Glossary
Incubation
Incubation is the process of taking an idea from concept to an actual product, service or business and testing key-hypotheses about the concept to see, if the product can fit the market.
Definition
Incubation is the process of taking an idea from concept to an actual product, service or business and testing key-hypotheses about the concept to see, if the product can fit the market.
The early part of incubation is sometimes referred to as validation to clearly indicate that the focus is not on developing the product, service or business but on testing key hypotheses.
As the bridge between early-stage concept and product, service or business ready for acceleration and scaling, incubation is a key-part of the innovation process. It is a common misconception that it should be unstructured and unmanaged. In fact, the opposite is the case. In order to get valuable results, innovation and incubation, in particular, need to follow a structured approach. It is best managed through short iterative cycles of testing and validation of the most critical hypotheses, frequent feedback, and high involvement of decision-makers throughout.