Innovation Pilot Management Software

Execute, govern, and scale innovation pilots with confidence

Traction’s Innovation Pilot Management software helps enterprise teams run structured, decision-ready pilots — with built-in governance, clear evaluation criteria, and AI-powered decision intelligence — so innovation moves forward with confidence, not guesswork.

Innovation Pilot Management is a core capability within the Traction Innovation Management Platform.

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What Is Innovation Pilot Management?

Innovation pilot management is the structured execution, governance, and evaluation of hypothesis-driven pilots designed to assess new ideas, emerging technologies, partners, or business initiatives before scaling.

Unlike traditional project management, innovation pilot management focuses on:
  • Learning and validation
  • Risk reduction
  • Evidence-based decision making
  • Go / no-go outcomes
It ensures pilots generate decision-ready insights, not just activity.

Why Project Management Tools Fall Short for Innovation Pilots

Traditional project management tools are built to track tasks and timelines — not uncertainty.

Project Management vs. Innovation Pilot Management

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Project Management
  • Deliver tasks on time
  • Low uncertainty
  • Task completion
  • Optional governance
  • Manual analysis
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Innovation Pilot Management
  • Validate assumptions and outcomes
  • High uncertainty
  • Evidence and insight
  • Built-in governance
  • AI-assisted decision intelligence
VS
Project management tools tell you what happened.
Innovation pilot management tells you what to do next.

How Traction Supports Innovation Pilot Management

Traction provides a structured, end-to-end system for managing pilots from definition through scale.
Structured Pilot Design
  • Define the hypothesis and success criteria
  • Align stakeholders across innovation, IT, business, and procurement
  • Establish governance and approval checkpoints
Evidence Capture During Execution
  • Centralized capture of findings, outcomes, and feedback
  • Consistent data structures across pilots
  • Transparent audit trails
Evaluation & Decision Intelligence
  • Compare results against predefined success metrics
  • Use AI-generated insights to surface patterns, risks, and opportunities
  • Support go / no-go / iterate decisions with confidence
Scale What Works
  • Promote successful pilots into broader initiatives
  • Create repeatable playbooks
  • Maintain visibility across the innovation portfolio

We Deliver Real-World Results

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3x

faster

evaluation and deployment of new technologies

fewer icon
30%

fewer

internal resources needed for innovation management

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6x

more

products considered for pilot or full implementation

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50%

less cost

than running multiple point solutions

Built-In Governance for Enterprise Teams

Innovation pilots touch security, compliance, finance, and operations. Traction embeds governance directly into pilot workflows.

Governance Without Friction

  • Approval gates and review stages
  • Role-based access and accountability
  • Clear ownership at every stage
Governance is not an afterthought — it’s part of how pilots are designed, executed, and evaluated.
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Decision Intelligence Powered by Traction AI

Traction AI enhances pilot management by turning complex inputs into clear, decision-ready outputs.

AI-Generated Insights

  • Normalize pilot results across teams and initiatives
  • Surface trends, risks, and signals early
  • Support consistent evaluation at scale

Decision Support, Not Decision Replacement

Traction AI accelerates analysis and insight generation — while final decisions remain with people. This ensures speed without sacrificing accountability or trust.

Part of the Traction Innovation Management Platform

Innovation Pilot Management is not a standalone tool. It’s a core capability within the Traction Innovation Management Platform, working seamlessly with:
  • Idea capture and internal challenges
  • Emerging technology and vendor evaluation
  • Innovation portfolio management
  • Reporting and KPI tracking
This creates a single system of record from idea → pilot → scale.
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Who Uses Innovation Pilot Management Software

Traction is used by enterprise teams responsible for turning uncertainty into action, including:
  • Central innovation teams
  • Digital transformation and IT strategy teams
  • Corporate venture and partnerships groups
  • Procurement and vendor evaluation teams
  • Business unit leaders sponsoring pilots

Frequently Asked Questions

Is innovation pilot management the same as project management?
Can innovation pilots be governed at enterprise scale?
 Is Innovation Pilot Management a standalone product?

Turn Pilots Into Progress

Innovation doesn’t fail because teams lack ideas — it fails when pilots don’t produce clear decisions.
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Traction’s Innovation Pilot Management software helps enterprise teams move from experimentation to execution with confidence.

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Our Customers

Innovation Leaders Trust Traction

4.5 out of 5 Stars
"A helpful tool to keep track of our Vendors and selection efforts"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The software is fairly intuitive to use. The product team is very supportive. We are able to easily add vendors to our database and setup custom fields to track the key information we need. The tool also allows us to send out requests to the vendors to keep the info up to date. "
4.5 Stars out of 5
"Great tool that can be leveraged for efficiently organizing and tracking startups."

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The founders have been very active in engaging with our company to develop new features for specific use cases.
4.5 Stars out 5
"Wonderful system backed by great people"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is a flexible solution for many reverse CRM needs in my organization. The custom solution they added for our needs has become an invaluable tool for GSK R&D!
5 Stars out of 5
‍"An important partnership!"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? We have been working with Traction Technology for several years, especially for technology sourcing and progress management of collaboration with startups. They are attentive to understanding our needs, and the outputs are always gratifying.
5 Stars out of 5
"Central product for our Innovation strategy"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is the perfect tool to bring all our innovation activities together. Allowing us to collate, review and assess the latest companies on one platform as a team.
5 Stars out of 5
"Great experience with Traction Tech"

‍What do you like best about Traction Technology? The ease of use of the platform and the team works well with our needs and innovation team.
"
Traction Technologies helped launch an expansion of a corporate venture scouting effort with a brilliant analyst, a customizable data platform and the personal engagement of their co-founders. It is one of the best professional services engagements I’ve experienced."

Louis Kim

VP, HP Inc.

"
I think what you are doing is important to the entire corporate innovation community. We still use spreadsheets. We need this."

Chief Innovation Officer

Consumer Goods Company

"
We were looking to combine our Ideation tool and startup management process. Traction is the perfect combination."

Head of Emerging Technology

Startup Liaison Officer

"
We threw our hardest problems at Traction. Whether it was machine learning, spatial search, or predictive analytics, Traction always delivered."

SVP

Emerging Technologies, Fortune 50 company

"
Traction introduced us to AI robotics startups from the manufacturing world that we could apply to our industry. We would have never found them on our own."

CIO

Restaurant chain

"
You guys think about the problem the same way I do"

Startup Liaison Officer

Defense Contractor

Our Customers

Innovation Leaders Trust Traction

4.5 out of 5 Stars
"A helpful tool to keep track of our Vendors and selection efforts"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The software is fairly intuitive to use. The product team is very supportive. We are able to easily add vendors to our database and setup custom fields to track the key information we need. The tool also allows us to send out requests to the vendors to keep the info up to date. "
4.5 Stars out of 5
"Great tool that can be leveraged for efficiently organizing and tracking startups."

What do you like best about Traction Technology? The founders have been very active in engaging with our company to develop new features for specific use cases.
4.5 Stars out 5
"Wonderful system backed by great people"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is a flexible solution for many reverse CRM needs in my organization. The custom solution they added for our needs has become an invaluable tool for GSK R&D!
5 Stars out of 5
‍"An important partnership!"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? We have been working with Traction Technology for several years, especially for technology sourcing and progress management of collaboration with startups. They are attentive to understanding our needs, and the outputs are always gratifying.
5 Stars out of 5
"Central product for our Innovation strategy"

What do you like best about Traction Technology? Traction is the perfect tool to bring all our innovation activities together. Allowing us to collate, review and assess the latest companies on one platform as a team.
5 Stars out of 5
"Great experience with Traction Tech"

‍What do you like best about Traction Technology? The ease of use of the platform and the team works well with our needs and innovation team.
"
Traction Technologies helped launch an expansion of a corporate venture scouting effort with a brilliant analyst, a customizable data platform and the personal engagement of their co-founders. It is one of the best professional services engagements I’ve experienced."

Louis Kim

VP, HP Inc.

"
I think what you are doing is important to the entire corporate innovation community. We still use spreadsheets. We need this."

Chief Innovation Officer

Consumer Goods Company

"
We were looking to combine our Ideation tool and startup management process. Traction is the perfect combination."

Head of Emerging Technology

Startup Liaison Officer

"
We threw our hardest problems at Traction. Whether it was machine learning, spatial search, or predictive analytics, Traction always delivered."

SVP

Emerging Technologies, Fortune 50 company

"
Traction introduced us to AI robotics startups from the manufacturing world that we could apply to our industry. We would have never found them on our own."

CIO

Restaurant chain

"
You guys think about the problem the same way I do"

Startup Liaison Officer

Defense Contractor

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The Traction Innovation Guide is a practical framework for identifying and scaling technologies that deliver real business results. It helps enterprise teams stop chasing ideas and make confident, high-impact innovation decisions faster.
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