An innovation is a cycle of testing where you test two things against each other that are very different — an apple against an orange. When you have a winner, let’s say an apple...then you test iterations of the apple to further lift conversions. 

An innovation cycle should pit two very different landing page concepts against each other, and can then move into an iteration cycle pitting the innovation champion against variants of itself to see if you can lift conversions even further. 

This approach to testing is very powerful, and helps to ensure you are always moving forward making positive traction. It lets you invest heavily in strategy and concepts during innovation and then take a breather while you try to squeeze more conversion juice out during an iteration cycle.

Innovation cycles typically require more resource allocation and have a slower speed to market. The upside of this type of testing is that it gives you the freedom to find big winners and potentially huge lifts. The downside is that you can also find big losers. Win or lose, since so much is different, its unlikely that you’ll be able to definitively be able to answer why exactly the apple beat the orange. Was it the shape, color, the texture?

 We often say that an Innovation cycle is where you will find a diamond and an Iteration cycle is where you will polish it.