It’s not FOMO if you KNOW you missed out
I’ll just say it: I’m really regretting not attending Lean Startup Week this past week.
I’ve attended twice in the past: once as a catalyst for our launching our first internal startup at ReadyTalk, and then once as a speaker to talk about the experience.
The past two years I’ve directed my annual conference budget to the Front End of Innovation show in Boston. Whereas the Lean Startup movement (or as I’ve seen it, #failfast) is focused on rapidly testing assumptions under circumstances of uncertainty, the FEI show seemed more focused on how to identify market opportunities and insights. It also featured a lot of published authors as speakers (#booknerd), as well as leaders of internal innovation teams.
The first time I attended was a month after I’d taken on the role of Manager of Innovation Strategy at ReadyTalk, so it was the ideal event for me to learn from my peers as I established our program.
But fast forward a couple years, and as I saw the lineup of speakers in SF this week, I realized that the Lean Startup movement has grown up. I just cracked open Eric Ries’ new book The Startup Way, and I see that the book is written to ensure organizations have the “entrepreneurial management” systems in place to support the tactics he espoused in his earlier writing.
Which is great; that was my biggest criticism of Lean Startup. Yes, building landing pages and getting customer feedback can be done quickly. But ideas die on the vine without the proper support in place.
I’ve written before about how we introduced Innovation Options at ReadyTalk to make the case for investing in prospective projects. But I mistakenly thought I’d grown out of the Lean Startup community as I expanded my work beyond “how to test rapidly”.
But then I saw the lineup of speakers, and realized that nope, I should have been there. Tendayi Viki? Alex Osterwalder? Chip Heath?? (I’ve also still never met Adam Berk in person. How has this not happened yet?)
Not to mention a ton of smart attendees operating in a shared space of knowing there’s lots we don’t know.
Attending an event like Lean Startup Week can be hard for me to justify: I’m not part of a product team anymore. Arguably, anyone AT Lean Startup Week doesn’t need a consultant like me, they’re already drinking the kool-aid.
But it’s easy for me to forget that it’s one thing to attend a conference, and another to have the skills and tools and people in place to get things moving. The environment of a show like Lean Startup Week is electric, but then the next week you return to work and day-to-day responsibilities kick in.
Although I work in the innovation and insights space, even I can get into the groove of things. Next fall, I may just need a little energy boost myself at next year’s event!
Psst. Hey #leanstartup organizers, a suggestion for you:
Andrea Hill is the principal consultant at Frameplay. Frameplay is an innovation consultancy that helps companies become more customer-focused and thrive in a rapidly changing world. We do this by providing best practices, actionable insights and training without the price tag of those bigger ‘digital transformation’ consulting firms. Learn more at frameplay.co
