The strategic problem this addresses
Organisations have plenty of ideas and not enough people who can turn a priority challenge into a validated, fundable decision. Sponsors receive slide decks rather than evidence.
Intended audience
- Innovation Practitioners and unit teams
- Internal facilitators in development
- Core teams and capability specialists
- Delivery, product and improvement leads with a priority challenge
Prerequisites
- Innovation Processes
- A sponsored live challenge with a named senior owner
Duration and delivery format
5 days, delivered as a block or as two modules. In person or live online, with a cohort of 12 to 20 working in challenge teams.
Capability outcomes
By the end of the programme and its workplace application, participants can:
- 01Plan and conduct user and stakeholder research that produces usable evidence
- 02Run a Design Sprint: map, sketch, decide, prototype and test
- 03Synthesise evidence into a clear picture of what is true and what is still assumed
- 04Validate a solution with real users and quantify what was learned
- 05Build an implementation outline with benefits, risks and dependencies
- 06Pitch a decision to senior stakeholders using evidence rather than opinion
Course experience
Teams arrive with a sponsored challenge. The first two days are research and framing: interviews, observation, stakeholder mapping and the synthesis needed to redefine the challenge on evidence.
Days three and four run as a Design Sprint. Teams map the problem, sketch competing solutions, decide with a structured process, build a realistic prototype and test it with five real users.
Day five turns evidence into a case. Teams quantify what they learned, outline implementation, define how benefits will be measured and pitch a decision to a panel of sponsors.
Methods
- User and stakeholder research
- Design Sprint
- Map, sketch, decide, prototype and test
- Evidence synthesis
- Validation
- Implementation planning
- Decision pitching
- Benefits measurement
Tools
- Miro
- Microsoft Teams
- Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude for research synthesis and analysis
- Lovable, Replit or Gamma for prototyping
- Capability Portfolio
Where AI supports this programme
Research planning and evidence synthesis, Insight generation, Rapid prototyping, Test analysis, Benefits tracking. Human ownership of decisions, source checking and your organisation’s information-handling rules apply throughout. How we govern AI use.
Practical outputs
Work products recorded in the Capability Portfolio.
- Evidence-backed challenge definition
- Tested prototype
- Validation results
- Implementation outline
- Decision pitch
- Workplace innovation project
Workplace application
The programme launches a substantial workplace innovation project. Over the following months, with coaching checkpoints, participants take their validated solution toward implementation and record the decisions, evidence and outcomes in the Capability Portfolio.
Assessment and recognition
Successful assessment of a substantial real-world project: the evidence trail, the decisions made, the outcome achieved and a reflective review. The established pathway may include a six-month workplace project.
Certified Innovation Professional
Awarded following successful assessment of a substantial real-world project.
Position within the wider pathway
The Apply stage. It builds directly on Innovation Processes and is the gateway to the specialist Deliver modules and to Master Facilitator.
- 1Aware
- 2Align
- 3Apply
- 4Deliver
- 5Sustain
Part of the recommended pathway for: Innovation Practitioners and Unit Teams; Internal Facilitators; Core Teams and Capability Specialists. See the role-based pathways.
Related programmes
Innovation Processes
2 days
View programme detailsStage 4 · DeliverAgile, Scrum and Systems Thinking
2 days
View programme detailsStage 4 · DeliverInnovation Delivery, Change and Adoption
2 days
View programme detailsStage 5 · SustainMaster Facilitator
3 days plus an assessed capstone
View programme detailsPlace in the Innovation Capability System
A full Design Sprint on a live challenge, validated with Lean experiments, ending in a decision pitch.
See the whole systemEnterprise deployment options
Standalone programme
One programme, one cohort, one live challenge each
Best for: A team or unit that needs a specific capability now, or an organisation testing the approach before committing further.
Facilitated cohort
A role-based pathway for a cohort, with sponsored challenges and coaching
Best for: Developing practitioners, facilitators or leaders for a defined part of the organisation with visible results.
Enterprise capability academy
The full pathway run at organisational scale, with internal facilitators
Best for: Organisations building innovation and AI capability as a permanent asset rather than a programme.
Relevant case study
Enterprise, telecommunications
A nine-month accelerator that built a product pipeline
A mobile operator in the Gulf
A nine-month innovation accelerator combining an executive briefing, a five-day practitioner programme, retreats and coaching that produced a pipeline of new product offerings.
Read the case study