If you’re like me, you’ve had projects in the past where one or more of these steps were skipped and the consequences were costly. You can’t afford to make that mistake now.

3) Peg Decisions to New Data

The most successful innovation projects at large corporations create new measures to evaluate the efforts of innovation programs. Those KPIs should include both leading and lagging indicators. Relying too heavily on the lagging indicators used for established products introduces too much risk to the success of innovation programs.

With leading indicators, you can make faster decisions and refine your approach as you see customer behavior data, for example. Odds are you established the KPIs at the beginning of the initiative. Now it’s time to peg the decisions you’re making to that data. It’s also critical that you allow your project manager to hold the program efforts accountable to the measures and the innovation process you outlined, particularly in the places where it diverges from how you normally operate.

Adopting this level of discipline throughout the program is what will ensure today’s innovation program translates into profitable projects in the future.

4) Frame for High Margin

Combating shrinking demand means mapping your innovation efforts to opportunities for market expansion.

Ask yourself what signals you’re seeing and how they compare to your original hypothesis. Is some untapped portion of your current market responding? Are there positive signals of interest from a new market?

Use whatever signals you’re seeing to collect more data from potential customers and double down on high margin, high value creation features and benefits. Look for ways to match the multipliers on your highest margin products and confirm the value with your potential customers. This will arm you with what you need to solidify internal support for the initiative and make next year’s budget conversations easier.

5) Leverage Valuable Assets

Speaking of budget. You can create a budget win and project momentum by leveraging the value of assets you’ve created during the project.

Sit down with the project team and ask:

1. What data have we collected that would be valuable to other business units within the organization?
2. What have we learned that would be valuable to sales, marketing or product managers outside the project?
3. Who has an unfunded, complimentary project that would be willing to partner on a mutually beneficial solution?

I was able to create all of these wins with a successful project I led during my time in Supply Chain Finance at Dell Technologies. I uncovered process breakdowns that were valuable to two other organizations outside my own. I collected and shared key learnings that helped product managers make improvements in offerings they were working on. And, I was able to collaborate with the owner of an unfunded project to implement a single IT solution that helped both of our projects be successful.

I gained the advocacy and the budget I needed to complete a multi-year project by leveraging the assets my innovation program created, and with a little creative thinking, you can, too.

Your Next Steps

In today's rapidly evolving market landscape with shrinking customer demand, ensuring your innovation efforts deliver on your strategic goals is more critical than ever. By implementing the steps outlined above, from conducting a culture gut check to leveraging valuable assets, you'll not only reinvigorate your innovation program but also position the effort for long-term success and profitability.

True alignment goes beyond just internal adjustments—it requires a concerted effort to bring the right stakeholders into the conversation and map follow-up activities to relevant data. Achieving and maintaining this alignment is essential, but not always easy.

Don’t let misalignments cost you valuable time and resources. By embracing a disciplined approach to innovation, you can turn today's demand challenges into tomorrow's profit opportunities.