Charting exploitation strategies for emerging technology: the emergence roadmapping workshop method helps organizations clarify the nature of a potential future-value opportunity and articulate the route towards it

OVERVIEW: Strategy development for early-stage technology and innovation is challenging, with a need to maintain flexibility in the face of high levels of technical and commercial uncertainty. There is a demand for lightweight, agile methods that can support strategic dialogue at this stage, particularly between business functions and collaborating organizations. We have developed an "emergence roadmapping" workshop method that helps organizations to clarify the nature of a potential future value opportunity and articulate the route towards it as a series of demonstration-based milestones. The approach builds on a study of how a variety of current industries have emerged from the science and technology base in the past, allowing characterization of the phases, transitions, milestones, patterns, enablers, and barriers that may apply to current and future emergence.