The 10 top skills of the best innovation managers by definition, an innovation role covers many different areas of expertise.
We’ve listed the most prominent skills you might be looking for on the resume of job candidates. Here is a quick link for detailed information on 10 top skills of the best innovation managers A T-shaped profile will probably be the one you’re looking for. You need an emphatic generalist that can quickly jump from one domain to the other.
For each, we’ve added a couple of example questions. Use this list to write your own interview script. Contact us for Jobs placement
In big organizations, the most frequent job titles for innovation managers would be head of innovation, innovation director or chief innovation officer.
In medium and smaller enterprises, and in startups, you may more frequently find the word “Innovation” attached to other job titles, such as innovation product manager, innovation project manager or new business developer. Content Courtesy of board of innovation
More specifically, she/he has to blend 3 main mindsets, HR-, tech- and business-related. In particular, she/he is in charge of:
- Allocating resources and setting up teams, shaping a long-term capability.
- Managing the process and monitoring the progress of the various ongoing initiatives;
- Building out innovation capabilities and transferring them into the corporate culture to impact the broader organization.
Often confused with the innovation manager is the head of R&D. Although instrumental to innovation, this division often takes a purely technological approach. Therefore it will only serve as part of the puzzle. An innovation manager will have to complement the technological advancements with capabilities to build products that people want and business cases that corporate can support.