Set requirements and evaluate for innovation

Be on the cutting edge

Buying projects that uncover real innovation use outcome-focused requirements that attract creative and unexpected proposals. Their evaluation structures focus on outcomes, can handle a diverse range of solutions and adapt to new information.

Requirements that attract innovation

With the rapid pace of change in technology, buying teams won't always know the latest developments and should be open to new or unknown ways of solving a problem. Creating a challenge statement for the market to respond to is the best way to attract a range of proposals.

Even when using a challenge statement, buying teams may need to communicate minimum technical requirements or constraints. Documenting these alongside a challenge statement can be tricky, because standard templates are designed for buying known solutions. To handle the uncertainty that comes with buying innovation, buying teams need support to adapt requirements templates or use innovation-specific templates.

Evaluation that can handle diversity

Evaluation criteria act as a bridge between the project objectives and the problem to be solved. Buying teams should engage all relevant experts to craft criteria that narrow down the most promising proposals so they can choose which ones to explore further before making investment decisions.

Evaluation criteria should focus on outcomes and be able to adapt from one stage to the next to address new insights or manage new risks. Adaptability is particularly important when buying projects target emerging markets where there is limited information about solution maturity and supplier capability.

The guidance below will help buying teams define a challenge statement, document requirements and define criteria for assessing solutions.