Ideation, Prototyping & Pilots

Counter-Intelligence: Lessons from Whirlpool’s WLabs

Racing the Calendar: Inside New Balance’s Test Run Project

How TeakOrigin Survived the Death of Two Innovation Labs

All Your Innovation Questions, Answered

Learnings From the Sudden Death of the World’s First Social Robot

Counter-Intelligence: Lessons from Whirlpool’s WLabs
Racing the Calendar: Inside New Balance’s Test Run Project
How TeakOrigin Survived the Death of Two Innovation Labs
All Your Innovation Questions, Answered
Learnings From the Sudden Death of the World’s First Social Robot

If asked where ideas come from and how they’re prototyped, most companies would admit that at least two of these are true:

Too few people in the organization are invited to come up with ideas.
The standards for evaluating ideas are inconsistent, or overly political.
Working with startups oroutside firms to explore high-potential possibilities.
It takes too long to build a prototype that can be tested with customers.

Our coverage of ideation and prototyping focuses on how companies are inviting employees to develop ideas, sifting those ideas for the best ones, and getting to MVP.

Articles & Case Studies

‘If This Works’: The Secret to Avoiding Projects that Become Too Big to Fail

A common mistake when companies try to become more accepting of failure and to act like a startup is that the effort becomes “too enterprise-y.” Zeeshan Sheikh explains…

Six Tips From Google on Implementing AI

During a talk at MIT, Rajen Sheth, Product Manager for Google Cloud, outlined the six lessons he’s learned while implementing AI at Google and other companies.

Chick-fil-A’s Hatch Innovation Center & the Future of Fast-Food

Innovators throughout Chick-fil-A gather at Hatch — the company’s hub for innovation — to solve common problems in the business. Get insights from the initative…

How Coca-Cola Created the Soda Fountain of the Future

The inside story how how a skunkworks team of Coca-Cola engineers created the Freestyle soda fountain back in 2007 — and what they’re working on and imporving for the second iteration.

Revera Senior Living on Tackling the Challenges of Aging Collaboratively

From involving residents to running internal idea challenges to partnering with young tech companies, Revera Senior Living seeks to innovate aging collaboratively.

‘Office of New Urban Mechanics’ Nudges City Gov to Take Risks

Boston’s Office of New Urban Mechanics is a civic innovation incubator and R&D lab. It’s also the city’s “risk team, the failure team,” says co-founder Nigel Jacob.