Prove it!

Continuing our 2013 series of thoughts on Sustaining Innovation.

We, at Fluxx, are absolutely loving working with a particular client who has taken a big leap for them and allowed us to run some disruptive experiments. BC ( brave client) provided the ideas via our kick start 2 day RapidStart that we facilitated for them. In line with our methodology, we helped BC turn those ideas into 3 minimum viable products that could be used to validate the concepts in a set of experiments.

In the space of just 48 hours we had 3 experiments designed, and one actually deployed. Within a few more working days we had a second pretty complex experiment up and running (involving 20+ people).

The thrill and excitement of developing an idea and having a first version of it live to test in a few days is so amazing to many organisations. But it is then easy for them to think that they have arrived at the desired destination. They have entered a whole new world. They think they are unstoppable innovators. Suddenly everyone knows about the experiment. All the senior managers want to see it; people want a piece of the action. We even had feedback from another part of their business in another country!

But in terms of meaningful results – anything tangible at all – we had very little. We still had no results, no validated learning; nothing other than feel-good factor to tell us that the idea was going to be of benefit to customers and the business. We still needed to observe, measure, collect data and verify. This is what an experiment means today : in the Fluxx world of valuable experimenting anyway.

Our tip is: run disciplined experiments. Don’t accept any accolades until you’ve measured something and you’ve got some validated learning.

I suppose that if innovation was easy then everybody would be doing it.
Fluxx – big thinking, brought to life.

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