How to Build a Project Plan for an Ambiguous Innovation Challenge

thinking through a challenge

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In my latest article for Fast Company, I walk through how to create a project plan when it’s not clear initially what to do. Excerpt below.


If you’re in a leadership role, your team will often look to you for guidance on how to move forward when the right answers aren’t obvious. But judging from 20 years of experience working with Fortune 500 business leaders on strategy and innovation projects, most leaders I know dread ambiguity.

Innovation projects in particular present some of the most ambiguous situations. After all, innovation is about creating something new. And if something is new, there’s less of a chance that a predecessor has plotted out a clear example of how to tackle the challenge.

Working in innovation, I found that one method in particular greatly helped cut through ambiguity, lay out a clear project plan, and align stakeholders to the objectives and plan required to make it happen. This method involves five key steps to help you lay out the project plan that your team needs:

Read the rest of this article by Kevin Namaky at Fast Company where it first appeared.