Research conducted by Thomke and von Hippel (2002) demonstrates that companies that prioritize experimentation are more likely to achieve breakthrough innovations and gain a competitive edge. At Booking.com for example, they follow a core tenet: Anyone at the company can test anything –without management’s permission. At any given time, quadrillions of landing-page versions are live, meaning two customers in the same location are unlikely to see the same version. This bold approach helped transform a small Dutch start-up into the world’s largest online accommodation platform.

At its fundament, experimentation fuels creativity, promotes problem-solving, and cultivates a culture of continuous improvement.Experimentation Fuels Creativity | Experimentation serves as a catalyst for creativity by encouraging individuals to explore uncharted territories. When we experiment, we step away from the comfort of familiar routines and embrace the unknown.

Experimentation Promotes Problem Solving | Within the scope of innovative practice, we test hypotheses, identify obstacles, and find effective solutions. Innovation leaders use experimentation to provide a structured approach for validating theories and refining understanding.

Experimentation Cultivates Continuous Improvement | Experimentation encourages individuals to view failures not as setbacks but as opportunities for learning and growth. An experiential approach helps to take calculated risks, and as over time, as teams refine existing practices, they push boundaries to achieve breakthroughs.The key to effective experimentation lies in the development of low-fidelity prototypes to gather feedback, in order to test ideas based on real-world data. This data-driven approach minimises risk and enables organisations to make informed decisions. It’s possible to prototype just about anything, so long as we strive to create an environment where it’s okay to present less polished prototypes.“Give your teams freedom to innovate and make things happen, but hold them accountable to a speed of learning. Not a speed of reaching scale—a speed of learning.” – Beth Comstock, former vice chair of GE

Rough and ready prototypes help us to problem solve by quickly trying out various possibilities. But in creative problem solving, we tend to converge our thinking far too quickly, as we rush our efforts to find consensus and an adequate solution within the confines of an allocated meeting. As an innovation leader, we need to strive to help our teams to suspend a decision a little longer, and to spend more time tinkering with possible solutions.

Below we share a curation of resources that were part of the Innovation Culture designed and delivered by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub.