Tech entrepreneurs like the iterative ‘build – measure – learn’ process that is at the heart of the lean startup methodology.
More and more, corporations are looking to emulate this iterative process as well. That’s why many large corporations have introduced some sort of internal innovation department. Large companies recognize that doing so can help them improve revenues. This is because they accomplish a more streamlined product development cycle.
They build products and services that people really want and the demand for their product and services increase. Profits go up.
First of all, product development is an extension of customer development. That means that the corporation needs to solve a real problem for real customers.
Have you ever been a frustrated customer of a big corporation, feeling that nobody is listening to you? How about if you yourself work for a large corporation? Does your corporation take the time to listen to its customers? Some of us can relate to both sides of the story.
Many corporations have seen success and have become more agile by adopting lean startup techniques.
When big companies have a true desire to change, then they can bid farewell to old-fashioned corporate mentality. That’s the time to adopt a startup mindset and implement startup principles at all levels of the organization.
To bring the spark of the startup mindset to your company, Startup Drill is a great starting point.
In a two-day workshop, a team of innovators from your company can begin to understand a customer problem deeply.
By starting with the problem first, the team gains a clear focus on how customers live. Your team comes to understand what customers need and how they try to solve their problem without you.
Your team discovers how much customers are willing to spend to solve the problem and how ‘painful’ the problem is. You gain insights into how the problem impacts the quality of people’s lives.
Before your company offers any solutions to the problem, it gains a solid foundation. By grasping the extent of the problem you know whether it is worth tackling in the first place.
At Startup Drill, you will conduct experiments to understand who will be the first paying customers of your new product or service. You’ll learn to manage the customer development process and to measure the success of your experiments.
You will also have a template to take back to your company and a framework to create a lasting change. This will help create a startup mindset beyond the confines of a company’s internal innovation department.
Startup Drill techniques go beyond the two-day workshop. They make a lasting positive impact on a company’s culture because others can learn the techniques and implement them before launching any new product or service.
Your company will be able to create what is known as ‘minimum viable products’ (MVPs) that serve to validate assumptions early on.
This means that in short iterations, your company can offer new products and services faster. Not only that, but there is a greater likelihood that each new offering will help your company’s bottom line.
You won’t launch projects of a great magnitude without first having gone through smaller phases. That’s how you validate and improve on your product or service, to arrive at just the right customer-solution fit.
This means your new offering will gather momentum and cross the chasm from the early adopters to the greater public.
That’s how your company can become more flexible and more like a startup.
>> Written by Dimitris Polychronopoulos <<
Interested to learn how you can better understand your customer’s problems and create products they will love? Then join next edition of Corporate Startup Drill in Oslo!