TS EN ISO 56007

TS EN ISO 56007 is a guidance standard for managing opportunities and ideas in innovation management. It helps organizations understand how to identify promising opportunities, shape ideas into workable concepts, and assess which concepts are worth moving forward. The subject is not limited to product innovation; it also applies to services, processes, business models, and strategic change.

Where opportunity and idea management fit in innovation

In innovation practice, an opportunity is a need, gap, trend, or problem space with value-creation potential, while an idea is a possible response to that opportunity. This guidance encourages organizations to manage ideas in relation to objectives, resources, and strategic direction rather than treating them as isolated creative outputs. The emphasis is therefore on both creativity and disciplined decision-making.

What the guidance addresses

• Preparing for front-end innovation activities and clarifying their purpose
• Considering people and organization issues such as leadership, culture, and strategy
• Explaining the relationships between innovation activities and processes
• Addressing evaluation considerations that are important for innovation success
• Providing guidance for the ISO 56002 sub-set of processes: identifying opportunities, creating concepts, and validating them

The document supports innovation across the full continuum from incremental to radical change. It also recognizes that there is no single method or tool suitable for every situation; the choice depends on organizational context, intended value, and the conditions at hand. The development and deployment of innovation solutions are outside the scope of this guidance document.

In practical terms, TS EN ISO 56007 is about making the early innovation stage more systematic so that organizations can reach better go/no-go decisions before committing resources to development.