InnoBench — AI Innovation Platform
Co-founded an AI-assisted innovation platform that cuts session setup from 45 min to 8 min.
The Signal
Corporate innovation teams were running brainstorming sessions with sticky notes and facilitators. The output was often generic. The best ideas got lost in slide decks. Nothing was systematized.
Context
JB co-founded InnoBench to bring structure and AI to the innovation facilitation space. The problem: existing tools (Miro, Mural, generic whiteboards) were too open-ended. Structured methods (SCAMPER, ASIT) existed but required a trained facilitator to run. Sessions were expensive and inconsistent.
The vision: AI as a thinking partner, not a replacement. The human facilitator is enhanced, not removed.
The Work
Core product design
A session-based workbench where teams define a challenge, select an innovation framework, and run through structured ideation steps. AI generates prompts and suggestions tuned to the specific method — the nudges change depending on whether you're running SCAMPER, ASIT, or Innobench Standard.
Key design decision: AI suggestions are clearly labeled as "starting points." The system resists generating final ideas — it generates questions and provocations that force human creative response.
Key design decisions
- Preserving the facilitator role: the facilitator controls the pace, not the AI
- Ideas are captured as structured cards with custom evaluation criteria
- Real-time collaboration: multiple participants can add ideas simultaneously
- Export to Notion, Miro, PDF
Research
Ran 12 facilitated innovation sessions with our first pilot clients before designing a single screen. Mapped the facilitator's mental model, identified the highest-friction moments (setup, time management, idea synthesis), and designed around those.
Key Insight
The bottleneck wasn't creativity — it was setup. Facilitators spent 45 minutes building a session before anything creative happened.
Automating setup (challenge framing, framework selection, prompt generation) saved 37 minutes per session and freed facilitators to focus on group dynamics.
Outcomes
- −83% session setup time (45 min → 8 min)
- 72 NPS from innovation managers
- 3 enterprise pilots running monthly sessions
- Used by innovation labs at major French companies