Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time

Eight

Rank: Prioritizing the Candidates

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it’s the only one you have.

—Emile Chartier

YOUR GOAL IN THE RANK STAGE is to analyze what you have learned about each candidate in your innovation portfolio to select the ones that are most important to pursue. The rank stage acts as the second application of the scope filter in the STREET process (after the track stage filters the set of relevant candidates). Adding a ranking stage to your innovation adoption decision provides a powerful way (often the only way) to defend yourself and your organization against the tendency to be hype driven. If your organization had the resources to examine and act on everything that came along, then you wouldn’t need to prioritize. ...