Too many projects, too little impact. This is the reality for many companies today – especially in R&D, innovation management, and strategic project initiatives. There’s no shortage of ideas. What’s missing is a system that channels, prioritizes, and makes these ideas truly effective.
In practice, it often looks like this: Projects flow into the organization unchecked. Strategic goals become diluted. Resources are spread thin across dozens of parallel initiatives. Transparency is lost, priorities blur.
And in the end? A lot of work gets done – but little is actually achieved. Project landscapes fall out of balance. Teams fight on too many fronts at once. And output slows down – instead of speeding up.
💡 Our answer: The Innovation Machine
“The Innovation Machine” (TIM) is our systematic answer to this problem: a clearly structured model that guides strategic ideas through a functioning system – from intake to measurable impact.
Using the hybrid project method STAGILE®, the ALEAS Board, and especially the portfolio and resource management capabilities in ALEAS Projects, we build a resilient system: visible, manageable, and measurable.
The goal:
- More impact with less effort
- More focus through clear prioritization
- More innovation power through controlled flow
🔼 Only strategic initiatives are allowed in
At the start of the Innovation Machine stands the funnel: Only projects and ideas clearly derived from the corporate strategy are allowed in. This doesn’t happen randomly, but through structured processes – such as impact fields, innovation architectures, or direct derivation from strategic goals.
With STAGILE® for Strategy Execution, we help companies turn strategic objectives into real initiatives:
→ prioritized, transparently planned, and execution-oriented. Strategy – Always On!
🛤️ Lateral influence: Recognize opportunities – and control them
Naturally, other topics also push into the organization: customer projects, “hot potatoes,” internal ideas. These lateral influences aren’t bad – but they must not overload the system.
This is where portfolio management with ALEAS Projects comes in: Every topic is evaluated based on defined criteria – business impact, resource needs, urgency, and strategic relevance.
Only the best ideas pass through the filter. The rest is either parked or consistently ended.
🛡️ The Filter: Quality over Quantity
At the center of the Innovation Machine stands the filtering mechanism.
Not every idea becomes a project. Not every project makes a meaningful contribution to strategy.
With clear evaluation matrices and transparent decision-making, ALEAS Projects ensures that only initiatives with real substance move forward.
No more accidental portfolios – but strategically valuable, controlled project landscapes.
🚦 The Start Gate: No Resource Waste from Premature Starts
Another common mistake: Projects are launched before they’re truly ready.
Missing resources, unclear goals, technical uncertainties – all of this clogs the system.
That’s why the Innovation Machine checks before every project launch:
- Is the project technically feasible?
- Are resources firmly committed?
- Is the scope clearly defined?
Only then does the project proceed to execution.
⚙️ Execution: Agility meets Structure – “Getting Things Done” with STAGILE®
During the execution phase, in product development, the heart of the Innovation Machine beats.
Here, we work with STAGILE® for Projects, a hybrid-agile methodology that combines the structure of stage-gates with the speed of agile sprints:
- Easy integration into existing stage-gates for structure
- Scrum and sprints for speed and flexibility
- Empowered teams, sprint contracts, team votings, lessons learned
- Full transparency through the ALEAS Board
The result: Visibility, focus, and real execution momentum.
🔩 Resource Control: Flexibility in Flow
Not every year is the same. Sometimes focus is needed (e.g., in crisis times), sometimes expansion (e.g., with strategic investments).
The Innovation Machine is prepared:
With the “vise” – the capacity control feature in ALEAS Projects – throughput can be flexibly adjusted:
- Tightening = more focus, clearer priorities
- Expanding = targeted investment in new capacities
- Scenario planning = what if?
🧹 Pipeline Maintenance is Mandatory
Innovation systems clog up if not maintained.
Standard changes, shadow projects, increasingly complex processes, technical debt – all these block the flow if not actively removed.
That’s why pipeline maintenance is a must for every portfolio management:
🧽 Streamline
📊 Review structures
🛠️ Remove legacy burdens
🧹 Regularly simplify processes
👻 Expose shadow projects
“Submarine” projects – initiatives that consume resources but don’t appear in official planning – are a major problem in many companies.
They undermine steering, destroy focus, and consume capacities.
With ALEAS Projects, we make these projects visible – and manageable.
📈 Measure More, Guess Less: Where are our Innovation KPIs?
Few areas invest so much while measuring so little as product development.
While sales, procurement, or production are rich in KPIs, innovation often operates in blind flight.
- Are we getting faster?
- Are our projects having impact?
- Are we starting the right topics – or just the loudest ones?
What we don’t measure, we can’t improve.
This is exactly where ALEAS Projects comes in:
With clear KPIs on throughput times, resource focus, budget adherence, and project impact, we provide the basis for informed decisions.
Because: What gets measured, gets done.
🧭 Transparency Instead of Reporting Overload
Another big issue: lack of overview.
Project landscapes disappear into SharePoint graves, reporting runs over countless Excel sheets.
Project managers spend hours creating slides – without real added value.
It can be done differently:
With ALEAS Projects, a central, evaluable view of the entire project portfolio is created – anytime, from any angle.
Trends become visible, bottlenecks are detected, decision bases are immediately available.
And for project managers, this means:
10 minutes of effort per month – instead of reporting chaos.
💥 Conclusion: Structure Brings Innovation to Life
Companies have enough ideas.
What’s missing is a system that transforms these ideas into real results.
The Innovation Machine is that system:
- visible
- manageable
- impactful
With ALEAS Projects, ALEAS Board, and STAGILE®, we turn strategic ambitions into real, measurable outcomes.
🔧 Our Tools for Sustainable Impact
- ALEAS Projects – Portfolio management, resource control, KPI tracking
- ALEAS Board – Agile project planning, sprint management, transparency
- STAGILE® – Hybrid-agile framework for product development and strategy execution, focus, transparency – Getting Things Done!
Klaus Madlener | STAGILE® Coach
