Why Most Idea Harvesting Fails—and How Leaders Can Fix It
* Making IP concepts accessible and relevant for non-IP professionals.
Idea harvesting is widely discussed but rarely understood. Most organizations believe they are doing it well because engineers regularly explain what they are building. What they are actually capturing is work in progress, not future advantage.
True idea harvesting is not an engineering exercise. It is a leadership capability.
The Fundamental Flaw
Traditional idea harvesting is reactive. It focuses on:
What exists today
Incremental improvements
Isolated technical problem-solving
This approach produces ideas, but very few translate into market leadership, defensible IP, or measurable business outcomes.
The Missing Lens: Impact Quotient
Every idea carries an implicit question: So what?
High-quality idea harvesting introduces an impact quotient—a way to assess whether an idea can:
Create meaningful market differentiation
Strengthen competitive positioning
Influence revenue, margins, or valuation
Build long-term, defensible IP
Without this lens, innovation remains busy—but not valuable.
A Real-World Example (Anonymized)
A mid-sized industrial technology company conducted regular idea harvesting sessions. Engineers shared multiple incremental improvements related to system efficiency and component optimization. While technically sound, none of these ideas materially changed the company’s market position.
When the approach was redesigned, the sessions started with industry evolution and customer adoption barriers rather than internal projects. One key insight emerged: customers were struggling with scalability and operational reliability, not just efficiency.
This shifted the discussion. Engineers began rethinking system architecture instead of components. The outcome was a platform-level innovation that addressed large-scale deployment challenges—an area where competitors were weak.
The company filed a focused set of patents around this architecture, repositioned its product roadmap, and gained early-mover advantage in a fast-growing segment. The value came not from more ideas—but from better questions and higher impact selection.
From Reactive to Proactive
Proactive idea harvesting:
Anticipates where technology and markets are heading
Enables engineers to design solutions ahead of demand
Prioritizes ideas with long-term strategic relevance
Why Vision Alignment Matters
Ideas must align with:
Long-term business vision
Target markets and growth strategy
Strategic positioning
Without alignment, IP and market outcomes diverge.
Final Thought
Idea harvesting is not about collecting ideas.
It is about identifying ideas that can move the business curve.
Novaro IP’s Perspective
At Novaro IP, we position idea harvesting at the intersection of business vision, technology evolution, and IP strategy. Our structured approach helps leadership teams identify ideas with a high impact quotient—ideas that are not only innovative, but also scalable, defensible, and aligned with long-term business value.