Case Study - DuPont
How DuPont Built a Shared System for De-Risking Decisions Across 35 Growth Projects
300+ practitioners trained. 50+ internal coaches. 35+ growth projects. $24MM in new growth. $12MM saved.
DuPont is a global leader in materials science with a long history of disciplined R&D and operational excellence. But like many large enterprises, the company faced a growing challenge. Traditional systems were highly effective for execution and optimization, but less effective for evaluating high-uncertainty growth bets before major commitments were made.
Beginning in 2022, DuPont partnered with Precoil to embed the EMT System (Extract-Map-Test) alongside existing Stage-Gate, Agile, and Six Sigma approaches. The goal was not to replace existing processes, but to strengthen how teams surfaced assumptions, evaluated commercial risk, and generated evidence earlier in the decision-making process.
Early efforts focused on:
Launching structured EMT cohorts
Training hundreds of practitioners and leaders
Establishing a shared language for evidence, assumptions, and learning
Helping teams make faster Commit / Correct / Cut decisions before larger investments were locked in
Over time, the work expanded beyond individual workshops into a broader enterprise capability for reducing late-stage surprises, improving cross-functional alignment, and helping teams identify commercial risk earlier, before significant time, capital, and resources were committed.
2026 Update: Industry Recognition
In 2026, several DuPont (and now Qnity) teams applying these approaches received an award for Outstanding Innovative Culture at the Innovation Research Interchange (IRI) Innovation Excellence Awards show. Read DuPont’s 2026 IRI Innovation Excellence Award announcement here.
DuPont and Qnity team members receiving recognition at the 2026 IRI Innovation Excellence Awards.
While the awards recognized specific teams and outcomes, they also reflected the ability to operationalize evidence-based decision making across complex growth initiatives.
What began as structured experimentation cohorts evolved into a broader enterprise capability for surfacing risk earlier, aligning stakeholders around evidence, and making faster Commit / Correct / Cut decisions under uncertainty.
“Innovation doesn’t happen by accident. It occurs when people are empowered, connected and supported… helping turn ideas into scalable solutions with real-world impact.”
The Challenge
Despite DuPont’s strong technical expertise, many teams still struggled to align around what had to be true for new growth initiatives to succeed commercially.
DuPont’s leaders faced a familiar challenge:
Innovation processes were excellent at execution, but weaker at early discovery
Big bets were often made before the riskiest assumptions were surfaced
Customer insight arrived too late in the process
Teams were “doing projects right,” but not always doing the right projects
As their Chief of Staff summarized internally:
“Most failures weren’t technical, they were driven by flawed commercial and customer assumptions.”
What was missing was a repeatable way to de-risk growth decisions early, without slowing the organization down.
Previous Attempts
DuPont had already invested heavily in innovation modernization before working with Precoil:
2016 – Stage-Gate & Six Sigma: Highly structured and disciplined, but customer learning came late.
2018 – Hypothesis-Driven Pilots: Early Learning Plan concepts emerged through grassroots efforts.
2020 – Agile-Adaptive: Scrum pilots and Lean Learning Loops showed promise, but adoption was fragmented.
These efforts demonstrated what was possible, but not how to scale it. Innovation often remained:
Project-specific
Dependent on individual champions
Disconnected from portfolio-level decision making
The Precoil Solution
Precoil helped DuPont create a repeatable way to surface, map, and test the assumptions behind high-uncertainty growth initiatives before major commitments were made.
We partnered with DuPont to integrate the EMT System (called Lean Innovation internally) at enterprise scale.
Rather than introducing another methodology, Precoil focused on installing decision infrastructure, a shared way to extract risk, test assumptions, and make defensible choices under uncertainty.
The approach included:
A customized decision system aligned to DuPont’s strategy and governance
Learning Plans as the core artifact for evidence-based decision making
Coaching as the primary scaling mechanism
Executive sponsorship through a “two-in-the-box” business and technical leadership model
Phased rollout:
Structured Cohorts
Precoil-led cohorts focused on real growth initiatives, building early wins and shared language.Internal Coach-Led Scaling
DuPont trained internal coaches to sustain and expand adoption.Embedded DNA
Test and Learn practices integrated into project management, portfolio reviews, and leadership routines.
Throughout, the emphasis was on co-creation, meeting teams where they were, and building confidence through evidence, not persuasion.
Tangible Results
Between 2022 and 2025, DuPont saw measurable outcomes across capability, culture, and business impact.
Capability Built
300+ practitioners trained
40+ senior leaders enabled
50+ internal coaches certified
35+ growth projects impacted
100% lines of business coverage
Business Impact (across 35 growth projects)
26% Commit
Customer-validated value propositions with strong sponsorship and competitive advantage31% Correct
Early course correction based on customer, market, or value-chain evidence43% Cut
Projects discontinued early due to lack of viable path forward, liberating capital and talent
The net effect: faster learning, earlier decisions, and significantly reduced waste.
Over time, this reduced late-stage surprises, improved alignment across functions, and helped teams surface commercial risk earlier, before significant time, capital, and resources were committed.
Revenue Impacts
The work contributed to more than $24MM in new growth and $12MM in bottom-line savings across 35+ growth projects.
Analysis of the 35+ projects who applied the EMT System resulted in:
$24MM in New Growth generated from the combined 57% of the projects (Commit + Correct) that launched in the market.
$12MM saved on the bottom line from re-deploying resources from the 43% of the Cut projects.
Ripple Effect
The impact extended well beyond individual projects.
Innovation became a shared cultural expectation, not a specialist function
Leaders shifted from asking “Are we on track?” to “What have we de-risked?”
Teams learned to fall in love with growth, not projects
Psychological safety increased through rituals like Dead Projects Day
Portfolio conversations became more evidence-driven and less political
Going forward, Precoil EMT is now DuPont’s decision standard approach for early-stage and high-uncertainty growth work.
Prepare A High Stakes Growth Decision
Precoil helps leadership teams surface the assumptions, map the risks, and test what matters before committing major time, capital, and resources.
