The Lean Startup Method applied to corporate innovation

The Lean Startup Method applied to corporate innovation

Leenders, T.

Smulders, F.E.H.M. (mentor)
Verlinden, J.C. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

IPD

2014-04-09

Founded in 2006, senz umbrellas bv is a company established by three Industrial Design students. In November that year, they launched their first product, the senz° storm umbrella. Upon their market introduction, the international media picked up their story resulting in a tremendous amount of publicity. High rates of success resulted in more senz° models, which nowadays consist of five designs. Over the course of time, the storm umbrellas have been developed into a mature product group. Nowadays, senz° feels the need to expand their product portfolio and wants to become a lifestyle brand in the context of commuting. Previous experiences regarding new product development inspired senz° to accelerate their product development process. senz° noticed the opportunity to implement the Lean Startup Method (LSM), a more entrepreneurial approach for new product development. Whereas the Lean Startup Method focuses on start-ups, senz° finds itself in an existing business. This graduation assignment analyses and applies the Lean Startup Method to corporate innovation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to analyze senz° past experience respecting new product development. Insights showed that senz° found it hard to integrate market feedback into new product development. Besides the lack of external driven development they searched for acceleration of their process as well. senz° wanted to decline their development time. These insights were clarified with literatureconcerning organisational evolution. Subsequently, the LSM was analysed in order to validate the suitability of this method for senz°. In short, this method is a system for developing a business or product in the most efficient way possible to reduce the risk of waste. This method relies on validated learning by means of scientific experimentation. It uses fast product releases to shorten product development cycles and gain valuable feedback with the use of real customer early on the development process. In other words a method to build, measure and learn. With this method senz° wants to accelerate their new product development and expand their product portfolio. Findings of the analysis concerning the suitability if the LSM for senz° showed that the LSM focuses on validating ideas and has a lack of a creative process to generate those ideas. Whereas the Lean Startup Method focuses on start-ups, senz° finds itself in an existing business. This requires a complementary method which emphasizes a creating process and a focus on existing companies. Brand-driven Innovation (BDI) was found as complementary method. BDI integrates the internal and external company context into a brand lens. This lens provides a certain perspective to look at innovation. The lens can be used as a filter to selectively look at the innovation process. Secondly, BDI provides innovation clusters derived from a context-mapping research which is used as tool to generate ideas. Combining the LSM with BDI resulted in a new product development method is created aimed to apply to corporate innovation. The method distinguishes a BDI phase and a LSM phase. The process starts with the Brand-driven Innovation phase. The entrepreneur should shape his brand lens, combining the insights of the internal and external context of the company. This lens provides a perspective to look at innovation during the LSM process. Subsequently, one should execute a context-mapping research whereby innovation cluster are formed. With the results of the context-mapping research the LSM phase can start. With use of iterative steps the idea will be validated as fast as possible within the LSM process. By repeatedly go through a build-measure-learn feedback loop (iterations) the company will validate its business model. A case study was setup in order to test the appropriateness of this new product development method for senz°. Outcomes of the internal company context of senz° showed it is clear that innovation is key in their way of thinking. For the future products of senz° it should be really clear for the customer that it solves a problem and is perceived as innovative. Analyzing the external company context resulted into the most representative customer segment, the Urban Explorer. Based upon the outcomes of the context-mapping session two pain cluster where selected. The Bike cluster and the Moving stuff cluster are the input for future development. In order to continue with the process, solutions were created which solve the pains found in the clusters. Within the LSM phase two solutions were generated, a modular design pack and a traffic headphone. Out of the BDI phase selection criteria were defined to choose between the solutions and the traffic headphone was selected as best solution. Three iterations were conducted during the LSM phase whereby prototypes were generated and tested with real customers. These iterations give insights how to perform the LSM inside a company. When analyzing the appropriateness of the new development method for senz° , valuable additions to their current product development process came up. Getting a prototype into the hands of real customers early on the development process and quickly learning from what they do, underpins the external focus of the new development method. This ensures the integration of market feedback into the development process. The use of fast iterations in the early stage of the development cycle is an addition to the current product development method to accelerate the development process. During these iterations one should test the product with real customers which force the designer to make his ideas tangible in an early stage. To conclude, the new product development is discussed and recommendations for the applicability of the LSM to corporate innovation are made.

lean startup
innovation

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:34505372-ec0b-47a2-97c7-36d046257941

2015-04-09

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Leenders, T.