We're going to look at innovation role players, but we're going to look at them from two perspectives. We're going to start by looking at how creative role players are. And there are a few role players in the innovation process that play creative roles. Other role players play what we called implementer roles, and in this discussion, we're going to look first at the role players from a creative perspective. And so if we look at all of the roles, the first five that are here, the spotter, the inventor, the tester, the idea champion, and the knowledge broker, are what we call creator roles. We call them creator roles because the essence of what they do in the innovation process is the creative input. So let's look at them. First of all, let's ask the question, how important is creativity in each of these roles? Well, because creativity is an essential path to new ideas, the front end of the innovation process. And the roles that are played in the front end of that process, are essentially creative base. So that's a very important aspect. Creative insights can recognize innovation potential of an entrepreneurial opportunity. And we know that the front end of the process has really an important consideration about recognizing opportunity. And then third, creativity in itself, energizes team motivation and enhances the contribution of other members in the innovation process. And so, the front end of the process, it's very important that creativity play a very strong role. So we're going to look at each of these role players. Let's start with the spotter. The spotter triggers the innovation process. Spotter scans the external and the internal environment of the organization, scans the marketplace, and it's sometimes an individual, sometimes a team. But they span the boundary of many organizations. They go in visually and figuratively, and conceptually look at whats going on outside the organization involvement. They're able to reframe observations that they make, within a variety of contexts and applications. And so they see things, and they see possibilities. So their job is to recognize things and see possibilities. And so, they discover a problem, or they articulate a need, or they see possibilities that are really translated to opportunities. And they're essentially the triggers in the innovation process. So this role is the kick starter of the innovation process. The next role that we look at, is a role we call the inventor. Now, that role isn't really literally an inventor, but this is a person who takes what the spotters have found, and translates that into some possible idea or solution. They translate the need or opportunity into some workable concept. So they aren't really inventing a physical product, but they're translating what the spotters have found, in terms of a need or an opportunity into something that might work, might be responsive to their need or opportunity. And the inventors are able to help build a prototype of the idea, and they possess both creative skills, balanced with some real substantive knowledge. It could be a professional knowledge, or it could a technology knowledge, but it's a combination of that knowledge that really makes this role a very important role. A third role in this process, the third creative role is what we call the tester. This is a person or a team that has particular and unique specialized technical experience. And they have a systems thinking perspective. They seek causes and effects. They see how things work. And so their job is to really test the viability of any idea that's translated into some kind of a prototype. And the other very important thing about a tester, is that the tester has the institutional memory and the experience to know what works, and what hasn't worked especially in the past. So that's where the institutional memory part really plays an important aspect here. Another role is the knowledge broker. And a knowledge broker basically collects and channels essential information between people and between team members. The person is a reliable expert on a selected knowledge category. And that role serves as a cross-pollinator of knowledge and ideas among team members. And because of that role, they begin to place and connect information with team members that is very essential, and helps the team really function well. Finally, the knowledge broker serves as a link between idea developers on the one hand, and customers on the other hand. So, that person is one who is collecting information from the marketplace, sharing it with people who are on the innovation team, the idea developers on the innovation team. And likewise, talking some things that the idea developers need to know about what the people in the marketplace think about that idea, and bringing it back to the idea developers. So that person is a real boundaries spanner between the innovation team, and the user community in the marketplace. And the final creative role in this category, is what we call the idea of champion. And the idea champion is very much an entrepreneur about the idea. In fact, if you're a one person entrepreneurial venture, you're playing all these roles. If you're a small team, sometimes you play multiple roles. But the idea champion is essentially the driving force behind the innovative idea. This is a person who has an intimate knowledge and understanding of what the innovation is, and why it's important. What value it has in the marketplace. And a person who is the idea champion has to be a tireless advocate, to articulate the idea and explain it to people. And the idea champion often serves as the face or the identity of any innovative idea. And so, sometimes if you're in an entrepreneurial venture where you have just a single idea, that's one thing you can have. Maybe it's the head of the innovative venture that is the face or the idea champion for the venture, but then there are people who are the real leaders, and then the idea of people, and there's the driving force between what the innovation really is. And sometimes those are team members. And so, that idea champion will all can show up in many different places. So, here's some takeaways about creative innovation roles. The full value of a team member's creative input, really depends on, I would say mutual respect and cooperation, but it depends on also a certain amount of diverse experience that a team member brings to the role itself. And each role player must have an understanding of how their contribution fits in the larger picture. So when you're playing in these creative roles, you can't just be in a room by yourself, you're interacting with other people, you're interacting with the people in the marketplace, and you need to have an understanding of a bigger picture. And finally each role player in this set, creatively leverages their unique expertise in the project. So, when you have an innovative project, you're going to have to leverage what you know, not just to be creative with a lot of ideas. You're going to have to bring some technical knowledge, and some professional expertise to that role as well.
