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How we work

Vertical Innovation®. Every step, one building.

Research, design, engineering and prototyping stacked floor by floor in our Cleveland Innovation Center. Ideas move up and down stairs, not across company lines — which is why 95% of NS programs reach market.

Elevation drawing of the NS Innovation Center with each floor mapped to a Vertical Innovation step
  1. 1Discovery & Validation
  2. 2Design
  3. 3Engineering
  4. 4Connected & IoT
  5. 5Prototyping
  6. 6Commercialization

The six steps

01

Discovery & Validation

Consumer and market research, whitespace mapping and early validation define what to build and why it will win.

02

Design

Industrial design, user experience and brand language turn insight into products people want to buy.

03

Engineering

Mechanical, electrical and materials engineering make the design manufacturable, reliable and cost-effective.

04

Connected & IoT

Embedded systems, firmware and connectivity let products sense, communicate and decide — now including AI.

05

Prototyping

In-house model shops and labs build and test working prototypes fast, floors away from the design team.

06

Commercialization

Manufacturing transfer, supply chain and launch support carry the product to shelf — with IP assigned to the partner.

Why it delivers a 95% commercialization rate.

Vertical integration

A 70,000 sq-ft Innovation Center with integrated talent, tools and technologies.

Intellectual property

1,550+ patents protect partners' market positions.

Cross-pollination

Teams work across industries, carrying breakthroughs from one category to the next.

Dedicated teams

One cross-functional team per program — an innovation SWAT team, no silos.

Three ways the engine scales

One process. Three growth channels.

Corporate partners

Fortune 1000 programs

P&G, Unilever, Sherwin-Williams, Little Tikes and more bring NS a challenge; NS returns a market-ready product and the IP.

See partners

EY-NS Innovation Hub

Business transformation

With EY, the 60,000 sq-ft Hub pairs Vertical Innovation® with EY digital, manufacturing and wavespace™ teams for Industry 4.0 transformation.

See partners

Nottingham Unlimited

NS-backed startups

NS invests its own process and capital in founders — Cleveland Diagnostics, LAND, ClotChip, Pro2Cool and others.

See partners

Scale Vertical Innovation® with us.

The investment thesis and operating system are in the secure dataroom.

Investors: request dataroom access