Innovation Funnel
The Innovation Team is a cross-agency group of staff, cabinet members, and department representatives. Many recently completed training through the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) focused on expanding the value we bring to districts and thinking differently about growth.
Through this work, the team learned that innovation is strongest when it is thoughtful and deliberate.
That is where the Innovation Funnel comes in. The funnel is a shared way to collect ideas, discuss them, test them, and see which are ready to grow. It helps ensure ideas align with our strategic direction and are worth the time and resources it takes to implement them.
This work is not just about launching big programs. It is about building a culture where:
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Anyone can share an idea
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Ideas do not get lost
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Creative thinking has structure
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Staff can see how ideas connect to WESD’s goals
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New efforts are reviewed for value, demand, and sustainability
What does this mean for staff?
There is now a clearer way to move ideas forward, whether it is a small improvement or a brand-new service.
How do you get involved?
Any WESD employee can submit an idea using the Innovation Funnel Ideas Form. The form includes a few simple prompts to help shape your thinking. The goal is to gather many strong ideas, knowing that only a small number will move forward.
How do ideas get evaluated?
Ideas move through four stages:
Ideation → Refinement → Validation → Scaling
Small review teams look at ideas at each stage. For example, if 40 ideas are submitted, a review team may narrow that list to a smaller group for deeper research. From there, fewer ideas move into validation to test feasibility and demand. One idea may move into scaling, where modest agency resources are used to test how it could work in practice. If it proves successful, it moves into final planning and implementation.
This process is still being built out, and more tools and a dedicated webpage are coming soon.
WESD has always had strong ideas across the agency. The Innovation Team and the Innovation Funnel simply provide those ideas with a shared path forward.