The article presents the results of the analysis of regulatory literature and the practical experience of companies in relation to the conceptual apparatus and criteria for determining innovative products. The results of the analysis showed a lack of uniformity in terminology and an emphasis on economic effects when determining the innovativeness of products, works, and services in the regulatory literature. A study of the innovative activities of foreign energy companies indicated that companies are focusing their attention on the concept of sustainable development, but did not allow us to determine a unified approach to identifying the effects of innovation in this area. The goal of the work was to develop an approach that allows one to unambiguously define terms in the field of innovation theory. In addition to a comparative analysis of approaches to the definition of innovation, innovative products (hereinafter referred to as IP), presented in the regulatory literature and in open sources of leading innovative companies, our own terminology was formed and proposed with the typification of innovations depending on the stage of the life cycle at which they are located, visualization the proposed innovation management system. A system of statuses has been developed, including an innovative proposal, IP in development/expansion, IP ready for implementation, IP in pilot implementation, IP ready for use, IP in replication or re-implementation. Based on the concept of sustainable development, the author’s typology of the effects of innovation is proposed, and a fundamental approach to assessing the effectiveness of innovation is formulated.