The Innovation Show Corporate Innovation Strategy: Return Maps, Managing Up & Forecasting with Chuck House
Feb 18, 2026
Chuck House, intrapreneur and corporate innovation veteran who created the Return Map, explains why projects die without strategic linkage. He discusses Steve Jobs’ product cycles, four intrapreneur traits, the art of managing up and down, flaws in HQ metrics and engineering tracking, and how a living Return Map forces alignment, accountability, and better forecasting across teams.
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Manage Both Downward And Upward
- Manage down to build team trust and manage up to persuade superiors and protect your work.
- Honor sponsors and learn to persuade bosses rather than battle them.
Explaining Decade-Long Innovation Cycles
- Chuck explained to his new HP boss that innovation cycles can span years and need time before visible results.
- He used a diagram to make management accept long horizons for vision, testing, prototyping, and product building.
Engineering Metrics Miss Strategic Value
- Engineering progress metrics like Brunograms miss market and profit realities and can kill risky bets.
- Decision metrics must integrate cost, schedule, sales ramp, and profit to reflect true business value.
