Tag Archives: innovation maturity

How Mature is Your Technology?

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

As a technologist it’s important to know the maturity of a technology. Like people, technologies are born, they become children, then adolescents, then adults and then they die. And like with people, the character and behavior of technologies change as they grown and age. A fledgling technology may have a lot of potential, but it can’t pay the mortgage until it matures. To know a technologies level of maturity is to know when it’s premature to invest, to know when it’s time to invest, to know when to ride it for all it’s worth and time to let it go.

Google has a tool called Ngram Viewer that performs keyword searches of a vast library of books and returns a plot of how frequently the word was found in the books. Just type the word in the search line, specify the years (1800-2007) and look at the graph.

Below is a graph I created for three words: locomotive, automobile and airplane. (Link to graph.) If each word is assumed to represent a technology, the graph makes it clear when authors started to write about the technologies (left is earliest) and how frequently it was used (taller is more prevalent). As a technology, locomotives came first, as they were mentioned in books as early as 1800. Next came the automobile which hit the books just before 1900. And then came the airplane which first showed itself in about 1915.

Google Ngram graph 1

In the 1820s the locomotives were infants. They were slow, inefficient and unreliable. But over time they matured and replaced the Pony Express. In the late 1890s the automobiles were also infants and also slow, inefficient and unreliable. But as they matured, they displaced some of the locomotives. And the airplanes of 1915 were unsafe and barely flight-worthy. But over time they matured and displaced the automobiles for the longest trips.

[Side note – the blip in use of the word in 1940s is probably linked to World War II.]

But for the locomotive, there’s a story with a story. Below is a graph I created for: steam locomotive, diesel locomotive and electric locomotive. After it matured in the 1840s and became faster and more efficient, the steam locomotive displaced the wagon trains. But, as technology likes to do, the electric locomotive matured several decades after it’s birth in 1880 and displaced it’s technological parent the steam locomotive. There was no smoke with the electric locomotive (city applications) and it did not need to stop to replenish it’s coal and water. And then, because turn-about is fair play, the diesel locomotive displaced some of the electric locomotives.

Google Ngram graph 2

The Ngram Viewer tool isn’t used for technology development because books are published long after the initial technology development is completed and there is no data after 20o7. But, it provides a good example of how new technologies emerge in society and how they grow and displace each other.

To assess the maturity of the youngest technologies, technologists perform similar time-based analyses but on different data sets. Specialized tools are used to make similar graphs for patents, where infant technologies become public when they’re disclosed in the form of patents. Also, special tools are used to analyze the prevalence of keywords (i.e., locomotives) for scientific publications. The analysis is similar to the Ngram Viewer analysis, but the scientific publications describe the new technologies much sooner after their birth.

To know the maturity of the technology is to know when a technology has legs and when it’s time to invent it’s replacement. There’s nothing worse than trying to improve a mature technology like the diesel locomotive when you should be inventing the next generation Maglev train.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons, Google Ngram

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Importance of Measuring Your Organization’s Innovation Maturity

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Importance of Measuring Your Organization’s Innovation Maturity

by Braden Kelley

Is our organization a productive place for creating innovation? How does our organization’s innovation capability compare to that of other organizations?

Almost every organization wants to know the answers to these two questions.

The only way to get better at innovation, is to first define what innovation means. Your organization must have a common language of innovation before you can measure a baseline of innovation maturity and begin elevating both your innovation capacity and capabilities.

My first book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, was created to help organizations create a common language of innovation and to understand how to overcome the barriers to innovation.

The Innovation Maturity Assessment

One of the free tools I created for purchasers of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, and for the global innovation community, was an innovation maturity assessment with available instant scoring at http://innovation.help.

My 50 question innovation audit measures each individual’s view of the organization’s innovation maturity across a number of different areas, including: culture, process, funding, collaboration, communications, etc.

When multiple individuals at the same organization complete the questionnaire, it is then possible to form an organizational view of the organization’s level of innovation maturity.

Each of the 50 questions is scored from 0-4 using this scale of question agreement:

0 – None
1 – A Little
2 – Partially
3 – Often
4 – Fully

To generate an innovation maturity score that is translated to the innovation maturity model as follows:

000-100 = Level 1 – Reactive
101-130 = Level 2 – Structured
131-150 = Level 3 – In Control
151-180 = Level 4 – Internalized
181-200 = Level 5 – Continuously Improving

Innovation Maturity Model

Image adapted from the book Innovation Tournaments by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich

Innovation Maturity is Organization-Specific

The best way to understand the innovation maturity of your organization is to have a cross-functional group of individuals across your organization fill out the assessment and then collate and analyze the submissions. This allows us to make sense of the responses and to make recommendations of how the organization could evolve itself for the better. I do offer this as a service at http://innovation.help.

What Do the Numbers Say About the Average Level of Innovation Maturity?

To date, the innovation maturity assessment web application at http://innovation.help has gathered about 400 seemingly valid responses across a range of industries, geographies, organizations and job roles.

The average innovation maturity score to date is 102.91.

This places the current mean innovation maturity score at the border between Level 1 (Reactive) and Level 2 (Structured). This is not surprising.
Looking across the fifty (50) questions, the five HIGHEST scoring questions/statements are:

We are constantly looking to improve as an organization (3.12)
I know how to submit an innovation idea (2.83)
Innovation is part of my job (2.81)
It is okay to fail once in a while (2.74)
Innovation is one of our core values (2.71)

The scores indicate that the typical level of agreement with the statements is “often” but not “always.”

Looking across the fifty (50) questions, the five LOWEST scoring questions/statements are:

Six sigma is well understood and widely distributed in our organization (1.74)
We have a web site for submitting innovation ideas (1.77)
There is more than one funding source available for innovation ideas (1.79)
We have a process for killing innovation projects (1.82)
We are considered the partner of first resort for innovation ideas (1.83)

The scores indicate that the typical level of agreement with the statements is “partially.”

What does this tell us about the state of innovation maturity in the average organization?

The numbers gathered so far indicate that the state of innovation maturity in the average organization is low, nearly falling into the lowest level. This means that on average, our organizations are focused on growth, but often innovate defensively, in response to external shocks. Many organizations rely on individual, heroic action, lacking formal processes and coordinated approaches to innovation. But, organizations are trending towards greater prioritization of innovation by senior management, an introduction of dedicated resources and a more formal approach.

The highest scoring questions tell us that our organizations are still in the process of embedding a continuous improvement mindset. We also see signs that many people view innovation as a part of their job, regardless of whether they fill an innovation role. Often, people know how to submit an innovation idea. And, we can infer that an increasing number of organizations are becoming more comfortable with the notion of productive failure, and communicating the importance of innovation across the organization.

Finally, the lowest scoring questions show us that process improvement methodologies like six sigma haven’t penetrated as many organizations as one might think. This means that many organizations lack the experience of having already spread a shared improvement methodology across the organization, making the spread of an innovation language and methodologies a little more difficult. We also see an interesting disconnect around idea submission in the high and low scoring questions that seems to indicate that many organizations are using off-line idea submission. Zombie projects appear to be a problem for the average organization, along with getting innovation ideas funded as they emerge. And, many organizations struggle to engage partners across their value and supply chains in their innovation efforts.

Conclusion

While it is interesting to look at how your organization might compare to a broader average, it is often less actionable than creating that deeper understanding and analysis of the situation within your unique organization.

But no matter where your organization might lie now on the continuum of innovation maturity, it is important to see how many variables must be managed and influenced to build enhanced innovation capabilities. It is also important to understand the areas where your organization faces unique challenges compared to others – even in comparing different sites and/or functions within the same organization.

Creating a baseline and taking periodic measurements is crucial if you are serious about making progress in your level of innovation maturity. Make your own measurement and learn how to measure your organization’s innovation maturity more deeply at http://innovation.help.

No matter what level of innovation maturity your organization possesses today, by building a common language of innovation and by consciously working to improve across your greatest areas of opportunity, you can always increase your ability to achieve your innovation vision, strategy and goals.

Keep innovating!

This article originally appeared on the Edison365 Blog

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Start 2021 with a Free Innovation Audit

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Free Innovation Audit Now in Portuguese or English

Are you struggling to identify why your innovation efforts are failing to achieve their desired results?

Identify your areas of opportunity with my FREE 50 question audit in one of two ways:

1. Get immediate feedback with the online version

2. Download the Microsoft Excel worksheet (in English or Portuguese)

have people across your organization fill it out and collate your results
OR purchase the Innovation Diagnostic Service for my help setting up a study and analyzing results

The innovation audit is most powerful when answers are gathered at multiple levels of the organization across several groups and several sites.

I created my FREE Innovation Audit for buyers of my first book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, but it’s now available for global use.

NOTE: If you’d like to translate the audit into another language, please contact me.

In addition to helping you identify areas of potential improvement and the strengths/weaknesses of your innovation culture, it will also help you see your level of innovation maturity.

Innovation Maturity Model

Image adapted from the book Innovation Tournaments by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich

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The Innovation Resilience Maturity Model

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LAST UPDATED: April 24, 2026 at 3:13 PM

The Innovation Resilience Maturity Model

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

I. Introduction: Why Resilience is the New Efficiency

In the modern corporate landscape, innovation is often treated as a fair-weather luxury. When the economy is booming and budgets are flush, organizations invest heavily in “labs,” “incubators,” and “moonshot” projects. However, the moment market volatility strikes or a quarterly earnings miss occurs, these initiatives are frequently the first to be dismantled. This represents a fundamental misunderstanding of innovation’s role in a sustainable enterprise.

The Fragility of Innovation

Most organizations suffer from “Accidental Innovation“ — a state where progress is dependent on individual heroics, specific charismatic leaders, or temporary surplus capital. This fragility creates a “stop-start” cycle that destroys institutional knowledge, demoralizes top talent, and ensures that the organization is always reacting to the future rather than shaping it.

Defining Innovation Resilience

Innovation Resilience is the systemic ability of an organization to maintain its innovation velocity, quality, and impact regardless of internal or external shocks. It is the shift from innovation as a department to innovation as a durable capability. A resilient system doesn’t just survive a crisis; it leverages the pressure to accelerate necessary change.

The Thesis: A Systemic Approach

The Innovation Resilience Maturity Model (IRMM) provides a roadmap for this transformation. By moving away from episodic projects and toward a measured, matured capability, leaders can ensure that their organization remains “future-ready.” We must stop asking how much innovation costs and start measuring how much resilience it provides to the total business ecosystem.

II. The Five Pillars of the IRMM

To build an innovation engine that doesn’t stall during a downturn, we must move beyond surface-level aesthetics and focus on five foundational pillars. These dimensions determine the structural integrity of your innovation capability.

1. Strategy & Alignment

Innovation cannot exist as a “side-car” to the business; it must be the engine. Resilient organizations align their innovation portfolio directly with their long-term strategic intent. When innovation is seen as the primary vehicle for achieving corporate goals, it becomes indispensable rather than optional.

2. Culture & Mindset

A resilient culture is built on Psychological Safety and Cognitive Diversity. It requires an environment where failure is viewed as a data point in a larger experiment. Without a mindset that embraces uncertainty, the organization will naturally retreat to the “safe” status quo the moment pressure increases.

3. Process & Governance

Rigid, bureaucratic stage-gate processes are the enemy of resilience. Resilient organizations utilize fluid, data-driven experimental loops that allow for rapid pivoting. Governance should focus on enabling speed and removing friction, rather than acting as a barrier to entry for new ideas.

4. Resource Persistence

Resilience is measured by how talent and funding are protected during lean cycles. This involves creating “protected” innovation budgets or utilizing flexible resource models that allow the organization to scale efforts up or down without losing core institutional knowledge or momentum.

5. Ecosystem Connectivity

No organization is an island. A resilient model leverages a broad network of external partners, startups, academic institutions, and customers. By distributing the “innovation load” across an ecosystem, the organization can share risks, reduce costs, and maintain a pulse on external market shifts.

III. The Maturity Levels: From Reactive to Regenerative

To evolve your organization, you must first identify your current baseline. The Innovation Resilience Maturity Model (IRMM) categorizes organizations into five distinct levels, each defined by how they respond to stress and uncertainty.

Level 1: Reactive (The “Ad-Hoc” Stage)

At this initial level, innovation is sporadic and often chaotic. It is typically driven by a single visionary leader or “hero” within the company. Because there is no formal system, innovation is entirely dependent on the presence of these individuals and the availability of excess time or capital.

Resilience Factor: Extremely Low. If the champion leaves or a budget cut occurs, the innovation “flame” is immediately extinguished.

Level 2: Defined (The “Siloed” Stage)

The organization has recognized the need for innovation and has created dedicated roles or a separate “Innovation Lab.” However, these teams often operate in a vacuum, disconnected from the core business units and the daily P&L realities.

Resilience Factor: Moderate. While the function is documented, it is viewed as an “extra” and is often the first target for cost-cutting during corporate restructuring.

Level 3: Integrated (The “Connected” Stage)

Innovation is no longer a separate island. It is integrated into the business units, with metrics tied directly to departmental KPIs. There is a common language and set of tools (like the Eight I’s of Infinite Innovation) used across the company.

Resilience Factor: High. Because innovation is solving immediate, tangible business problems, it is seen as a vital tool for survival and growth.

Level 4: Strategic (The “Adaptive” Stage)

At Level 4, the organization utilizes strategic foresight and futurology to anticipate market shifts. Innovation is not just about the “now,” but about the “next.” The organization has a “Stable Spine” of operations that allows the rest of the company to be highly flexible and adaptive.

Resilience Factor: Very High. The organization doesn’t just react to change; it pivots ahead of the curve, turning potential disruptions into competitive advantages.

Level 5: Regenerative (The “Antifragile” Stage)

This is the pinnacle of the IRMM. The organization is built to disrupt itself. Innovation is decentralized and embedded in the DNA of every employee. It is a “human-centered” system where everyone is empowered to identify signals of change and act upon them.

Resilience Factor: Absolute. Much like a biological organism, the system actually gains strength and intelligence from stressors and volatility.

IV. Moving Up the Curve: Key Transition Strategies

Scaling the maturity curve is not about doing more of the same; it is about fundamentally changing how the organization perceives risk, value, and human potential. To move from one level to the next, leadership must apply specific surgical interventions.

From Level 1 to 2: Formalizing the Foundation

The leap from Reactive to Defined requires moving away from “hero-based” innovation. Organizations must document tribal knowledge and establish a repeatable “Idea-to-Value” workflow. By creating a common language and visible pipeline, innovation transitions from a mystery to a manageable business process.

From Level 2 to 3: Breaking the Silos

To move from Defined to Integrated, the “Innovation Lab” must lower its walls. This involves solving the “Not Invented Here” syndrome by involving business unit leaders in the ideation phase. The goal is to align innovation projects with actual P&L pressures, ensuring that the work being done is relevant to those who have to scale it.

From Level 3 to 4: Embracing Foresight

Strategic maturity requires a shift from looking at the dashboard to looking through the windshield. Organizations should implement FutureHacking™ methodologies, empowering employees to identify “weak signals” in the market. By integrating futurology into the strategic planning cycle, the organization builds the muscle to pivot before a crisis necessitates it.

From Level 4 to 5: Cultivating the Regenerative DNA

Reaching the pinnacle of maturity requires a commitment to Human-Centered Design at scale. This means decentralizing innovation so that it is no longer a “task” but a “mindset” held by every employee. At this stage, the organization focuses on Experience Level Measures (XLMs) over traditional metrics, ensuring that the company evolves in lockstep with the human needs of its customers and workforce.

The Transformation Principle: Maturity isn’t about the size of the innovation budget; it’s about the depth of the innovation integration.

V. Conclusion: The Future-Proof Organization

Building innovation resilience is not a one-time project or a seasonal initiative; it is the ultimate insurance policy for the modern enterprise. As we have explored through the Innovation Resilience Maturity Model (IRMM), the transition from a reactive posture to a regenerative one requires more than just capital — it requires a fundamental shift in how we value human potential and organizational agility.

The Call to Action: Audit Your Maturity

The first step toward resilience is a radical, honest assessment of where you stand today. Are you dependent on a “Stable Spine” that allows for flexibility, or is your organization so rigid that it cracks under pressure? Leaders must audit their current maturity level, identifying the gaps in strategy, culture, and process that leave their innovation efforts vulnerable to the next market contraction.

The Bottom Line

In an era defined by exponential change and AI-driven disruption, resilience is no longer just about surviving — it is the only way to lead. Organizations that treat innovation as a fair-weather luxury will inevitably be outpaced by those that have integrated it into their DNA. By focusing on human-centered design and systemic durability, you ensure that your organization doesn’t just withstand the future, but actively creates it.

Key Takeaway: Innovation resilience is achieved when the cost of not innovating is finally perceived as higher than the risk of the experiment itself.

It’s time to stop building fragile labs and start building resilient futures.

Bonus: Are You Innovation Resilient?

Understanding the Innovation Resilience Maturity Model is the first step, but knowing exactly where your organization sits on that curve is where the real transformation begins. Most leaders guess at their maturity; the best leaders measure it.

Take the Free Innovation Maturity Assessment

I have developed a rigorous Innovation Audit designed to help you move past “accidental innovation.” This diagnostic tool features fifty targeted questions specifically designed to pinpoint exactly where your group or organization stands and identifies the “revenue leakage” in your current innovation pipeline.

By taking this assessment, you will:

Identify which of the Five Pillars of Resilience need immediate attention.
Discover if your innovation efforts are truly integrated or merely siloed.
Receive a baseline to begin your journey toward a Level 5 Regenerative state.

Start Your Free Innovation Audit

Stop guessing. Start measuring. Let’s build your “Stable Spine” together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes an innovation model “resilient”?

Innovation resilience is the ability of an organization to maintain its innovation velocity and impact despite external market volatility or internal leadership changes. It moves innovation from a “luxury project” to a durable, systemic capability embedded in the company’s operational DNA.

How do I know which maturity level my organization is at?

Maturity is measured across five pillars: Strategy, Culture, Process, Resource Persistence, and Ecosystem Connectivity. Level 1 organizations are reactive and hero-dependent, while Level 5 organizations are “antifragile,” meaning they actually gain strength and market share during periods of stress.

Why is Human-Centered Design critical for maturity?

To reach higher maturity levels, innovation must move beyond technical metrics to human outcomes. By focusing on Experience Level Measures (XLMs), organizations ensure their innovation efforts are solving real human problems, which creates deeper loyalty and more sustainable value than purely technical service levels.

Image credit: Google Gemini

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What is your level of Innovation Maturity?

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Innovation Maturity Introduction

When it comes to innovation, no two companies are likely to be pursuing innovation in the same way, and they are also likely to be at different stages of innovation maturity. Because of this, even if you found out what your competitor’s innovation strategy was, it would be of no use to you. It is necessary for an innovation strategy to be tailored to your organization’s level of innovation maturity, your corporate strategy, and your innovation vision.

Free Innovation Maturity Assessment An organization’s innovation maturity level is important because you must ﬁrst master a certain set of basic innovation capabilities before implementing more advanced innovation approaches into your strategy. For example, an organization just getting started on their innovation journey would be foolish to try and implement open innovation in their organization. Every organization should get their idea generation (including evolution), idea evaluation, and idea commercialization policies and processes working well with their employees ﬁrst before opening themselves up to the outside world. Your organization’s innovation strategy must be appropriate to your level of innovation maturity for your innovation efforts to be successful.

I developed the graphic below to explain the different levels of innovation maturity based on some thinking from Wharton professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl T. Ulrich, and I think it allows executives to determine at a glance where their organization is across the spectrum. I hope you ﬁnd it useful.

Free Innovation Maturity Assessment

To help people evaluate their level of innovation maturity against the above graphic, I am sharing the 50 question innovation maturity assessment I use with clients. The assessment is most powerful when answers are gathered at multiple levels of the organization across several groups and several sites, but you can also fill it out yourself and get instant feedback – for FREE.

To get even more out of the innovation maturity assessment, for a nominal fee, I can help you organize a multiple group and/or multiple physical location survey of people in the organization to capture not just your level of innovation maturity, but also to provide preliminary innovation diagnostics on the areas of innovation challenge and opportunity in your organization.

I can set up a research study to capture a baseline innovation maturity level and analyze the data to unlock insights about the relative health of your innovation efforts. For a limited time, I will provide this service for the special introductory price of $499.99.

Click here to purchase the innovation diagnostic service
(Get help using the innovation maturity assessment across multiple sites and job functions and analyzing the results)

Innovation Maturity Model

Innovation Maturity Assessment Scoring Key (showing level of maturity)

Point totals are translated to the innovation maturity model as follows:

000-100 = Level 1 – Reactive
101-130 = Level 2 – Structured
131-150 = Level 3 – In Control
151-180 = Level 4 – Internalized
181-200 = Level 5 – Continuously Improving

Click here to access the Innovation Maturity Assessment

Innovation Maturity Assessment Instructions

1. Read each statement and determine how much you agree with each one, using this scale:

0 – None
1 – A Little
2 – Partially
3 – Often
4 – Fully

2. Select the answer for each question that is most appropriate.

The form will score the innovation maturity assessment and return a result to you via email along with the SCORING KEY and the Innovation Maturity Model graphic. Store the result as a baseline and come back annually and re-take the assessment to measure your progress!

Click here to access the Innovation Maturity Assessment

Click here to purchase the innovation diagnostic service
(Get help using the innovation maturity assessment across multiple sites and job functions and analyzing the results)

* Graphic adapted from the book Innovation Tournaments by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich

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