MAPPING INNOVATION ROLES PROJECT

Selected examples of parts of the Innovation Role Mapping assignment:

Company Context: Today, PayPal operates in more than 200 markets around the world and has more than 218 million active accounts holders. Users are able to send, receive and hold funds in 25 currencies worldwide, as well as make financial transactions online, such as transferring funds electronically between individuals and businesses.  

For an innovation to be successful many key players are involved. These key players are responsible for a variety of actions that are required in order to successfully orchestrate and engineer an innovation. These innovation roles include the spotter, inventor, tester, knowledge broker, champion, technology gatekeeper, process manager, sponsor, protector, and a seller. These roles are not mutually exclusive many of the task described can overlap, yet it is important to note that each task is essential for the overall innovation process   Each role represents the action required in order for the innovation to be successful. The company PAYPAL is composed of several people that play these key roles in innovation development. The occupations/jobs of these individuals are not limited to the innovation roles.

Spotter Role: Jonathan Auerbach, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy, Growth and Data Officer can be considered a spotter for PayPal. A spotter is someone within an organization who acts as the “eyes and ears” for the organization. Spotters monitor the organization's internal environment/operations, as well as analyzes the external environment in order to maintain a competitive intelligence.  Monitoring the organizations internal environment allows spotters to “identify the need for new products, services, or methods because they are able to interpret events and trends, and to recognize problems that suggest opportunities for innovation. As the Chief Strategy, Growth and Data Officer, Jonathan encompasses the qualities of a spotter. He oversees the company’s data programs and M&A initiatives, identifying opportunities for PayPal to expand its reach and meet its growth.

Inventor Role: Creative Innovation Roles at Snap Inc.

The story of Spectacles actually begins at a company called Vergence Labs founded by Erick

Miller and Jonathan Rodriguez in 2011. They had built a version of camera glasses called

Epiphany Eyewear, which could record video footage with the press of a button. Due to the

extremely small team size, the company sought out business partnerships with the help of Eli

Calderón Morin, a prominent tech advisor in Silicon Valley. (Heath, 2016) Morin proposed

that they consider partnering with Snapchat, and Rodriguez leveraged a connection he had

with Spiegel from their Stanford days to form the link. Spiegel bought into the idea and

bought Vergence Labs in December 2014. (Crunchbase, 2017)

I would consider the Jon Rodriguez to be the Inventor for smartglasses. The Vergence Labs

development team consisted of electrical engineer Jon Rodriguez, software engineer Peter

Brook, and mechanical engineer David Meisenholder. This was the group of individuals with

the skills and technical know-how required to build a prototype of the smartglasses, with

Rodriguez leading the process. Rodriguez exhibits key traits of an inventor: he and Miller had

ideas of building a range of wearable tech that would essentially give humans superpowers,

and with the camera glasses they were able to take the creative idea and translate this into a

workable prototype. (Heath, 2016) The importance of the Inventor role cannot be overstated,

as ideas would just remain ideas if no one in the team had the technical knowledge to build

the product. Where the initial team of individuals who came up with the idea do not have a

team member with the relevant knowledge, it is common for Inventors to be recruited by

Spotters and Idea Champions to fill this role. This was the case for Spiegel and Brown, who

initially had the idea for Picaboo, but needed to recruit Murphy to build the app.

Tester (Judge):

The Tester role is similar to the Judge role in the IBM model in that it relies on

specialized technical experience, a “systems thinking” perspective, a focus on evaluating options and examining the viability of a prototype (Mierzwa, 2017). As the inventor and primary

founder, Yen Pei Tay likely again took the initial lead for this function. This approach is entirely

consistent with IBM’s model, in which Andrews (2004) indicates that the inventor often

performs this role. As a product moves through further stages of development, the user base

itself can fulfill part of this position by assessing and providing feedback on prototypes of new

functionality.

Knowledge Broker Role: Arevalo has also filled the role as Knowledge Broker. From the feedback of the large and involved community of fans he collects and analyzes all of the data. The users feel like they have some control and input regarding the content. Part of the innovation has been the creation of niche boxes, onetime special edition crates such as the Stranger Things crate for only $59.99.

One of the pieces missing seems to be the fostering of a team at Loot Crate. Note that I have only described the two co-founders as having large roles in the innovation process. This is a

perceptible weakness in the company. Feedback from the workers confirms difficulties with

warehouse employees fairly happy, but anyone who is in contact with the executives is

perturbed. For example, John Shin, lasted 8 months as Vice-president in charge of customer

acquisition.

Champion Role: Idea Champion

, Dr. David Lortscher

I believe that Dr. David Lortscher will continue to play in this key innovative creative role

because he essentially serves as the “face” of the innovation project. He does this by

understanding the value and importance of the innovation and thereby directing everyone

towards that mission. One of the ways he does this is by ensuring an “end-to-end personalized

experience that makes it simple to achieve clear, healthy and youthful skin." (PRNewswire

,2015).

In an interview with Entrepreneur.com, he mentions that the easiest part for him now is

producing the medication. What he is spending most of his time is thinking “how do we

communicate with patients?”, “how do we anticipate problems that patients might have before

they have them? and “how do we encourage patients to reach out to their providers at the correct time?” (Belanger, 2017). In other words, his focus now is on patient satisfaction and growth. Through this example, we can see that he does have a deep and complex understanding of the innovative idea.

Furthermore, he also knows that there are not many practicing dermatologists nationwide

(approximately 10,000). Therefore, he began to volunteer with the nonprofit AccessDerm in

New Mexico and Arizona. This “program allows primary care physicians in rural areas to

remotely consult with dermatologists by sharing photos of their patients’ skin” (Belanger, 2017).

Thus, this can potentially open another opportunity for Curology.

Process Manager Role: Van Miranda

Van Miranda is the Head of Product at Curology. According to Cleverism, the Head of Product

Management leads the product management team by enhancing the product and by focusing on the growth of the product in the market. The article also mentions that this individual is the

primary driver of the group’s vision. Van himself said that his main role is to “help people

connect with the information and experiences that matter most to them” (Angel- Van Miranda,

2017).

A couple of other key roles of Van’s, according to Cleverism’s job description is as follows:

“oversee the innovation and improvement of the product”, collaborate across different

departments, recruit, evaluate the product and the market, and resolve problems (Head of Product Management). Based from this job description, I believe that Van fits the role of a process manager well. I think that he understands the big picture and knows how enhance the innovation process. According to his LinkedIn profile, it mentions that he was the co-founder and CEO of Awesome Al, Inc. I think this work experience has also shaped him to play the role of a process manager well. Van plays a vital role in the company because he gets tasks done by motivating his team and by providing the appropriate resources and information to his team.

Sponsor Role: The sponsor role is kind of like how the innovation operates as a whole. I think with this company, Paint Nite serves as the sponsor itself. The artists serve as a licensee in which they represent the company at events and they are responsible for organizing with venues. Paint Nite will provide the supplies necessary for customers to enjoy the night and work out deals with the venue for food and drink specials. The members of the headquarter office work together with the artists to advise them on how to best break down the paintings based on the success of their other events. They also recommend how to best set up the event in terms of time, venue, pricing, seating, and pace of work. Although every artist should be different and work in their own style, the Paint Nite model will also share their expertise of execution for a combined effort. Also, Paint Nite HQ will provide all the canvas, paintbrushes, and any other supplies that are necessary for the event to be successful. Another way the headquarter office does this is through marketing and advertising. The main way that they have really pushed their product is by advertising with Groupon. You will constantly see online vouchers for discounted prices of Paint Nite on that website where you can sometimes get a free drink voucher or other deals. This has brought a great deal of awareness to the company because it provides a deal for individuals to come to the event. It is more convincing than just wanting to go this night. It brings about a lot of first time clients to come and try the event.

Seller Role: It is possible that Bettinelli has become a Seller as well articulating the larger vision of the company. In his blog he says of the potential for Loot Crate and his reasons for investing,” the infrastructure and operational expertise that underpin Loot Crate’s business product licensing, manufacturing, inventory management, and order fulfillment have reached a scale and level of sophistication that opens up dozens of adjacent opportunities”. He goes on to suggest the potential of the international market, which is being driven by customer demand and the pervasive global instantaneous communication, is unlimited. (Bettenelli, 2016)

Technology Gatekeeper (Explorer / Judge / Scrounger):

The role of Technology Gatekeeper appears to have functions that map to multiple

positions in the IBM model including the Explorer, Judge, and Scrounger. Like the Explorer, the

Technology Gatekeeper Scans the external technology landscape for trends and new

developments (Mierzwa, 2017). Similar to the Judge, this role is required to make technical

judgments on innovative ideas and proposals. As Scrounger, the Technology Gatekeeper

provides knowledge brokering functions for and between other innovation team members.

Uniquely, however, this role serves as a bridge between the scientific community, idea

developers, and prototype testers (Mierzwa, 2017).

There are both internal and external entities to the Simplify Networks team. As outlined

above, the Cradle Investment Fund provides services intended to connect new startups to the

market and each other and so could act as a Technology Gatekeeper. Also, Lam Hong Lee is a

Simplify co-founder who is also an Associate Professor at Quest International University. While

not defined as his formal role in any of the available literature reviewed for this analysis, Mr. Lee

would also likely be in an excellent position to support this function formally as a research

partner or informally through his academic network.