Eric Agdeppa
1. High-context innovation frameworks
I am a student and practitioner of the New Concept Development (NCD) process as a framework to bring a systems view to the front-end of innovation. The NCD process is a minimally prescriptive yet iterative, flexible stage-gate process. There are three points of entry into the NCD process. One may start with a scientific or technological advancement (a.k.a. a technology push), a clinical or non-clinical (e.g., business, process) opportunity, or a combination of the two. I have adapted the NCD process to involve scouting and research phases allowing for iterative exploration and experimentation to "connect the dots" between the right technological solution for the appropriate non-technological opportunity. The NCD process also involves iterative prototyping of a minimally viable “product” (MVP) that is tested in real-world settings for proof of concept (PoC) feasibility. The output of the NCD process is a feasible PoC MVP that allows for external funders, industrial licensees, industrial partners, clinical partners, and other downstream stakeholders to commit to further develop a commercial solution.
The STEEPLE Model is another framework that has had success in Alberta during my board membership to the Alberta Innovates Health Solutions. The STEEPLE Model is a holistic set of criteria for health technology decision making that will allow for biomedical researchers to consider social, technological, ethical, economic, political/policy, legislative, and environmental impacts of a solution. Although familiar to health economists, the STEEPLE checklist is socialized with researchers to frame how their invention or innovation will be viewed by health technology decision makers.
The NCD and STEEPLE models are examples of frameworks that I deploy within my organization and its partners as initial catalytic high-context innovation frameworks that will be progressively adapted and optimized over time.