Audrey Mifsud
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Telecoms · Innovation

Innovation Lab launch

How we built an innovation lab that tests new ideas in 12 weeks, not a year.

Client
A major UK telco
My role
Senior Innovation Manager, founding team
Year
2025–26

~12 weeks

Idea to live pilot, down from 1 year+

93%

Lower cost than BAU projects

4 vs 10+

Team size vs BAU

01

The challenge

A major UK telco needed growth beyond its core business, but every new idea took over a year and £1.5m+ to reach market, with no way to test it first.

02

What I did

To launch an Innovation Lab:

  1. 01

    Diagnose

    Narrowed 10 market categories to 5 new growth territories through customer and commercial research.

  2. 02

    Design

    Built a two-engine operating model and OKR tracker that measure every pilot against BAU.

  3. 03

    Prove

    Ran tests, research and live pilots with real customers.

  4. 04

    Scale / Kill

    Backed what worked and stopped what didn't, before either reached full investment.

03

The outcome

  • A repeatable way to test growth ideas before committing full investment
  • Bad bets stopped early, good ones backed with evidence
  • Pilot costs reduced to a fraction of BAU, freeing budget for more bets

See a pilot from the lab

How I launched a major UK telco's first screen-free kids' device in 10 weeks

This summary is intentionally brief. Get in touch to hear more.

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