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Agile Innovation Management.

Agile innovation management describes the combination of the right steps and methods, within an innovation project, with the agile working method according to Scrum, in order to generate customer-oriented solutions as quickly as possible and with less effort. We accompany and enable you to learn the agile way of working for hardware development with your innovation teams and to take the right steps and use the right methods in your innovation project.

LEAD Agile: Doing the right thing in the right way.

LEAD Agile combines the right steps in innovation projects with the agile way of working, to quickly deliver visible results, work customer-centrically and respond to feedback and changes in projects.


Doing the right thing means taking the right steps in an innovation process: Understanding the problem, generating ideas, designing and developing. LEAD Innovation, as a partner, knows the right methods, for each innovation project, in the individual process steps.


Doing right means prioritizing tasks according to their importance for the customer with an agile way of working, having quickly visible results through regular coordination and thus being able to react to changes at any time. The agile way of working is based on Scrum but adapted to the development of hardware. Intensive team communications and customer cooperation characterize the agile way of working.

Do the right thing: The 4 essential steps in innovation projects

Understanding the problem: In an innovation project it is important to understand the problem first. With the search field methodology, companies can define their problems in a targeted manner and ask themselves the most important questions: Who am I innovating for? What is my time horizon for innovation? What type of innovation will it be? How high is the degree of innovation? The next step should only be started after the problem has been validated with the right methods and, if necessary, with external experts.

Generate ideas: Depending on the problem, other methods are suitable as approaches for generating ideas. Ideas can be collected internally with employees through Closed Innovation or through Open Innovation with the involvement of suppliers, LEAD users or other industry experts. At the end of this phase, a Minimal Viable Product is created.

Develop a concept: The further development of an idea into a concept has different steps depending on the company and the industry. Most projects involve technical feasibility, a market analysis, the preparation of a business plan and testing in the market. At the end of the phase you should have worked out pretotypes validated by the market.

Develop: From the pretotype it goes into the development of a functional prototype, in order to be able to then go into serious development.

Scrum as an agile working method

Scrum is an agile process and project management model that has its origin in software development and has been used in innovation management for years. As in rugby, Scrum stands for small, self-organized and agile units. Innovations always have to do with uncertainties, one only partly knows the goal and the way, and so it requires agility, flexibility and fast results. And that's exactly what Scrum offers. Used optimally, Scrum is ideally suited for innovation processes and innovation projects.

The 4 most important principles of an agile way of working

Intensive team communication

An agile team is interdisciplinary and self-organized. Work packages are defined in the team and responsibilities are assigned. Daily coordination helps to remove ambiguities and obstacles.

Quickly visible results

In a two to four week cycle, tangible results are presented.

Intensive customer cooperation

The central component of the project team is the customer. In the best case, the customer should be involved himself or, alternatively, represented by an internal person who advances his goals.

Fast response to changes

By presenting results in regular cycles, feedback addressed there can be quickly incorporated into the next cycle.

Doing the right thing in the right way

LEAD Agile combines the right steps in innovation projects with the agile way of working. This means identifying which next steps should be taken in an innovation project and running through these steps in agile sprints in a result and feedback oriented manner.

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Agile Product Development

Agile's goal is to develop high-quality innovations as quickly and efficiently as possible. In a short time, tangible intermediate products are developed in order to receive feedback from clients and customers. The agile working method is based on Scrum but was adapted by LEAD Innovation to the needs of product development.


At the beginning, the project goal and all requirements, are formulated from the customer or user's point of view and are collected in a backlog not sure what this word is meant to be? Backlog is not correct, maybe sequence? The requirements are prioritized and estimated in time. Sprints are planned on the basis of the backlog. A sprint is a work segment and is planned cyclically at intervals. For example, there are two-week sprints where it is defined, in advance, which requirements are to be processed during this time, and what is to be delivered at the end of the sprint. This should usually be a tangible result for the customer. The project team discusses the project status in the daily stand-up. Everyone reports on their status, what their next task is and if there are any problems.


At the end of the sprint, the Sprint Review takes place, where the result is presented. The team collects feedback together with that of customers and stakeholders for the next sprint. In the Sprint Retrospective the working methods and the performance are reflected. The team derives improvements to become more efficient and effective with each sprint.

Roles at LEAD Agile

Your company should form a team consisting of the following persons:

The Product Owner represents the customer's goals, or this may even come from the customer himself.

The Scrum Master is responsible for the methodology and the process. He works closely with the LEAD Innovation Team, especially at the beginning.

The Agile Team is interdisciplinary, self-organized and responsible for the execution of the self-imposed goals in each cycle.



LEAD Innovation strongly supports you at the beginning in method training and acts as Scrum Master for the team. Gradually the team itself should be empowered and its own Scrum Master should take over this function.
LEAD Innovation thus becomes an agile coach and supports the team with specific questions.

Make an appointment for a briefing.

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Agile Innovation Management

In view of the advancing digitalization, companies today have to react quickly to changing market requirements and develop new business models. Technologies and methods are available, but 70 to 90 percent of all new products still fail due to rigid structures. Companies should therefore rely on agile innovation methods.

read more

Agile Innovation Management

In view of the advancing digitalization, companies today have to react quickly to changing market requirements and develop new business models. Technologies and methods are available, but 70 to 90 percent of all new products still fail due to rigid structures. Companies should therefore rely on agile innovation methods.

read more

Agile Innovation Management

In view of the advancing digitalization, companies today have to react quickly to changing market requirements and develop new business models. Technologies and methods are available, but 70 to 90 percent of all new products still fail due to rigid structures. Companies should therefore rely on agile innovation methods.

read more
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Innovation Check
LEAD Innovation

Would you like to know what stage of maturity your innovation management is at, and analyze what the next steps could be?

Do the LEAD Innovation Check!

In the 30-minute innovation check you evaluate 4 subject areas of your innovation management.

to the innovation check