Lean Impact Webcast on Tuesday

Lean Impact Webcast on Tuesday Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. Lean Startup techniques have beentaking off in the social-mission sector, helping people solveproblems more effectively, and earning the name Lean Impact. To explore what’sworking on the ground, we’re hosting a webcast, Lean Impact: Implementing Lean Startup in Mission-driven Organizations, next Tuesday, November 5at10a PT. It will feature a conversation that gets into the details of how non-profitand mission-driven organizations are making use of Lean Startup methods to getcloser to their goals, faster. This webcast is free with registration, and ourspeakers will answer questions live from attendees. One other note—we’re introducinga special scholarship program to bring non-profit organizations’ staff andvolunteers to the conference in December. More …

via Start Up:

Lean Impact Webcast on Tuesday

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference.

Lean Startup techniques have been

taking off in the social-mission sector, helping people solve

problems more effectively, and earning the name Lean Impact. To explore what’s

working on the ground, we’re hosting a webcast, Lean Impact: Implementing Lean Startup in Mission-driven Organizations, next Tuesday, November 5at

10a PT. It will feature a conversation that gets into the details of how non-profit

and mission-driven organizations are making use of Lean Startup methods to get

closer to their goals, faster. This webcast is free with registration, and our

speakers will answer questions live from attendees. One other note—we’re introducing

a special scholarship program to bring non-profit organizations’ staff and

volunteers to the conference in December. More details on that at the end of

this post.

Few people are

better positioned to talk about bringing Lean Startup techniques to

mission-driven organizations than Akash Trivedi and Christie George, both

speakers at The Lean Startup Conference in December. Akash is a business lead

for Kiva’s pilot program Kiva Zip, which seeks to make microlending even more

direct—for example, by facilitating payment via mobile. Christie is director of

New Media Ventures, the first national network of angel

investors supporting media and tech startups that disrupt politics and catalyze

progressive change.

We asked Christie to give a sense of how she sees the

relationship between Lean Impact and Lean Startup.

LSC: Do you see Lean Impact as a direct application of Lean

Startup ideas in non-profit and mission-driven organizations, or is there

another element to it that’s not so obvious?

Christie: There are huge opportunities to build better

mission-driven organizations using Lean Startup principles. And “Lean Impact”

offers a reference point for people to start that conversation—there is real

power in naming. I think of Lean Impact more generally as the conversation

about the challenges in addition to

the opportunities of applying Lean

Startup ideas in mission-driven organizations and businesses.

There are some specific challenges that I’m looking forward to

discussing, both with Akash and at the conference:

1) Measuring Impact: For

organizations that are in the “business” of social change, questions

of measurement are notoriously tricky. How do you measure a movement for social

justice? How do you measure that it’s actually your work that’s moving the needle on an issue? The clear

focus on users and revenue is hugely useful for

measurement, but for organizations serving a population and not

building a ‘product’, the language and culture of Lean Startup is still finding its

focus.

2) Vanity Metrics: Especially for

those working to increase awareness, social change groups often

report member numbers, Facebook likes, and news hits as proxies for

impact (which may in turn generate further

revenue). Metrics around petition signatures or Facebook likes are

relatively easy to track, but of course, they don’t tell you whether

you’re winning. How can we come up with impact metrics that go

further than vanity and get to the core outcomes we’re working to achieve?

3) Customer Development: In the

social change space, the customer who “pays” (e.g. a foundation) is

often not the beneficiary of the service. In some cases, this is a standard

three-sided market problem, but it often goes deeper than

this. Mission-driven entrepreneurs are disrupting more than markets, and

are therefore choosing to address issues of power and culture that may not fit

neatly into the customer framework.

4) Failing Real People: Entrepreneurs

in the social sector are solving big, gnarly, complicated problems. The costs

of experimentation (and failure) can be high. I’ve been reminded by social

entrepreneurs, “When we fail, we fail real people.” That is humbling,

even daunting. But it’s important to remember that it is a privilege to be able

to run experiments in order to fail fast.

The most exciting thing for me is that

a community of practice is starting to develop around Lean

Impact, with best practices and actual case studies, to guide

entrepreneurs navigating these issues. And we’ve got some great examples of

people and organizations doing it well—from the data-driven culture of online

advocacy groups to the relentless testing that Kiva Zip has

done, something that Akash will speak to directly. [Editors’ note: The Ultimate Glossary of Lean for Social Good, from the folks at LeanImpact.org,

has some great examples (PDF).]

LSC: One key element of Lean Startup is the idea of organizing a

startup around multifunctional teams. In mission-driven organizations, how do

you see teams reorganizing to apply Lean Impact ideas?

There is a pretty wide variety of organizations that fit into

the social sector—from large, traditional non-profit organizations to

nimble technology enterprises. Some of these organizations are just

beginning to be exposed to Lean Startup thinking, while others have deep

experience with experimentation.

The space that I work in—online advocacy—has a long history

of running controlled experiments and using A/B testing to

measure and optimize campaigns. I’ve also observed that these groups—everyone

from MoveOn.org, Change.org, UltraViolet, Upworthy—have comparatively flat

structures.

But even more than reorganizing teams, the work of Lean Impact

seems to be one of making a change in the organizational culture. Social entrepreneurs are working to get institutions to

understand the value of taking risks. I see digital teams gaining influence

within larger organizations, as well as a generation of entrepreneurs building

new types of social businesses and organizations

that are embedding Lean Startup principals from the start.

–

For a deeper dive into the challenges and opportunities facing

Lean Impact organizations, register for our webcast on November 5 at 10a PT. And

join us at the Lean Startup Conference, December 9 – 11 in San Francisco. If

you’re part of a non-profit organization and are interested in Lean Impact

ideas, we strongly encourage you to apply for our scholarship program. We are

offering a dedicated group of scholarships specifically for non-profit

organizations, their staff and volunteers. We are particularly interested in smaller

organizations that otherwise would find the conference financially out of

reach. So, the smaller your org and the tighter your budget, the more we want

to hear from you. Just fill out an application, and we’ll follow up with you asap.

via Lessons Learned:

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference.Lean Startup techniques have been taking off in the social-mission sector, helping people solve problems more effectively, and earning the name Lean Impact. To explore what’s working on the ground, we’re hosting a webcast, Lean Impact: Implementing Lean Startup in Mission-driven Organizations, next Tuesday, November 5 at 10a PT. It will feature a conversation that gets into the details of how non-profit and mission-driven organizations are making use of Lean Startup methods to get closer to their goals, faster. This webcast is free with registration, and our speakers will answer questions live from attendees. One other note—we’re introducing a special scholarship program to bring non-profit organizations’ staff and volunteers to the conference in December. More details on that at the end of this post.Few people are better positioned to talk about bringing Lean Startup techniques to mission-driven organizations than Akash Trivedi and Christie George, both speakers at The Lean Startup Conference in December. Akash is a business lead for Kiva’s pilot program Kiva Zip, which seeks to make microlending even more direct—for example, by facilitating payment via mobile. Christie is director of New Media Ventures, the first national network of angel investors supporting media and tech startups that disrupt politics and catalyze progressive change.We asked Christie to give a sense of how she sees the relationship between Lean Impact and Lean Startup.LSC: Do you see Lean Impact as a direct application of Lean Startup ideas in non-profit and mission-driven organizations, or is there another element to it that’s not so obvious?Christie: There are huge opportunities to build better mission-driven organizations using Lean Startup principles. And “Lean Impact” offers a reference point for people to start that conversation—there is real power in naming. I think of Lean Impact more generally as the conversation about the challenges in addition to the opportunities of applying Lean Startup ideas in mission-driven organizations and businesses.There are some specific challenges that I’m looking forward to discussing, both with Akash and at the conference:1) Measuring Impact: For organizations that are in the “business” of social change, questions of measurement are notoriously tricky. …

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