🏢 TNO portfolio management: How to decide what is worth our time?

Project Overview:

At TNO, a research organization specializing in future technologies, we were tasked with improving their portfolio management process. The goal was to help them decide more effectively which projects should be prioritized and which should be put aside. Portfolio management is a crucial process for any organization, but it is especially important in a research-driven company like TNO, where resources and time are often limited.

Our approach was to analyze TNO’s current process, identify weaknesses, and propose improvements. We gathered insights through employee interviews, data analysis, and a comprehensive review of existing portfolio management literature. Our final deliverable was a detailed report, which we presented to TNO’s board of directors, outlining our findings and strategic recommendations.

Process & Methodology:

Our team of five started with an in-depth literature study on portfolio management, discovering that each organization adopts a different approach. To understand how TNO specifically handled it, we conducted interviews with employees across various departments and roles. These interviews focused on their responsibilities in portfolio management, the criteria used to evaluate projects, their thoughts on the current process, and their vision for its future.

Simultaneously, we attended lectures from the course Entrepreneurial Innovation by Design, where we learned about C-K theory, which provided a fresh perspective on how to approach portfolio management.

C-K Theory, or Concept-Knowledge Theory, is a framework that explains how new ideas are generated and developed through the interaction between two distinct spaces: the Concept Space (C) and the Knowledge Space (K). The Concept Space is where new concepts are imagined without limitations, while the Knowledge Space encompasses all existing, proven, and documented knowledge. Innovation arises from exploring concepts within the context of existing knowledge, leading to the creation of new ideas and solutions.

Innovative Solution – The C-K Funnel:

Using insights from C-K theory, we developed a new portfolio management funnel designed to be more flexible and iterative. Traditional funnels often require projects to be either moved forward or discarded, but our model allows projects to loop back into earlier stages for refinement, ensuring they are not prematurely discarded or stagnated.

The new funnel integrates a way to measure project progress, allowing stakeholders to assess development at various stages. With these features, the funnel becomes an actionable tool to improve decision-making, reduce project loss, and enhance the overall portfolio management process at TNO.

Challenges & Learnings:

🎯 Understanding TNO’s Unique Needs – Each department at TNO had its own perspective on what makes a project worth pursuing. This variability made it challenging to unify a single set of criteria for project evaluation. The interviews helped us identify common ground and allowed us to design a more flexible system that could accommodate different needs.

🔄 Applying C-K Theory – Incorporating a theoretical model like C-K into a real-world setting posed challenges in terms of making it practical and actionable. However, adapting the theory to fit TNO’s specific needs was a rewarding experience, showcasing the importance of iterative improvement in decision-making processes.

📈 Data-Driven Decision Making – Through the interviews and data analysis, we realized how important it is for organizations to leverage employee insights in the decision-making process. Balancing qualitative insights with quantitative data helped us create a solution that was not only innovative but also grounded in the reality of TNO’s current operations.

💡 Want to learn more? Feel free to contact me!