Why Not Start Up Lean?
Agile, Scrum, Google Sprint and Lean Startup are the buzz words of the last few years. Not only startups but also corporates have moved toward these quick and efficient new product development methods.
Central to all these new product development methods is ideation.
How does ideation link up to new product development?
In my opinion there are two key ingredients needed for ideation:
- motivated people and
- an executive team supporting ideation (meaning budget, resources, time allocation).
So let’s say we have these two ingredients and ideation is part of our DNA.
How could this work in practice?
From Idea to Minimal Viable Product
Ideally you’d have a small ideation team consisting of representatives of all departments related to new product development: sales/marketing, product management, IT etc.
Once per week they have a brainstorm session and select 1 top idea. This top idea can be a new product or tool, a process or product enhancement. And should in any case be solving a need, problem or X…
Source: The Lean Entrepeneur
The colleague who has submitted the idea will remain the idea owner and moderator throughout the process.
This means he’ll be involved in all parts of the ideation and development process (from Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to full product).
Say management has given each team a dedicated ‘sack of money’. Just to develop a basic MVP without having to pitch the idea. And that we are skipping the tedious business plan process for now.
The goal is to develop a MVP to be sent to a selected group of customer (early adopters) within 2 weeks.
After the brainstorm session the idea is further fleshed out to involve initial requirements.
Now add a UX specialist and a designer to the team. They will be able to quickly translate the initial requirements to a basic and lightly designed prototype. This prototype will then be tested by the ideation team and the idea owner.
Source: The Lean Startup: Benefits and Criticisms
In the meantime product management is approaching early adopters for a customer group pivot. Marketing is prepping up communications on the MVP via posting basic designs on social media and other communication channels. Sales is designing an initial business model. Editorial is supplying a first set of content. Finance is calculating the financial viability of the proposed product as well as preparing the data analytics.
All of this just within a week.
The second week will be used for perfecting the prototype, adding in the content, creating marketing and sales materials which include the intended business model. And connecting the data analytic tools with the prototype.
A final test round by the whole ideation team and the MVP is ready to be presented to the early adopters.
From Minimal Viable Product to Product
The customer pivot can be done in several ways. Setting up a marketing campaign to a selected group of customers and ask their feedback via user voice. Visiting customers at their place of work and see how they are working with the MVP at the spot. Getting the early adopters out of the building, demoing the MVP and collecting their reactions.
In any case in the few days after the customer pivot, the feedback needs to be processed by product management and reported to the ideation team and idea owner.
Source: Customer development
Say the feedback is fully negative. This means there is no market for the MVP and that it will never become a Viable Product.
Say the feedback is negative, but it is still doable to adjust the prototype. The top 5 of complaints should be addressed and built into the prototype. Then show it to the same group of early adopters, analyze their feedback, rebuild etc.
This can go two ways: either the MVP is rejected or is built up to a Viable Product.
Say the feedback is positive but contains suggestions for improvement. The rationale would be to select the top 3 of improvements and adjust the prototype. Then show it to the same group of early adopters, analyze their feedback, rebuild etc.
This usually goes one way: moving to a Viable Product.
Once the MVP is moving towards a Viable Product, it is not just the idea owner and the ideation team who are involved. We are now entering the realm of new product development. This means that the ideation team will become extended with more stakeholders. Now the art will be to keep the final development lean, swift, and iterative e.g. AGILE has entered the building.
This can be easy. The ideation approach can in effect become the Agile process: learn, measure and build.
Source: The Lean Entrepeneur
