Innovation Management Training Course

Duration 10 days 18 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Innovation Managers, Product Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-IC-009

Before you join: Participants should have professional experience contributing to projects, service improvement, product development, strategy, operations or change initiatives.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Innovation initiatives often fail for predictable reasons: teams pursue ideas without a defined customer problem, leaders approve projects without evidence, and promising pilots never become repeatable services or products. Innovation management provides the disciplines needed to connect strategic priorities, customer insight, experimentation, investment decisions and adoption. It enables leaders to treat innovation as a managed flow of opportunities rather than a series of isolated workshops.

This course teaches participants how to identify opportunity domains, research unmet customer needs, generate and screen concepts, test critical assumptions, develop business cases and manage an innovation portfolio. Participants use ISO 56002 principles, Jobs to Be Done, Design Thinking, Lean Startup experimentation, stage-gate governance, Business Model Canvas and innovation accounting. They learn how to decide which ideas merit investment, when to stop weak initiatives, and how to prepare pilots for operational adoption and scale.

Instructor-led sessions combine focused briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, simulations and structured application to participants' own work. From the first week, participants develop an innovation initiative relevant to their organisation, such as a digital banking service, public-sector citizen service, NGO programme model, manufacturing process improvement or new corporate offering. They leave with a complete innovation proposal: an evidence-based opportunity brief, validated concept, experiment plan, investment case, implementation roadmap and executive presentation.

The course suits managers responsible for growth, service improvement, transformation, product development or strategic change. It is particularly useful where organisations need clearer innovation governance, stronger customer evidence and better conversion of ideas into measurable results.

What you will be able to do

  • Frame strategic innovation opportunities using Three Horizons, growth gaps and opportunity statements
  • Identify unmet customer needs through Jobs to Be Done interviews and journey mapping
  • Generate and screen concepts using Brainwriting, SCAMPER and concept scoring criteria
  • Design experiments that test critical assumptions using Lean Startup methods
  • Evaluate innovation proposals through unit economics, risk-adjusted scoring and stage-gate evidence
  • Build an innovation portfolio with investment buckets, governance criteria and decision thresholds
  • Establish adoption and scale plans using ADKAR, pilot criteria and benefits realisation measures
  • Present an evidence-based innovation business case, roadmap and investment recommendation

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Build a credible innovation proposal for a current organisational opportunity
  • Make stronger recommendations using customer evidence rather than opinion
  • Lead structured idea generation without relying on unplanned brainstorming
  • Assess innovation investments using explicit evidence, risk and value criteria
  • Present pilot and scale recommendations clearly to senior decision-makers

For your organisation

  • Improved conversion of strategic priorities into testable innovation opportunities
  • Earlier identification of weak assumptions before major funding commitments
  • More consistent criteria for prioritising ideas and allocating innovation investment
  • Better customer evidence behind new services, products and process changes
  • Clearer routes from pilots to adoption, measurement and scaled delivery

Course modules

18 modules over 10 days

Participants can explain innovation as a managed system linking strategy, value, governance and measurable results.

  • ISO 56002 principles for leadership, intent, support and improvement
  • Three Horizons model separates core, adjacent and transformational opportunities
  • Distinguishing invention, innovation, renovation and continuous improvement decisions
  • Outcome metrics connect customer value, strategic intent and financial returns
  • Leadership behaviours protect experimentation while maintaining delivery accountability
  • Governance choices for centralised, distributed and hybrid innovation models

Participants can translate organisational priorities into bounded innovation opportunity domains.

  • Strategic ambition translated into opportunity domains and boundary conditions
  • Playing to Win choices clarify where innovation should create value
  • Growth gap analysis quantifies revenue, margin and capability requirements
  • Opportunity statements specify target users, unmet needs and constraints
  • Strategic guardrails define acceptable risk, investment limits and brand fit
  • Assumption mapping exposes beliefs requiring evidence before investment

Participants can identify evidence-based customer problems worth solving.

  • Jobs to Be Done interviews identify functional, emotional and social progress
  • Customer journey maps reveal pain points, workarounds and moments of truth
  • Ethnographic observation records behaviours rather than reported preferences
  • Persona evidence distinguishes priority segments from convenient stereotypes
  • Service blueprints connect frontstage experiences with backstage operational dependencies
  • Problem framing converts observations into testable customer opportunity statements

Participants can assess external forces and future uncertainties affecting innovation choices.

  • PESTLE analysis identifies external forces affecting opportunity timing
  • Porter's Five Forces tests profit pools and competitive pressure
  • Trend cards separate weak signals, drivers and speculative predictions
  • Scenario planning develops plausible futures and strategic responses
  • Technology readiness levels assess maturity before development commitments
  • Regulatory scanning identifies approvals, data obligations and adoption barriers

Participants can generate diverse ideas using structured creativity methods.

  • How Might We questions widen solution spaces without prescribing answers
  • Brainwriting 6-3-5 generates ideas while reducing dominant voices
  • SCAMPER prompts systematic changes to products, services and processes
  • Forced connections combine unrelated stimuli to produce novel concepts
  • Six Thinking Hats separates factual, critical, creative and emotional thinking
  • Affinity mapping clusters raw ideas into meaningful themes

Participants can articulate, compare and select concepts against explicit criteria.

  • Concept posters articulate user, problem, solution, benefit and proof
  • Value Proposition Canvas aligns customer pains, gains and offerings
  • Business Model Canvas maps value creation, delivery and capture
  • Four lenses of innovation classify product, process, position and paradigm
  • Concept screening scores desirability, feasibility, viability and strategic fit
  • Assumption registers link each concept claim to validation evidence

Participants can prioritise initiatives and establish evidence-based funding decisions.

  • Portfolio buckets allocate resources between core, adjacent and transformational initiatives
  • Three Horizons portfolio balance exposes underfunded future growth options
  • Risk-adjusted scoring compares strategic fit, uncertainty, value and effort
  • Stage-gate criteria establish evidence thresholds for funding decisions
  • Kill criteria prevent continued investment after disconfirming evidence
  • Portfolio heat maps show investment concentration and capability gaps

Participants can define customer problems using research evidence and design principles.

  • Double Diamond structures discovery, definition, development and delivery activities
  • Problem interviews test unmet needs without selling proposed solutions
  • Interview guides use neutral questions, probes and evidence capture
  • Observation protocols record context, frequency, workarounds and triggers
  • Insight statements connect evidence, tension and design implication
  • Research synthesis distinguishes repeated patterns from isolated anecdotes

Participants can design proportionate experiments for their highest-risk assumptions.

  • Lean Startup build-measure-learn cycles reduce uncertainty through small tests
  • Riskiest assumption tests target beliefs most likely to invalidate concepts
  • Experiment cards define hypothesis, method, metric, threshold and decision
  • Smoke tests measure demand before building full functionality
  • Fake-door tests assess intent using realistic entry points
  • Evidence ladders distinguish interest, behaviour, commitment and repeat use

Participants can select prototypes and interpret customer test findings.

  • Prototype fidelity matches the question, audience and decision required
  • Paper prototypes test task flow before interface development
  • Service role-play exposes handoffs, scripts and failure points
  • Wizard of Oz prototypes simulate complex capability manually
  • Usability testing observes completion, errors, confusion and recovery
  • Test debriefs convert observations into prioritised design changes

Participants can build a financially credible case for an innovation investment.

  • Unit economics calculates contribution margin, acquisition cost and payback
  • Revenue models compare subscription, transaction, licence and outcome-based pricing
  • Cost-to-serve analysis identifies operational drivers behind profitable scale
  • Willingness-to-pay research tests price sensitivity and value perception
  • Real options logic stages commitments under uncertainty
  • Financial cases state assumptions, ranges, sensitivities and decision triggers

Participants can define roles, decision rights and governance routines for innovation work.

  • Operating model choices assign ownership, decision rights and accountabilities
  • RACI matrices clarify sponsor, product owner, team and governance roles
  • Cross-functional teams combine customer, technical, commercial and operational expertise
  • Protected capacity prevents innovation work becoming discretionary overtime
  • Decision cadences accelerate evidence review, escalation and resource release
  • Psychological safety enables challenge, dissent and early risk reporting

Participants can plan a controlled pilot with clear scope, priorities and dependencies.

  • Agile product roadmaps sequence outcomes, bets, releases and learning
  • Minimum viable product scope isolates essential customer value
  • Backlog prioritisation uses RICE scores for reach, impact, confidence, effort
  • Kanban boards visualise flow, work limits and blocked items
  • Dependencies register identifies suppliers, systems, approvals and critical interfaces
  • Release plans coordinate pilots, training, support and communications

Participants can prepare stakeholders, users and operating teams for adoption.

  • ADKAR assesses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement needs
  • Stakeholder maps classify influence, impact, support and resistance
  • Change narratives explain purpose, implications and requested behaviours
  • Pilot selection balances learning value, operational safety and representative users
  • Adoption metrics track activation, repeat use, retention and referral
  • Feedback loops route frontline learning into product and process decisions

Participants can assess readiness and plan the controlled expansion of proven initiatives.

  • Scaling criteria confirm repeatability, economics, capability and demand before expansion
  • Standard operating procedures preserve critical practices during replication
  • Partner due diligence tests incentives, service quality and data responsibilities
  • Capability maps identify skills, systems and process investments for scale
  • Rollout waves manage sequencing, readiness and local adaptation
  • Benefits realisation plans assign measures, owners, baselines and review dates

Participants can measure innovation progress, learning and financial outcomes at appropriate stages.

  • Innovation accounting separates learning metrics from financial performance metrics
  • North Star metrics connect customer value with sustainable growth
  • OKRs translate innovation ambitions into measurable quarterly outcomes
  • Leading indicators reveal pipeline health before revenue appears
  • Post-launch reviews compare forecasts, evidence, outcomes and corrective actions
  • Board dashboards report portfolio progress, risks, decisions and resource needs

Participants can establish leadership practices that support disciplined experimentation and learning.

  • Reward systems recognise validated learning, collaboration and responsible risk-taking
  • After-action reviews examine decisions, evidence, outcomes and lessons
  • Failure taxonomy distinguishes intelligent experiments from preventable execution errors
  • Senior sponsors remove barriers and make timely resource decisions
  • Communication routines share customer evidence, priorities and portfolio choices
  • Innovation maturity assessments identify practical next improvements

Participants can build, review and present a complete innovation initiative proposal with evidence, investment case and implementation roadmap.

  • Opportunity brief defines target users, evidence, strategic fit and constraints
  • Selected concept combines value proposition, business model and differentiators
  • Validation plan specifies hypotheses, experiments, metrics and decision thresholds
  • Portfolio case states investment request, risks, dependencies and milestones
  • Implementation roadmap sequences prototype, pilot, rollout and benefits reviews
  • Executive presentation defends recommendations using customer, operational and financial evidence

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic innovation opportunity brief template
  2. Customer discovery interview and journey mapping pack
  3. Concept screening and assumption register
  4. Experiment card and evidence tracker
  5. Innovation investment case template
  6. Pilot-to-scale implementation roadmap

Who should attend

  • Innovation Managers — responsible for building repeatable processes from ideas to funded initiatives
  • Product Managers — need customer evidence, experiments and investment cases for product decisions
  • Strategy Managers — need to convert strategic ambitions into prioritised growth opportunities
  • Transformation Leaders — need structured methods for testing and implementing service change
  • Operations Managers — need to improve processes and services without disrupting core delivery
  • Programme Managers — need governance, milestones and benefits measures for innovation initiatives

Skills and tools covered

Innovation portfolio managementCustomer problem discoveryExperiment designBusiness case developmentInnovation governanceChange adoption planning

Tools and standards

ISO 56002, Jobs to Be Done, Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, group exercises, simulations and guided application planning. Cases reflect decisions faced by banks, public agencies, NGOs, manufacturers and service businesses: selecting opportunities, testing demand, approving pilots and scaling proven concepts. Participants apply each method to an innovation initiative from their own work, receiving structured peer and instructor review. The final sessions bring the work together into an investment-ready proposal and executive presentation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have professional experience contributing to projects, service improvement, product development, strategy, operations or change initiatives. They should understand their organisation's customers, services, processes or strategic priorities well enough to identify a real opportunity for application during the course. Familiarity with basic business cases, project plans or performance measures is useful but not essential. No previous innovation qualification, design background, financial modelling expertise, coding skills or specialist technical knowledge is required. Participants do not need authority to approve investment decisions.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience in projects, operations, strategy, product, service improvement or change. No previous innovation training, design qualification, coding ability or advanced financial modelling experience is required.

Bring information about a real service, product, process or customer problem you want to improve. Useful materials include strategy documents, customer feedback, performance data, process maps or an existing project brief.

It suits managers and specialists who need to turn ideas into tested, funded and adopted initiatives. It is relevant to private-sector, public-sector and nonprofit organisations seeking measurable improvement or growth.

Creativity and Design Thinking are important components, but this course goes further into portfolio choices, investment cases, governance, adoption, scaling and performance measurement. The emphasis is on managing innovation from opportunity through to results.

Participants develop a live innovation initiative throughout the programme and leave with reusable templates for discovery, concept selection, experiments, funding decisions and implementation planning. The methods can be used for new offerings, service redesign and process innovation.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing about 6.5 contact hours daily. The first week establishes strategy, customer insight, concepts and experiments; the second week covers economics, governance, piloting, adoption, scaling and the capstone presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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