You might think you’re doing well with innovation, but would your metrics agree?
Are you judging your innovation success based on anecdotal wins?
‘Cause real innovation maturity shows up in numbers. That too not just the number of ideas submitted, but how many turn into prototypes, products, patents, partnerships, or process improvements.
Think about these critical metrics:
- Idea-to-implementation ratio: How many ideas actually become real initiatives?
- Innovation ROI: Are your innovation outputs tangible in terms of revenue, cost savings, or other strategic advantages?
- Time-to-impact: How long does it take for even a single idea to go from concept to evaluation to measurable outcome?
- Cross-functional engagement: Are people beyond R&D involved — like marketing, ops, or customer service?
- Portfolio balance: Are you only investing in incremental innovation, or do you have a mix including disruptive bets?
This is where the Innovation Maturity Matrix comes in.
It doesn’t just help you “feel” better about your innovation efforts, it helps you measure them.
By evaluating your organization across core dimensions like strategy, culture, process, resources, leadership, and outcomes, the matrix shows you:
- What’s working,
- What’s missing,
- And what to fix next to move up the maturity curve.
It turns innovation from your ambition into a structured, trackable journey, one level at a time.
What Is the Innovation Maturity Matrix? And How Does It Fit Within Innovation Maturity Models?
An Innovation Maturity Model acts as a tool that enables organizations to figure out how strong their innovation efforts are.
Is your team early-stage improvisers or high-performing, system-driven innovators?
It is basically a diagnostic tool and a roadmap combined together.
Interestingly, these matrix models trace back to Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) that were originally developed to assess the maturity of software development.
In the innovation context, this approach lays out a journey from:
- Non-existent innovation activity
- Ad-hoc and reactive innovation
- Structured and proactive innovation
- Integrated innovation embedded across the organization
- Optimized innovation with continuous improvement loops
This staged evolution offers a helpful lens for any organization that wants to go from occasional breakthroughs to repeatable, scalable innovation.
So, What Exactly Is the Innovation Maturity Matrix?
While the maturity model gives you levels, the Innovation Maturity Matrix helps you plot your current position along multiple critical dimensions, such as:
- Leadership commitment
- Culture and mindset
- Processes and systems
- Tools and tech stack
- Innovation outcomes and impact
Instead of just saying “you’re at level 3,” the matrix helps you understand why you’re there and what’s holding you back from moving forward.
At its core, the matrix brings structure to reflection. It helps you ask:
- Are we innovating only in R&D or across departments?
- Do we have metrics to track innovation impact or are we still guessing?
- Is innovation reactive, or embedded into our strategy and planning cycles?
Matrix vs. Model: What’s the Difference?
Simply put:
- The maturity model shows your level.
- The matrix shows your strengths, gaps, and priorities.
You need both to build an effective innovation strategy.
Benefits of Using the Innovation Maturity Matrix
Organizational Alignment
The matrix helps get everyone—from leadership to frontline teams—on the same page about where the company stands in its innovation journey. It creates a shared language around innovation maturity and makes it easier to align goals, resources, and actions across departments.
Faster Innovation Cycles
By identifying bottlenecks and gaps in current processes, the matrix enables organizations to streamline workflows, adopt the right tools, and build more efficient innovation systems. This shortens the time between idea generation and implementation.
Strategic Prioritization
The framework highlights which areas of innovation need the most attention. Whether it’s investing in a better idea management system or fostering a stronger innovation culture, the matrix helps prioritize initiatives that will deliver the most impact—right now and in the long run.
What are the 5 levels of maturity modelling?
Alright, we have the basics cleared, now let’s breakdown the five Levels, so you easily figure out where your company stands.
Level 1: Ad Hoc
“Innovation? Oh yeah… sometimes we do a session.”
This is where most companies think they’re being innovative, but really, it’s just a few people hacking things together when there’s a fire to put out.
- There’s no system.
- No one owns innovation.
- It usually pops up during a crisis—“We’re losing market share! Quick, invent something!”
Picture a mid-sized manufacturing firm that suddenly loses a key client.
They rush to redesign a product to win them back. The effort works, barely. The CEO calls it innovation. Truth? It was survival mode.
That’s Level 1. Reactive, not proactive.
Level 2: Emerging
“We should probably start thinking about innovation… right?”
Here’s where someone inside the org (maybe you?) starts making some noise about doing things differently.
A few pilot projects happen. Maybe a Slack channel called #innovation is born. But it’s still scattered, informal, and dependent on a few passionate individuals.
Say your company assigns one product manager to “look into AI.” They do a pilot using machine learning to streamline idea management.
It works—but no one else knows about it. The project lives and dies in a silo.
At this stage, innovation is still driven by people, not processes.
Level 3: Defined
“Okay, we’ve got a strategy. We’re building muscles now.”
Now we’re cooking. This is where companies get serious.
- There’s a formal innovation strategy (not just in someone’s notes app).
- Dedicated teams exist—maybe even a Chief Innovation Officer.
- Innovation becomes part of performance reviews.
- Budgets exist for trying, failing, and iterating.
This is often where companies realize they need better tools to manage their ideas, disclosures, and workflows. That’s where platforms like InspireIP step in—to help create repeatable, transparent systems across the org., and global bases.
Level 4: Managed
“Innovation isn’t a project anymore. It’s a process.”
Innovation is no longer confined to a lab or a pet project team. It’s cross-functional. It’s trackable. It’s embedded.
- You have a structured idea and innovation management solution in place.
- There’s a healthy idea pipeline.
- You’re running internal innovation challenges.
- You’ve got dashboards for KPIs—time to prototype, implementation success rates, portfolio diversity, etc.
- Business units expect to innovate, not just be told to.
A global logistics firm launched quarterly innovation sprints involving ops, IT, and customer success teams.
Using an innovation management system, they tracked idea flow from submission to implementation.
Within 12 months, they saved millions from employee-generated process improvements alone.
That’s not a “hackathon win.” That’s scalable innovation.
Level 5: Strategic / Optimizing
“Innovation is how we grow. It’s not optional—it’s generational.”
This is the promised land. The organization doesn’t just “do” innovation. It is innovative by design.
- Innovation is integrated into the core business strategy.
- Decision-making is data-driven and forward-looking—predictive analytics, trend scouting, foresight models.
- You’ve built strong external ecosystems: startups, universities, co-development partners.
- Culture-wise? It’s a big yes to intrapreneurship. Everyone’s empowered to contribute, not just the R&D team.
At this level, companies don’t just react to market shifts—they shape them.
Think of GreyB, pushing boundaries in innovation consulting. Or a global manufacturing company working to solve systemic problems. They innovate with intention.
TL;DR: Which Level Are You At?
Most companies fall somewhere between Level 2 and Level 3—and that’s okay.
The goal isn’t to jump from 1 to 5 overnight. It’s to understand where you are and build from there.
Using a maturity model isn’t just about benchmarking—it’s about making smart decisions on where to invest, what to fix, and how to scale.
And the biggest trap? Thinking you’re Level 4 or 5… when you’re still in Ad Hoc chaos.
A clear matrix helps burst that bubble—in a good way.
How to Use the Matrix?
Honestly, it isn’t something you can print and frame.
It’s meant to start conversations and drive progress. Here’s how to make it work for real in your organization:
1. Self-Assess Honestly
You have to go beyond your biases to rate your innovation processes. It is not meant to impress anyone.
So, sit down with your leadership team (or even just your innovation lead) and walk through each dimension. Ask:
“Where are we really on this?”
Be brutally honest. If your innovation process is a glorified suggestion box with no follow-through, you’re probably at Level 1 or 2.
And, that’s okay — awareness is progress.
Ask us to provide you a free template and tool to get started: Drop a message!
2. Align Everyone
Get your stakeholders — from execs to team leads — to look at the same matrix. You’d be surprised how differently people see the organization.
One B2B tech company we worked with? Their product managers thought they were “strategic,” but their legal team hadn’t seen an idea disclosure in months. Misalignment kills momentum.
3. Identify Gaps
Once everyone’s aligned, it gets easier to spot the weakest links.
Maybe you’ve got a culture of innovation but zero processes. Or great tools, but no budget commitment.
Use the matrix to surface these blind spots and put names next to them.
4. Map the Journey
Ask yourself: “What would Level 4 or 5 look like in our world?”
For a manufacturing giant, it might be predictive R&D analytics. For a SaaS startup, it could be running monthly innovation sprints with clear pipelines and patent scoring.
5. Take Action
This is where the magic happens. Once you know where you are and where you want to be, build a roadmap.
Maybe it starts with rolling out an idea evaluation workflow. Maybe it’s bringing in outside counsel earlier. Or finally launching that innovation challenge your CTO has been bugging you about.
What Tools Can Actually Help?
Now, if you’re wondering how to move from “talk” to “traction,” that’s where tooling matters. And not just any tools, but ones built for real-world innovation workflows.
A modern innovation management system (like Idea Assist, if we’re being honest) can help you scale from chaos to clarity with features like:
- Idea Generation, Capture, and Evaluation – From initial sparks to full-on business cases.
- Innovation Challenges – Run internal sprints to crowdsource ideas tied to strategic goals.
- Workflow Alignment – Custom approval flows so no idea gets stuck.
- Invention Disclosure & IP Management – Especially important if you’re working with patentable tech or regulated industries.
We can’t give it all away here, talk to us: Drop us a message!
But whether you use InspireIP or another system, the goal is this: create consistency, visibility, and movement. That’s how you climb the maturity curve — one systematized win at a time.
Ending Note: Why It Matters More in 2025?
‘Cause we’re in a weird spot. Budgets for innovation are going up… but results? Not so much.
Gartner’s 2024 State of Innovation Survey found that 67% of organizations feel they’re underperforming on innovation, despite spending more than ever.
So what gives?
It’s not the ideas that are missing — it’s the clarity.
Most companies simply don’t know where they stand on the innovation journey. That’s exactly where the Innovation Maturity Matrix earns its keep.
- Align your leadership team around what innovation actually means for your org.
- Prioritize initiatives based on where you’re at — not where you wish you were.
- Avoid wasting time on strategies you’re not ready to scale.
- Systematize innovation so you can finally show real ROI — not just “activity”.
Whether you’re a leading CEO, an R&D manager, IP counsel, or just trying to stop innovation from dying in a backlog, this gives you a shared language and a path forward.
2025 isn’t going to slow down for anyone. But the companies that get where they are — and build smartly from there — will be the ones that win.
