Plans and prioritises activities, calculates ROI, systemises and delegates.
Every innovation is an implementable project
Manage the project, and you can manage the innovation output. No deadlines mean no innovation.
Unicorn Innovators adopt fundamental project manager principles to increase the success and speed of implementing your chosen innovation. Projects imply a start and finish and hence create a mental sense of completing a task.
Through sound management principles, Unicorn Innovators can turn the most intimidating and overwhelming projects into bite-sized activities that make the insurmountable achievable and enjoyable. They bring together brilliant ideas and expertise to facilitate completion.
If it can't be drawn, it can't be done
Having a visual plan for your project is a must. No visual plan means no project. Nearly every task you can think of has had a project plan with a visual component.
Visualising (or drawing) makes it easier for us to understand a complex issue. Scientists use models that are really visualisations to help explain complex situations. Unicorn Innovators use visualisation to simplify a project.
Schedule
Project managers need to know how much a project will cost and when it will be done. This is best handled using a schedule. Even though scheduling may seem formal and constraining, it really supports you in getting things done. Scheduling is simply taking tasks, applying a time framework to them, including the people who are going to help, and the resources required.
Like NASA, which plans space missions in reverse, scheduling from the end result backward is smart. When a Unicorn Innovator doesn't know how long it will take, they make an educated guess. The more experience they gain, the better they meet the timeframes they set and truly understand how much time it takes to realise a plan.
Contingencies
The path to realising innovation isn't always smooth, so it's worth noting that accidents happen, and things don't always work out. The more flexible and responsive a project manager can be, the greater their chances of seeing a project through to reality. It is important to make sure that plans and schedules always include contingencies, for delays ranging from inclement weather and illness, to problems with supplies and cancelled meetings.
Project the potentials while monitoring the actuals
The Unicorn Innovator projects potential profits, percentages, and experiments with pricing all while remaining grounded in monitoring actual expenditures and incomings funds.
Early in my business career, I was drilled about the importance of projections and actuals. Unicorn Innovators need projections to see the potential. Yet, they need to keep track of the actuals so that they know how they are doing. They often use a dashboard that allows for both actuals and projections.
Creating projections starts with understanding your product or service and looking at the potential market.