Title

Category:

• Operations, Marketing, Pricing, Maintenance, or Management?

Summary:

Description:

• Briefly describe the innovation and how it was implemented.

Users Assessment

• Who are the potential users of the Innovation?

• What key problems are the users concerned about on a day-to-day basis?

• What is their normal attitude towards change (open, resistant, neutral)?
• What characteristics of an innovation would be important to them (relative advantage, simplicity, easy to try, easy to measure, cost)?

• What format is best for dissemination of material – written, oral or visual?

• Who are the users' peers?
• What is the usual form of contact (written, meetings, telephone, etc.)?
• What technical, trade or job related organizations do the people belong to? How often and where do they meet?
• What assistance do these organizations provide to their members?
• What is the nature of vendor contact with users?

• What are the organization's functions and goals?
• What is the general size of the organization?
• Who are the organization's constituents?
• How does the organization react to failure?
• How visible is the organization to the general public and the news media?
• What is the normal relationship between the organization and state and/or federal agencies?

Technology Assessment

• What is its relative advantage of the innovation over current techniques?  A significant advantage is required to make it worthwhile to adopt an innovation.
• How easy is it to try the innovation?  Those innovations that require a long term commitment are much less likely to be adopted than those that can be tried for a short period on a temporary basis.
• How observable are the benefits of the innovation?  It is important to have direct, obvious effects from a change in order to successfully implement it.
• How complex is the innovation?  The easier it is to understand a change and why it is being done, the more likely it will be accepted.
• What does it cost to implement the innovation?  Generally speaking, the less costly a change is, the more likely people will be willing to try it.
• What are the consequences of a failure?  This is perhaps one of the most critical questions.  People in public agencies tend to be very fearful of failure and avoid taking risks.  An innovation that will cause serious problems if it doesn't work is very unlikely to be adopted.

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