Innovation Program Canvas

What This Canvas Covers

The Innovation Program Canvas helps you design programs that avoid the most common failure modes: unclear objectives, mismatched formats, and no path to implementation.

The Nine Building Blocks

1. Strategic Intent

What business outcome are we trying to achieve? Be specific. "Be more innovative" is not a strategy.

2. Success Metrics

How will we know if this worked? Define leading indicators (participation, ideas generated) AND lagging indicators (ventures launched, revenue impact).

3. Target Participants

Who needs to be involved? Internal employees, external startups, partners? What skills and perspectives do we need?

4. Program Format

Hackathon, accelerator, venture studio, open innovation? Match the format to your goals and timeline.

5. Timeline & Phases

What's the overall duration? What happens in each phase? Where are the decision gates?

6. Resource Commitment

Budget, dedicated team time, executive sponsorship. What are we actually willing to invest?

7. Selection Criteria

How will we choose which ideas/teams to advance? What does "good" look like?

8. Implementation Path

What happens to winning ideas? Who owns follow-up? What resources are available?

9. Governance

Who makes decisions? How do we handle conflicts between innovation goals and business-as-usual?

How to Use This Canvas

1. Fill out each section honestly

2. Identify gaps and inconsistencies

3. Pressure-test with stakeholders

4. Iterate before launching

The biggest value often comes from the conversations this canvas forces you to have before committing resources.