The IsaMill™ has been the industry leader in stirred milling for the past 30 years, delivering energyefficient grinding to mineral and mining operations. Over the last decade alternative stirred milling technologies have become more commercially available with a noticeable increase in industry vendors. The counter to a potentially reduced market share, is that it has forced incumbent technologies to further develop their continuous improvement cultures, to innovate and to set themselves apart. This paper describes one of these innovation journeys. There is a common belief that a disc in an IsaMill™ ‘is just a standard disc’; this can be understood as saying a ‘SAG mill liner is just a liner’. Within stirred mills, internal geometry and material choice greatly influence energy efficiency and wear during operation. This paper aims to guide you through some successful methodologies to progress through the innovation cycle and provide quick ways to evaluate new geometric ideas. Using this approach, it will highlight case studies where Glencore Technology successfully developed a recently patented disc, a new spacer that reduced energy consumption by 20 per cent, and anti-media compression discs.