Innovation
Glossary
The most important innovation terms to get you off a good start with Nosco.
A
Agile Innovation Processes
An Agile Innovation Process is an iterative and flexible approach to developing a new product, service, or business model. It combines the principles of Agile project management—such as rapid prototyping, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous feedback…
B
Bootcamps
Bootcamps are intensive, short-term training sessions designed to accelerate learning and idea development. They provide structured guidance and mentorship to teams working on innovation projects…
Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a structured yet flexible group creativity technique widely used in innovation, product development, and problem-solving. It encourages participants to rapidly generate a wide range of ideas without immediate judgment, fostering an open and collaborative environment…
C
Call for Ideas
A call for ideas is an announcement used when an organization or person looks for ideas on a specific topic or project. In the field of innovation, it is used to describe the types of ideas welcome to an innovation challenge…
Collaboration Hubs
Collaboration Hubs are digital or physical spaces where teams can work together on innovation initiatives. They provide resources, tools, and networking opportunities to facilitate idea development. These hubs are crucial in …
Corporate Entrepreneur
A corporate entrepreneur is a person that works on developing new ideas and innovation projects inside an existing organisation. They may be working with the explicit backing of management but also happen to work under the radar. A similar term, “intrapreneur”, is used interchangeably with corporate…
Corporate Venturing
Corporate Venturing is a strategy where established companies collaborate with or invest in startups and emerging ventures to drive innovation and long-term growth. These partnerships may take the form of venture capital funds, accelerators, incubators, strategic alliances, or acquisitions…
Cross-functional Teams
Cross-functional teams are composed of individuals from different departments or areas of expertise working collaboratively toward a shared objective. These teams combine diverse skill sets such as product management…
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the process of gathering ideas, insights, or solutions from a large group of people, often via digital platforms. It enables organizations to tap into the collective intelligence of employees, customers, or external communities to drive innovation and problem-solving at scale…
Customer-centric Design
Customer-centric design is a product and service development approach that places the needs, behaviors, and feedback of end users at the center of the innovation process. It emphasizes empathy, continuous feedback, and …
D
Data-driven Decision Making
Data-driven decision making is the practice of basing strategic and operational choices on concrete data, insights, and performance metrics rather than assumptions or intuition. It enables organizations to act with greater accuracy, reduce risk, and continuously improve both innovation outcomes and business operations…
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a human-centered methodology for solving complex problems and generating innovative solutions. It focuses on understanding user needs, reframing challenges, and iterating through experimentation and feedback. The process is…
Disruptive Innovation
Disruptive Innovation refers to innovations that create new markets or significantly alter existing ones by introducing simpler, more affordable, or more accessible solutions. These innovations often begin by serving niche or underserved segments before eventually overtaking established offerings…
E
Early-stage Prototyping
Early-stage Prototyping is the practice of quickly creating low-fidelity models to explore ideas, identify assumptions, and gather feedback before investing heavily in development. These simple models allow teams to test desirability and feasibility early, helping reduce risk and …
Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement refers to the emotional commitment, motivation, and involvement employees feel toward their organization and its goals. In the context of innovation, engagement goes beyond satisfaction — it reflects how willing individuals are to contribute ideas, collaborate across functions, and …
Employee-driven Innovation
Employee-driven Innovation is a structured approach to unlocking the creative potential of employees across all levels of an organization. Rather than relying solely on top-down strategies, this method empowers individuals closest to daily operations, customers, and …
Environmental Innovation
Environmental Innovation refers to the development of new products, services, or processes that reduce environmental impact and promote sustainability. It includes everything from low-emission technologies and …
F
Fast Prototyping
Fast Prototyping is the practice of rapidly building and iterating on simplified versions of ideas, services, or products to validate assumptions and reduce uncertainty early in the innovation process. It focuses on speed, learning, and …
Feedback Loops
Feedback Loops are structured mechanisms for gathering, analyzing, and acting on input from users, stakeholders, or team members during the innovation process. These loops are essential for continuous learning and …
Foresight Analysis
Foresight Analysis is a strategic method used to anticipate future trends, challenges, and opportunities that could impact an organization. It involves scanning external signals, exploring scenarios, and …
G
Gamification
Gamification is the use of game elements — such as points, challenges, leaderboards, and rewards — in non-game contexts to influence behavior, increase engagement, and drive participation. In the context of innovation, gamification helps motivate employees, spark friendly competition, and …
Global Collaboration
Global Collaboration refers to the process of connecting individuals and teams across geographies, time zones, and cultures to co-create, share knowledge, and drive innovation. In today’s interconnected world, innovation increasingly relies on diverse input and distributed expertise — and global collaboration is …
Green Innovation
Green Innovation refers to the development of solutions that minimize environmental impact while creating business value. It includes designing products, services, and systems that reduce emissions, enable circularity, and …
Growth Hacking
Growth Hacking is a mindset and methodology focused on rapidly testing, optimizing, and scaling ideas to drive user growth, product adoption, or business traction. Originally coined in the startup world, it blends creativity, data, and …
H
Hackathons
Hackathons are time-boxed innovation events where cross-functional teams come together to solve specific challenges through rapid ideation, prototyping, and collaboration. Originally popularized in the …
Hypothesis Testing
Hypothesis Testing is a structured method for validating assumptions in the innovation process. It involves formulating a clear, testable statement (the hypothesis), running an experiment or collecting evidence, and using results to confirm or refute the assumption. The goal is to reduce uncertainty and …
I
Ideation
Ideation is the creative process of conceiving and shaping new ideas. It includes everything from the first thought or inspiration to the formulation of an idea. In the context of an innovation challenge, it refers to the initial phase in which ideas are submitted online and…
Idea Campaign
An Idea Campaign is a time-bound, topic-focused initiative to ideate, screen, develop and validate ideas. It is used to address business or technical problems that require input from a broad group of people. The idea campaign is a simple method to quickly solve small and big problems…
Idea Heatmaps
Idea Heatmaps are visual tools used to evaluate, compare, and prioritize innovation ideas based on multiple criteria — such as impact, feasibility, or strategic fit. By mapping ideas across a two-dimensional matrix, teams can identify patterns, clusters, and …
Idea Management
Idea management is the structured process of managing ideas from ideation through evaluation and refinement to selection. Many companies use an idea management platform to support this process (the Nosco platform is an example of this).
Inclusive Innovation
Inclusive Innovation is the process of designing and delivering innovations that involve and benefit a broad, diverse range of people — across roles, backgrounds, regions, and capabilities. It’s about breaking down silos, removing barriers to participation, and …
Incremental Innovation
Incremental Innovation refers to small, continuous improvements made to existing products, services, or processes. Rather than introducing entirely new solutions, incremental innovation focuses on enhancing performance, usability, cost-efficiency, or …
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.
The early part of incubation is sometimes referred to as validation to clearly indicate that…
Innovation Challenge
An innovation challenge can be seen as an extended version of an idea campaign with a more ambitious topic, a wider reach in terms of participants, a greater communication effort, and a more ambitious process from ideation, over idea maturation, to pitching and awards ceremony…
Innovation Management
Innovation management describes a structured approach to managing innovation with defined processes, KPIs and governance structures to support it.
Companies that are serious about their innovation efforts will have defined processes for…
Innovation Pipeline
The innovation pipeline is the pathway for ideas from initial registration over development to launch or implementation. Innovation managers typically keep track of the innovation pipeline to see if ideas are moving ahead as planned…
J
Judging Panels
Judging Panels are structured groups of evaluators responsible for reviewing, scoring, and selecting innovation ideas based on predefined criteria. Typically composed of subject matter experts, business leaders, or …
K
Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge Sharing refers to the systematic exchange of information, experience, and expertise across individuals and teams to support learning, decision-making, and innovation. In fast-moving organizations, it enables employees to build on each other’s work, avoid duplication, and …
KPI Tracking
KPI Tracking is the process of defining, measuring, and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate progress and impact within innovation initiatives. It ensures that innovation activities are aligned with strategic objectives and …
L
Leadership Commitment
Leadership Commitment refers to the visible and sustained involvement of senior leaders in driving innovation across the organization. It goes beyond verbal support — encompassing resource allocation, participation, sponsorship, and …
Learning Organization
Learning Organization describes a company or institution that continuously evolves by actively capturing, sharing, and applying knowledge. It fosters a culture where experimentation is encouraged, feedback is valued, and …
M
Market Validation
Market Validation is the process of testing whether a product, service, or solution meets real customer needs and has commercial potential. It helps innovation teams determine if there’s a viable market before committing to full-scale development. Market validation typically occurs …
Mentorship Programs
Mentorship Programs are structured relationships where experienced individuals (mentors) support and guide less experienced colleagues (mentees) in their personal and professional development. In the context of innovation, mentorship plays a critical role in …
N
Networking Events
Networking Events in innovation contexts are structured opportunities for employees, stakeholders, and external partners to connect, share ideas, and build relationships that fuel collaboration. These events play a vital role in breaking silos, promoting knowledge exchange, and …
O
Open Collaboration
Open Collaboration refers to an innovation approach where individuals, teams, or organizations share ideas, resources, and expertise across traditional boundaries to solve complex challenges. It is based on transparency, mutual benefit, and …
P
Pretotyping
Pretotyping is a rapid experimentation technique used to test whether users are truly interested in a proposed idea — before building any functional prototype. The goal is to …
Product-Market Fit
The term “product-market fit” refers to the match between the actual solution (product, service, business model, etc.) and the market it addresses. Essentially, it is about finding out if a solution satisfies strong market demand…
Prototyping Workshops
Prototyping Workshops are hands-on sessions where teams collaboratively build early models of ideas to explore, test, and improve them. These workshops bring together diverse perspectives …
Pitch Session
During a pitch session, idea teams present their ideas to a panel and answer potential questions. The panel then decides whether or not to invest in the idea.
Pitch sessions offer the opportunity to gain insight into an idea and the team behind it, which…
Problem-Solution Fit
The term problem-solution fit refers to the match between a proposed solution and the problem or an unmet need it is trying to address. Problem-solution fit precedes product-market fit.
The first indication of whether an idea will be successful is typically based on finding a…
Q
Quick Iterations
Quick Iterations are fast, repeated cycles of building, testing, and improving ideas based on real feedback. Rather than perfecting a solution upfront, teams use quick iterations to learn rapidly, reduce risk, and …
R
Resilience Strategies
Resilience Strategies in innovation refer to approaches that help organizations adapt, recover, and thrive amid uncertainty, disruption, or rapid change. Rather than relying solely on long-term planning, resilient strategies focus on …
Reverse Innovation
Reverse Innovation is the process of developing innovative solutions in emerging markets and then adapting them for use in more developed economies. Unlike the traditional innovation flow — from global headquarters to local markets — reverse innovation starts at …
Roadmap Development
Roadmap Development is the process of defining a clear, time-bound plan that outlines the steps, priorities, and milestones needed to turn innovation strategy into execution. A strong roadmap connects vision to action — aligning teams around …
S
Scaling
Scaling Innovation is the process of expanding successful ideas from pilot or prototype stages into broader implementation — across teams, departments, or markets. It transforms small wins into sustainable, high-impact solutions that …
Screening
Screening describes the process of evaluating ideas against a set of criteria and deciding whether ideas should progress/move forward in an innovation initiative.
The screening phase of an idea campaign or innovation challenge typically follows the…
Social Innovation
Social Innovation refers to the development and implementation of new ideas that aim to solve social or environmental challenges in ways that are more effective, sustainable, or inclusive than existing solutions. It focuses on creating positive impact for …
Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder Engagement is the process of actively involving individuals or groups who have an interest in — or are affected by — innovation initiatives. It ensures that key perspectives are heard, expectations are managed, and decisions are informed by a diverse set of voices from across the organization and …
Strategic Alignment
Strategic Alignment refers to the process of ensuring that innovation activities support — and are supported by — an organization’s overall business strategy. It connects big-picture goals with day-to-day execution, creating clarity, focus, and …
Sustainability Strategies
Sustainability Strategies are long-term plans that integrate environmental, social, and economic considerations into an organization’s operations and innovation efforts. They aim to reduce negative impact, create shared value, and future-proof the business in a world facing climate, resource, and …
T
Team Building
Team Building in the context of innovation refers to the intentional formation and development of teams that are capable of solving problems collaboratively, creatively, and efficiently. It involves aligning skills, roles, and relationships to foster trust, shared purpose, and …
Technology-driven Innovation
Technology-driven Innovation is the process of leveraging emerging technologies to create new products, services, or business models that deliver improved value. Rather than starting with a user need or market gap, it begins with …
u
User-driven Solutions
User-driven Solutions are innovations shaped by the direct input, needs, and behaviors of end users. Rather than relying solely on internal assumptions, this approach puts users at the center of the development process — ensuring solutions are …
V
Validation
Validation is the process of testing hypotheses to gain insights into whether an idea will be successful or not. This can be done through interviews, observations and experiments, and conclusions and recommendations are made based on the results…
Venture Challenges
Venture Challenges are structured innovation initiatives focused on identifying and accelerating bold new business opportunities — often beyond the core. They invite individuals or teams to pitch, develop, and …
Vision Mapping
Vision Mapping is the process of visually articulating an organization’s long-term innovation goals and the path to reach them. It helps teams align around a shared future state, identify key opportunities, and …
W
Workshops
Workshops are structured, time-bound sessions designed to bring together diverse stakeholders for collaborative problem-solving, idea generation, planning, or decision-making. In the context of innovation, workshops provide a focused environment where …
Y
Year-round Idea Channels
Year-round Idea Channels are always-on platforms or processes that allow employees, partners, or customers to continuously contribute ideas, feedback, and suggestions throughout the year — not just during fixed campaigns or …
Z
Zero-waste Initiatives
Zero-waste Initiatives are innovation efforts aimed at eliminating waste across products, services, and operations — by rethinking how resources are used, reused, or eliminated altogether. The goal is to design systems where materials are continuously cycled, and …
Download our Innovation Glossary!
To set you off for a good start and ensure smooth communication, we have compiled a list of the most important innovation terms and definitions. Download the PDF presentation and share it with your organisation.
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