This methodology is based on over twenty years of direct new business and product innovation experience. It leverages best practices derived from interaction with multiple companies recognized as leaders in innovation within the Fortune 500. It incorporates elements and attributes from several leading discovery-oriented methods including, The Scientific Method, Discovery Driven Planning, Design Thinking, and Lean Startup).
This Methodology is designed for exploring and pursuing new product or new business opportunities. It may also be used for incremental features or new applications of existing products, but may in some of those circumstances there may be important evaluation criteria or analytics that are not included in this Methodology. This Methodology assumes a Portfolio of opportunities within and mature enterprise, business unit or division within an enterprise, or a portfolio of startup ventures within an accelerator or venture investment fund.
The decision criteria and indicators used in this Methodology include the pace and efficiency of progress in completing all the steps in the methodology as well as minimum thresholds on several key evaluation criteria such as the characterization of profitability of the business at maturity, market fit and competitive risk, company fit, execution risk, etc.
The diagram above describes the key steps in the methodology flow. It's anchored in the problem or unmet needs of the target customer and rapid iteration defining and evaluating a hypothesis for a potential solution. After developing a clear hypothesis for a solution, the next step is focused on holistic evaluation from multiple dimensions including market, competitive, financial, execution, and company fit. The combination of the hypothesis development and evaluation illuminate many of the critical assumptions and their relative impact on the outcome. In the experiment and evidence gathering step, the key assumptions are prioritized based on their impact and the confidence in the evidence on which they are based. Higher confidence data can then be gathered through research and experimentation for the most significant assumptions. Learnings from the experiments and evidence gathering are applied and used to either adjust and refine the hypothesis and rapidly repeat the cycle. If the opportunity is compelling based on the evaluation and the new evidence, then a proposal and investment decision is made the move the project through the gate to the next stage.
Stage Gates represent a higher level iteration with increasing investment or resource allocation at each stage, based on increased confidence and reduced risk and uncertainty. This methodology included the following three stages:
