One size doesn't fit all: Increasing intrapreneurial learnings from ING’s innovation methodology

Abstract

This thesis explores what it takes to make innovation at ING’s PACE accelerator more effective. PACE is ING’s innovation methodology, combining design thinking, agile working and the lean start-up approach into one whole. Within ING’s corporate accelerator track PACE is used to develop disruptive value propositions.

Case-study research shows that the eighteen weeks described in guides to develop a solution from problem exploration up until a validated minimum viable product recurrently fails to be met. A major variable affecting the development time required is the elaborateness of PACE. When joining the accelerator, a multitude of guides condense to about 150 pages on innovation in the PACE accelerator.

Twenty interviews with PACE coaches and intrapreneurs indicate that this way of describing innovative practice is too elaborate for new innovators to grasp. Intrapreneurs struggle to understand their design process as the theory seems too linear to unlock the full potential of creative divergence and to react to emerging insights from user-tests.

A literature study shows that intrapreneurial skills are vital for the effectiveness of innovation. To achieve success, intrapreneurs need to become more skilled at balancing the five design activities of formulating, representing, moving, evaluating and managing.

To conduct these activities, intrapreneurs benefit from reflexive practice on their use of innovation methodology. Based on design expertise theory, reflection on an intrapreneur’s design process allows for frequent transitions between the five design activities. By doing so, a higher cognitive level is fostered and tacit knowledge is turned into explicit learnings.

This project envisions Dash, a platform for innovation learnings, bringing:
- An integration of all PACE offerings through a visualised overview,
- A low-key way of reflecting on the design process, and
- An encouraging enviroment for innovators to share key insights

By integrating these functions in an online platform, the possibilities of PACE analytics open a new way of exploring causes of less-effective innovation. Propagating a data-driven way of measuring intrapreneurial transformation.

Although the current way of applying PACE is effective to generate disruptive solutions, its presentation through elaborate guides fails to resonate with intrapreneurial expectations. To better leverage intrapreneurial skills and make innovation more effective, I urge a personalised way of presenting PACE to allow for the autonomous design process exploration to flourish.

From here, further research is required to assess the impact of intrapreneurial reflection on the effectiveness of innovation.