Iteration: Your MVP for Activation
At the intersection of business innovation and people-centered strategy activation is the movement of the Lean Startup, which enables organizations to behave more nimbly by learning what customers want — intentionally, rapidly, and iteratively.
Organizations, particularly big and established companies, benefit from integrating Lean startup practices into their business to innovate products or services. However, often they stumble when trying to accelerate the adoption of these practices at scale across their workforce, thanks to a misapplication of the minimum viable product (MVP).
The common understanding of MVP is related to the innovation itself, the product offering (or feature). The innovation MVP is all about enabling a full iteration cycle of the build-measure-learn customer-feedback loop with minimal time and effort invested before taking the full product offering to scale.
Issues emerge when an MVP for an activation solution (or the activation MVP) does not consider the complex nature of people and the ecosystems in which they currently exist. To test their activation hypotheses for how to best bring the business strategy to life through their people, organizations can unintentionally focus on a limited vertical slice of the full solution, rather than a holistic multidimensional view.
Think of it like a chef developing a recipe: To understand if a new dish (say, honey-glazed chicken) is worth the precious menu real estate, taste-testers need to experience more than simply a slice of roasted chicken. The dish must include all the aspects that make it honey-glazed chicken: honey, paprika, salt, oil, correct serving temperature, a complementary side, and the perfect wine pairing! Similarly, your people need to “taste the whole recipe”—or experience the wholeness of the activation solution— so you can iterate, refine, and ultimately invest in the most effective approach.
Ready to try this approach out yourself? Download the interactive Activate Your MVP Worksheet to discover how you can bring your unique Activation MVP to life through your people.
If you’d like to connect with our team to learn more about the activation MVP, give us a call at 859-415-1000 or reach out through the form below.
