Over the weekend I got asked the best way to teach students the principles of Lean via Zoom. One of the key lessons from our Educators Conference is that when teaching online complex information needs to be delivered to students in small, easily processed parts. I realized that pre-pandemic I had put together a series […]
Filed under: Customer Development, Teaching | 2 Comments »
SAVE THE DATE for the Lean Innovation Educators Summit: Lessons from Teaching in the Pandemic July 24, 10-noon Pacific, 1-3pm Eastern, 6-8pm London As educators the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all. We’ve faced the challenges of teaching remotely, while virtually managing students scattered across the world, keeping students enthusiastic and engaged via video, helping them […]
Filed under: Educators Summit, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 4 Comments »
Remote education in the pandemic has been hard for everyone. Hard for students having to deal with a variety of remote instructional methods. Hard for parents with K through 12 students at home trying to keep up with remote learning, and hard for instructors trying to master new barely functional tools and technology while trying […]
Filed under: Hacking For Defense, Lean LaunchPad, NSF (National Science Foundation), Teaching | 7 Comments »
A version of this article appeared in TechCrunch. With in-person classes canceled, we’re about to start our online versions of Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Oceans (and here). The classes are built on the Lean Startup methodology: Customer Discovery, Agile Engineering and the Business/Mission Model Canvas. So how do our students get out of […]
Filed under: Covid-19/Recovery, Hacking for Recovery | 18 Comments »
Rise Up “Let’s do something to help with the pandemic.” In April, with the economy crashing, and the East Coast in lockdown, I heard this from Stanford instructors Tom Bedecarre and Todd Basche, both on the same day. And my response to them was the same, “I can’t sew masks and I don’t know how […]
Filed under: Hacking for Recovery, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 1 Comment »
Sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, my coffees with current and ex-students (entrepreneurs, as well as employees early in their careers) have gone virtual. Pre-pandemic these coffees were usually about what startup to join or how to find product/market fit. Though in the last month, even through Zoom I could sense they were struggling […]
Filed under: Covid-19/Recovery, Family/Career/Culture | 13 Comments »
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review AgileFall is an ironic term for program management where you try to be agile and lean, but you keep using waterfall development techniques. It often produces a result that’s like combining a floor wax and dessert topping. I just sat through my a project management meeting where […]
Filed under: Customer Development, Harvard Business Review | 7 Comments »
We just finished our 5th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. At the end of the quarter each of the eight teams give a final “Lessons Learned” presentation. Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are, “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells the […]
Filed under: Hacking For Defense | 1 Comment »
A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review I’m a big fan of McKinsey’s Three Horizons Model of innovation. (if you’re not familiar with it there’s a brief description a few paragraphs down.) It’s one of the quickest ways to describe and prioritize innovation ideas in a large company or government agency. However, […]
Filed under: Customer Development, Harvard Business Review, Uncategorized | 17 Comments »
Often the opposite of disruption is the status quo. If you’re a startup trying to disrupt an existing business you need to read The Fixer by Bradley Tusk and Regulatory Hacking by Evan Burfield. These two books, one by a practitioner, the other by an investor, are must-reads. The Fixer is 1/3rd autobiography, 1/3rd case studies, and 1/3rd a “how-to” manual. […]
Filed under: Corporate/Gov't Innovation, Customer Development | 2 Comments »
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