Innovation Hub
The Innovation Hub is where KSIA's innovation gets done. The innovation team and network work together across three stages.
Find problems worth solving
This is where we go looking for problems worth solving. The innovation team works with BUs, Champions, and external partners, running brief shaping sessions to align on scope, scanning signals and shifts in technology and guest behaviour, and talking directly to guests to understand what is not working and why. We pattern-hunt across what other airports and industries are doing, size and prioritise the problems we find, and keep scouting continuously so the opportunity backlog never goes stale. The goal is a clear, prioritised list of the right problems to go after.
Timeline:Always on across domains
Capabilities
Phase output
Prioritised opportunity backlog
Build & test solutions
Once we know the problem, we generate ideas and test them quickly at low cost. We run ideation and proposition shaping workshops with cross-functional teams, experiment with real guests and staff to find out what resonates, and rapidly design POCs (digital, physical, or both) to make concepts tangible. We then build a testing methodology, run the POC with real end-users, and develop an initial investment case from the evidence. If it stacks up, the Council decides the path forward. If not, we kill it and move on.
Timeline:4–16 weeks per sprint
Capabilities
Phase output
Validated concept with POC evidence and an initial investment case
Get the solutions working
in the Airport
This is where proven concepts become live operations. The Hub works alongside the BU to build, test, and deploy, incrementally, with real users, in real operational conditions. External partners are brought in where specific capability is needed, selected carefully and managed closely. When the BU is ready to run it themselves, the Hub steps back. Named owner, budget, KPIs.
The path forward at this stage depends on what has been built and who it serves. Spin in means the solution is embedded directly into KSIA's operations and owned by the relevant BU, the most common route for operational tools. Adjacency means the solution is used inside KSIA and also offered externally, whitelabelled or licensed to other airports or partners. Spin out means the solution becomes a separate entity with its own brand and commercial model.
Timeline:Months to ongoing
Capabilities
Phase output
Live capability in the business (spun in), adjacent, or spun out