Surprisingly, one reason innovation fails so miserably is not a lack of ideas but an overabundance of them. Companies generate scores of initiatives, put them in 'funnels,' then shepherd them along in a big pack. This dissipates scarce resources rather than concentrating them, so no idea gets much focus. Often this forces firms to reduce all innovation candidates to estimates of their financial returns (even though these are notoriously unreliable) and pick ideas 'by the numbers.'

Of course there's a better way. You start by authoring fewer and stronger concepts in the first place, building them from a rich understanding of customers and of company capabilities. Then you prototype ideas in tangible ways that go far beyond financial modeling, making it easy to elicit realistic reactions from customers and partners. Other timely tasks, like using a good developmental roadmap, help firms to stand in the future, make the concepts stronger, and dramatically 'de-risk' innovation.