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Innovation Accounting

Tracking what a new venture has learned against its key assumptions, to guide funding decisions.

What is Innovation Accounting?

Tracking what a new venture has learned against its key assumptions, to guide funding decisions.

What you learn

Measure what you’ve learned, then decide: continue, change or stop.

When it helps

reports count activity, like features shipped, without showing what’s now known.

Use it at work

  1. List the venture’s key assumptions.
  2. Set the result each assumption needs.
  3. After each experiment, record what you learned.
  4. Decide at set points: continue, change or stop.

Your output

In your next update, replace activity counts with what you believed, what you learned and what you’ll do differently.

Watch for

Reporting activity, such as features shipped, instead of learning.

Related practices

Sources

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