Lean Innovation Intrapreneurship Program

The first week is a variant of our Design Thinking Boostcamp adapted for this course. It starts with important theory inputs on the concepts of disruption, (digital) transformation and innovation and ends with an understanding of the role, design thinking plays in all of this. Teams will go through the whole design thinking process and learn how it can be combined with the Value Proposition Canvas and other industry-standard tools.

Cognitive Learning Goals

Learning in the sense of remembering (knowing, reproducing) knowledge and expanding intellectual abilities and skills → e.g. ‘human- centred mindset’.

• Understand the importance of thinking human-centric for today’s digital world and what role it plays in corporate transformations
• Be able to differentiate between classic ‘Tech R&D’ and ‘Business R&D’
• Understand the value of iterative working and co- creation with customers
• Know the differences of problem and solution space and which methods help explore them

Affective Learning Goals

Learning in the area of feelings and evaluations, of attitudes and convictions; refers to changes in interests, to the willingness to do or think something → e.g. ‘creative confidence

• Get acquainted to and learn to value the the working and reflection (in action) modi of designers
• Feel the pressure, satisfaction, and usefulness of working time-boxed and iteratively in a sprint
• Reflect ones own current thinking biases, artificially narrowed-down points of view and ‘professional damages’, which prevent discovering innovation opportunities

Competence-based Learning Goals

Learning in the field of acquirable skills, some of which are also visible; mental abilities and skills, e.g. manual and technical skills → e.g. ‘qualitative interviews’.

• Learn a first customer interview and user testing 101
• Design value propositions with the help of rapid prototyping, testing, and iteration; co-evolve and design prototypes by using the Value Proposition Canvas
• Design (thinking) method basics: Charette, Persona, Jobs-to-be-done, Journey Map, Affinity Diagrams, ‘How Might We’ question storming/ brainstorming and ideation techniques, prototyping and testing techniques, and many more.

This week is a variant of our Business Design Masterclass, where the concepts like Customer Development, Solution Validation, and Business Design will be taught. Teams here will learn the 101 of business model innovation in a Lean startup mode. We will use two main frameworks: Value Flow Mapping for Ecosystem Design and the famous Business Model Canvas.

Cognitive Learning Goals

Learning in the sense of remembering (knowing, reproducing) knowledge and expanding intellectual abilities and skills → e.g. ‘human-centred mindset’.

• Recollect the importance of business model innovation (BMI)/Business R&D as a necessary complement to Tech R&D
• Understand hypothesis- and data-driven risk minimization (build — measure — learn)
• Understand the network mechanics of ecosystems (design) and their power for BMI
• Differentiate traditional ‘project KPIs’ and metrics for innovation (Innovation Accounting)

Affective Learning Goals

Learning in the area of feelings and evaluations, of attitudes and convictions; refers to changes in interests, to the willingness to do or think something → e.g. ‘creative confidence

• Get comfortable with and understand better the “fake it till you make it” attitude of lean entrepreneurs
• Understand the mantra “don’t ask for permissions, ask for forgiveness” better
• Discover the myths and subtleties of ‘smart failure’ and when the latter really is allowed
• Value the hard work and creativity behind a (startup) culture of experimentation

Competence-based Learning Goals

Learning in the field of acquirable skills, some of which are also visible; mental abilities and skills, e.g. manual and technical skills → e.g. ‘qualitative interviews’.

• Design business models with the Business Model Canvas and the Value Flow Map Framework
• Use business model mechanics and revenue model pattern to make their design more resilient
• Learn how to use Assumption Mapping and Lean Experiment Maps to validate business designs
• Know how to derive hypotheses and design tests with the help of a Lean Experiment Library and ‘metrics that matter’
• Get introduced to first digital lean prototyping tools

At this point, the teams have a validated product vision and are ready to deploy developers and other implementation roles to their project. The week is therefore under the banner of agile project management with Scrum. Contents are:

Intro to Agile 
Project Management

• History and overview 
of agile (software) development approaches
• The core ideas of Scrum
• Classic product management vs. Scrum
• The ‘role of roles’ in Scrum
• The anatomy and origin of a validated product vision
• How to define a product from a user’s perspective »intro to User Story Mapping

User Story Mapping

• Exercise: Slicing the product with User Story Mapping
• Cutting the work: roadmapping, product backlog, effort estimation, measuring progress, etc.
• People management: types of stakeholders, how to align their interests and shield the team
• Product Owner’s 
decision making

Sprint Planning and Learning Cycles

• Requirement handling: prioritization techniques, differentiating types of requirements (bugs, features, etc.), managing dependencies
• Sprints in agile project work: Scrum sprints (if applicable: Research/Design Sprints), sprint meetings, etc.
• Sprint Review How-to: inspecting product increments, how to deal with feedback, etc.

This week’s content is an adaptation of the Innovation System Design Masterclass. It introduces participants to the concepts and requirements from an organization design perspective to make a lean innovation culture thrive. We will also reflect on what it means to be an agent of change and what leadership looks like in such an evidence-driven working environment. We will also develop a language capability on important change and transformation theories and concepts that are helpful to know. It is advisable that top management attends this week too or receives the same training separately.

Cognitive Learning Goals

Learning in the sense of remembering (knowing, reproducing) knowledge and expanding intellectual abilities and skills → e.g. ‘human- centered mindset’.

• Understand the dynamics of ‚Organizational Ambidexterity‘ and ‚Dual Transformation’
• Know the role of an differentiated portfolio, process, and talent management across a ‚playing fields‘ model
• Be able to differentiate types of innovation
• Know the components of an innovation strategy and how to create an ‘innovation culture’
• Understand the concepts of innovation vehicles and pathways

Affective Learning Goals

Learning in the area of feelings and evaluations, of attitudes and convictions; refers to changes in interests, to the willingness to do or think something → e.g. ‘creative confidence

• Gain more empathy for colleagues who have to do exploration-oriented work (pirates) and vice versa: understand the constraints of people in the core organization (navy)
• Get inspired by proven ways on how to bridge the gap between the two ‘operating systems’ for possible adaptation
• Retrace via case studies what big a role iterative change plays in ‘transformation’ work
• Get inspiration for a (re)design of own innovation vehicles

Competence-based Learning Goals

Learning in the field of acquirable skills, some of which are also visible; mental abilities and skills, e.g. manual and technical skills → e.g. ‘qualitative interviews’.

• Be able to describe and differentiate contemporary agile innovation approaches like Design Thinking, Lean Startup, SCRUM/Kanban and their roles for corporate innovation
• Reflect and check through own organization’s innovation strategy components; be able to find gaps and blind spots
• Become aware of better collaboration opportunities between programs and vehicles internally