Lean Innovation Course and Workshop Overview

Contact us at [email protected] to bring a lean innovation program to your organization in a way that works for you.

Learn and develop your skills and knowledge in lean innovation as an organization through a workshop or course at your site.

Organizations and corporations of all sizes and sectors are facing threats from rapid changes in technology and society, and from disruptions and competition, often leading to irrelevance and even extinction. There is an urgency to innovate, creating new products, services and business models. On the surface, it sounds logical to commence some new R&D or continuous improvement effort as is traditionally done. However, the practices and methods that initially made your organization successful may not elevate or sustain momentum to persevere.

All organizations go through cycles, recognizing where you are at in a cycle and what may be coming next can be essential for continued growth and even sustainability. The purpose of this series is to understand cycles organizations go through as they develop, grow, and age, as well as identifying where in the cycle your organization is and what may be coming next. Participants will learn how to use innovation and proven methods adopted from successful startups and organizations known for transformative innovation. While this course provides foundational theory and examples, it also provides practical, action-oriented approaches which can be used and applied.

Intended Audience: Leaders and Managers at all levels, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, Participants looking for break-through changes & innovation, Business owners looking to be better prepared for the future, long-term viability of their company. Whether you are exploring a new idea or an 85-year-old organization, this class is relevant.

Session I: Culture of Innovation – 1 day

In session 1 you will understand how startups and innovation are similar and how they are different, which can impact the failure or success of any innovation effort. You’ll establish foundational knowledge for where to begin and how to challenge the status quo in a positive way.

Topics covered include:
 What is Innovation vs. R&D
 Difference between continuous improvement & re-engineering
 Why Innovation fails and continuous improvement may not be enough
 Startups Are Not Smaller Versions of Large Companies
 Three Horizon model
 Entrepreneurship, Intra-preneurship, Micro-preneurship
 Confluence of Intra-preneurship & Innovation training
 Lean Innovation and Agile – similar but different offerings
 Innovation and Organizational Culture of Innovation
 Current State Assessment
 Future State Assessment

Actions & Applications
Brainstorm session I of convergent and divergent thinking
Homework: Use your culture map alone and with a group

Session II: Innovation Foundational Concepts – 1 day

This session will build on foundational concepts but will be heavily activity focused. The goal is to use tools and techniques to create a foundation to build, measure, and experiment.

Topics covered include
:
 Creating a culture of innovation
 Tactical cycles of build/measure/learn
 Lean startup overview
 Common lean startup & innovation mistakes
 Business model progression
 Going small and narrow to go big

Actions & Applications
Culture Map Debrief
Team formation – Hacker, Hustler, Designer, Visionary
Brainstorming – convergent and divergent approaches
First pass at defining your customer
Homework: Go out and talk to a customer

Session III: Focus on the Customer – 1 day

Session III is all about understanding your customer and what their hidden needs are. Traditional market research doesn’t quickly provide enough insight so we’ll show you new ways to triangulate your way to customer truths.

Topics covered include
:
 Focus on those Humans
 Customer Empathy
 Medicine Bottle Example
 Customer Development Processes
 Customer vs. Product Development
 Customer Archetype
 Signals of Needs
 Segmentation based on need vs. demographics
 Segmentation Matrix
 Importance of Dialing in On Your Market Segment
 Customer Zoom Tool
 Tools & Models to understand your customer
Customer Safari, Card Sort, Camera Journals, Analogous Inspiration
Collage, Customer Interview, Interview Tips & Objectives, Flipping the Conversation
 Interview Debrief & Processing Insights

Actions & Applications
Learning from existing and potential customers
Customer persona creation take II
Interview scripts and techniques
Homework: Customer Interviews

Session IV: Problem Immersion – 1 day

Session IV is about building on session III’s insights from customer interviews. We dive deep into the problem space and minimum viable solutions.

Topics covered include:
 Focus On The Problem & value creation
 Say / Do gap and behavior change
 Problem/Solution Fit
 Common Mistakes with Value Proposition
 Value Proposition and the Minimum Viable Product
 MVP of 1 vs. Market vs. Scale
 Product/Market Fit
 Riskiest Assumptions
 Problem Zoom Tool
 Solution Zoom Tool
 Rapid Experimentation
 Articulating & Prioritizing Assumptions
 Rapid Experimentation
 Convert Assumptions Into An Experiment
 Running Experiments
 Hypothesis, creating, debrief
 Currency types
 Using small data to validate
 Rapid learning

Actions & Applications
Strategies and actions to keep reinventing & move through the cycle
Create your problem focus
Create a solution focus
Create your first experiment
Homework: Run your experiment

Session V: Advanced Topics for Entrepreneurs and Disruptors – 1 day

Session V builds on all previous sessions to go deeper into rapid experimentation, fast learning, multiple concurrent experiments, and spreading the process

Topics covered include:
 Product Market fit
 Pivoting, Persevering and Iterating
 Market Opportunity Analysis
 Viral Loop & growth engines
 Sprint Planning
 Skunkworks process to a culture of innovation

Actions & Applications
Tracking multiple experiments at once
Defining next steps within your organization
Keeping the process going
Metrics and ROI
Communicating the value
Tools and processes

Interested in bringing a lean innovation workshop or course to your site? Contact us at [email protected] today.