Is Architecture and Innovation two sides of the same coin?

I have spent many years in different leading architecture roles and many years leading innovation organizations. What has come to mind is how similar these two functions are. So, what do I mean by that? Isn’t architecture almost the opposite of innovation?

Perceptions of Architecture: Breaking it down

Let’s break it down. This is my experience of what others say about architecture.

• They come in and decide things without context.
• They just add requirements and complicate our deliveries.
• They sit by themselves and draw diagrams, not connected to the business.
• They are ivory towers, thinking they are better than us and look down on us.
• Their deliveries are unclear, is there really any value in this.

Perceptions of Innovation: A deeper look

Now, let’s look at innovation and break it down.

• Too far from the product/business.
• Unclear business value.
• Not building what we (the business) want.
• Taking up resources that should be spent on the product.
• Unclear deliveries, is there really any value in this.
• They just do what they think is fun.

Addressing misconceptions: Finding common ground

Now let’s examine this breakdown. It’s clear what my experience is telling me. Both these functions are seen as something outside the normal delivery. As a leader of both these types of functions, it is my responsibility to ensure we have clear outcomes, a budget in order, proper stakeholder management, and buy-in. In short, it is my responsibility to ensure that the hygiene factors are being met. There is no room for not following all company procedures just because you work with a niche function.

Hygiene factors and collaboration: A leadership perspective

I have always upheld my responsibilities by collaborating closely with functions such as Finance and HR. In fact, many people can testify that the finance BP has always been part of my leadership team. Never fail your hygiene factors.

Now, you have the basics in order, and you need to focus on the next big thing: stakeholder management.

Stakeholder engagement in Architecture and Innovation

In architecture, this is keeping your ear close to the retail, sales, product, and engineering teams while maintaining an externally influenced longer-term vision. If architecture in 2022 said they were surprised by the AI wave, they were probably too focused internally and not getting enough external influence. In the longer term, this will damage the company.

In innovation, it’s very similar. You need to figure out where the movements in the company are trending while maintaining a very strong outlook on external factors.

Duplex knowledge: Early collaboration and external outlook

To approach this duplex knowledge, we can adopt different forums to keep us up to date. In architecture, it could be the architecture review board (ARB). My experience says this is often too far down the line. The sunk cost fallacy will be adopted, and architecture movements will be distorted. So, do we need to go deeper? I would say, go earlier!

Building relationships: Early collaboration in Architecture and Innovation

Make a real effort to collaborate with product and eng leaders to get much closer to the inception point of ideas. Practically, this could mean being present in different meetings like sprint planning or why not the retrospective part of the sprint. The point is to not approach these teams only when it’s time for architecture checkpoints. Instead, build a relationship with mutual trust and aligned value.

Innovation’s external outlook and internal democratization

In innovation, the external outlook is extremely important. Not only to keep an eye on the Gartner hype cycle but to understand where the startups are moving, where the investments are made. As innovation people, it is also your responsibility to protect your company from disruptions.

Internally, innovation needs to be spread across the company. If you are running an innovation team, your main effort needs to be democratizing the knowledge on how to innovate and sharing the work you are doing. This is crucial and non-negotiable.

Aligning Innovation with leadership: Stakeholder management

Innovation also needs to be very well aligned with top management and senior leaders. One idea to achieve this could be to establish a forum where these stakeholders are invited to get a transparent rundown on what’s going on. The forum needs to be open to feedback both ways. This way, as an innovation leader, you will avoid surprising your stakeholders with a new innovation, as they will be anchored in the thinking and movements along the way.

My experience says you need to put as much work into stakeholder management as you put into running the innovation function itself. Remember, no one wants to be surprised. Not even the best innovation will survive if you surprise your stakeholders.

Conclusion: Similarities between Architecture and Innovation

So, a few insights into the similarities between architecture and innovation and a glimpse of how to avoid these pitfalls. If you want to know more, keep an eye out here on the blog.