Lean impact: How to apply lean startup principles to non-profits for social good
Modern technology developers often use terms such as minimum viable product and iterative development. Startup companies popularized these lean startup approaches to develop products while conserving resources and achieving product-market fit. Under these management approaches, developers release small products and then rapidly make incremental changes based on market feedback and adoption. This process saves time and money while ensuring that new features correspond to real user needs.
Although minimum viable products and iterative development originally took hold among startups, today, virtually every innovative technology organization I speak with uses this approach. Conversations with chief information officers and chief digital officers routinely turn to incremental development based on customer feedback and rapid turnaround times. even chief marketing officers talk about marketing projects in these terms.
Despite the extent to which business and government organizations have adopted rapid prototyping and development, applying these principles to non-profits is still relatively new and not always easy.
Non-profits face a different set of challenges than profit-making businesses. For example — and this is but one example among many — businesses can see a direct and often immediate link between product changes and user behavior: Instrument your app or website, make a change and observe the clicks to see user impact. In contrast, many non-profits measure results over time in terms of broader social benefit rather than clicks; obviously, this is much harder to measure and iterate quickly.
Despite the challenges, there is great value in applying iterative techniques to non-profits. To teach non-profits how to accomplish this goal, the former chief innovation officer of USAID, Ann Mei Chang, wrote a new book called Lean Impact, which presents advice on how to apply Lean startup principles to social impact and non-profit organizations.
The clear importance and value of applying these principles to non-profits led me to invite Ann Mei to be a guest on episode 313 of CXOTalk, a video and podcast show that offers conversations with the world’s top innovators in business, technology, and health care.
During our conversation, Ann Mei explains principles of the Lean startup movement, on which her book is based. She then describes how non-profit organizations can apply these principles to their own operations.
Ann Mei is uniquely qualified to speak about these topics, given her unusual background, which equally spans business and non-profits. She currently works as executive director of Lean Impact at the Lean Startup Company, founded by Eric Reis, whose books lay the foundation for lean startup principles.
This episode of CXOTalk offers a unique and clear look into how organizations focused on social impact can apply the techniques of lean startups.
Watch the entire video embedded above and read excerpts below. You can also read the entire transcript over at the CXOTalk website.
Ann Mei Chang: It was really an evolution. There are not that many people who span both worlds. I spent so much of my career in the tech sector that lean startup was essentially in my blood. In fact, when I first went into government, it was a big shock in a way because things worked so differently in government than they do in Silicon Valley. One of those things was that, in government, we like to plan in a lot of details for years in advance and then execute on those plans because we’re very risk-averse; we’re a very planning-oriented culture.
Also: Data science secrets in finance and media
What I found myself doing was really encouraging people to plan a little less, do a little bit more, and really get out in the field and try things, learn, and iterate. It was sort of like just the instinct that I had. At the time, I hadn’t picked up The Lean Startupyet. I was in D.C.
