The Innovation Strategy and Roadmap is a plan (not a proposal) for implementing an emerging trend, technology, or participatory service. Your audience is your patrons/users.

Description

For this assignment, you will craft a roadmap for incorporating an emerging trend, technology, or participatory service into a library or information setting of your choice. The goal is to engage with your community via technology, service, or some other human-focused innovation. Imagine your institution has already been granted funding (or has a newly-available space) and you selected an up-and-coming service or technology that interests you—and your user population—most. This planning-centered action brief can be an entirely virtual service or one that augments a physical service.

Create an Action Brief

Start with an idea and express your goals as an “Action Brief.” An action brief is a framing statement used in planning that includes who we want to convince about a service or product, how we will do it, and what the service will be that makes the change. Ideas in the form of action briefs can create a starting point for a new service or plan. John Bellina and Tasso Stathopulos from the Denver marketing firm Ricochet Ideas helped create the Anythink brand for Rangeview Library System. They helped transform services such as the Anythink summer reading program through disruptive innovation by starting with a simple statement about turning summer reading “on its ear.” Create an action brief of your own as part of this process focused on the user population you want to reach. For example: convince {a certain group} that by {utilizing the new or improved service or technology, etc} they will {discover a new or cool thing about the library or service} which will {create the outcome you are aiming for} because {this is what the library is about}.

Create a Plan Around the Action Brief

Imagine, for example, that you have been placed in charge of a new, technology-focused or participatory initiative or service. Step one is to create a planning document for the team or administrators that will join you on the project. Utilize the planning module and all the modules you have explored so far to create an artifact that details strategic milestones for this new initiative. This is not a technical document or proposal, but more of a roadmap of considerations for planning and implementation. Research your chosen technology or service and utilize the questions below to organize your planning. Be inspired, think about how to engage others through technology-centered services (don’t be afraid to explore the unconventional!), and focus on the planning process. Be as creative as you’d like with the presentation: create a blog post, slide deck, media-based presentation, etc. Look at this page for a list of tools that other #hyperlib students have used to create content.

Questions to Address in Your Plan

   What’s the idea? 

• Provide a brief overview of the technology or service as well as the institution. How does it align with participatory service? How does it extend or enhance the mission of the institution?

   What are the goals and objectives? Define an Action Brief for the initiative.

• List the goals and objectives for the technology or service. 
• Then create an action brief for this initiative.  To create an action brief, fill in the blanks:

           Convince ______ that by _______ they will ________ which will ________ because _______.

• If part of your plan involves staff-buy in, write a second Action Brief statement for staff.

   Who will you help?

• Describe the community you are seeking to serve. How will this help them? 

   Where did you find inspiration? Where has this already been implemented?

• Share links to web sites or articles related to the technology or service in other institutions. 

   What will the guidelines and policies surrounding the program look like?

• Who might be involved in setting policies? Where might you look for example policies? What do you want to include in guidelines for use or implementation?

   What does the timeline for implementation look like?

• What’s a reasonable timeline for this project? What are the project flow dependencies? Who has to say “yes?” What are the planned alternatives if there is a “no”?

   How will the initiative be marketed?

• (How can the new technology or service be promoted? Brainstorm some planning ideas to promote within your organization. Brainstorm more ideas to promote outside your organization

   What will staff need to know or what training will be required?

• How will information be shared with staff? Who gets trained? Who is the training instructor? Who designs the training? When can training be effectively scheduled?

   How will the initiative be evaluated and/or expanded?

• What benchmarks and performance metrics will you use to evaluate the technology or service. What stories are you envisioning telling about it? How might you expand the service in the future?

Requirements

• Utilize the creation tool of your choice for the roadmap.
• Address the questions listed above.
• Your report should be between 1000-1500 words. Use a consistent citation style as well.

Inspirational Examples

Please review examples to see how previous students have creatively approached the Innovation Strategy & Roadmap assignment at the Assignment Inspiration Page.

Posting and Submission

• Share your Innovation Strategy and Roadmap via a post on your blog. In that post, introduce the Roadmap with a few sentences or a paragraph or two from your introduction. Be as creative as you’d like with the post.
• As a final step, submit your post URL to our Canvas site.

Grading

Criteria	Points
Required components	5
Connections to course content	5
Comprehension and analysis	5
Progression of thought and reflection	5
TOTAL	20

See full rubric here.