A Process Model for Early-Stage Experimentation to Accelerate Innovation.

Overview: Innovation has become increasingly urgent for companies to maintain competitive advantage, yet deep uncertainty persists regarding the end results of their innovation efforts. Early-stage experimentation offers a risk management approach that can dramatically accelerate cost-effective innovation. Experimentation relies on the scientific method to craft and test hypotheses. Insufficient guidance exists regarding how to help managers harness experimentation in early-stage innovation projects. Based on our observations of experienced experimenters engaged in early-stage innovation projects in four distinct settings, we developed a process model that offers practitioners a structured and scalable approach to foster early-stage experimentation. Managers in all parts of the organization can apply the process model and operationalize experimentation. The article's contribution is twofold: we articulate specific practices associated with choices around what is being tested, how it is being tested, and what is learned, and we offer a model designed to help build managerial literacy in early-stage experimentation. Conducting fast, simple experiments at the early stages of the innovation process offers a valuable way to better manage innovation costs and risks. Experimentation can be codified into a simplified and scalable process, using a 5-step process model proposed here, that can be practiced across organizational levels and functions. An organizational strategic capability for experimentation, developed in a systematic and scalable way, can enhance a firm's ability to adapt to change and exploit opportunities in an uncertain world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]