Adaptive Innovation in a Nutshell
A brief overview of Adaptive Innovation
Generating Innovation Models
Adaptive Innovation is a method for individuals, teams and organizations to systematically develop an effective innovation model in three steps:
Innovation Stages clarify where an initiative is currently located during an innovation journey. Identifying the current innovation stage, provides crucial context for defining innovation objectives.
Innovation Objectives provide guidance on identifying key stakeholders and their aspirations to give a clear sense of direction to the innovation model.
Innovation Models sketch out the innovation and validation process, including all relevant tools and communication touch-points. It describes how an organization systematically progresses towards an innovation objective.
Interactive Approach
We have made it incredibly straightforward to systematically develop effective innovation models with a set of free-to-use interactive canvases that enable innovators to develop tailored innovation models for their unique challenges.
In addition to the above strategy canvases, we also provide a matching journal canvas. An innovation journal helps visualizing and describing ongoing innovation efforts, generates transparency and encourages continuous improvement.
Who it is for
Organizations
Adaptive Innovation is designed for ambitious innovation initiatives in medium and large organizations. With no limitations to the amount of interconnected innovation objectives and innovation models, it supports large-scale initiatives across various interdisciplinary teams. At the same time, the structure we suggest for innovation models embraces the nature of distributed decision-making across different levels of activity.
Early stage startups and smaller innovation teams regularly follow established innovation methods like Lean Startup and will notice that Adaptive Innovation embraces the same foundational principles. Consequently, when focusing on a single innovation objective and assuming a simple communication structure, the canvases will lead to equally straightforward suggestions.
For both applications, Adaptive Innovation is non-prescriptive and non-presumptive, offering a practical approach to innovation across organizations of any industry or purpose.
Roles
The central goal of Adaptive Innovation is turning unnecessarily long, costly, and frustrating detours into valuable learning experiences for everyone. To achieve that, we emphasize the importance of combining the talent and experience of all roles contributing to innovation, regardless of their background:
Product managers, designers, engineers and other innovation practitioners can establish a common language for cross-functional collaboration.
Consultants can find support articulating the value of a structured and effective innovation model to win the hearts and minds of their clients.
Investors and Venture Capitalists can assess the potential of their ventures more effectively through a standardized method of innovation progress.
Managers and Executives can utilize a clear framework to evaluate the health of their innovation processes, ensuring consistency in corporate innovation efforts.
Social Innovators can tackle societal issues effectively and drive change within complex systems like healthcare, education, or cities, etc.
How to use it
All material is available for free and the canvases are published under the Creative Commons BY-SA license which empowers others to use and build upon our work, even for commercial purposes, as long as modifications are shared back. We eagerly anticipate feedback, which is our primary source for improvement and development of Adaptive Innovation.
We also invite fellow innovators to embark on this journey with us. Adaptive Innovation isn't just the sum of our experiences; it is a guide, a companion, and a testament to our belief that innovation is an ongoing journey, not a finite destination. The more people contribute and engage with Adaptive Innovation, the easier we can provide access to effective innovation practices in a community spirit.