AI Meets the Innovation Performance Framework®: Hands-On Masterclass
Downtown Zürich, Switzerland.
November 11-12, 2026
Is your innovation program delivering the financial returns it should? The companies that consistently outperform don’t rely on luck — they run a proven system, and now use AI to run it faster. This two-day Masterclass teaches you both.
Stop sitting through innovation theory. In two days, you’ll apply proven Stage-Gate® practices and AI tools directly to your own program — and leave with working examples and a 90-day action plan, not another binder of slides.
Who Should Attend?
You should attend if you are: |
This Masterclass is not for |
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What you will leave with
- A comprehensive view of the proven practices that drive superior corporate innovation results — plus a personalized gap analysis showing exactly where to focus.
- Real, working examples of AI tools applied to your own business — not generic demos.
- A 90-day action plan, built during the Masterclass, that you can present to your leadership team the following week.
Why this Masterclass is different
Learn by doing, not learn by listening:
| This Masterclass | Academic Course | Innovation Consultant Workshop | |
| Format | Fully hands-on. Every module includes a live exercise applying AI tools and proven techniques to your own business. Laptop required. | Lecture-based, case discussion, no hands-on. | PowerPoint presentations. Passive participation. |
| Content | The proven Innovation Performance Framework, used by thousands of companies worldwide, integrating strategy, portfolio governance, organization, and project process into one system. | Broad theory and various models, loosely tied together. Limited real-world experience. | Often a single topic, deep in one innovation method devised by the consultant and used by some of their clients. |
| Personalized | Learning tailored to your business, in full confidentiality. | Generic, hypothetical cases. | Cases drawn from the consultant’s own clients, not your business. |
| AI Integration | Hands-on AI tools used in every module to experiment with each practice. | Often bolted on as a stand-alone topic and not hands-on usage. | Focused only on the consultant’s single topic. |
| Group Size | Capped to 16 experienced practitioners, for a personalized learning experience. | Uncapped open enrollment, variable audience experience. | Uncapped open enrollment, variable audience experience. |
| Takeaway | Working examples configured on your own laptop, plus a 90-day action plan tailored to your business. | Your notes, a copy of the presentation, and some academic articles. | Your notes, a copy of the presentation, and some customer case studies. |
Two-Day Agenda
The Masterclass consists of eight learning modules across the two days. Day one focuses on ‘Investing Innovation Money’ – the approaches leading innovators use to allocate limited budgets and resources on the optimal mix of bets on strategies, markets, products, services and technologies.
Day two focuses on ‘Making Innovation Money’ – the approaches leading businesses use to convert innovation investment into incremental revenue, profit and business growth. We end the Masterclass by prioritizing your 90 day action plan to apply these techniques for your own business.
| DAY 1 | Four modules to “Invest Innovation Money” |
| 7:30 am | Breakfast & setup Join us for breakfast, and get your laptops connected to use our Masterclass AI toolsets, before we start the Masterclass at 9 am. |
| 9:00 am | Module 1: Why do we need to change? “All progress starts by telling the truth.” We open with an overview of the proven Innovation Performance Framework® — how leading innovators worldwide integrate strategy, portfolio governance, people, and project practices to generate 2x more innovation revenue and profit than their peers. Using our Benchmarker™ tool, you’ll self-assess your organization’s current practices and get a gap analysis against industry benchmarks — your personal focus map for the rest of the Masterclass. |
| 10:30 am | Break |
| 10:45 am | Module 2: Product Innovation & Technology Strategy “Without a target you will always miss.” Every business’s innovation strategy is unique, but a few core elements are non-negotiable. In this module, you’ll define Innovation Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), evaluate strategic arenas, and establish your ‘Innovation Venture Funds’. Our AI toolset accelerates and validates the work, generating your own Product Innovation and Technology Strategy report. |
| 12:15 pm | Lunch Informal discussion & learning with your peers over lunch. |
| 1:00 pm | Module 3: Portfolio Governance “Strategy becomes real when you start spending money.” With your Innovation Venture Funds defined, we now prioritize the investment opportunities inside each one. You’ll define project types with distinct Stage-Gate pathways, build a portfolio project roadmap and prioritize projects within it. Finally, you’ll use an AI tool to put a financial value on new ideas — a fast way to gauge which opportunities are worth pursuing first. |
| 2:30 pm | Break |
| 2:45 pm | Module 4: Gates with Teeth “The disciplined investor buys one project Stage at a time.” This module covers the critical last step in investing innovation money: Stage-by-Stage funding decisions, made at ‘Gates’. You’ll evaluate standard decision tools — Gate packages, scorecards, and bottleneck analysis — then experiment with two AI tools built to sharpen Gate decisions further: project valuation analysis and AI-augmented Gate scoring. |
| 4:15 pm | Day 1 Summary We close the day with a review of the practices to ‘Invest Innovation Money’ and an AI generated report customized for your business. |
| 5 pm – 7 pm |
Networking Reception Join us for a buffet reception and a live Question & Answer session with a guest speaker. |
| DAY 2 | Four modules to “Make Innovation Money” |
| 7:30 am | Breakfast & observations from Day 1 Join us for breakfast and discussions about Day 1, before we start Day 2. |
| 9:00 am | Module 5: Innovation project teams & resources “Innovation is a cross-functional team sport.” Cross-functional teams are essential to innovation success — yet so often poorly structured. In this module, you’ll define the right team roles for each project pathway in your business, including the essential Project Leader role, and review how resource bottleneck analysis helps Gatekeepers keep projects properly staffed. Finally, you’ll explore how AI agents can boost team effectiveness and productivity. |
| 10:15 am | Break |
| 10:30 am | Module 6: Projects Stage-by-Stage – agile value creation “Are we creating value and reducing uncertainty, or filling in forms?” What should project teams actually focus on in each Stage? In this module, you’ll explore how teams tailor their activities toward value creation and de-risking, review the four key project workstreams, and identify the certainty threshold needed to advance to the next Stage — and how AI changes that work. You’ll experiment with an AI financial valuation tool that assesses project risk to guide decisions, then pinpoint the biggest opportunities to upgrade your own Stage-Gate process. |
| 12:00 pm | Lunch Informal discussion & learning with your peers over lunch. |
| 12:45 pm | Module 7: What do customers want? – Voice of Customer with Jobs to be Done “The #1 driver of new product success – compelling customer value proposition and unique competitive advantage.” Before developing a product, teams must answer one critical question: what do customers want that they aren’t getting today? Voice-of-customer research is often the weakest link in this process — can AI accelerate it? In this module, you’ll use AI to run a Jobs-to-Be-Done assessment of market needs, customer segmentation, and competitive landscape, then convert those insights into product value propositions, and competitive positioning statements – the most important drivers of new product success. |
| 2:00 pm | Break |
| 2:15 pm | Module 7 continued |
| 3 pm | Module 8: Bringing it home – your 90 day AI augmented action plan “Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” You started by identifying where to improve. Now you’ll prioritize what you’ve learned into near-term (90-day) and longer-term actions. You’ll leave with an AI-generated action plan report, built from your own work throughout the Masterclass — your starting point for scoping the changes and gaining buy-in back home. |
| 4:00 pm | Masterclass close |
Colin Palombo – Your Masterclass Facilitator
Colin Palombo is a Managing Partner of Stage-Gate International. He is a globally recognized authority on the Stage-Gate Innovation Performance Framework and the application of AI toolsets to the Framework, as pioneered by our founder Dr. Robert Cooper. Colin has delivered Masterclasses and training workshops for corporate clients worldwide, drawing on more than 30 years of consulting experience with R&D-focused organizations across the United States, Europe, Japan, and Korea.
Colin is also an Abundance 360 Partner with Singularity University, a former Visiting Professor of Innovation at Strathclyde Business School and holds a MBA with distinction from INSEAD and a MA in Engineering & Computer Science from the University of Cambridge. colin.palombo@stage-gate.com
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Masterclass Pricing
Enrollment is limited to the first 16 qualified participants to register. Prices shown in Swiss Francs (CHF) and Euros (€); payment accepted in either currency.
| Standard price | CHF 4,100 / 4,400 € | Enroll before 15 October 2026. |
| Early-bird price | CHF 3,600 / 3,900 € | Enroll before 15 September 2026. |
| Early-bird team price | CHF 3,100 / 3,300 € | Enroll before 15 September 2026, for three or more participants from the same company. |
Each participant will bring their own laptop with the ability to login to the meeting room internet and access our AI toolsets to conduct the exercises. The Masterclass is conducted in English. Participants will make their own travel and accommodation arrangements to attend the Masterclass.
Reserve your seat now
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What if my organization doesn’t currently use a formal Stage-Gate or phase-gate process?
That’s fine — in fact, many participants come from organizations with an informal or partially structured process. The Masterclass is designed to work whether you’re refining an existing Stage-Gate system or building the foundations of one. You’ll use our Benchmarker™ tool to assess your current state, however informal, and leave with a clear roadmap for introducing more structure where it will have the most impact.
Q: What AI tools will we use, and do I need to purchase anything in advance?
You’ll use Stage-Gate International’s proprietary AI toolset, provided as part of your enrollment — there’s nothing to purchase or install beforehand. You’ll need a laptop with a web browser and the ability to connect to the venue’s internet. Login credentials and setup instructions will be provided to you at the start of the Masterclass.
Q: Is my project or company data kept confidential if I use it during the exercises?
Yes. Any business or project data you bring is used solely for your own exercises during the Masterclass and is not shared with other participants, retained by Stage-Gate International beyond the session, or used to train AI models. You may copy all outputs from our AI toolset exercises directly to files on your own laptop during the Masterclass. All your data submitted to our AI toolsets is deleted after the Masterclass ends (with no backup or copy). You’re also welcome to use disguised or simplified data if you prefer not to work with sensitive figures directly.
Q: What happens after the Masterclass — is there any follow-up support to help implement my 90-day plan?
You’ll leave with your personal action plan report and access to your configured templates and tools for continued use. Stage-Gate International also offers optional follow-up coaching and implementation support services for individuals or teams who want structured help turning the plan into results — ask your facilitator for details during the Masterclass.
Why Stage-Gate® International — & No One Else
This is the question we encourage you to ask any innovation consulting firm. The answer matters.
The World’s Most Proven Innovation Methodology
Companies that use the Innovation Performance Framework achieve roughly 2x the new product success rate of their peers, as independently verified by the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) across multiple benchmarking studies. That track record has made it the global standard — used by 54% of companies worldwide in 2024, according to the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA).
We Wrote the Playbook. Literally.
Stage-Gate® International was founded by Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett — the researchers and practitioners who created the Stage-Gate® Innovation Performance Framework®, the most widely adopted and independently validated new product development methodology in the world.
No other firm owns this intellectual property or has the original know-how to apply it correctly. Any firm teaching Stage-Gate is teaching our framework — we are the authentic source.
Our four definitive books on the practices of innovation – Product Innovation and Technology Strategy, Portfolio Management for New Products, Product Leadership, and Winning at New Products – form the basis of our comprehensive Innovation Performance Framework adopted by leading innovative companies across industries, cultures and countries worldwide.