- Our offer
-
Acceleration programs
-
- Our story
- Team & People
- Knowledge
- Contact
Case study
3 to 4 business days
Average time required to implement the innovation pathway.
8 opportunities
Number of identified process improvement opportunities.
4 weeks
Time savings as a result of process efficiencies.
It is commonly known that innovation is the key to success in an increasingly competitive market and during a difficult economic time. Many companies are ready to innovate.
They have even done extensive research into client needs; some may even have a dedicated innovation team in place which evaluates and manages the ideas that the company wants to implement. Unfortunately, they don’t have the processes in place to effectively bring these to life and they come up against a number of challenges.
The Organization Team wanted to map what steps needed to be taken in their organization in order to effectively test the viability of particular ideas. They often worked with startups in order to verify concepts, and they wanted to maintain a fast pace of innovation. However, they found that they frequently got quite far down the line with a given startup partner, only to later find that the relationship wasn’t right for them for a number of reasons. This led to time and resources being needlessly wasted.
The second challenge was implementation. The internal innovation team would often come up with an idea that needed to be tested, and this was passed on to other teams across the business for their input, but it wasn’t taken further.
The same challenges are present in a number of organizations, across different sectors. Here’s where Huge Thing is able to offer support.
The Huge Thing team has worked with businesses facing such challenges to map current innovation pathways and create a modification which would speed things up.
The process usually begins with mapping out a general process steps alongside the internal innovation team or project owner. Later this map is further honed with input from other stakeholders and teams across the business.
As a result, a matrix is formed which shows the steps that need to be taken for a given hypothesis to be tested, who the process owners are and what needs to happen next. We also define the documents and the criteria that should be verified at different stages of the process, and outline the ‘deal breaker’ questions that need to be answered before a new startup is onboarded to support with implementation.
There are some common traps that businesses can fall into, such as not checking who the shareholders of a given startup are (e.g. whether they are their direct competitors), or whether a startup has the right financing in place. An important part of the process is identifying process blockers and creating improvement proposals.
The next important stage was implementation. We mapped out the steps that needed to be taken to bring the highest priority innovation plans to life.
We also defined some strict KPIs, which would enable the company to track how it was performing against its targets.
The result is the detailed innovation pathway map with recommendations on how to improve activities at individual stages of the process.
This map not only helps to accelerate activities but is also a good tool for teaching the organization how to work with innovations and can support with onboarding new employees to the process.
We’ve had highly positive feedback from many internal teams at the companies in which we’ve implemented innovation pathways. We were particularly praised for the fact that we drastically improved the ‘time to value’ when it came to innovation, and that we helped to remove the common blockers that stood in the way of the effective testing and implementation of new ideas.
Check out other examples of our projects
Monika Synoradzka
CEO and Managing Partner at SpeedUp group
Don’t hesitate to each out.
We’ll be more than happy, to answer you!
Huge Thing 2022 © All Rights Reserved
Maryla Wojcieszek
Interim Head of Knowledge, Innovation Shaper
As Innovation Shaper at Huge Thing, Maryla supports large organizations in processes related to innovation. That includes, among others: ‘as is’ diagnosis, analysis and (re-)design of processes, innovation framework design, structuring the work of innovation teams, and facilitating cooperation with startups. As the Interim Head of Knowledge, Maryla is responsible for the materialization and transfer of knowledge as well as talent management within the Huge Thing team. She designs and creates new products/services based on internal knowledge resources as well as new models of delivery and dissemination. She’s also a workshop designer and facilitator.
Experienced designer of (public) programs supporting the startup ecosystem in Poland. In her professional experience, as an Expert in the Startup Development Department at PARP, Maryla co-created, among others, the Scale UP program – the first public acceleration program connecting startups and corporations.
A gardener and a LEGO fan.
Mateusz Szymański
Junior Program Manager
Tech and innovation enthusiasts, especially those with positive social impact, Greentech, and health tech solutions. In Huge Thing, Mateusz is responsible for co-running acceleration programs. In 2022 he was co-running the 12th edition of the Google for Startups pre-acceleration program.
Previously he worked in the sales and product departments, where he was responsible for outreach activities and product communication. He’s also gained experience in project coordination and internal communication, working as a Spokesperson for Poznań’s department of NGO organization The Polish Forum of Young Diplomats. He was a co-creator of the social campaign “Paragraphs without blunder” which mission was to educate high school students about their rights.
During his spare time, he likes to read about international politics and the economy. Strategic games enjoyer. He’ll surely like to play chess with you.
Kaja Kulas
Program Manager
Kaja joined the Huge Thing team in May 2022. For several years she’s been connected with the startup ecosystem. She helps international startups in growing their businesses in Poland and across Europe.
In Huge Thing, Kaja is responsible for project management which include running educational programs for startups in their development and acceleration phase. She organizes events, workshops and trainings for the program participants. She monitors their growth and connects with partners and technology recipes. Also, Kaja takes care of relations, community building, recruitments and explorations of startups’ needs to bring them the best value of our programmes.
Before Huge Thing, she gained her experience in Poznan Science and Technology Park developing international projects funded by the European Commission. Kaja was a part of the PSTP Capital Fund and Regional Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union. She is passionate about travels, sports, music and dogs. Kaja is a happy “dog mom” of our team member – Nala whom you can pet while visiting us. :)
Zuza Kowala
Innovation Manager, Program Manager
Zuza joined Huge Thing in 2021. She is responsible for acceleration programs like GovTech Inno_Lab and Żabka Future Lab.
Also as Maryla, Zuza supports large organizations in processes related to innovation. That includes, among others: design of processes, innovation framework design, structuring the work of innovation teams and facilitating cooperation with startups.
Before joining Innovation Monsters, Zuza led projects at Żabka Polska, earlier connected with automotive at Volkswagen Group Polska. In Żabka, she was responsible for project management, coordinating the teamwork according to the best practice – she was looking for the best way to keep the process alive.
Zuza is also a sportaholic, innovation seeker, and book lover.
Magda Stachowiak
Project Manager
Magda joined Huge Thing in 2021. Responsible for our Gov Tech inno_Lab acceleration programs and cooperation with the public administration. She runs projects for smart city. She is also responsible for building bridges between innovators – corporations, startups and the administration.
Previously, since 2015, she cooperated on our projects for Gov Tech and corporations. Connected with the Poznań Startup Community. Experience in organizing events for the MedTech community. She worked in advertising and interactive agencies, creating brand campaigns and loyalty programs. She helped implement technologies into the organization.
Passionate about personal development, psychobiology, and supporting women in creating businesses. The creator of the projects Kobiecy Poznań Przebudzenie and Joy of Life.
Damian Wielechowski
Senior Marketing and Communication Manager
Damian manages the external and internal communications of SpeedUp Group, including Huge Thing. He joined the team in 2017 and since then has been working with business representatives, business environment institutions, public administration, media, and the academic community.
In addition to activities related to Speedup Group, Damian supports the fund’s portfolio companies in the area of marketing and PR. He has served on the jury of many competitions, including ImpactCEE, and acted as a mentor at startup events such as hackathons and Startup Weekend.
Damian is also the author of the Poznan Startup Guide and co-author of the Krakow Startup Guide, as well as organizer of many events dedicated to startups and investors.
Agnieszka Cichocka
Head of Acceleration
Agnieszka joined Huge Thing in 2021. She is responsible for our acceleration programs. She is passionate about art, technology, and gendered innovations. Previously, Director of District Hall Warsaw and Startup Development Department Manager at Incubator Starter.
Co-creator of Techseed.me technological acceleration program and the first coliving space in Poland for digital nomads.
Natalia Sadownik
Delivery Lead, Senior Program Manager
Natalia joined Huge Thing in 2019. As a Senior Program Manager, she implements acceleration and educational programs (Poland Prize, PlusJeden do Rozwoju) in line with Huge Thing’s standards.
As a Delivery Lead, she focuses on the operation of Huge Thing as an organization, financial issues, team planning, and quality of activities carried out by the company. Natalia loves to sail around Masuria and Croatia, and on gray days eats sushi and watches tennis.
Monika Synoradzka
CEO of Huge Thing and managing partner at Speedup group
Monika together with the HT team is responsible for the company’s development in startup acceleration and activities aimed at supporting organizations from the private and public sectors in their work with innovations.
She specializes in implementing innovations in organizations and building a culture of innovation in companies from various sectors. For years, she has supported the development of Poland’s startup environment.
Monika is also a Managing Partner at SpeedUp Venture Capital Group. Thanks to her knowledge and experience, she helps portfolio companies to understand the operation of large organizations and corporations and prepare to work with them. She also supports them in building business relationships.
