Strategy

Innovation Matrix

A 2x2 that filters an idea pool toward substantial change, not just easy wins.

What it is

Ideas get plotted across two axes — Incremental vs Substantial change, and Reducing Cost vs Increasing Revenue — producing four quadrants. The exercise deliberately pressures the group to push ideas out of the two bottom, Incremental quadrants and toward the two top, Substantial ones before anything moves to prototyping.

Reach for it when

  • A shortlist that's technically prioritised but entirely small, safe ideas
  • A team defaulting to cost-cutting tweaks because they're easier to plot than revenue bets
  • A backlog with too many ideas to prototype and no shared filter for cutting it down

Running it

  1. Print the canvas on large paper with sticky notes ready to go.
  2. As a team, discuss where each idea belongs based on its actual potential for change, not how comfortable it feels.
  3. Push teams thinking small toward bigger ideas using deliberately provocative questions.
  4. Check the finished grid: most final selections should land in the top, Substantial quadrants before moving to prototyping.

Watch out: Ideas gravitate to the bottom quadrants because Incremental is the safe, defensible answer — the whole point of the exercise is the deliberate push toward the top two, and it's the step groups quietly skip.