IMPROVEMENT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES BASED ON DESIGN THINKING

Abstract

The article considers the possibility of using design thinking to improve the project mechanism for managing innovation activities at the corporate level. In the current competitive environment, the project approach is recognized as the most effective in terms of managing the process of developing and implementing innovations. At the same time, the constant need to generate a certain level of novelty, which forms the core component of innovation, requires the integration of additional tools into the coordinate system of project management. An important place in solving this problem is given to design thinking, which allows you to create previously unused items, technologies and methods that have commercial potential and contribute to the expansion of corporate competitive opportunities. Design thinking ensures the integration of the creative element into the process of creating innovation without going beyond the scope of project management. The advantage of the work is the presence of a practical component, the content of which considers an example of developing new packaging for meat processing plant products based on the results of passing the classical stages of design thinking. A conventional food industry enterprise is used as a corporate institution, but the achieved results are relevant from the point of view of practical application and have significant commercial potential, provided by additional opportunities for promoting products in the consumer environment. The presented prototypes of the original packaging are a product of design thinking implemented within the framework of the collective brainstorming technique and have pronounced signs of novelty. In the work, the authors' team considers the basic elements and main technologies of project management used to develop and implement innovations, specifies the cycle of implementing an innovative project taking into account the classical methodology of project management, and presents a mechanism for developing an innovative project in the activities of a food industry enterprise based on the sequential passage of all stages of the design thinking algorithm in order to create a new type of packaging capable of creating conditions for sales growth due to increased attractiveness in the consumer space.