EDF: turning employees into intrapreneurs
Since 2021, we have supported EDF’s Maîtrise and Cadre development programmes in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Each participant leads their own project on a strategic topic for the company, from identifying a need to pitching in front of a panel. We train them in design thinking, then coach them at every key stage.
- years of collaboration, renewed every year
- 6years of collaboration, renewed every year
- employees supported since 2021
- 60+employees supported since 2021
- programmes: Maîtrise since 2021, Cadre since 2023
- 2programmes: Maîtrise since 2021, Cadre since 2023
- project per participant, from need to panel
- 1project per participant, from need to panel
Projects led by employees, not by consultants.
Every year, EDF in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes runs two development programmes: the Maîtrise programme and the Cadre programme. To complete them, each participant leads a project on a real business challenge and defends it before a panel at the end of the year.
The challenge: give them a method to go from field observations to a concrete, tested and deployable solution — alongside their day job, with the support of a tutor and a sponsor. We never do the work for them: the project must remain theirs, and the method must serve them long after the panel.
From September to May, following the stages of design thinking.
In-person group workshops punctuate the year and keep the cohort’s momentum. In between, each stage is built on a shared Klaxoon board, which sponsors follow continuously to validate the milestones.
- STEP 01
Training and immersion
Kick-off day at EDF Lab
A day to get to grips with innovation, creativity and design thinking, then launch the project: market watch, proto-personas of priority targets, pain points to solve and an interview guide for field research.
- STEP 02
Definition
Group workshop
Feedback from qualitative interviews is analysed and turned into empathy maps and user journeys. Each participant draws a clear problem statement from it, validated with their sponsor.
- STEP 03
Ideation and prototyping
Group workshop
An ideation workshop to consolidate the concept around its business, strategic and organisational stakes, an AI-built prototype, and a protocol to test it in the field.
- STEP 04
Pitch and panel
One-to-one coaching, then the panel in May
Individual sessions to structure the content, prepare visual material and rehearse. Participants face the panel with a tested project and a confident story.
Four convictions for intrapreneurs.
Creativity can be learned
It isn’t a gift: it can be fed, practised and equipped.
Start from a problem
Never from a solution: the field decides what is worth building.
Desirable, feasible, viable
A good idea has to stand on all three at once.
Build allies, test early
Intrapreneurship also means finding your allies and testing your idea early.
Deployable projects, and a method that sticks.
Each cohort leaves with projects led by the employees themselves, built from field research and designed to be deployed across the organisation.
Above all, participants reuse the approach in their daily work and cross-functional management. This is why the collaboration has been renewed every year since 2021, and extended in 2023 from the Maîtrise to the Cadre programme.
- Leading an innovation project with design thinking
- Running qualitative interviews with an empathetic approach
- Using AI to speed up immersion, prototyping and field testing
- Defending an idea with a structured pitch before a panel
- Adopting a project leader’s stance: building allies, overcoming obstacles, bouncing back
An intrapreneurship programme for your organisation?
Development programme, participative innovation scheme or internal call for projects: we adapt this approach to your calendar and your teams.
Let's talk about your programme