How an Innovation Funnel Transformed My Startup
Beyond the Brainstorm Buzz
Anyone who's ever navigated the electrifying, chaotic world of startups knows the feeling. One minute you're laser-focused on building your MVP, the next you're knee-deep in brainstorming sessions fueled by late-night pizza and whiteboard markers. Ideas fly, energy is high, but let's be honest – sometimes it feels like chasing butterflies in a hurricane.
I speak from experience. After years in the corporate world, where innovation processes were like well-oiled machines, I found myself missing a bit of structure as my startup, Adsby, began to scale. Don't get me wrong – the free-flowing, "build in public" mentality is amazing for sparking creativity. But with a growing team, the risk of brilliant ideas getting lost in the shuffle became very real.
That's when I realized it was time to bridge the gap between my corporate background and the scrappiness of the startup world. Enter the innovation funnel: a streamlined system that harnesses the power of both structure and agility.
Why Startups Need an Innovation Funnel
Here's the thing – as exciting as the "build in public" approach is, it can become a double-edged sword. With a growing team, amazing ideas can easily get lost in the noise. We needed a way to:
- Prioritize: Not all ideas are created equal. A funnel helps us identify the ones that will truly move the needle for our business.
- Alignment: Innovation is fantastic, but it needs to be aligned with our bigger goals and vision.
- Resource Management: Startups have limited resources. The funnel ensures we're investing our time and energy wisely.
- Inclusion: Everyone on the team should feel empowered to contribute ideas. The funnel keeps the process transparent and inclusive.
The Adsby Innovation Funnel: Making Ideas Fly
I'm a big believer in keeping things simple, so we built our entire innovation funnel using Notion, a tool already familiar to our team. Here's a quick breakdown of the key phases, including our new Fast Track lane:
- Idea Phase: This is the open forum where anyone can submit ideas, big or small. We categorize them as "proposals" (brand new ideas) or "requests" (improvements to existing features).
- Feasibility: Our cross-functional committee (think founders, devs, growth hackers) takes a closer look at each idea. They evaluate alignment with our vision, resource requirements, and a cost-benefit analysis. Only the strongest contenders make it to the next stage.
- Development: Once an idea gets the green light, the product and development teams take the reins. They create detailed plans, break the project down into sprints, and get ready to bring the idea to life.
- Launch: This is the final decision point. The committee reviews the completed project and decides whether to launch it to the world.
- Fast Track: This is the VIP lane for ideas that are critical to user experience and have the potential for high impact. These ideas bypass the funnel and go straight to development after being validated by a limited group of decision-makers (think founders and key stakeholders).
The Power of GPT: More Than Just Brainstorming
The innovation funnel isn't just about filtering ideas; it's about streamlining the entire process. That's where our GPT comes in. This handy tool, trained specifically for our innovation funnel, can answer team member questions about the process, help them refine their proposals, and even provide a little creative spark during brainstorming sessions. You can also use our Innovation Funnel Manager for free, if you have ChatGPT Plus.
Conclusion: Innovation That Scales
Look, this innovation funnel is a work in progress. What works for Adsby might need some tweaks for your specific startup. The key takeaway here is finding the sweet spot between the raw energy of a startup and the structure you need to grow sustainably.
So, tell me your secrets! How do you manage innovation in your own startups? What systems, hacks, or lessons learned can you share?
Or roast my startup, Adsby. I'd love to hear your feedback and build it together.
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I worked at a startup where we used a similar innovation funnel. I agree that it provides structure, clarity to everyone and sense of control to management. However, there was one big drawback - lack of customer insight and validation.
Nowadays, successful innovation is most often built together with customers - analyzing their needs, quickly testing concepts, and iterating on feedback. This approach helps startups adapt to changing needs and avoid spending huge resources on building a product that nobody needs.
That's where our startup struggled. We built interesting products using a similar funnel, but once they were ready - the market wasn't that interested and expected something different.
It seems that your funnel also collects customer insight only when launching the product. Is that correct?
How do you deal with the risk of building products that don't satisfy customer needs?
After all, even the most experienced internal experts aren't your customers, so their perspective is flawed. Curious to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for sharing your insights! You raise an excellent point about the importance of early customer validation. You're right – ideally, that should be integrated into the feasibility phase, and it's something we're actively working toward as we scale.
Right now, we're admittedly resource-constrained for dedicated customer research initiatives. However, here's how we're mitigating the risk in the meantime:
You're absolutely correct though, even with the best intentions, internal perspective is limited. I'd be curious to hear how you've successfully integrated customer validation into your startup's innovation process. Any tips or best practices you're willing to share would be greatly appreciated!
These are good approaches for incorporating user perspective with constrained resources, so I'm glad you're doing it!
I wouldn't say that we've found a successful way to do innovation at a larger startup. However, doing regular check-ins with customers throughout development helped a lot. For example, regular user interviews to understand their needs, concept testing with mockups, and creating simple MVPs before creating a fully-fledged product.
Good luck with your process! It is a difficult challenge after all