EXECUTING CORPORATE INNOVATION AT ÖBB
Prototyping • Agile Project Management • Intrapreneurship
About ÖBB
The Austrian Federal Railways, known as ÖBB, is the leading mobility and logistics provider in Austria. Almost 300 million passengers and 100 million tonnes of various goods were transported to destinations all across Europe in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Employing more than 42000 people, the ÖBB is the socio-ecological backbone of the Austrian economy.
2
Prototypes From Two Teams in Two Months
50
Interviews With Customers
+300
Ideas During the Experiment-Driven Design Thinking process
Peter Schindlecker
Head of Open Innovation
Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB)
How we made it happen
Challenge
There are a lot of challenges when you decide to develop a cross-functional and company-wide intrapreneurship program. From selecting the most promising topics that fit into the overall portfolio strategy and selecting the right candidates with a strong pattern and opportunity recognition to strategically establishing the program in the company and finding support on a department basis. One of the most challenging things in this year’s program however was to design it in a fully remote but highly engaging way.
Approach
- team canvas session to ensure that everyone gets to know each other and the values that we want to share as a group
- to involve them in the goal-setting process for the respective topics and to leverage the value they assign to the goal
- to increase the expectation regarding their ability to reach the goal
- to create agile ceremonies acting as a psychological safety net that fosters individual interaction
- to maximize interaction, set specific tasks and use breakout rooms to get participants working together in smaller groups where there is more accountability, interest and individuals can contribute more easily.
Result
In May 2021 we successfully ended the prototyping phase in ÖBB’s intrapreneurship program. Both teams of intrapreneurs were able to convince the innovation council and got the green light and budget for the pilot phase that is ongoing as we write this. The prototyping phase didn’t just end with two illustrative prototypes but also with tons of learnings from more than 50 interviews with customers and over 300 ideas that came up during our experiment-driven design thinking process. The engagement of individuals was very high and we didn’t see signs of social loafing.
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