Learn more about this combination approach to innovation and train yourself on lean innovation.
Lean innovation is a unique approach to innovation that combines multiple methods together to transform businesses. Ultimately, it’s an approach focused on obtaining customer feedback and insights early on, and throughout each step of the process. Experimentation and continuous improvement is crucial to this approach. If you are interested in undergoing your own lean innovation training, or doing so at your organization, consider utilizing these tools and resources. But first, let’s dig a bit deeper into what lean innovation truly is.
What is Lean Innovation
Lean Innovation is comprised of three methodologies: design thinking, lean startup, and agile or lean processes:
1. Design Thinking
Design thinking is a customer-focused approach to building new ideas and solving problems. The five main steps in the design thinking process include:
- Empathize: Observe and study users to find out what they really need
- Define: Determine what the problem truly is
- Ideate: Brainstorm ideas of how to solve the problem
- Prototype: Take the best idea and develop a rough prototype of it, even if it’s just with paper and pen
- Test: Allow users to test your prototype and utilize their feedback for revisions
2. Lean Startup
The Lean Startup approach is a way to quickly ideate, test, and create prototypes, products, and services. Companies will develop an MVP- a minimum viable product that is a stripped down, simple, basic prototype of their idea that they can give to early testers. This feedback process allows companies to more cost-effectively develop products and services they know customers will need.
3. Agile or Lean Processes
The final part of the lean innovation methodology is applying Agile (rooted in lean processes) to move quickly and flexibly in sprints…and to reduce waste and provide continuous improvements in the lean way. This process also includes eliminating corporate functions that hinder innovation, such as reducing the number of internal meetings employees have (in favor of 15 minute standing meetings) or simplifying project management flow by focusing on what is most important to deliver that works.
Now that you have a basic understanding of the three processes that make up the lean innovation framework, here are some resources and tools for your training sessions:
Lean Innovation Training Books
Here are a few popular lean innovation training books:
- Lean Innovation: A Fast Path from Knowledge to Value
- The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
- The Innovator’s Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More Than Good Ideas
- Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Era
- Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology
Videos & Articles
- Lean Innovation: Design Thinking Meets Lean Startup for the Enterprise
- The Father of Lean Startup Thinks You Need to Start Up
- Why You Should Have Your Own Black Box
- 5 Popular Approaches to Innovation (Besides Design Thinking)
- Lean Startup Case Studies
Tools & Other Resources
- Google Venture’s Design Sprint
- How to Build a Startup
- Leading and Facilitating Innovation: Online Innovation Training Course
- Lean Design Thinking to Innovate WITH Your Customers: Online Innovation Training Course
Hopefully, these lean innovation training resources will help inform your training sessions and business processes. For more resources and tips, keep reading our innovation and design thinking training blog.