Digital innovation, an inevitable contemporary phenomenon, consists of several stages, making it a complex endeavor requiring a systemic perspective. According to Nambisan et al. (2017) digital innovation represents both a process and an outcome, and the boundary between them is fluid. Kohli and Melville (2019) report on four stages of digital innovations, which include: initiation, development, implementation, and exploitation. These stages are not manifested uniformly in all digital innovations. They are also not linear and often entangled with one another. Further, digital innovation transpires in an internal and external environment, which contextualizes and at the same time influences each stage and the progression. Multiple systems approaches and methodologies provide a systemic understanding of the different stages but also the process in its entirety. In this line of reasoning, Rich Pictures and Patterns of Strategy could be used for the Initiate stage, which aims to identify and translate opportunities into initiatives. Other methods such as Viable Systems Model could be suitable for the implement stage, which is about organizational changes occurring during digital innovation. A multiple systems approach would be utilized for all the evident stages and the environment. A systemic approach which includes several methodologies and methods has been applied by several systems thinking scholars (e.g. Mingers, 1997; Midgley, 2000) in various areas, including innovation (e.g. Midgley and Lindhult, 2021). However, the combination of digital innovation and systems thinking has been rather limited. Hence, in this work in progress, we propose and advocate the utilization of systems thinking to explain and tackle the dynamic complexity emerging in the digital innovation process and its different stages, taking into account the specific context in which it occurs.