How the innovation lifecycle works: the stage-gate machineThe formal machinery is a sequence of gates. Pilot gate: can it run with real customers inside a risk fence? Production gate: do the unit economics, controls, and audit story hold at volume? A feature launched with formal disclosures, named partners, and conservative limits passed a production gate; one launched as a waitlisted beta did not. How the innovation lifecycle works is simply how those rooms decide, and the firms that run the room well are the ones whose futures keep arriving on schedule.