Maximising project teams by building self-awareness

A leading consultancy specialising in innovation used the i2 Skills Assessment to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of their project teams. Using the results from the assessment, they unlocked the innovative potential within their teams, positioning themselves to launch several multi-million dollar businesses into the marketplace.

The company had assembled a team of 60 highly decorated professionals from around the business and wanted to know their strengths as innovators – both as individuals and team members. Each project team took the Innovation Impact Assessment and analyzed their results together. Some of the findings were illuminating.

One group discovered why they struggled to develop an MVP (minimum viable product). According to the assessment, the group had strong front-end design skills (researching, sense-making) but lacked imagining and experimentation skills, which hindered their ability to move further along with the design process.

The assessment gave the group clarity on their weaknesses and how to improve. They subsequently added a new member whose strengths complemented the team. A concerted effort from all members to embrace experimentation, coupled with the addition of a new voice in the group, led to the team making significant strides towards launching an MVP into the marketplace.
Another group excelled at coming up with ideas, but wasn’t spending enough time in the research stage to know if the user was interested in their ideas. They would generate solutions to problems by themselves, instead of working with users to determine their needs.

The assessment confirmed their facilitator’s suspicions, showing through the data that the team had to adopt a more user-focused approach to be more effective innovators. Upon establishing the problem, the group set out to fix it, using suggestions from the assessment to become more user-focused. They’ve since made massive strides as a team, taking time when analyzing problems to thoroughly grasp the issue and are now producing ideas and solutions that meet real customer needs.

By using the assessment, the consultancy maximized the creative potential of its project teams, shedding light on the existing gaps that when addressed helped them to improve.