What is an innovation pipeline?
An innovation pipeline is a business framework that helps companies achieve their goals by incorporating innovative methods and processes. It covers discovery, prioritization, consumer validation, and delivery, giving teams a repeatable process to manage innovation from end to end.
Why You Need an Innovation Pipeline
Without structure, innovation often feels random—some hits, many misses. Even established brands get it wrong. An innovation pipeline reduces that risk. By systematically sourcing ideas, testing them, and roadmapping launches, you increase the odds of shipping products and services that stick.
How to create an innovation pipeline in 7 steps
Step 1. Understand different types of portfolio innovation:
Before a business dives into the innovation process, every team needs to understand all the different types of innovation. McKinsey identifies four types of innovations that any innovator needs to know:
- Line extension is the safest option for brands that want to innovate within the existing category by developing a variation of a product or service (e.g. different flavours of Oreo cookies).
- Innovation expansion is when a business creates a new product within current categories or markets (e.g. when Quakers entered the plant-based milk space).
- Disruptive innovation occurs when a brand launches innovation in a new market (e.g. Ubers and Airbnb’s of the category)
- Renovation is when a brand improves its product, packaging or positioning (e.g. when Frito Lay reduced the amount of saturated fats in their potato chip brands by switching to sunflower oil).
Assign success metrics (trial, incrementality, velocity, margin) to each type before you start. This aligns expectations and resources.
Step 2. Brainstorm ideas to fill your innovation pipeline
Great ideas rarely come from one place. Fill your pipeline with inputs from:
- Consumer data
Some of the ways you can gather valuable consumer insights include conducting customer surveys, running interviews with focus groups, or looking up past internal consumer data. Companies can go as far as involving their target audience in the brainstorming process, just like Lay’s did when they were looking for more flavour ideas for their potato chips.
- Past successes and failures
Build off ideas that both did well and not so well in your tests. Drucker notes that oftentimes, failures can become great innovation opportunities because they can open up new pathways (even if the initial attempt didn’t succeed).
For example, James Dyson tested 5,271 prototypes before he finally created his first vacuum cleaner and launched his own company in 1993, which became a worldwide sensation. His journey shows that coming back to old ideas and finding ways to improve them can help your business launch something remarkable.
- Employees
Your employees know your product and industry the best, so they can be a great source of idea generation. Encourage them to submit proposals by conducting interviews, setting up brainstorming sessions or even launching a company-wide innovation initiative.
- Suppliers and business partners
Partners and suppliers that have been collaborating with the brand for a long time are very qualified to contribute to the innovation efforts; they’re likely most familiar with your business’s long-term strategy and goals.
- Market trends
The market changes regularly, and it’s essential to have your finger on the pulse to predict what’s going to happen next. Whether it’s a major global event like the pandemic or incremental trends like the gradual adoption of plant-based food products, being aware of what’s happening in the industry will help you tailor your innovations to suit the landscape.
- Competitive research
Have a look at your competition. Is there a new product they’ve just launched? Are they entering new markets? Is there an innovative startup that is approaching the sector differently? Competitor research will help you answer those questions.
Step 3. Collect and sort ideas
Once you have a list, rank them against consistent criteria. That criteria can related to things like:
- The impact of the idea on the market or customer behaviour
- The feasibility of producing the idea
- The time and money required to produce the idea
- How new and different the idea is, as compared to the market
It’s also useful at this point to rely on a foundational piece of research to cross-examine the potential of your idea(s). If you’ve recently run a usage and attitudes (U&A) study, you’ll have that to rely on. If not, try to get your hands on quantifiable data that speaks to the size of the prize or your target audience’s motivations, preferences, and behaviours.
Step 4. Screen and prioritize ideas
At this stage, your goal is to separate the strong ideas from the weak ones before investing too much time or budget.
Idea screening involves testing multiple concepts side-by-side with consumers to see which ones rise to the top. Unlike simple scoring frameworks, this stage gives you direct evidence of consumer preference and helps you uncover which attributes matter most.
Questions you might explore include:
- Which ideas win in head-to-head comparisons?
- What features or benefits drive appeal?
- Which ideas show low risk of rejection in-market?
By eliminating weaker concepts early, you reduce risk, save money, and speed up the development process.
Step 5. Produce full concepts and test with consumers
Once you’ve narrowed your shortlist, it’s time to turn these ideas into full-fledged concepts in market-realistic form. This means developing concepts that reflect what consumers would actually see on-shelf or online:
- Product visuals and pack mock-ups
- Clear reasons-to-believe (RTBs)
- Price cues and claims
Testing at this stage should measure:
- Appeal and uniqueness: Does it stand out?
- Relevance: Does it solve a real consumer need?
- Purchase intent: Would people buy it at your target price?
- Source of volume: Is it incremental, or does it cannibalize existing products?
The closer your test materials are to real life, the more predictive your validation will be.
Step 6. Build the innovation roadmap
Now that you know which concepts have legs, it’s time to turn them into a quarter-by-quarter roadmap.
An effective innovation roadmap includes:
- Launch sequencing: What comes first, what follows later?
- Ownership: Who is accountable for each project?
- Resources & budget: How much time and funding is allocated?
- KPIs & gates: Clear benchmarks for moving forward—or killing a project.
Step 7. Launch and learn
The pipeline doesn’t end at launch, it loops back into discovery.
Track post-launch performance metrics such as:
- Trial and repeat rates
- Incremental revenue
- Market share shift
- ROI on R&D investment
More importantly, capture feedback from consumers and retail partners. Did the product deliver on expectations? Are there opportunities to optimize claims, pack sizes, or distribution?
To sum up
Building an innovation pipeline isn’t about finding one big idea but creating a repeatable system. Start with foresight, source broadly, score fairly, test fast with real consumers, and roadmap winners with discipline. Do this consistently, and you’ll reduce risk, speed up launches, and maximize the impact of every innovation.