Innovation Challenge

Innovation Challenge: from clear idea to tangible result

How do you truly unlock the innovative power of your employees? With our Innovation Challenge, you turn innovation from a mere ‘buzzword’ into a hands-on competition in which teams of colleagues develop, prototype, and pitch new concepts together. Below, you’ll find a step-by-step overview of our process.

Our experts guide this entire journey from A to Z, ensuring you can rest assured. As always, we deliberately opt for a structured, repeatable process with proven effectiveness.

1. Define the innovation brief together

Every successful program starts with a clear focus. Working closely with the sponsor or core team in your organization, we formulate a well-defined innovation challenge. This could involve improving a process, creating a new business model, reinventing the structure of the organization, developing a new product or service, or any other area where you’d like to see change.

2. Launch a call to the organization: form teams

Next, we issue an organization-wide call for employees to sign up in teams of four to six. This approach fosters cross-functional collaboration and ensures a diverse mix of skills. Whenever needed, we provide study materials or background information so that everyone can kick off with sufficient knowledge of the subject matter.

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Mega brainstorm

3. Mega brainstorm & concept development

The Innovation Challenge kicks off with a large-scale, structured brainstorming session. Our experienced facilitators guide the teams to:

  • Generate as many ideas as possible around the defined challenge.
  • Select the most promising proposals.
  • Develop these proposals into robust concepts aligned with your organization’s reality and customer or user needs.
4. Video presentations & online voting

All teams create a concise video pitch explaining their idea. These presentations are shared online within the organization, giving colleagues the opportunity to watch and cast their votes. This approach not only increases engagement but also ensures that the entire organization can weigh in on which proposals hold the most promise.

5. Jury selection & audience favorites

Based on the online voting, the ideas with the highest number of votes advance to the next round. In addition, a panel of experts or managers may be assembled to provide a professional perspective on the proposals. This ensures a balance between the popular crowd favorites and the ideas deemed by the jury to have the greatest potential.

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Prototyping workshop

6. From concept to (early) prototype

The selected teams move into a development phase. With professional guidance, they further refine their concepts into an early prototype, testing it with real users as soon as possible. By gathering feedback and learning directly from potential mistakes, the teams work toward an improved version that truly delivers added value.

7. Mini business case & professional pitch

Once the prototypes have proven their value, we help teams write up a mini business case:

  • Which costs and resources are required?
  • What is the potential impact of their solution?
  • How do you measure success?

We also coach participants to deliver their story in a clear and convincing professional pitch. Using the right structure, visuals, and storytelling, they make their idea irresistible to decision-makers.

8. Final jury & announcement of winners

In the final stage, the teams present their fully developed concepts to the jury. The jury evaluates them on criteria such as feasibility, market potential, and creativity. Ultimately, one (or more) winner(s) is chosen. The best ideas thus receive the green light and a springboard to truly be implemented in the organization.

Ready for your own Innovation Challenge?


By running this structured program, you ensure that employees’ ideas emerge naturally, the organization embraces them, and you can then accelerate and successfully implement them. In doing so, you not only create new solutions but also build a sustainable culture of innovation within your company.

Get in touch for more information. Together, we’ll see how our Innovation Challenge can boost and accelerate creativity in your organization.

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