Job Title: Innovation Engineer
Job ID: 03757
Division: Enterprise Strategy Department
Work Location(s): United States-Wisconsin-Madison
Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Position Details:
Prefer candidates with business process modeling and/or architecture engineering experience.
Position Objective
The Innovation Engineer assists in developing the strategy and methods to spur innovative thinking and ideation across the organization. Analyzes, prioritizes and manages employee, agent, and customer ideas related to operational improvements and opportunity gaps submitted through the innovation portal or uncovered through facilitation of focus groups. Designs and executes experiments and pilots to test the marketability and scalability of innovative ideas that support business development efforts and company strategy. Leverages and manages partnerships with universities, businesses, vendors, and other parties to enhance experimentation and design capabilities. Partners with business unit subject matter experts to conduct feasibility studies for products and services that show positive results from initial pilots or experiments and determines if a proposal for greater investment is warranted. Identifies business processes impacted by new services and products and leads business units through process creation and redesign to support implementation.
Primary Accountabilities
- Innovation Strategy and Program Management (30%)
- Assists in developing the strategy and methods to spur innovative thinking and ideation across the organization.
- Manages the ideation portfolio and infrastructure used to collect and track ideas from employees and agents. Captures and logs ideas from Business Development Directors. Leverages technology to support the process. Manages technology vendor relationship.
- Assists Business Development in idea realization. Provides project management support and coordination to the Business Development Directors.
- Updates and communicates status of ideas as they move through the innovation process. Compiles a portfolio view of internally and externally generated ideas. Develops metrics to report on innovation process and idea life cycle. Communicates synergies and overlaps to Innovation Director and Business Development Directors. Identifies opportunities to improve the process.
- Influences the corporate environment to engage, enhance, and enable innovation throughout the organization by challenging assumptions and creating breakthrough ideas for service, process or product.
- Engages employees in innovation activities by using strategic assumptions and priorities to pose questions to employees and ask for solutions to business issues.
- Develops relationships throughout the company to collect knowledge across business units and product lines.
- Coordinates and participates in White Space development sessions.
- Maintains physical spaces needed for ideation, experimentation, incubation, and testing.
- Opportunity Design and Development/Business Development Support (25%)
- Determines the requirements and specifications for product or service design. Designs innovative, conceptual prototypes that meet user needs, limitations, and preferences.
- Designs and executes experiments to test innovative product or service ideas. Provides project management support and coordination for experiments and pilots.
- Partners with universities, businesses, vendors, and other parties to conduct experiments and pilots.
- Performs economic and cost-benefit evaluations.
- Facilitates user feedback sessions and analyzes results of usability tests to update designs and prototypes through an iterative process. Coordinates the recruitment of testing participants.
- Conducts feasibility studies for product or service ideas that generate positive results in experiments and pilots.
- Collaborates with internal and external partners to ensure the integrity of the design and the translation of the design into a usable product. Participates in reviews to ensure product designs meet usability requirements and standards of good user interface design.
- Manages execution and implementation of innovation projects that have been approved and funded through the corporate strategy portfolio management process. Analyzes project results and makes next-step recommendations.
- Champions the use of usability engineering principles and interface design trends throughout all business areas.
- Idea Identification, Analysis and Prioritization (15%)
- Explores and validates innovative ideas that support strategy.
- Designs and facilitates employee and agent focus group sessions to generated and flesh out ideas. Guides participants to articulate needs and create a vision for a project or initiative.
- Screens and categorizes ideas submitted by employees and agents.
- Prioritizes ideas based on strategic assumptions, priorities, and trends from Corporate Strategy.
- Determines if an idea should be passed on to a business unit for further exploration or held within Innovation for further review.
- Assists in determining if concept development, experiments or pilots have generated anything to bring forward for proposal.
- Research and Analysis (15%)
- Discovers and evaluates unmet consumer needs, important trends, and new opportunities for growth.
- Conducts primary intelligence data gathering through focus groups and learning labs, shares findings with applicable business partners.
- Leverages external and internal experts for key research.
- Reviews research reports and provides additional insight or questions from an innovation view point.
- Researches and analyzes user characteristics and needs through such techniques as user profiling, competitive analysis, contextual inquiries, and task analysis.
- Analyzes and interprets data to make recommendations on product or process issues.
- Business Process Modeling and Integration (15%)
- Understands and acts on the linkages between strategy and current and future capabilities.
- Leads business units in redesigning or creating business processes to integrate new solutions or products.
- Translates business unit requirements into specific and actionable solutions for enterprise portfolio planning.
- Facilitates sessions with business units to generate solutions to business problems. Documents impacts to processes and updates models as needed.
- Serves as a resource to project teams on business process modeling projects.
- Establishes and maintains an inventory and repository of business models and modeling artifacts.
- Provides access to business model repository as appropriate.
Job Competencies
- Achieve Results
- Be Accountable
- Maximize Customer Experience
- Communication
- Entrepreneurial Orientation
- Establishing Focus
- Influence
- Innovation
Specialized Knowledge and Skills Requirements
- Demonstrated experience consulting and working effectively with senior management.
- Demonstrated experience creating conceptual designs for products or services.
- Demonstrated experience translating research findings into business opportunities.
- Demonstrated experience utilizing advanced facilitation skills.
- Solid knowledge and understanding of business strategy and business development frameworks and concepts.
Travel Requirements
- This position requires travel up to 5% of the time.
Company Information:
We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and dental insurance, a 401(K) plan, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave and the opportunity for career development. If you would like to put your career in motion apply online today!
A career move to join American Family Insurance may also mean a physical move for you. If you are selected for an interview, information will be provided on the level of relocation assistance available during the interview.
Offer to selected candidate will be made contingent on the results of background checks.
Please review the job requirements.
Job ID: 03757
Division: Enterprise Strategy Department
Work Location(s): United States-Wisconsin-Madison
Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Position Details:
Prefer candidates with business process modeling and/or architecture engineering experience.
Position Objective
The Innovation Engineer assists in developing the strategy and methods to spur innovative thinking and ideation across the organization. Analyzes, prioritizes and manages employee, agent, and customer ideas related to operational improvements and opportunity gaps submitted through the innovation portal or uncovered through facilitation of focus groups. Designs and executes experiments and pilots to test the marketability and scalability of innovative ideas that support business development efforts and company strategy. Leverages and manages partnerships with universities, businesses, vendors, and other parties to enhance experimentation and design capabilities. Partners with business unit subject matter experts to conduct feasibility studies for products and services that show positive results from initial pilots or experiments and determines if a proposal for greater investment is warranted. Identifies business processes impacted by new services and products and leads business units through process creation and redesign to support implementation.
Primary Accountabilities
- Innovation Strategy and Program Management (30%)
- Assists in developing the strategy and methods to spur innovative thinking and ideation across the organization.
- Manages the ideation portfolio and infrastructure used to collect and track ideas from employees and agents. Captures and logs ideas from Business Development Directors. Leverages technology to support the process. Manages technology vendor relationship.
- Assists Business Development in idea realization. Provides project management support and coordination to the Business Development Directors.
- Updates and communicates status of ideas as they move through the innovation process. Compiles a portfolio view of internally and externally generated ideas. Develops metrics to report on innovation process and idea life cycle. Communicates synergies and overlaps to Innovation Director and Business Development Directors. Identifies opportunities to improve the process.
- Influences the corporate environment to engage, enhance, and enable innovation throughout the organization by challenging assumptions and creating breakthrough ideas for service, process or product.
- Engages employees in innovation activities by using strategic assumptions and priorities to pose questions to employees and ask for solutions to business issues.
- Develops relationships throughout the company to collect knowledge across business units and product lines.
- Coordinates and participates in White Space development sessions.
- Maintains physical spaces needed for ideation, experimentation, incubation, and testing.
- Opportunity Design and Development/Business Development Support (25%)
- Determines the requirements and specifications for product or service design. Designs innovative, conceptual prototypes that meet user needs, limitations, and preferences.
- Designs and executes experiments to test innovative product or service ideas. Provides project management support and coordination for experiments and pilots.
- Partners with universities, businesses, vendors, and other parties to conduct experiments and pilots.
- Performs economic and cost-benefit evaluations.
- Facilitates user feedback sessions and analyzes results of usability tests to update designs and prototypes through an iterative process. Coordinates the recruitment of testing participants.
- Conducts feasibility studies for product or service ideas that generate positive results in experiments and pilots.
- Collaborates with internal and external partners to ensure the integrity of the design and the translation of the design into a usable product. Participates in reviews to ensure product designs meet usability requirements and standards of good user interface design.
- Manages execution and implementation of innovation projects that have been approved and funded through the corporate strategy portfolio management process. Analyzes project results and makes next-step recommendations.
- Champions the use of usability engineering principles and interface design trends throughout all business areas.
- Idea Identification, Analysis and Prioritization (15%)
- Explores and validates innovative ideas that support strategy.
- Designs and facilitates employee and agent focus group sessions to generated and flesh out ideas. Guides participants to articulate needs and create a vision for a project or initiative.
- Screens and categorizes ideas submitted by employees and agents.
- Prioritizes ideas based on strategic assumptions, priorities, and trends from Corporate Strategy.
- Determines if an idea should be passed on to a business unit for further exploration or held within Innovation for further review.
- Assists in determining if concept development, experiments or pilots have generated anything to bring forward for proposal.
- Research and Analysis (15%)
- Discovers and evaluates unmet consumer needs, important trends, and new opportunities for growth.
- Conducts primary intelligence data gathering through focus groups and learning labs, shares findings with applicable business partners.
- Leverages external and internal experts for key research.
- Reviews research reports and provides additional insight or questions from an innovation view point.
- Researches and analyzes user characteristics and needs through such techniques as user profiling, competitive analysis, contextual inquiries, and task analysis.
- Analyzes and interprets data to make recommendations on product or process issues.
- Business Process Modeling and Integration (15%)
- Understands and acts on the linkages between strategy and current and future capabilities.
- Leads business units in redesigning or creating business processes to integrate new solutions or products.
- Translates business unit requirements into specific and actionable solutions for enterprise portfolio planning.
- Facilitates sessions with business units to generate solutions to business problems. Documents impacts to processes and updates models as needed.
- Serves as a resource to project teams on business process modeling projects.
- Establishes and maintains an inventory and repository of business models and modeling artifacts.
- Provides access to business model repository as appropriate.
Job Competencies
- Achieve Results
- Be Accountable
- Maximize Customer Experience
- Communication
- Entrepreneurial Orientation
- Establishing Focus
- Influence
- Innovation
Specialized Knowledge and Skills Requirements
- Demonstrated experience consulting and working effectively with senior management.
- Demonstrated experience creating conceptual designs for products or services.
- Demonstrated experience translating research findings into business opportunities.
- Demonstrated experience utilizing advanced facilitation skills.
- Solid knowledge and understanding of business strategy and business development frameworks and concepts.
Travel Requirements
- This position requires travel up to 5% of the time.
Company Information:
We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and dental insurance, a 401(K) plan, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave and the opportunity for career development. If you would like to put your career in motion apply online today!
A career move to join American Family Insurance may also mean a physical move for you. If you are selected for an interview, information will be provided on the level of relocation assistance available during the interview.
Offer to selected candidate will be made contingent on the results of background checks.
Please review the job requirements.