your roadmapping system will also need to be planned uniquely.
Fortunately, we have a guide for how to do this. By modelling our organisations we can shortcut potentially many months or years of effort to achieve better results more quickly.
Models to think through implementation and improvement
Let’s think about two mental models for implementation. The first model considers the position of the organisation in its roadmapping. The work of Gerdsri, Vatananan, and Dansamasatid (2009) describes a three-stage model to support guiding the process.
Three factors contribute to the success of Roadmapping, and by extension, technology toolbox implementation.
- Factors related to people, including workshop participation and key stakeholders.
- Processes including roadmap process design, implementation and integration.
- Data management of the strategic contents of roadmaps.
Implementation follows three stages.
The first is an initiation; aiming to align the corporate strategic plan and the roadmap and get the organisation ready. It also includes the first tentative forays into strategic roadmapping.
Second, the development stage aims to get more significant outcomes from roadmaps and roadmapping; to engage the right people, gather the necessary information and gain business benefits.
And third, the integration stage, whereby roadmaps are integrated into the business planning process.
It’s important to think about the roles and responsibilities in initiation, development and integration. These include key players such as the Idea Champion, the Champion Team, the Operations Team and the Support Team.
- Idea Champions provide energy for initiation and motivation to help colleagues to overcome constraints. In change management terms, this might be thought of as the change agent.
- Champion Team is a group of idea champions who represents the different business units and relevant departments.
- The Operating Team is a working group to support the champion team in navigating the development of roadmaps in the different business units and departments.
- The Support Team is at the administrative unit to provide a resource for implementation in the organisation.
A second way to think about roadmapping and technology toolbox implementation is through a maturity model. A maturity model is designed to guide the process of organisation-wide implementation to higher levels of activity and the associated business performance.
Level 1 – Initiation
The organisation is starting to explore the possibility of applying roadmapping and technology toolboxes for strategy planning. The organisation does not yet have a clear strategy for how roadmapping could be used but has initial ideas and willingness.
Level 2 – Defined
The organisation has decided to use Roadmapping and toolboxes. The management agrees with the scope and the aim of roadmapping and allocates resources.
Level 3 – Rolled out
The operating team has been trained to understand the steps required in the tools in developing a roadmap. Roadmapping workshops are conducted across the organisation with the roll-out plan approved by management.
Level 4 – Developed
Roadmaps have been developed and used in the organisation and significant business value has been gained. However, it is not a corporate requirement to have roadmaps and it is down to individual departments, functions and businesses to see the value and do it for themselves.
Level 5 – Standardised
Roadmapping activities have been fully integrated through the organisation. Roadmapping and toolboxes have become a common language across the organisation with a specific unit assigned for maintaining the roadmaps.
Level 6 – Sustained
The organisation has decided to take an active approach to sustain roadmapping implementation. Risks and uncertainties are considered and managed and roadmapping is a managed system that generates a flywheel of momentum.
Lessons learned from organisations implementing roadmapping and toolboxes
At the various levels of roadmapping technology toolbox maturity, what would you see going on? We draw on experience from implementation in several technology-intensive firms.
Level 1 – Initiation (A friendly team with a friendly pilot.) A senior technology or business manager becomes aware of Roadmapping perhaps from seeing a problem with the firm underperforming. As Idea Champions, they see the value in it and want to try something new. They start by aligning and engaging business units and different departments. Their motivation corresponds to Problem Three explaining why technology planning fails to launch.
Level 2 – Defined (Multiple pilot experiments.) The organisation has decided to implement and integrate Roadmapping for technology and strategic planning. The management agrees with the scope and aims and key people are supporting roadmap development. As in the example of the play-product company Lego cited earlier in the book, a pilot was carried out to generate initial learning and show the possibilities. Good results generated a coalition of interest with more people getting involved in the organisation for a wider rollout.
Level 3 – Rolled out (Multiple pilots.) The operation team has been trained to understand roadmapping toolboxes and workshops are being conducted across the organisation. A Roll Out plan has been approved by management as explained in the example of BASF cited in an earlier section. Further pilot workshops are planned and organised inviting more stakeholders from the organisation. Management support is active rather than permission-only encouraging the activity and investing time and resources.
Level 4 – Developed (The Mindset shift of belief). The organisation is shifting its mindset from learning to preparing for future activities at scale. Roadmaps have been developed and used in the organisation but are still within certain departments. Roadmaps are not part of the corporate requirement. In one example company, the Research and Development group were under threat for their existence and said “Roadmapping saved us. We were able to show our value and create more value for the company.” Companies invest more significantly in resources and capabilities including skills for workshop design, facilitation and analysis of outputs.
Level 5 – Standardised (How we do things here). The organisation is designing and developing efficient and effective ways of working for roadmapping and toolboxes. The toolbox is owned and actively managed, improved and developed and is integrated throughout the organisation. It has become cultural as a practice of how we do things around here and has its momentum by generating demonstrable value. In the case of Subsea 7, a subsea engineering and construction company, systems such as digital software were used for managing information. The operation of roadmapping should be integrated into the business cycles for strategic planning.
Level 6 – Sustained (Masters of Destiny.) The organisation is taking an active approach to sustaining Roadmapping and toolbox implementation. Support teams closely monitor the status of Roadmaps produced. Management organises the roadmapping toolboxes as a system, ensuring it survives and thrives. Pirelli, the global tyre manufacturer and Level 6 company has developed a project portfolio management system to give a comprehensive picture of the Perrelli Research, Innovation and Development System.
Lessons from the Implementation of strategic roadmapping
Like the implementation of any new approach, we can learn lessons from the pathways that others have taken and apply them more broadly. Implementing strategic roadmapping and toolboxes is also a change management issue and so can be tackled in normal ways.
Top-level lessons are,
ONE: Start small to create examples that intrigue, excite and demand further development.
TWO: Choosing to make strategic roadmapping part of the innovation toolbox and actively seeking business imperatives that are important to the company.
THREE: Building a coalition of interests who have a stake in the success of strategic roadmapping across the company. Including practitioners, stakeholders, and functional heads.
FOUR: Supporting over at least the medium term and long term the customs and practises to reinforce the value of the approach and institutionalising the practice.
Six Factors to consider how to implement roadmapping
In supporting each stage, consider the following points topics. Support required.
- Awareness and understanding. About roadmapping and technology and innovation management toolboxes and the opportunities and possible business results.
- Leadership and management support. It is not surprising that to achieve higher levels of roadmapping maturity Top Management is required to provide resources and active permission.
- Team development and engagement. Getting a critical mass of staff members who understand the impacts and benefits of roadmapping with autonomy and acting as agents of change.
- Process design and customization. I believe that innovation process design is essential not only for roadmapping but for credible and repeatable innovation results. And so it is with roadmapping implementation.
- Information and data accessibility. Including tracking results, and methods that work in the organisation. Use of reporting mechanisms to senior management in standard views and using virtual platforms for data management. In the era of COVID-19 global organisations can still effectively communicate across distance.
- Strategic alignment. Active tracking of business benefits and impact helps pull momentum.
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Rob Munro delivers strategic innovation services to companies, universities and government agencies giving business and innovation leaders the practices, tools and confidence to achieve best-in-class innovation results. Please contact me to discuss ways to bring greater effectiveness to your innovation processes.
Read more about my service to organisations for innovation planning in improving innovation results.
Further reading
Cooper, Robert G. 1999. “The Invisible Success Factors in Product Innovation.” Journal of Product Innovation Management 16 (2): 115–133. doi:10.1111/1540-5885.1620115.
Cooper, Robert G, and Scott J Edgett. 2010. Developing a Product Innovation and Technology Strategy for Your Business. 39. Research Technology Management. Vol. 53. www.stage-gate.com.
Hirose, Yuta, Rob Phaal, Clare Farrukh, Nathasit Gerdsri, and Sungjoo Lee. 2020a. “Characterizing Maturity Levels for Organization-Wide Roadmapping Implementation.” IEEE Engineering Management Review, 1–11. doi:10.1109/EMR.2020.3020547.
Hirose, Yuta, Robert Phaal, Clare; Farrukh, Nathasit Gerdsri, and Sungjoo Lee. 2020b. “Sustaining Roadmapping Implementation : Lessons Learned from Subsea 7.” ISPIM Connects, no. December: 6–8.
Kerr, Clive, and Robert Phaal. 2015. “A Scalable Toolkit Platform: Configurations for Deployment in Technology and Innovation Strategy Workshops.” R&D Management Conference, no. June: 23–26.