Development of a technological innovation draft

Ideas for technological innovation, whether they originate in a research laboratory, a company's design office, or more generally from the observation of an individual who thinks he or she has found an original solution to a problem... are numerous, and each of us, at least once in our lives, has had the idea of inventing a new technical object.

But it has to be recognized that the idea has to be put into practice, take shape, lead to a prototype and be tested... which means costs and a lot of time to devote to the invention before it can become an innovative product.

It's clear that innovation is a risky business, fraught with pitfalls, with uncertain results. The first step is to design the project, i.e. to set out the problem and the new principle on which the project is based, to define the target markets and their characteristics, and to plan the stages, the tasks to be accomplished and the potential spin-offs, all of which are brought together in what is known as the pre-project. Such a document is essential for decision-makers and the project team, as it serves as a frame of reference on which everyone can rely from the very start of the project and throughout its development, particularly for detecting any discrepancies between actual and forecast.

The aim of this article is to provide the key points and a structure for the technological innovation pre-project document, and to point out the main shortcomings often observed. It's not just a matter of writing a document; the pre-project document is the deliverable of several preliminary studies on the technology, the market, and the response to societal and environmental imperatives, the main results of which are recorded in this deliverable.