Reader question answered: How to define the innovation portfolio

Our Q&A series gets subscriber questions answered; if you’ve got one, just drop us an e-mail. This question was handled by Pamela Soin, right, and Austin Locke of Kalypso, a long-time partner of Innovation Leader.

We’re a very large, well-known consumer products company, and our innovation portfolio is actually quite complex, as we have many different types of initiatives included, all at vastly different stages. In fact, we often debate whether certain projects should be included at all. Do you (or does anyone else including your partners) have any best practices related to defining what should be included, what should be left out, how they should be categorized or grouped, etc.?

Defining portfolio inclusion criteria is an essential part of portfolio management. To answer your question, let’s examine four basic categories of innovation that are useful when segregating a portfolio: