Team Manager
Team managers help their organisation to shape and design their future with innovation projects that matter. Leading a team of team members and guided by an experienced team coach means you'll get into the driver's seat. Buckle up and learn more about your responsibilities and key activities.
Danny Locher
Business Design Coach
You lead a Project Team and are accountable for the results of a project with the End-to-End Innovation Process. You are a MacGyver type of person with an overview of all activities involved in projects driving the project team to high performance. As part of the project team, you prepare and participate in workshops and work on content-related tasks in between. You are also the link to other divisions in your organisation. It is essential that you are trained in Business Design and the specific phase of the end-to-end innovation process before you kick off a project.
As a team manager you work very closely with the Team Coach and your Project Team. Your responsibilities include:
Defining the setup of a project for the specific phase
Establishing a high-performance work culture on a day-to-day basis
Preparing and moderating workshops (together with your Team Coach)
Getting the Project Team up to speed
Assigning and tracking tasks (rigidly)
Working on own content-related tasks (e.g. field research, prototyping)
Managing other stakeholders (e.g. the Project Sponsor)
The following table shows key activities for a team manager for Phase II and Phase IV of the End-to-End Innovation Process:
Phase II:
Step | Activities |
Exploring Playgrounds | Finalising the Project Charter "Exploration" with the Team Coach and the Project Sponsor Preparing Kick-off Workshop Get-to-know calls with every Team Member of the project team Participating in a basic training on Business Design and the specific project format for the project team (and the sponsor) and ramp-up training for the team manager Facilitating the kick-off workshop with the team coach Supervising the documentation of the workshop and execution of tasks (clear task definitions and assignments for the Research phase) Working on own tasks One-on-one calls with team members (as needed) to make sure every team member sticks to the plan Facilitating the Review Workshop with the team coach Consolidating all information gathered by all team members so that it can be digested by the team within a few hours Facilitating the Consolidation Workshop with the team coach Preparation of final documentation of all results supported by team members
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Phase IV:
Step | Activities |
Step 1: Setup | |
Step 2: Discover | Facilitating the Kick-off Workshop with the Team Coach Optional: Team-building exercise Supervising the documentation of the workshop and execution of tasks (clear task definitions and assignments for the Discover phase) Working on own tasks Leading the Weekly Status Calls Preparing the Design Workshop (see before)
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Step 3: Design | Facilitating the Design Workshop with the Team Coach Supervising the documentation of the workshop and the further detailing of the results (with designers, prototyping engineers etc.) Leading the first Sponsor's Sneak Preview and reflecting the feedback with the Project Team Preparing and facilitating a dedicated Validate Workshop (if time was not sufficient in the design workshop) Making sure that all Team Members know exactly what to do over the next weeks to conduct the experiments (clear task definitions and assignments for the Validate phase) Working on own tasks
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Step 4: Validate | Supervising the experiments and execution of tasks Working on own tasks Leading the Weekly Status Calls Optional: Joining regular Sponsor's Sneak Previews (every 2-3 weeks) and reflecting the feedback with the Project Team Optional: Supporting Validate activities (e.g. field research, prototyping) Optional: Preparing and facilitating GTD Workshops Optional: Connecting with external experts (e.g. start-ups, engineering experts) Optional: Briefing the engineers and designers for Prototyping Preparing and facilitating the Review Workshop Preparing the final presentation / management proposal to the sponsor at the Decide Workshop / D-Day Preparing the decide workshop / D-Day
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Step 5: Decide | Delivering the final presentation at the Decide Workshop / D-Day to the sponsor Recapping the feedback from the decide workshop / D-Day and planning of next steps (e.g. next iteration) Supervising the documentation of the workshop and the entire iteration / project
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