Innovation Pipeline Desk / How to measure an innovation pipeline
GUIDE FOR INNOVATION LEADERS
How to Measure an Innovation Pipeline: Six Numbers to Count Every Month
The board asks how the innovation program is doing. The honest answer is a list of workshops and a slide of logos, because nobody has been counting what moved.
A pipeline is measured the way a sales pipeline is: by what moves between stages and what comes out the far end. These six numbers come straight from a board with one row per candidate.
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The six numbers
Count these every month
Each number is counted from a board with one row per candidate, a stage, an owner and a date. If you cannot count one of them, that is the first finding.
- Candidates by stage: scouted, screened, briefed, in pilot, contracted, killed.
- Days in stage: how long each candidate has sat where it is. Old rows are stuck decisions.
- Owner coverage: the share of problem statements with a named business owner.
- Pilots started this month, each with a success test and a kill date.
- Pilots killed on or before their kill date. A pilot killed on time is a working pipeline, not a failure.
- Pilots turned into contracts or production budgets.
What not to count
Activity is not a pipeline
Workshops held, startups met and ideas submitted show effort, not output. Count them if you like, but report them apart from the six numbers above so the board sees what moved.
How the desk reports it
The monthly Pipeline Report
On the Pipeline Run, the desk sends these six numbers every month from your own board, plus every miss against the Screen Rulebook. The Health Check counts what it can from the list you already have.
Straight answers
Questions this guide answers.
- What is the most important innovation pipeline metric?
- Pilots turned into contracts or production budgets, because it is the output the mandate exists for. Read it alongside pilots started and killed, so a small number is explained rather than hidden.
- How often should an innovation pipeline be reported?
- Monthly to the innovation lead and quarterly to the board. Monthly is often enough to spot rows stuck in a stage while there is still time to act.
- Is a high kill rate bad?
- No. Pilots killed on or before their kill date mean the success tests are real. A pipeline that never kills anything usually has no kill dates.
Start with one mandate
Request a Pipeline Health Check.
The Health Check report is yours to keep whether or not you go further. Sign the Sprint within 30 days of the report and the $2,500 comes off the Sprint in full.
Health Check $2,500. Pipeline Sprint $12,000. Then $3,500 a month.
The Health Check is a fixed price, returned 10 business days after the kickoff call. The Sprint runs six weeks. The Run is month to month with 30 days notice, and covers 10 new scored candidates a month, board upkeep and the monthly report.