Adapting to the changing needs of managing innovative projects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the changes in managerial activities and challengesat different phases of innovative projects. Design/methodology/approach – Six NPD project managers were interviewed in three differentproject phases in a qualitative, longitudinal design. The resulting 18 semi-structured face-to-faceinterviews were content analyzed and categorized according to thematic similarity. Findings – Altogether 19 categories describing managerial concerns in managing innovative projectswere recognized. Task-oriented, rather than people-oriented, approaches were dominant throughoutthe projects, although the reported concerns clearly varied at each phase. The early development phaseemerged as a transition point, where managers had to transform their roles, reported activitiesdecreased, and reported challenges increased. Research limitations/implications – Although based on a small number of participants in a singlesetting, the results highlight the need for longitudinal studies and differentiating between the variousphases of the innovation process, as there was great variance in the concerns of each phase.Furthermore, domain expertise seemed to have a large impact on how the managers reformulated theirrole in transitioning from the front-end to the development phases. Practical implications – The present study emphasizes the need to support managers intransitioning between different innovation phases and to recognize the need to adjust managerial roles.Further, it seemed crucial to establish the practices supporting successful teamwork in the front-endphase before the first phase transition. Originality/value – The study is a rare example of a longitudinal research design examining theimplications and transition between different phases of the innovation process within the sameprojects for project managers.Peer reviewe