Three Ways to Start, Typical Timelines, and What You Actually Get
Most organizations know they need to accelerate innovation. What they don’t know is where to begin.
Typical Innovation Flow
Here’s how the process actually unfolds:
Weeks 1-2: Assessment and Discovery
Start with questions.
What processes cause the most pain? Where are inefficiencies hiding? What data exists, and how good is it? Who are the skeptics and champions? What’s been tried before, and why didn’t it work?
Interview people across various roles and levels. Observe actual work instead of just hearing about it. Review existing systems and data. Identify quick wins and strategic opportunities.
Output: Assessment summary, prioritized opportunity list, stakeholder map.
Weeks 3-8: Rapid Experimentation
This is where most traditional approaches fail; they continue to plan. Start building.
Run two to four discovery experiments simultaneously. Small teams use synthetic data when needed and test rough prototypes with real users. Update and iterate based on feedback every three to five days, not every three months.
Some experiments prove to be valuable, and they advance. Others show us what doesn’t work and get killed fast. Both outcomes are successes, giving you low-cost lessons that could have been costly failures at production scale.
Output: Working prototypes, user validation results, value measurements, advancement recommendations.
Weeks 9-12: Road Mapping and Scaling
By week 9, you have evidence. Some experiments worked, while others didn’t. Now, intelligently plan.
Map successful experiments to productization plans. Identify the data quality improvements and infrastructure investments that are truly necessary, not just theoretically. Create a governance framework that enables speed without causing chaos.
You’re not guessing what to build, you’re scaling what’s already proven.
Output: Production architecture, implementation roadmap, governance framework, resource plan.
Ongoing: Portfolio Management
Conduct monthly portfolio reviews to make stage progression decisions. Develop dashboards that display portfolio health.
Output: Portfolio management processes, decision frameworks, trained internal team.
What You Get
Tangible Outputs
You’re not developing strategy documents that gather dust on shelves.
- Working solutions: Prototypes that actually work. Code ready for production. Seamless integrations with your systems. Real users gaining real value.
- Business cases with evidence: ROI calculations based on measured results, not assumptions. Value that’s already being delivered, not projected to maybe happen someday.
- Frameworks and tools: Assessment templates, prioritization models, governance frameworks, portfolio dashboards, inclusive of everything you need to continue the work independently.
- Learning: Your team learns by doing, not by attending presentations. They’re involved in every workshop, every sprint review, and every decision meeting.
Organizational Capability
Why AIMS works.
- Repeatable processes: You’ll know how to run case discovery workshops, make stage progression decisions, and balance your portfolio. Not because you read a manual, but because you experienced it.
- Stage-appropriate governance: Not copied from someone else’s playbook, but tailored to your risk tolerance, regulatory environment, and organizational culture. You’ll understand why it’s structured the way it is.
- Portfolio management discipline: Conducting monthly reviews to determine what to advance, pivot, or kill. Establish clear criteria, make transparent decisions, and avoid letting politics or the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) influence outcomes.
