Innovation Tool Kit

A multi-disciplinary team of MITRE engineers curated the MITRE Innovation Toolkit
to help our colleagues, sponsors, and collaborators jumpstart the innovation process.

Let’s Get Started

Not sure where to start? Use these example toolchains to kick-off
your problem-solving no matter what stage your project is in. Or, find our
full list of tools here.


1. Start here 


2. Then here 


3. Finish here


I Need an Idea

System Map
Lotus Blossom
Stormdraining

I Have an Early Idea
Personas
Storyboarding
Prototyping

I Have a Mature Idea
Rose, Bud, Thorn
Trimming
Value Proposition

Identify Opportunities
Journey Mapping
Community Map
Mission Vision

Identify Problems
and Solutions
Problem Framing
PAINstorming
Mindmapping

See what our Toolkit users are saying!

“The power of the Participatory Design tool is the synergy that develops when you have people with operational expertise, development expertise, and visualization expertise working together on innovative solutions. The Participatory Design process is a great way to identify design solutions as well as the key decisions, functions, and knowledge that need to be supported through the design.”

Patty McDermott

Group Leader, MITRE

“The ITK’s Premortem tool had my team talking together more honestly than I’ve ever seen them talk.”
Matt Merrill

Software Engineer, MITRE

“The Innovation Toolkit offers a unique element of expertise that MITRE can bring directly to our sponsors and partners.  The brainstorming tool TRIZ Prism and the Lotus Blossom tool to arrange relationships between concepts have been effectively used to create open government challenges to share with the startup community.”
Russ Graves

Department Head, MITRE

The double diamond is a well-known visual map of the design process starting with the challenge at hand and ending with a final solution. The process pairs divergent thinking – where the participants come up with many ideas – with convergent thinking – narrowing the ideas down to the most feasible and practical.

itk@mitre.org

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