In September, our Chief Innovation Officer Sasha Dichter introduced our new approach to impact measurement, Lean Data, with a series of articles on Acumen Ideas. Each story, from Whose Data Is It Anyway? to What’s in a Question?, explored the principles behind Lean Data and the need to close the gap between social enterprises and their customers and find a faster, more affordable way to measure their performance.

Over the last 15 years, Acumen has invested in social enterprises that provide critical goods and services to the poor because these businesses are hard-wired to reach large numbers of people. To make a dent in global poverty, our reach has to be wide but it also has to be meaningful. We created Lean Data to understand the real impact our companies are having on the lives of the poor—and to use that information to help them improve their business and create lasting change. At Acumen, success is defined by how well our investments enable the poor to transform their lives.

Now it’s time to dig deeper. Last week, Stanford Social Innovation Review published The Power of Lean Data, a feature co-authored by Sasha, Acumen’s Director of Impact Tom Adams and Alnoor Ebrahim of Harvard Business School. The piece illustrates how Lean Data debunks the metrics myth to create value for our companies and their customers and delves into how our investees are putting the approach into action on the ground.

We accompanied the piece with a new report, Innovations in Impact Measurement, published in partnership with Root Capital. The report is full of case studies and detailed examples of how both Acumen and Root Capital are leveraging the power of mobile phones and tablets to gather data from low-income customers in some of the most remote locations in the world. The future is about connecting with these customers to amplify their voices. This report focuses on the “how” of data collection, exploring the possibilities—and limitations—of using low-cost technology to quickly and inexpensively gather meaningful data directly from customers of social enterprises.

Through Lean Data, it’s become clear that collecting impact data doesn’t have to be a huge cost or a big burden. For the first time in history, the mobile revolution is opening up a channel of communication with a new generation of low-income customers. Our hope is that these new tools will not only address the unique measurement needs of the social sector but also empower the poor by making them active participants in the data collection process.