Innovative initiatives can be in various stages of their lifecycle. A frequent classification distinguishes between the phases of exploration, growth, and exploitation. When designing an adaptive project for exploratory innovation, the subsequent phases of growth and exploitation are part of the overall business case. Indeed, the financial value can be determined only when linking efforts (the blue bricks) with the ROI (the yellow bricks).

The overall project design is very similar to the use case New Product & Service Introduction, see Use Cases > New product & service Introduction. The major particularity may be that the initial investigation steps are strongly inspired by the Lean Startup approach, with uncertainties about the value proposition, the problem solution fit, the product market fit, etc.