Innovation Catalyst

Idea Conceptualization

• Participate in teams utilizing human centered design processes as they develop innovations to move their ideas forward leading to tangible solutions
• Develop the right stories and visual elements to conceptualize team ideas in communicating them to stakeholders and potential customers
• Extract the essence of stakeholder problems and ideas to clearly identify challenge statements and ideas that are aligned with strategic and organizational goals
• Develop early prototypes (e.g., basic wire framing) or 2d renderings of products in order to better conceptualize solutions
• Design and implement initial experiments to test and validate solutions for refinement

Project Management

• Devise clear solution development plans that propel solutions through experimentation, testing and refinement based on learnings
• Participate in the solution development process for incremental, breakthrough and radical innovations and work alongside the internal AARP Issue/Enabler Partners to develop and design solutions
• Drive innovation teams to prototype and prepare the case of action for approval and execution

Innovation Expert

• Be able to empathize with stakeholders and consumers as they move through the innovation journey and help them understand how to navigate divergent and convergent phases of development
• Possess mastery of innovation behaviors and have a true understanding of how to build on ideas, be open in one’s thinking and identify concepts in a real, tangible way
• Be an acute listener and people person who can find ways to inspire and motivate teams (without direct oversight) in a manner that propels their solutions forward

Financial and budgetary responsibility

• This position will be responsible for coordinating and tracking a budget for solution development activities such as design, prototyping and research 

Regular requirement of directing, reviewing and assigning others work

• This position will occasionally direct, review and assign work to internal colleagues and external consultants
• This position will require the ability to manage multiple innovation projects across the organization with varying degrees of oversight and guidance. This individual must possess a great deal of autonomy in decision-making and communications, know when to manage up and identify key areas of decision-making oversight.
• This individual’s responsibilities include identifying challenges and developing plans for solution development in order to catalyze the development and creation of ideas with varying levels of complexity and feasibility. This individual will need to be able to clearly identify the criteria upon which decisions about ideas should be made and help steer teams in the direction of making autonomous decisions that will move their solutions forward.  Strong coordination, communication, storytelling, and low-fidelity design and prototyping skills are required for this position.
• This position involves engaging with stakeholders in a consulting capacity in order to develop their solutions into market-ready innovations. This level of engagement will require strong communication, listening, and information synthesis and storytelling skills. This individual will regularly interact with members of the ES/EI leadership team as well as innovation project teams in a consulting and informative capacity. 
• This position will have a direct impact on AARP’s success in developing innovative solutions today and in the future.  Responsible for developing clear and actionable solutions, this role will help teams move their solutions through the innovation pipeline by identifying key experiments and areas for refinement.