The accelerometer chip — a small but radical innovation — is ubiquitous in today's digital devices. These speed and orientation sensors tell our phones whether they're being held in portrait or landscape mode, deploy airbags in our cars, and track our forehands when we play virtual tennis. They also help sense when the earth starts to shift before earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. But while it is easy to recognize the significance of this innovation retrospectively, its true impact didn't become apparent until many of today's most valued applications were developed. This gradual unveiling of an innovation's potential over time is a surprisingly common pattern — so common, in fact, that companies need to craft their innovation management systems with this phenomenon in mind.