How to Measure Innovation: Why “Shots Taken” Might Be Your Best Metric
When organizations talk about innovation, they usually focus on outcomes, the idea, the product, the revenue. But true innovation isn’t just about results. It’s about attempts, experiments, and the courage to try something new even when it might fail.
That’s why measuring innovation inside organizations is incredibly difficult. We often track what’s easy to quantify: sales, revenue, billable hours. But these metrics push people to focus only on what impacts their compensation and performance reviews. And when that happens, innovation gets sidelined.
Innovation isn’t part of the culture unless it’s part of the performance system.
The Problem with Traditional Metrics
Most organizations reward certainty.
If you can show a direct line from your work to revenue, you are celebrated. If you take a risk that fails, the reaction is often disappointment or punishment. This is why innovation feels fragile and the incentives are misaligned.
People simply do what they are rewarded for.
If innovation is not explicitly recognized, most employees won’t prioritize it, even if the company claims it’s important.
Innovation Requires a Different Mindset
To build a culture of innovation, we need to rethink how we define success.
Innovation is messy. It’s not linear. It requires:
Curiosity
Openness
Experimentation
Failure
If your culture punishes failure, you don’t have innovation. You have compliance.
Count the “Shots Taken”
One of the most powerful ideas is to measure the number of shots taken and the number of experiments attempted, including failed ones.
This is not about celebrating failure. It’s about recognizing progress.
Because every experiment teaches you something:
What works
What doesn’t
Where to go next
Most organizations count wins. Innovative organizations count attempts.
Imagine measuring:
How many experiments did your team run this quarter?
What did you learn from them?
How many failed attempts became insights for the next version?
This changes everything.
Instead of hiding failure, people learn from it.
Embracing Failure: A Competitive Advantage
Innovation requires failing forward. Yet most organizations resist failure because they see it as waste. But the real waste is doing the same things over and over again.
When failure becomes part of the process, innovation becomes normal.
You can’t innovate without stumbling. You can’t stumble without safety.
Leadership: The Ultimate Catalyst for Innovation
Innovation is not a bottom-up movement. It’s a leadership responsibility.
Leaders must:
Encourage openness
Support experimentation
Celebrate learning
Make risk-taking safe
When leaders model curiosity and willingness to try, others follow. Culture changes when the top is all-in.
The Performance System Must Evolve
If you want more innovation, you have to reward the behaviors that create it.
Performance management should include:
Experiments run
Insights gained
Risks taken
Learning shared
This doesn’t replace results. It complements them.
Long-term growth comes from long-term thinking.
Final Thoughts
Innovation doesn’t happen because we talk about it. It happens when we measure it, reward it, and make it part of our everyday work.
Count the shots taken. Track the attempts. Celebrate the learning.
Innovation isn’t just outcomes, it's attempts.
If we want to build truly innovative cultures, we must reward curiosity, experimentation, and resilience. The organizations that understand this will create the breakthroughs of the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is the best way to measure innovation in a company?
Innovation can be measured through activity, not just outcomes. One effective way is tracking how many experiments or attempts teams make over time. This shows how often people are trying new ideas. Even if many attempts fail, they create learning, insight and progress.
Q2. Why do most companies struggle with innovation?
Companies struggle because they focus on certainty and results. Their systems reward things like revenue and efficiency, not experimentation. When people are scared of failure or punishment, they avoid taking risks. Innovation needs safety, curiosity and leadership support to grow.
Q3. What mindset helps individuals drive innovation?
A mindset of curiosity, learning, resilience, and openness helps. Be willing to question norms, try new methods, accept failure, and learn from it. Stay observant of problems, ask “why not,” and treat ideas as experiments. This mindset helps individuals create impact regardless of organizational size.
Q4. How often should organizations run innovation experiments?
There isn’t a strict rule for how often you should run experiments, but doing it regularly makes a big difference. Some teams try ideas every month or every quarter through small projects, tests or creative time. Even tiny experiments add up. When people keep trying new things again and again, innovation becomes part of everyday work instead of something rare or special.
Q5. How can organizations track innovation’s long-term impact?
Rather than immediate ROI, track impact over time: number of launched experiments, projects converted from experiments, improvements in processes, new product ideas, team engagement levels, and speed of adaptation. Document learnings, even from failures, build long-term value.
About the Author:
Shawn Kanungo is a globally recognized disruption strategist and keynote speaker who helps organizations adapt to change and leverage disruptive thinking. Named one of the "Best New Speakers" by the National Speakers Bureau, Shawn has spoken at some of the world's most innovative organizations, including IBM, Walmart, and 3M. His expertise in digital disruption strategies helps leaders navigate transformation and build resilience in an increasingly uncertain business environment.