The Top Business Innovation Tools & Templates Master Class

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Lead Successful Innovation Projects with Expert Tools, Templates & Tutorials

Innovation Process & Pitch Deck

Use these essential tool to guide your innovation process, helping you structure your approach from idea generation to execution, including “pitching” to investors, sponsors, and other stakeholders. Connect the rest of the innovation tools in the following sections to supercharge your work!

Design Thinking Toolkit

The Design Thinking Toolkit provides practical tools and frameworks to help organizations innovate, solve complex problems, and drive growth. It guides users through a structured process of empathizing with customers, generating creative ideas, prioritizing solutions, and prototyping for rapid learning. With templates for brainstorming, customer insights, prioritization, and rapid prototyping, this toolkit is designed to foster collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement in developing new products, services, and processes.

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Design Thinking Toolkit PowerPoint

Business Pitch Template

The Business Pitch Template in PowerPoint guides you through the key elements of building a robust innovation strategy, from defining problems and opportunities to outlining the business model, go-to-market approach, and financial projections. It also prompts critical thinking around competitive advantage, risk management, and measurable goals, making it ideal for aligning vision with actionable steps or pitching new initiatives to investors and stakeholders.

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Business Pitch Template - PowerPoint PPT Template

Innovation Strategy & Context Setting

Use these tools to help define your innovation strategy, clarify objectives, set the stage for a successful innovation project. These resources help frame your overall opportunity and align your team and key stakeholders.

70-20-10 Innovation Rule

The 70-20-10 framework balances innovation efforts by allocating 70% to core improvements, 20% to adjacent innovations, and 10% to disruptive ideas. Core innovation enhances existing products, adjacent innovation explores new markets, and disruptive innovation focuses on groundbreaking advancements. This structured approach reduces risk while ensuring steady business growth. It also applies to resource allocation, helping companies sustain current operations while investing in future opportunities.

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Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of comparing an organization’s performance to the best in the industry or to a company in another industry with high standards. It typically looks at key metrics like product quality, production costs, and time to produce. This method helps organizations identify areas for improvement and set performance goals based on industry leaders. It’s useful for staying competitive and improving efficiency.

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Context Map Canvas

A Context Map Canvas analyzes market trends, regulations, competition, and technology shifts to anticipate challenges and opportunities. It helps businesses identify external factors that impact success and adjust strategies accordingly. Key areas include demographics, economic conditions, and customer behaviors. By regularly updating the canvas, companies stay proactive and make informed strategic decisions.

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Discovery Driven Planning

Discovery Driven Planning is a tool used for planning new business ventures, especially when the future is uncertain. Unlike traditional planning, which focuses on clear goals and projections, this method helps businesses deal with unknowns and assumptions. It’s useful for start-ups or internal corporate projects where there are many variables, allowing companies to test ideas and adjust as they learn.

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Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive Innovation introduces new technologies or business models that make products more accessible and affordable. It often starts in niche markets before reshaping entire industries. Unlike sustaining innovations, which improve existing products, disruption creates entirely new value propositions. Startups lead most disruptions, while larger companies struggle to adopt them without cannibalizing their own products.

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S-Curve Mapping

S-Curve Mapping analyzes the life cycle of a product, service, or industry by plotting performance over time. It helps businesses assess their current market position and determine whether they are in a growth phase, maturity, or decline. The model consists of four key phases: Incubate, Scale, Maturity, and Discontinuity, guiding organizations on when to invest, pivot, or innovate. It also helps evaluate risks and opportunities for entering new markets or enhancing existing offerings. By understanding these phases, companies can make informed strategic decisions and sustain long-term growth.

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Outcome Driven Innovation

Outcome Driven Innovation focuses on fulfilling customer needs using measurable success criteria. It helps businesses refine products based on actual market demand. The process identifies hidden opportunities and aligns innovation efforts with customer-defined outcomes. This data-driven approach enhances competitiveness and customer satisfaction.

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Technology Life Cycle Model

The Technology Life Cycle Model tracks a technology’s progression from its introduction to its eventual decline. It aligns with the market adoption curve, moving through Early Adopters, Visionaries, Pragmatists, Conservatives, and Laggards. Understanding this cycle helps businesses time investments, plan for obsolescence, and develop new innovations to stay ahead. Companies can use this model to assess when to scale, improve, or replace existing technologies. By strategically managing technological transitions, businesses can maintain a competitive edge and optimize product longevity.

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White Space Innovation

White Space Innovation identifies opportunities beyond a company’s existing business model while staying aligned with its core values. It focuses on unmet needs that could be addressed by developing new products, services, or strategies. These opportunities require a different approach, as they exist outside current operations and revenue streams. Companies exploring White Space Innovation can unlock new markets, create disruptive offerings, and drive long-term growth. By embracing these untapped areas, businesses differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage.

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Innovation Process Step 1: Empathize

Use these tools to help you deeply understand customer needs, behaviors, and motivations, providing a human-centered foundation for identifying meaningful innovation opportunities.

Customer Empathy Interviews

Customer Empathy Interviews are open-ended conversations designed to uncover deep insights into a customer’s thoughts, emotions, and unmet needs. Unlike structured surveys, they encourage natural storytelling, allowing customers to share their experiences, frustrations, and motivations. The goal is to identify pain points and opportunities that can shape more user-centric products, services, or processes. Effective interviews involve active listening, open-ended questions, and observational cues such as body language and tone. By fostering a deeper understanding of customer needs, businesses can develop solutions that truly resonate and drive engagement.

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Customer Empathy Map

A Customer Empathy Map visualizes what customers say, think, feel, and do to provide a deeper understanding of their needs. It helps businesses align product development, marketing, and customer experience strategies. By stepping into the customer’s shoes, teams identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. This tool ensures user-centered innovation and enhances engagement.

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Customer Problem Statement

A Customer Problem Statement clearly defines an issue a project aims to solve. It ensures teams stay focused on addressing real customer pain points. By aligning all members on a shared objective, it minimizes misunderstandings and increases efficiency. A well-crafted statement improves the likelihood of developing effective, customer-driven solutions.

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Ethnographic Research

Ethnographic Research observes customer behaviors and needs to uncover deep insights. It goes beyond surveys by studying real-life interactions, revealing unmet needs and opportunities. This approach is crucial in design thinking, helping companies develop customer-driven solutions. Insights gained inform product development, marketing, and user experience improvements.

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Jobs to be Done

The Jobs to be Done tool prioritizes customer needs by identifying tasks they want to accomplish. Each job is scored based on importance and difficulty, helping businesses focus on high-value opportunities. It ensures innovation efforts align with real customer demands. Prioritizing these jobs leads to more impactful product improvements.

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Innovation Process Step 2: Ideate

Use these templates to generate creative ideas and explore new possibilities for products, services, and business models.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a creative method for generating ideas to solve problems or improve processes. It encourages diverse perspectives, strengthens teamwork, and fosters innovation in product development, marketing, and operations. The process is widely used in design thinking, Six Sigma, and strategic planning. By engaging employees at all levels, brainstorming promotes inclusive problem-solving and generates well-rounded, actionable ideas.

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Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing gathers ideas from a broad audience to drive innovation. It provides fresh perspectives and unexpected solutions that internal teams might overlook. Businesses use crowdsourcing to test new concepts, reduce risk, and align products with market needs. Engaging external stakeholders also fosters brand loyalty and customer participation in product development.

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PAINstorming

PAINstorming identifies industry pain points to drive targeted innovation. It focuses on solving real customer frustrations rather than generating random ideas. Teams analyze inefficiencies, recurring complaints, and unmet needs. This method ensures innovation efforts create meaningful value for both businesses and customers.

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SCAMPER

SCAMPER is a structured brainstorming tool used to enhance existing products, services, or processes and generate new innovations. The acronym stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse—each prompting questions that uncover opportunities for improvement. Teams systematically apply these prompts to refine ideas, explore creative solutions, and evaluate feasibility. SCAMPER fosters continuous improvement by encouraging broad idea generation, filtering for the most effective solutions, and driving innovation. This tool helps businesses remain competitive by identifying untapped opportunities and optimizing their offerings.

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Six Thinking & Listening Hats

Six Thinking Hats, also known as Listening Hats, is a problem-solving framework that encourages teams to evaluate ideas from different perspectives. Each hat represents a distinct way of thinking—such as logical, emotional, creative, or cautious—helping teams analyze solutions holistically. This method fosters balanced decision-making, allowing teams to identify opportunities, mitigate risks, and refine ideas before implementation. It is particularly effective in group settings but can also be used individually to improve critical thinking and innovation. By using this model, businesses enhance collaboration and make well-rounded strategic choices.

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Innovation Process Step 3: Prioritize

Use these templates to evaluate, prioritize, and select the most promising ideas based on strategic criteria.

Business Case

A Business Case evaluates an opportunity by defining objectives, analyzing financial metrics (NPV, IRR, payback period), and assessing strategic fit. It ensures businesses make informed investment decisions and align projects with long-term goals. The process involves gathering relevant data, calculating financial projections, and evaluating risks. This structured approach improves decision-making and enhances the chances of project success.

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Concept Screening

Concept Screening is a decision-making process used to evaluate multiple ideas and identify the most promising ones for further development. It involves ranking concepts based on predefined criteria such as feasibility, market potential, cost, and alignment with business goals. This structured approach helps filter out weaker ideas early, ensuring resources are focused on high-impact innovations. Teams use scoring models or comparison matrices to assess and refine concepts before investing in prototyping or testing. By systematically screening ideas, businesses reduce risk and accelerate the development of successful products or services.

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Innovation Roadmap

An Innovation Roadmap visually outlines key milestones and actions for achieving innovation goals. It ensures alignment across teams and tracks progress over time. By mapping out priorities and resources, businesses coordinate efforts efficiently. A well-structured roadmap accelerates execution and enhances strategic focus.

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Innovation Horizons Model

The Innovation Horizons Model balances current operations while investing in future innovations. It ensures companies adapt to market changes and avoid stagnation. The model outlines short-term optimization, mid-term expansion, and long-term transformation. By managing all horizons simultaneously, businesses sustain growth and competitiveness.

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Innovation Matrix

The Innovation Matrix assesses an organization’s ability to create and execute new ideas. It evaluates competence and commitment, identifying areas for improvement. Businesses use it to align innovation efforts with strategic goals. The matrix helps companies develop a culture of continuous improvement and sustained innovation.

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Innovation Portfolio Management

Innovation Portfolio Management is the process of prioritizing all potential products, services, business models, processes or other innovation opportunities using specific criteria. The tool provides a high-level view of potential investments, helping innovation managers prioritize based on factors like ROI, risk, and strategic alignment. This approach ensures that resources are used effectively and the right projects are executed short and longer-term. Use the tool to prioritize opportunities that will move into the next phase of the innovation process involving validation, testing, and refinement.

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Value Proposition Canvas

The Value Proposition Canvas helps businesses align their products or services with customer needs and expectations. It consists of two parts: the customer profile (jobs, gains, and pain points) and the value map (pain relievers, gain creators, and key product features). This tool helps refine offerings by identifying what customers truly value and addressing unmet needs. By mapping out expectations and potential frustrations, businesses can improve customer experience and market positioning. A well-crafted value proposition strengthens product-market fit and drives customer loyalty.

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Innovation Process Step 4: Experiment

Use these templates to test, validate, and refine ideas through iterative experimentation and learning.

Agile Innovation

Agile Innovation breaks projects into small, manageable tasks, enabling rapid adaptation to market changes. It emphasizes fast, cost-effective solutions tested through experimentation and iteration. The process involves identifying leadership, defining focus, making quick decisions, and implementing solutions with internal and external resources. This approach ensures alignment with business goals while fostering innovation in response to dynamic market conditions.

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Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop

The Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop is a process that helps turn uncertain ideas into valuable insights for improving products and business strategy. It involves three steps: building a prototype or idea, measuring its success, and learning from the results to refine the approach. This tool is useful for reducing risk and driving progress by making data-driven decisions. To use it effectively, organizations must first identify the area to improve and gather relevant data.

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Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas visually outlines key business elements, including value propositions, customers, finances, and partnerships. It provides a clear framework to design, refine, and pivot business strategies. Companies use it to assess opportunities, identify gaps, and ensure alignment with market needs. By mapping out key components, businesses can streamline operations and improve strategic decision-making.

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Concept Testing

Concept Testing evaluates consumer acceptance of a new product or idea before market launch. It involves presenting concepts to potential customers through qualitative (interviews) or quantitative (surveys) methods. The process helps refine features, assess feasibility, and compare market positioning. Effective concept testing minimizes risk by identifying customer needs and preferences before full-scale development.

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Crossing the Chasm

Crossing the Chasm addresses the gap between early adopters and mainstream customers when introducing innovations. Early adopters embrace new technology, while the majority waits for proven value. Success requires targeting the right market segments with tailored messaging and strategic positioning. By understanding customer adoption patterns, businesses can drive widespread product acceptance and scale effectively.

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Experiment Canvas

An Experiment Canvas structures tests for risky assumptions by outlining hypotheses, testing methods, and success metrics. It helps teams validate ideas before full-scale execution. The process involves identifying assumptions, conducting experiments, and analyzing results. This structured approach minimizes risk and ensures data-driven innovation decisions.

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Financial Modeling

Financial Modeling forecasts revenue, costs, and market growth to assess business viability. It helps companies evaluate pricing strategies, investment needs, and profitability over time. By projecting different scenarios, businesses can plan resources effectively. This structured approach ensures sustainable growth and strategic decision-making.

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Minimum Viable Product

A Minimum Viable Product is a basic product version with essential features to test customer interest. It minimizes risk by gathering early feedback before full-scale development. Real user interactions provide better insights than hypothetical surveys. The goal is to refine the product quickly based on validated learning.

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Rapid Prototyping

Rapid Prototyping quickly builds and tests models using CAD and 3D printing. It helps companies evaluate form, fit, and function before mass production. Early-stage testing reduces costs and accelerates product development. This approach enhances innovation by refining concepts based on user feedback.

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What They Say

Everything You Need for Innovation Success

Create and lead a successful innovation processes

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PowerPoint & Excel Template Library

Get unlimited downloadable, proven innovation templates, frameworks, and tools to build and lead a successful innovation strategy & project
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Access dozens of video lessons you can watch anytime, describing how to use all templates, plus overviews of strategy best practices, trends, innovation project management, and design thinking meeting facilitation.
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Get proven agendas and facilitator guides for leading innovation projects and innovation sessions, the same ones Dr. Soren Kaplan has used when working with his Fortune 1000 clients.
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With unlimited lifetime access, you’ll get all new templates and resources added to the Innovation Best Practices Master Class the moment their released.

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Why Learn from Dr. Soren Kaplan?

Soren Kaplan is a proven thought leader with direct experience running startups, consulting to leaders of Fortune 500 companies, and teaching global executive education programs.
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Unparalleled Experience

Soren has worked across industries with 1000’s of executives from over 30 Fortune 1000 companies including Disney, Visa, Colgate, Medtronic, & PepsiCo, as well as nonprofits & associations.
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Thought Leadership

A Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Soren has been recognized by Thinkers50 and Business Insider as one of the world’s top consultants & management thought leaders.
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Proven Results

His consulting firm, InnovationPoint, has become a go-to partner for Fortune 1000 companies, and his methods have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Time, NPR, and many more.
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Leadership Excellence

Soren knows how to deliver impactful, practical, executive learning from his international leadership programs at USC’s Center for Effective Organizations, Copenhagen Business School, & Melbourne Business School.

When you purchase the Best Practices Master Class, you’re learning from someone who has walked the talk—and who is ready to help you achieve your own business success and goals.

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