Cubo wanted an innovation management feature, and the first version, a funnel, got no traction. I investigated why, found a different need and, from it, designed the Cubo Corporate Journey, validated it with users, and took the experience into the app and an AI assistant.
UX research and product design
Cubo platform, web and app
Interviews, prototype, in-use evaluation, workshop
Member companies and Community Leaders
Cubo wanted to offer member companies an innovation management feature. The first attempt, an innovation funnel, got no traction.
I investigated why the funnel failed. The same research revealed a different need, and from it came the Cubo Corporate Journey, validated in use and later taken into the app and Cubo AI.
Cubo Itaú connects large companies with startups. Events, business challenges and connections generate data no other platform has. The plan was to offer member companies an innovation management feature inside Cubo, and the first attempt, shaped as an innovation funnel, got no traction.
My starting point: before redesigning the funnel, understand why it had not worked.
I keep everything under control: how many people joined events, how many visited Cubo, room bookings, all in the spreadsheet.
Innovation lead at a mining company, round 1
I interviewed innovation leads at five companies, in automotive, food, mining, energy and agribusiness, to understand how they manage open innovation and why Cubo's funnel had not caught on. Of five hypotheses, four were validated and one partly.
I mapped the companies by maturity, and the picture was clear: mature companies already have a tool; less mature ones live in spreadsheets.
The reason showed up quickly. Most companies already had a robust tool of their own to manage the funnel, would not swap it for Cubo's, and saw no value in keeping two. But the same conversations showed something else: what they wanted was to see their own innovation through data only Cubo has, such as events, challenges, connections and visits.
An innovation management funnel inside Cubo.
A 360º view of their innovation, built on internal data only Cubo has.
Companies already have a place to innovate. What they lack is a Cubo that centralizes, connects and turns this data into value.
The recommendation became four fronts: 360º dashboards (interactions, connections, ROI, events), a standardized startup base, simple integrations and AI to fill in profiles and improve search and matching. That last seed would come back later, in Cubo AI.
From that different need came the Cubo Corporate Journey: the company's full innovation journey at Cubo, in one place, replacing the monthly table report and the PowerPoint. It holds an innovation radar against the Cubo average, a diagnosis, key numbers of the relationship, goals and KRs set with the Community Leader, events by hub and connections. All on one page, updated in real time.
With the product in use, I went back to the field with two companies at opposite maturity levels: a power user whose innovation lead spends 80% of the day at Cubo, and a team still structuring its funnel. The sample was small, and the report says so. The contrast became the reading tool: where both agree is strong, and where they diverge shows how needs change with maturity.
"When you say 'CCJ', I click, I get a page, I see the KRs and the key numbers behind it. It is much more tangible."
Company A · power user
"Two connections that created value are worth far more than 40 connections that went nowhere."
Company B · still structuring
Three of five hypotheses were validated, and the findings became ten recommendations ranked by value and effort. In the Cubo 360 workshop, the top one made it into the product: the connections table gained interactions, cross validations and a relationship status, from first contact to active pilot.
Both rounds pointed the same way: value is in reaching what matters, fast. In the app, onboarding asks about the person's interests and uses the answers to recommend challenges, startups and events, as the first round had recommended. The most frequent building actions, booking a room, inviting a visitor and opening a ticket, sit at the top of the home screen.
The first round had already pointed to AI as a way to cut manual effort and improve search. Cubi is the platform's assistant: it answers questions, helps people explore the ecosystem and opens tickets for the Cubo team, with no form to fill in. When someone writes "the air conditioning is too cold", it recognizes an infrastructure ticket, asks for the location and confirms the facilities team has been notified.
Assistant screens in Portuguese.
Innovation in spreadsheets and PowerPoint, with Cubo outside decision makers' routine.
The journey visible in the CCJ, validated in use, and the same logic in the app and an AI assistant.
The top recommendation, relationship status on connections, shipped after the Cubo 360 workshop. In August 2026, the CCJ's data and learnings also fed the redesign of the new Corporate Home.
What I would do differently: pair the interviews with usage data from the start and widen the sample before higher-risk roadmap decisions.