Inspire innovation: the new space for team creation

Several months ago, a space called Inspire Innovation at Walmeric was created, which has become not only a meeting point but also something that serves to bring together all Walmerians. Here, everyone can share the different innovative ideas they have so that they can develop them together with the team.

That’s why in this interview, Product Manager Rocio Garaizar answers key questions about the new meeting place for all Walmerians, where they can create fantastic products/solutions that meet the needs of their customers.

1. How was Inspire Innovation at Walmeric born?

Inspire Innovation was born as an initiative with two main objectives. The first is to create a space where all Walmeric members can collaborate, regardless of the area they belong to. A «place» to be united and connect with other colleagues. The second objective, and no less important, is to continue to be a benchmark for technological innovation, we have great professionals who come from different sectors who come up with ideas with great potential for innovation, thanks to this we can take advantage of all the potential to promote originality and the avant-garde.

2. How do you think team collaboration can drive technological innovation within our company?

This can be a key way to drive technological innovation within Walmeric. When different people with diverse knowledge, skills, experiences and perspectives work together on a project, it generates fresh and creative ideas that can lead to innovative solutions. These cross-functional collaborations foster diversity of ideas, breaking down biases within each team, encouraging learning from each other, creating constructive solutions, and giving greater agility to carry out different projects at the same time.

4. What strategies have you found most effective for integrating different skills and perspectives in technological innovation team projects?

The first thing that has been created is a common and collaborative space, in which it has been explained very well that any idea, no matter how crazy it may seem, is welcome and that all of them will be taken into account and valued. Once people see that all their ideas can have a place, motivation increases considerably. The second step has been the selection of different ideas and the creation of multidisciplinary teams, we try not to have more than 2 people from the same area in the same team, when collaborators work with people with whom they do not share on a daily basis, they open their minds more. Then we have given the teams the guidelines for the minimum that the project should have and the deadline for developing it, as well as leaving the organisation in their hands, giving them the confidence and freedom in their ability to work as a team. As the person in charge of the initiative, I hold meetings with the different groups to monitor the projects and to give them support whenever they need it.

5. What is your opinion on the importance of diversity in technology innovation teams and how does it impact the bottom line?

After more than 7 years at Walmeric, I think that whenever we have worked taking into account the opinions of people from different teams when creating solutions, they have been much more powerful and effective.

Let me give an example to make it easier to understand; if we create a product only from the AI area without taking into account what the customer needs (commercial area), how this product is going to be operated (operations area), how it is going to be integrated with the rest of the products so that it is in tune (development area) and how we are going to sell it (marketing area), we will surely create something good but with shortcomings that we could have avoided if we had taken into account the opinion of the rest of the departments.

Therefore, I believe that the variety of perspectives of multidisciplinary teams fosters creativity by increasing resilience to proposals and thus improving decision-making when creating a product, and all this has a direct impact on the final result of the product.