Lean Innovation

Marion Tucker summarizes ‘Lean Innovation’ as the ability of an organization to “identify new opportunities through the use of design thinking […]; the ability to quickly, and with fewer resources, develop, prototype, learn, validate, and improve business solutions [via Lean Startup]”; and finally the “ability to apply lean processes [[author’s note: here: beyond just TQM, Six Sigma, etc.]], which enable teams to reduce waste, make incremental improvements, and eliminate the bureaucracy that often hinders innovation” .

Another influential proponent of the concept, Steve Blank, says: “Lean Innovation management combines [the] Three Horizons of Innovation with the Lean Startup to deliver an Ambidextrous Organization” .

In summary, this means that at a process level Lean Innovation is all about fast learning (cycles), while at an organizational level it is about the creation of an environment — or innovation system — that enables this way of working.

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