Scenario-Based Design Theorizing: The Case of a Digital Idea Screening Cockpit

Abstract

As ever more companies encourage employees to innovate, a surplus of ideas has become reality in many organizations – often exceeding the available resources to execute them. Building on insights from a literature review and a three-year collaboration with a banking software provider, this paper suggests a Digital Idea Screening Cockpit (DISC) to address this challenge. Following a design science research approach, we suggest a prescriptive design theory that provides practitioner-oriented guidance for implementing a DISC. Our study shows that, in order to facilitate the assessment, selection, and tracking of ideas for different stakeholders, such a system needs to play a dual role: It needs to structure decision criteria and at the same be flexible to allow for creative expression. Moreover, we make a case for scenario-based design theorizing by developing design knowledge via scenarios.

Keywords: Scenario-based design theorizing, scenario-based design, employee-driven innovation, Digital innovation, Idea screening, Idea evaluation, Idea selection, Idea tracking