The problem with cool ideas
You’ve probably seen them: dancing robots at trade shows, robots running obstacle courses, robots that mimic animals or do backflips.
Impressive? Sure. Useful? Not really.
In hospitals, I’ve seen real-life examples of this. Tucked away in basements, you’ll find delivery robots and cleaning bots that were supposed to change everything. Now they’re gathering dust.
Why? Because no one checked if they solved an actual problem.
Buying tech for the wrong reasons
Many of these robots were bought because someone got excited.
- The vendor gave a slick demo.
- The innovation manager had budget.
- The board liked the idea of being “cutting-edge.”
But no one asked the hard question: Who needs this?
Or better: What pain does it remove?
This is where Innovation Accounting helps
Innovation Accounting, as described by Dan Toma and Esther Gons in the books The Corporate Startup and Innovation Accounting , gives you a way to test ideas before you commit to them.
It doesn’t look at ROI or budget spend. It looks at evidence:
- Is this solving a real problem?
- For whom?
- Have we tested this in real conditions?
What I do with my clients
In my work as a consultant, I use this method to avoid dead-end projects. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
1. Focus on problems first
Before looking at any solution, we find the friction points. In a hospital setting, that could be:
- Nurses spending too much time walking between wings
- Medication arriving late to the ward
- Patients not finding their rooms
We interview people. Observe shifts. Ask dumb questions.
Only once we understand the pain, we look at possible tools. Maybe a robot helps. Maybe a printed sign would’ve been better.
2. Track evidence, not opinions
I use an evidence board. It’s a simple way to track what we’ve learned. It might say:
| Hypothesis | Test | Results | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nurse waste 45 min/day walking | Shadowed 3 nurses | Avg: 12 min/day | Don’t solve this-minor issue |
That small table might save €80,000 and a failed pilot.
3. Use the right metrics
I don’t look at “How many robots delivered trays?”
I ask:
- How much did this reduce staff workload?
- How much did it improve patient flow?
- Do users want to keep it?
Sometimes the answer is no. And that’s fine—as long as you stop early.
What happens without Innovation Accounting
Back to that dusty robot in the basement.
Here’s what probably happened:
- Robot looked cool in the vendor’s video.
- Internal project approved fast.
- It didn’t fit the actual workflows.
- No one used it.
- Now it’s forgotten.
- Innovation manager left the organization.
No one was evil. No one was stupid.
They just didn’t check for a real need.
Metrics that help avoid this
Here are a few metrics I help clients track, depending on the stage:
| Stage | Metric example |
|---|---|
| Problem validation | % of users naming the same problem |
| Solution testing | Time saved per task in real usage |
| Adoption readiness | % of staff saying they’d use it tomorrow |
| Innovation portfolio oversight | % of ideas killed early due to no traction |
These metrics don’t show up in a financial report. But they tell you what matters.
Get the manual process right first
Before thinking about robots or automation, there’s a basic rule I follow in every project:
Fix the manual process first.
If people don’t know how something works without a robot, adding one won’t help. It just hides the chaos under a layer of tech.
In hospitals, for example, I’ve seen teams order robots to deliver meals or medication. But they never mapped the delivery process itself. They didn’t know:
- Who was responsible for what?
- When delays usually happened?
- Where the handovers failed?
No robot can fix that. You’ll just automate the confusion.
That’s why innovation starts low-tech. Walk the process. Time it. Sketch it on paper. Test ideas with cardboard if you have to. Only once you understand what’s broken does it make sense to automate.
Innovation accounting gives you a framework for that. It slows you down just enough to avoid waste. And speeds you up where it counts.
Final thoughts
Innovation isn’t about buying tech. It’s about solving problems.
Dancing robots are fun, but unless they fix a real issue, they’ll end up in storage.
Innovation Accounting helps you avoid that. It gives you the tools to test early, stop waste, and focus on things that matter.
If you’re working in a hospital, municipality, or corporate innovation team and you’re tired of unused tech projects. Let’s talk .
I use this method to bring clarity and focus to innovation portfolios. No jargon. Just honest, structured work.