Effectively managing corporate innovation can be a challenging task, requiring the right set of tools to promote transparency and traceability. Large financial players tend to create large scale initiatives, grounded on complex yet constrained platforms that create friction and prevent maximizing potential of corporate innovation efforts. This article explores three no-code, free innovation tools that can significantly enhance innovation processes. By adopting these tools, you can streamline your internal activities and take initiatives across the organization in an agile and effective way.
1. Airtable: Tracking Action Plans
Airtable is a useful platform with a user-friendly interface that goes beyond standard spreadsheets, simplifying the management of your innovation action plans while fostering transparency and accountability. Its customizable databases allow you to structure data according to your innovation goals, making it easy to track milestones and define program status. It is your go-to tool for assessing each teams' progress, managing and updating action plans and defining next steps.
Airtable equips your teams, enabling focus and efficiency in reaching the innovation objectives. It ensures that teams remain focused on achieving success, while also facilitating a comprehensive overview of the established targets, by all stakeholders involved.
Check an example on how to use Airtable for an open innovation program, managed by Fintech Solutions here.
2. Notion: Centralizing Resources
The process of making all relevant program information and useful resources readily accessible, to internal and external stakeholders, can be streamlined by assembling it together into a centralized repository. Notion offers a solution to this resource management challenges within innovation initiatives. For example, during programs' onboarding, you can use Notion to compile all useful documents such as handouts, regulations, program timelines, and relevant readings or links.
This streamlined approach fosters knowledge sharing and accelerates the innovation journey by providing a single point of access to essential information, as meeting notes and historical data. By structuring this content within the platform, you create an archive for easy reference, ensuring that past discussions, decisions and insights remain readily available. This accessibility helps teams stay informed and aligned throughout the process.
Check an example on how to use Airtable for an open innovation program, managed by Fintech Solutions here.
3. Asana: Mastering Project Execution
Innovation thrives on structured planning and consistent execution, and Asana is the ideal tool for achieving that. This project management platform empowers innovation programs by allowing teams to create tasks, set deadlines and assign responsibilities, ensuring an efficient and balanced workload allocation during intra-team meetings.
Asana also excels in tracking task progress and identifying bottlenecks, which allows for proactively making adjustments or taking prompt actions, accordingly. When planning next steps with teams, it supports the establishment of a shared view on the path forward, as well as the necessary efforts required to achieve the expected results.
If you work on Product or Innovation, implement these tools to reduce costs while enhancing stakeholders’ visibility and engagement and optimizing project execution, all key for fostering successful innovation.
These tools are versatile and should be adapted to suit your specific requirements, whether you decide to use them together, in a complementary manner, or individually. To embark on an innovation journey, reach out to Fintech Solutions and explore how these tools can be tailored to maximize their value.