Client stories
Case Nokia Bell Labs: Citadel
Case Nokia Bell Labs: Citadel
Innovation often starts with a fresh perspective on existing resources. In collaboration with Coventures, Nokia Bell Labs has embraced the Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) model to help transform their assets, research, and technology into viable new business ventures. Bringing seasoned entrepreneurs into their mix has helped them bridge the gap between research and market needs.
We spoke with Antti Ukkonen, Jakub Järvenpää, and Otto Söderlund, three EiRs from Coventures, about their work on Nokia Bell Labs’ Citadel project. With deep experience in data science, AI, and product development, they bring practical insights into how to uncover value and assess market fit.
For nearly a century, Nokia Bell Labs has led technological innovation, shaping communication from the early Bell Telephone System to the future of 6G. Anticipating human needs, Bell Labs researchers have contributed to major technological milestones, including the invention of laser, transistor, and the solar panels, as well as foundational Information theory work. Their groundbreaking achievements have earned hundreds of awards, including ten Nobel Prizes and five Turing Awards.
Nokia Bell Labs’ Citadel project originally focused on developing solutions for secure machine learning with data privacy. This technology was built to address complex questions about training machine learning models without compromising the confidentiality of sensitive data. For researchers, the technical prowess of Citadel was clear—but the core market problem remained a mystery.
This is where Coventures’ EiRs come in. “The researchers had a strong belief in the use case, especially in sectors like healthcare, but we needed to confirm that it addressed a real, urgent need in the market,” says Jakub. Together, they embarked on a mission to understand whether Citadel’s technology solved genuine market problems.
Working outside the lab, Antti, Jakub and Otto adopted a lean startup approach. This “value discovery” process involves speaking directly with real customers across potential markets and rigorously testing assumptions. By applying the “Mom Test” method—asking open-ended questions to uncover genuine pain points rather than leading with a solution—they aimed to validate Citadel’s applicability in sectors such as healthcare, financial services, defence, and manufacturing among others.
“We realized early that the challenge was not in Citadel’s technical capability but in finding a customer problem it genuinely solved,” says Antti. Over the course of 40 interviews with potential customers and partners, the team rigorously explored needs, asking questions like, “Is data confidentiality a primary problem in your industry? If so, how are you solving it now?” These questions led to surprising insights and a clearer picture of Citadel’s potential applications.
In many cases, the market had already addressed the problem using traditional methods, such as contracts, making technical solutions like Citadel less appealing. Customers often perceived existing solutions as “good enough,” further underscoring the need to identify scenarios where Citadel offered distinct and undeniable value.
Through the market analysis, however, the team identified a valuable adjacent problem that is now under exploration. This market feedback provided a clear directional signal for research, ensuring that the team is investigating a meaningful problem with practical implications for potential solutions.
For Nokia Bell Labs, this collaboration brought new life to their research. “The EiRs contributed not only their expertise but also a distinct approach to collaboration and a direct line to ongoing customer dialogue”, reflects Jani Kangas, a Bell Labs executive. While the research team’s focus was naturally technology-first, the EiRs approached challenges from the problem space outward, looking to build solutions that respond to true market pain points.
Jakub explains, “As entrepreneurs, we don’t look at it as ‘What can this technology do?’ but rather ‘What problem is worth solving?’ This contrast brings fresh energy and practical focus to research, helping teams understand if their questions are relevant in the real world.”
The EiRs’ presence has also influenced Nokia Bell Labs’ culture, making it more entrepreneurial. They encourage a more exploratory approach, prompting teams to move beyond their assumptions and engage more actively with the world outside the lab.
Antti notes, “Working with researchers, it’s about building trust. Researchers may initially view us as business outsiders, but as we dive into real customer conversations, they see the value in what we’re uncovering. Our goal is to bring back insights that wouldn’t surface within the research environment alone.”
Ultimately, the Citadel project showed Nokia Bell Labs that the future of some technologies may not lie in the areas they had initially imagined. The EiRs’ exploration uncovered unexpected market barriers and viable alternative applications, leading the research team to refine their focus. In some cases, the technology didn’t fit the market’s needs as expected, revealing that sometimes the best outcome is deciding not to pursue an initially chosen path further.
“Success isn’t always about getting funding for your initial idea,” Jakub reflects. “It’s about learning what the real-world need is and aligning research questions and your work with that. If Nokia Bell Labs can continue this shift, even questioning their own assumptions, they’re on the right path.”
For Nokia Bell Labs, the EiR model has proven transformative. By combining rigorous research with entrepreneurial spirit, they are ensuring and further improving the creation of innovations that solve real-world problems. The value of this partnership lies not only in tangible outcomes but in reshaping a century-old culture, making it more open to agile experimentation and customer engagement.