Introducing a Framework for Innovation Readiness Levels – A Framework to Evaluate Innovation Efforts

Sammanfattning: When developing new products, it is important to be able to evaluate their readiness as this helps organizations manage three major challenges of product development, performance, schedule, and budget. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) discovered this in 1990 and developed a nine-level framework to measure the progression of technology development, Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).  The framework has since then been adopted by many different industries, among them OEMs. However, there are more aspects of the innovation process than just technology. Research topics such as user centered design and business model innovation has lately gained much attention, indicating that user and business aspects of the innovation are important. Therefore, the purpose of his thesis was to propose a framework to evaluate the readiness of business, user and technology aspects. To do so, a case study was performed at the Swedish OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) Husqvarna Group, a global producer of equipment for garden and park care, as well as for the construction industry. A literature study was performed to create an understanding of the current knowledge on the topic. Semi structured interviews were used to investigate how innovation is performed at the researched company. The result from these interviews was contrasted with the results from interviews at four other Swedish OEMs, to increase external validity. Lastly the findings were validated through focus group interviews at Husqvarna Group. The case study resulted in the identification of important steps when developing viable, desirable, and feasible products. From these, the nine most important for business and user was identified and frameworks for business and user readiness respectively were developed, along with attainment criteria for each level. The findings showed that the TRL framework still holds relevance, however the attainment criteria were adjusted to better suit OEMs. Together these three frameworks create the Innovation Readiness Level (IRL) framework.