A bottoms-up research process that starts by making sense of product-level innovations and works upward to an actionable view of the market.
A bottoms-up research process that starts by making sense of product-level innovations and works upward to an actionable view of the market.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Our bespoke reports and analyses give you a full view of innovation landscapes,
including product innovations, technology trends, and how companies compare.
Examine the categories of innovation,
market driving forces, and venture funding trends.
Gain a deep understanding of product innovations, emerging capabilities, and use cases.
Learn moreCompare how companies score on key product capabilities including detailed analyst rationales.
Learn moreBEYOND INNOVATION THEATER
Multinational corporations often talk about innovation and staying ahead of the curve. However, implementing a true culture of innovation that leads to new products and services is far more challenging. Many companies sponsor accelerators or send technology scouts to Silicon Valley, and label these efforts corporate innovation. As Steve Blank famously put it, this is often innovation theater. After nearly two decades of working with multinationals on innovation initiatives, it’s clear that to counter the virtue signaling of innovation theater, establishing an Innovation Research Framework (IRF) is imperative.
The IRF is a bottoms-up research process that starts by making sense of product-level innovations and works upward to an actionable view of the market. This process focuses on the key technologies and capabilities of the startups and their unique differentiators from each other, which represent the real substance of innovation. This approach significantly differs from other innovation research and scouting processes which are generally based on vanity metrics such as funding amounts, investor pedigree, and press coverage. The IRF enables corporations to confidently make strategic decisions that can move the needle.
THE IRF FRAMEWORK
Our research process is unique and starts with startup product innovations rather than top-down macro trends.
Tailored actions based on market signals
Real-world applications and results achieved
Product competitiveness across startups
Key capabilities and technologies across categories
Startup taxonomy based on emerging capabilities
Identify the startups in the market and organize by functional categories.
The first step involves identifying the startups in a relevant market and organizing them by their functions. This provides a clear overview of the functional categories of innovation in the market and the companies within them, laying the foundation for deeper analysis.
Study and use products to define key innovations in the market.
This step is critical and requires digging deep into the products the startups offer, focusing on the functionalities and technologies they bring to the market. This involves hands on trials of products and thorough reviews of product documentation. By understanding the product innovations down to the capability level, you can uncover the emerging trends.
Score companies' product capabilities versus one another.
After defining the key technologies and product innovations, the next step is to assess and score the companies in the market. This enables you to understand where each company stands in relation to the others. This scoring provides a view of the leaders based on objective product analysis and not simply the vanity metrics often used to shortlist startups.
Highlight case studies of emerging capabilities.
To bring this analysis to life for innovation stakeholders at your company, the next step is to highlight case studies that showcase emerging capabilities. These real world examples offer concrete evidence to broad stakeholders on how emerging capabilities are being successfully commercialized, even in their earliest nascent stages.
Synthesize market and innovation trends.
Finally, to engage in appropriate discussions and make strategic decisions, the last step is to synthesize findings into overarching innovation and product trends in the market. This step is crucial for initiating real debate on actions to take, from continuing to watch specific trends, to launching internal development efforts, to exploring collaborations, investments, or acquisitions with specific startups, all based on real insights from the ground up.
RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Our bespoke reports and analyses give you a full view of innovation landscapes, including product innovations, technology trends, and how companies compare.
Examine the categories of innovation, market driving forces, and venture funding trends.
Learn moreGain a deep understanding of product innovations, emerging capabilities, and use cases.
Learn moreCompare how companies score on key product features including detailed analyst rationales.
Learn moreBEYOND INNOVATION THEATER
Multinational corporations often talk about innovation and staying ahead of the curve. However, implementing a true culture of innovation that leads to new products and services is far more challenging. Many companies sponsor accelerators or send technology scouts to Silicon Valley, and label these efforts corporate innovation. As Steve Blank famously put it, this is often innovation theater. After nearly two decades of working with multinationals on innovation initiatives, it’s clear that to counter the virtue signaling of innovation theater, establishing an Innovation Research Framework (IRF) is imperative.
The IRF is a bottoms-up research process that starts by making sense of product-level innovations and works upward to an actionable view of the market. This process focuses on the key technologies and capabilities of the startups and their unique differentiators from each other, which represent the real substance of innovation. This approach significantly differs from other innovation research and scouting processes which are generally based on vanity metrics such as funding amounts, investor pedigree, and press coverage. The IRF enables corporations to confidently make strategic decisions that can move the needle.
THE IRF FRAMEWORK
Our research process is unique and starts with startup product innovations rather than top-down macro trends.
Tailored actions based on market signals
Real-world applications and results achieved
Product competitiveness across startups
Key capabilities and technologies across categories
Startup taxonomy based on emerging capabilities
Identify the startups in the market and organize by functional categories.
The first step involves identifying the startups in a relevant market and organizing them by their functions. This provides a clear overview of the functional categories of innovation in the market and the companies within them, laying the foundation for deeper analysis.
Study and use products to define key innovations in the market.
This step is critical and requires digging deep into the products the startups offer, focusing on the functionalities and technologies they bring to the market. This involves hands on trials of products and thorough reviews of product documentation. By understanding the product innovations down to the capability level, you can uncover the emerging trends.
Score companies' product capabilities versus one another.
After defining the key technologies and product innovations, the next step is to assess and score the companies in the market. This enables you to understand where each company stands in relation to the others. This scoring provides a view of the leaders based on objective product analysis and not simply the vanity metrics often used to shortlist startups.
Highlight case studies of emerging capabilities.
To bring this analysis to life for innovation stakeholders at your company, the next step is to highlight case studies that showcase emerging capabilities. These real world examples offer concrete evidence to broad stakeholders on how emerging capabilities are being successfully commercialized, even in their earliest nascent stages.
Synthesize market and innovation trends.
Finally, to engage in appropriate discussions and make strategic decisions, the last step is to synthesize findings into overarching innovation and product trends in the market. This step is crucial for initiating real debate on actions to take, from continuing to watch specific trends, to launching internal development efforts, to exploring collaborations, investments, or acquisitions with specific startups, all based on real insights from the ground up.
It’s important to note that the IRF is not a one time project, it is an ongoing research process that should be ingrained into the operations to continuously monitor and identify the innovation signals to act on. We can help as a research partner or guide in this process.
It’s important to note that the IRF is not a one time project, it is an ongoing research process that should be ingrained into the operations to continuously monitor and identify the innovation signals to act on. We can help as a research partner or guide in this process.
Reach out to us to discuss your innovation goals and we'll craft a plan for real outcomes.
Reach out to us to discuss your innovation goals and we'll craft a plan for real outcomes.
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