THE INNOVATION TRAP (AND ANTIDOTE) FROM

LEAN STARTUP

Companion to blog post at goo.gl/jCtVTy

In 1965, the average tenure of companies on the S&P 500 was 33 years. By 1990, it was 20 years. It's forecast to shrink to 14 years by 2026.

SPEED OF CHANGE

A fast -moving wor ld mandates we should keep up wi th the new to mainta in a compet i t ive pos i t ion.

However , the pursui t of sh iny ideas can a lso lead to the abandonment of proven ideas which could s t i l l

de l iver meaningfu l va lue .

SHOULD WE MOVE FAST?

While Porter’s Five Forces still holds value, newer theories have come about to better describe forces emerging with internet and digital technologies. An example is Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory.

Some outcomes of Aggregation Theory recommend the customer (a real person, not just a persona) needs to take prominent position in a company’s strategic and tactical focus.

WHERE OLD MEETS NEW

Human Centred Design (HCD) popular ised dur ing the 1980s by des ign f i rm IDEO.

Jobs To Be Done ( JTBD) co ined by Harvard Bus iness School professor C layton Chr is tensen in 2003.

OLDER CONCEPTS ARE COMING BACK

Source: Enabled

Al though o ld techniques remain a dr iver of rea l innovat ion , an industry segment

notor ious for abandoning the o ld in pursui t of   the  sh iny and new is the Star tup and

Innovat ion scene.

NOTORIETY OF STARTUPS ABANDONING

THE OLD

Some even c la im that Lean Startup replaces Human Centred Des ign and Jobs To Be Done,

and is bet ter by far .

IS THIS STANCE VALID?

Lean Startup concept was f i rs t proposed by Er ic

R ies in 2008

I t borrows f rom Lean

Manufactur ing which has i ts roots ear ly to mid 1900s

I t reached i ts he ights in the

1990s demonstrated by

the Toyota Product ion System

LEAN STARTUP & LINKAGE TO OTHERS

F i rs t le t ' s explore what lean is about

RATIONALE FOR LEAN STARTUP’S CREATION

Ries observed that Star tups operate under condi t ions of extreme uncerta inty and th is can lead to t remendous waste .

Too many star tups beg in wi th an idea for a product that they th ink people want .  

“The f i rs t s tep is f igur ing out theproblem that needs to be solved

and then deve loping a min imumviable product (MVP) to beg in

the process of learn ing asquick ly as poss ib le . ”

LEAN STARTUP

I t ' s not about who your customersare , but what they ' re t ry ing to do.I t s tar ts wi th a problem ratherthan a so lut ion. I t looks at the jobs your customershire your product to get done.

JOBS TO BE DONE

CUSTOMER CENTRICITYLean methods do not preclude the use of tools like JTBD

It is the MVP part of the Lean Startup principle that presents danger to the practitioner, and is often the part which receives the most emphasis at innovation programs.

THE MVP OBSESSION

Source: Lean Startup

On the surface, the cycle is an intelligent one. There is no point spending too much time making the perfect

product before understanding its market effectiveness.

However, too much store is placed in the hope that quick iterations of feedback will shape an idea into a

successful product.

SPEED ISN'T EVERYTHING

This very fast cyc le serves theplayers on the capi ta l supply s ide

a l lowing them to observe manymore ideas , bas ica l ly throwing

more at the wal l , more of ten , tosee what s t i cks .

INVESTORS & VCs

Not a l l feedback is created equal . People may g ive feedback & not buy your product . They may g ive fa lse object ion; or p ick a feature you can ' t g ive to escape the process .

FEEDBACK GIVERS

WOULD-BE INNOVATORSVery little is done to help them determine if their idea is solving a true problem.

Entrepreneur Ash Maurya - author of a Lean Startup's essential read Running Lean - successfully combined the use of JTBD and Lean principles to enhance his product.

CASE STUDY: LEAN STACK

Source: Lean Stack

Ash created the Lean Canvas based on the Business Model Canvas   to bet ter serve entrepreneurs .

The Lean Canvas i s heav i ly problem focused:

LEAN CANVAS

Dif ferent iates between customer " Jobs to be done" (problems) vs . market ing features (UVP) Captures  how customers dea l wi th the i r problems today (ex is t ing a l ternat ives ) rather than l i s t ing compet i tors

You can gather JTBD data f rom customers who stop us ing your

product .

You may d iscover that your product i s be ing used for

very d i f ferent Jobs .  

Narrowing what Job(s ) your

product should be used for has

benef i ts .

LEAN STACK

 Source : A lan K lement

Ash la ter used JTBD to enhance the Lean Canvas , expanding i t into the Lean Stack .

MAIN LESSONS

Start wi th the problem your users/customers faceRes is t the temptat ion to over - eng ineer the product by focus ing on what customers h i re the product for ( the i r JTBD)Develop complementary products to he lp customers so lve re lated jobs (e .g . Lean Canvas => Lean Stack)

What we learn f rom Ash ’s journey :

Source: Lean Stack

This is why Lean methods are not a replacement of Jobs To Be Done and in typical use, they certainly aren't better at determining if a real problem is being addressed.

JTBD GOES WELL WITH LEAN

PUTTING HUMAN BACK AT THE CENTRE

The i rony is that a l though Human Centred Des ign and Jobs To Be Done have beenaround for some t ime a l ready , they are only just ga in ing t ract ion wi th the broad bus iness community .

One of the most recent s t rateg ies i s to speed up the innovat ion cyc le method so much that

i t e l iminates a l l instruct ions toward deve loping susta inable bus iness .

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS STRATEGY IS?

By Larry Downes and Paul Nunes, the process is to conduct “random experiments” without any kind of strategic vision or direction and see what happens.

BIG BANG DISRUPTION

Source: Harvard Business Review

Trouble i s , just l i ke an explos ion, everyth ing ( inc luding the d isruptor ) comes crashing

down a lmost as fast as i t went up.

Th is i s just d isrupt ive terror ism and rea l innovat ive enterpr ises can only become

co l la tera l damage.

IS IT INNOVATION?

Full post at blog.enabled.com.au/innovation-trap-lean-startup

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