The need for idea tracking and an idea tracking software stems from the fact that inspiration strikes at the most unpredictable moments.
We stumble upon innovative ideas when we are not trying too hard. Maybe it is while having our morning coffee, evening jog, or even in the middle of the night.
We came up with InspireIP because of related issues individuals face within organizations on a daily basis. These issues are harmful to an individual personally as well as the organization as a whole.
How?
- It is challenging to remember all the fleeting ideas that pop into our minds. Even though they have the potential to turn profitable, we end up losing them. Or go for a temporary solution, i.e., noting it down on paper or digital notes.
- We don’t know who to approach for a specific idea. Again, ideas end up losing their validity, importance, and relevance. It could have become the next big solution or new functionality for an existing solution, but it wasn’t captured.
- If there’s no efficient idea management framework, employees don’t get a proper platform of idea tracking that allows them to submit ideas as soon as they think of them.
- Individuals are driven by their desire to innovate, work on amazing creative projects, and find creative solutions. When organizations fail to tap into their innovation potential, employees lose their zeal to think outside the box and go the extra mile. They end up sticking to their core job roles and responsibilities. This leads to personal development obstacles as well as a stagnant workplace culture.
- It is nearly impossible to track ideas if they are not documented well. You lose out on tracking an idea from its inception to completion.
What does it mean to track ideas?
Since the best ideas come from inside the organization and people are at the forefront of it all, idea management becomes pivotal. Idea tracking is an integral part of innovation management and refers to the process of capturing and managing ideas.
It’s a way to collect, evaluate, prioritize, analyze, monitor, and collaborate on ideas as they evolve or as new ones emerge. Almost every industry, be it automobile, business consultation, governance, public administration, or even an NGO, needs an idea management and tracking tool.
Idea tracking and ideation process enables the following.
Capturing
One of the first steps in tracking ideas is capturing them. It may sound obvious, but making it an intuitive part of your organization is hard. Ideas as they come to you or your team must be seized instantly, irrespective of time, place, or situation.
Related Read: InspireIP offers multi-platform accessibility (mobile app, web portal, tablet access), integration with your favorite tool, and one-click disclosure for effect.
The idea could be for anything from a new project concept to a solution for an existing problem. It’s important you document these ideas consistently and in an easily accessible way.
Organizing
Ideas come in various forms and are related to different aspects of a project or goal. An employee working in one business unit can have an idea to improve a product under the purview of a completely different vertical.
Idea tracking helps in organizing ideas that further enable you to categorize and prioritize them.
Tracking Progress
Idea tracking is not just about capturing and organizing ideas; it’s also about monitoring their progress. Having a timeline helps in tracking how an idea is progressing, being implemented, and whether it’s successful, and what changes or adaptations are made along the way.
Collaborating
In a team or collaborative environment, idea tracking facilitates sharing and discussing concepts. It allows team members to contribute, provide feedback, and build upon each other’s ideas. A collaborative idea-tracking tool or innovation management platform even facilitates working on an idea or invention.
Decision Making
Idea tracking plays a pivotal role in the decision-making process. By having a record of various ideas and their progress, decision-makers can make informed choices about which ideas to pursue, modify, discard, or implement. They understand the role every business unit plays in delivering innovative ideas.
Extended Planning
With a live idea repository in place, organizations can set, strategize, and pursue long-term goals. Idea tracking also helps maintain a repository of potential initiatives or improvements that can be revisited as priorities and circumstances change.
How using an effective idea tracking system helps?
Let’s start by looking at a few statistics and understand why idea tracking is important.
- 66% of employees feel their ideas are never captured or even taken into consideration.
- 54% of organizations have trouble bridging the gap between innovation strategy and the larger business strategy.
- 84% of executives considered their future success extremely dependent on innovation.
So, when top executives decide to start tracking ideas, an idea-tracking software helps them with the aspects discussed below.
Prevent Idea Loss
Human minds are constantly generating ideas, but these thoughts can be fleeting. Idea tracking ensures that valuable concepts are captured and documented before they are forgotten.
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Prevent Idea Theft
If you read a survey on knowledge workers by Forbes, you’ll find that one in every three employees has had their ideas stolen at work. It becomes the reason employees stop sharing their views, thoughts, interests, and beliefs in fear of not getting them just due. Idea tracking provides accountability, transparency, and a documented timeline for every idea.
Related Read: People WILL Steal Ideas Until Your Organization Starts Doing This
Systemize and Organize
Tracking ideas provides a structured way to organize and categorize thoughts. As a result, it gets easier to review, prioritize, and implement ideas systematically.
Foster collaboration
In a collaborative environment, multiple team members feel free to participate and contribute ideas. Idea management tools allow for easy sharing and collaboration, fostering a creative and cooperative atmosphere. It encourages a team to build upon each other’s ideas, leading to more robust and refined concepts.
Continuous Improvement
Idea tracking contributes to a culture of continuous improvement. By monitoring the progress and outcomes of various ideas, individuals and organizations can learn from both successes and failures. This iterative process promotes refinement and growth.
Related Read: 3 Best Continuous Improvement Tools and Processes
Enhanced Creativity
Idea tracking encourages a creative mindset. Knowing that ideas are being captured and considered provides individuals with the freedom to explore innovative concepts without the fear of forgetting them. This freedom fosters a more creative and open work environment.
Increased Accountability
When ideas are tracked, responsibilities and progress are more visible. This accountability can lead to more effective project management and a higher likelihood of successful idea implementation.
Best software for idea tracking
There are many traditional ways to track ideas, but an idea management and tracking tool becomes the backbone of your innovation strategy. However, just to cover all the bases, here’s a table comparing different conventional tools.
Other methods can include post-it notes, kanban boards, or scrum meetings. They might work for a short time, but they eventually lead to chaos and no trace of idea conception and implementation.
Therefore, we developed InspireIP, a cloud-based, industry best practices-integrated, and automated idea management and tracking tool. Inspire is above most of the brainstorming and ideation tools because of the following competitive advantages.
Built for Innovators by an Inventor
Sam Zellner, CEO and founder of InspireIP and inventor of over 200 patents found a common business problem. While working for one of the top telecommunications organizations in America, he noticed multiple ideas getting wasted because inventors were too busy to share their thoughts or assumed the company did not care. The impact of this lost innovation became apparent in his roles as Executive Director of Patent Development and Executive Director of Innovation. So, developing an idea and innovation management product came as the natural solution for him.
InspireIP now helps innovators and inventors in their pursuit of innovation.
Expertise
Customer-first approach with a 32-year experience in intellectual property management enables us to put our clients first.
Easy to Use
Using complex or inefficient idea tracking tools can become a barrier rather than a facilitator. If the tools are difficult to navigate or if there’s a lack of clarity on how to use them, it can deter people from actively participating in idea tracking. Therefore, quick and swift onboarding on InspireIP enables our users to get started immediately.
Security
Working with ideas and inventions, we completely understand the need for security guarantees and regulatory compliance. And that’s what you get. A tool that takes away all your idea theft and invention delay stresses.
Feedback Loop
Without a feedback loop, where individuals receive constructive input on their ideas, the idea tracking process can lose its value. Lack of feedback can result in a sense of isolation and detachment from the creative community. This is why we have built-in communication and timeline functionalities for continuous feedback and improvement.
TL;DR
Idea tracking enables you to share the idea and monitor the idea. It helps in:
- Capturing
- Organizing
- Tracking Progress
- Collaborating
- Decision Making
- Extended Planning
And an effective method of idea tracking is with a professional tool. It helps to:
- Prevent Idea Loss
- Prevent Idea Theft
- Systemize and Organize
- Foster collaboration
- Continuous Improvement
- Enhanced Creativity
- Increased Accountability
