When building an innovation team, taking special care that all of the official and unofficial roles are filled is key – not to mention teamwork. So what are those critical roles for the innovation team?

In this weeks Killer Innovations Show, we address a listener question: What are the roles I should look for when building a high impact innovation team?

The 7 people I believe are the core of any team are:

The Visionary: The person who is the heart and sould of the idea. 

The Leader: The  person who recruit and motivate the best possible team. Visionary ≠ Leader

The Mother – The person who is sensitive to everyone and makes sure everyone is  taken care of.

The Energizer:The person who will get it done. Sometimes at a cost. They pump energy into the team

The Customer Advocate: The person who advocates for the customer. They are the voice of the customer on the project.

“Radar O’Reilly” (from the movie and TV show Mash): The person who can find/secure anything you need either by understanding the process in an organization or who has a Rolodex he can exercise to secure whatever the team needs to be successful.

The Designer: Design is no longer a behind the scene activity It is front and center with everything that touches the customer.

Bonus 8: Neurodiversity: Get people who think differently on your team. They can see what others don’t see in a unique and different way.

Show Notes:

More on neurodiversity at Does neural diversity hiring impact your innovation success? S11 Ep22