How GroundControl works

There is more to running Corporate Innovation than Lean Startup

GroundControl is built according to the principles of The Corporate Startup, written by our co-founder Esther Gons and co. The award-winning book describes the 5 elements of a mature Innovation Ecosystem. GroundControl supports all 5 elements, instead of focussing only on experiments and learnings.

5 components of an innovation ecosystemDiscover all GroundControl's features

INNOVATION PRACTICE

A unified way of working for teams

Innovation Practice is the cutting-edge face of an innovation ecosystem. This is where the rubber meets the road. It is where ideas are generated, tested and taken to scale. The other elements of the ecosystem cannot thrive without a great innovation practice in place.

GroundControl helps corporate startups with a unified way-of-working, whether it’s based on Lean Startup, Design Thinking or your own methodology. We closely looked at Agile and created Innovation Sprints that give your startups focus and an understanding of what to do next.

Explore: our Innovation Practice features.

Innovation Practice on GroundControl
Innovation Framework on GroundControl

INNOVATION FRAMEWORK

In 4 stages from great idea to scale

An innovation framework is necessary to analyze and manage the innovation portfolio. Beyond the three types of innovation (core, adjacent, and transformational), the framework is used to map the products in terms of where they are on their innovation journey. Mapping the portfolio across these two dimensions allows a company to not only get a sense of how balanced the portfolio is but also where products are on their innovation journey.

GroundControl uses the NEXT Canvas to track startups through the four phases of their innovation journey. Proving which problem they solve for who, proving the startup can create a solution that solves that problem, proving customer will pay and that the startup can scale. 

Read more: The NEXT Canvas

Explore: our Innovation Framework features.

INNOVATION ACCOUNTING

Make innovation measurable

To measure how well innovation teams are doing in their search for profitable business models, it is not possible to use traditional financial KPIs. A new form of accountability is needed, called innovation accounting. A form of bookkeeping that uses alternative metrics, like the number of new ideas an organization generates, the percentage of innovations with a proven product/market fit or the speed of learning.

GroundControl automatically gathers the most important innovation KPIs from the startups, combined with metrics based on your Portfolio Board decisions. Offering you Innovation Accounting on startup, management and strategy level.

Read more: The 3 KPIs you should measure to start with Innovation Accounting

Explore: our Innovation Accounting features.

Innovation Accounting on GroundControl
Innovation Portfolio Funnel on GroundControl

INNOVATION PORTFOLIO

Invest like a VC

GroundControl offers a clear startup funnel, displaying all your startups in their respective stage, the Innovation Thesis they belong to and the team members that are working on the startup. The Portfolio Board decisions built into GroundControl, makes it possible to invest like a VC, investing resources and money based on data-driven decisions and depending on the stage of the startup.