There’s a saying that ‘position gives authority and behavior earns respect’. In coaching leaders across many countries, I’ve learned that the best leaders are open to learning from anyone and anything around them. They are humble, they don’t rely on seniority or a title to get things done, and they build support and follower-ship through the values they demonstrate. These leaders also understand that leadership and learning are integral to each other.  Like Spiderman, great leaders know that ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. We trust our leaders not only with the care of our ..read more

Over the last decade, I have worked with dozens of innovation leaders in large corporations. One simple, persistent question has challenged almost all of them: “How do we manage a corporate innovation portfolio?” Here are the five big mistakes that emerged from those engagements that anyone who is a leader of an innovation portfolio should avoid. Mistake 1: Not Making a Mindset Shift Too often, leaders choose to treat managing a portfolio of innovation initiatives exactly the same way they treat managing their core revenue-generating product initiatives. Leaders assume that the path to the pot ..read more

Webinar Getting Started: Building Your Innovation System Learn about the early challenges and wins from two Innovation leaders who have recently established an Innovation System in their organization leveraging The Lean Startup methodology. Get access to the latest webinar. Jonathan Bertfield Senior Director, Lean Startup Co. Rachel Nguyen Director of Future Labs, Nissan North America Inc Jonathan Bertfield Senior Director, Lean Startup Co. The journey to establish an innovation system is rarely a straight line. Jonathan Bertfield, Senior Director at Lean St ..read more

Webinar Putting the Lean Startup Into Practice at Large Companies with Eric Ries and Ben Hafele Get access to the latest webinar. Eric Ries Founder Ben Hafele Managing Director Get the Tools You Need for Your Breakthrough Success In this 60-minute live webinar, you’ll receive coaching straight from Eric Ries and Ben Hafele that consists of practical insights on how to put key concepts from the books into action. At the end of the webinar, we answer questions from a collaborative Q&A discussion on implementing The Lean Startup in a large company. The webinar ..read more

Over the last decade, I have worked with dozens of innovation leaders in large corporations. One simple, persistent question has challenged almost all of them: “How do we manage a corporate innovation portfolio?” Here are the five big mistakes that emerged from those engagements that anyone who is a leader of an innovation portfolio should avoid. Mistake 1: Not Making a Mindset Shift Too often, leaders choose to treat managing a portfolio of innovation initiatives exactly the same way they treat managing their core revenue-generating product initiatives. Leaders assume that the path to the po ..read more

What is MVP testing? A Google search on MVPs and how to test them yields A LOT of disinformation. In this post, we’re going to head back to first principles and cut out all the fat. Our Lean Startup Co. Founder Eric Ries defines an MVP as “a version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort”. Validated learning is insight into what creates value for customers that’s based on experimental evidence instead of guessing or just asking customers what they want. If your team is currently uncertain about who your cus ..read more

Guest Post by Ben Schmuck, Lean Innovation Manager, Caterpillar Inc.   Dear Fellow Corporate Innovators, We’ve all heard of the “Core, Adjacent, Transformational” or “Three Horizons” innovation framework. Core innovation means making incremental changes to existing products in existing markets; transformational means the creation of brand new products and markets, and adjacent falls somewhere in the middle. Although this framework has led to many successful corporate innovations, I believe that focusing on types of products and markets matters far less than another factor: the level of u ..read more

After three days of keynotes, workshops and networking, we caught up with a few attendees of the first Lean Startup Co. Virtual Summit: Enterprise Edition to see what stuck. They told us how the Summit... The post 3 Days of Inspiration and Learning: A Recap of LSCo’s Enterprise Summit appeared first on Lean Startup Co ..read more

Tyrome ‘Ty’ Smith, has spent over 25 years consulting and leading executives and their teams by helping them understand human and organizational dynamics. Currently, he is a senior consultant to the Department of Defense (DoD),... The post Observing Human Behavior To Create Value appeared first on Lean Startup Co ..read more

Sandeep is a mechanical engineer and a human-centered design practitioner. He’s spent more than a decade at the proving grounds, developing various construction and mining machines for Caterpillar Inc. As a Lean Innovation specialist, he’s... The post Practicing Genuine Empathy To Understand Your Customers’ Needs appeared first on Lean Startup Co ..read more