In the cruise ship building industry, new product innovation has become increasingly challenging,
driving companies jointly to create and implement smarter operation models to stay competitive. A collaborative innovation model amended by a collaborative leadership process is one way to meet this challenge. It is expected that this model would produce more opportunities to lead complex architectural design, technicaldevelopment and new innovation projects by intertwining work streams and breaking silos. This paper, describes preliminary ideas for the development of a ‘fit for purpose’-driven collaborative innovation model created for cruise ship conceptual process. This model synchronizes human and technical systems of innovation processes. The human system analyzes innovative thinking, partnership culture and leadership in the context of collaborative innovation process. The technical system focuses on architectural and technical aspectsof new product design in a disciplined and structured manner. To research the development process, actions in innovation workshops will be documented and examined by ethnographic observations; the social network analysis will produce information on social and communication structures. In addition, in depth interviewswill bring understanding of the stakeholders’ prerequisites, expectations on gains, enablers and obstacles of sharing, open communication and building a joint partnership culture and a distributed way of leading. Outcomes and effects of the innovation process will be evaluated by interviews and questionnaires for the stakeholder groups. The research methods will mainly be qualitative descriptive methods and a case studyof a specific development process.