Science museums often have a coin vortex funnel for collecting donations while demonstrating the effects of rotational energy and gravity. The shape of the funnel pulls the coin down towards the center while rotation provides stability so that the coin doesn’t fall over. The coin accelerates as it moves towards the center yet stays upright, […]
Start Here: Rapid Learning Cycles 101
To Get There Faster, Push Decisions Later
To accelerate innovation, we have to push decisions later.
This is the most challenging idea within the Rapid Learning Cycles framework — the one that generates the most raised eyebrows — and the most essential concept to embrace if you want to accelerate innovation.
It seems to go against everything we think we know about how to get things done fast…
Faster Innovation — Fewer Failures
The Promise of Rapid Learning Cycles
My controller, Shivaun is on a quest this month to find a new accounting system for us. We need to change systems because our current provider experienced a major product failure. They needed to replace some obsolete technology in their software to make them compatible with the latest Mac operating system — and they worked on that project for years. But ultimately, they were forced to admit that they simply could not get the new version out the door.
Sometimes people come to Rapid Learning Cycles because they have either experienced such a catastrophic failure or they see that they are at risk of one. Yet some innovation thought leaders think we should embrace failure to achieve speed. Why can Rapid Learning Cycles promise faster innovation — and fewer failures?
Agile for Physical Products
Agile Hardware Development Needs Convergence
An Agile Software Development team works iteratively — they write some code or make a UI design model, get fast feedback on it, improve it and add to it. Some people claim that 3D printing and other rapid prototyping methods allow hardware developers to work just as iteratively. But they are wrong, for two reasons.
Accelerate Agile Hardware Development with Systematic Knowledge Capitalization
In 2014, Sonion embarked on a journey to accelerate the pace of innovation. Sonion makes tiny microphones, speakers and other components for hearing health and professional audio. The company’s product development cycles are tied to their customers’ development cycles and most products are built to spec for a specific customer. For a company like this, […]
Featured Posts
Your Innovation Teams Need You
Five Ways Executive Sponsors Foster Innovations in Corporate Environments
Florence, Italy is known throughout the world for the quality of its art, architecture and craftsmanship. Florentines owe much of their present glory to the powerful merchant families that emerged in the 13th and 14th centuries. Those families sponsored artists, funded building projects and created a market for beautifully-crafted luxury goods that made Florence a […]
To Accelerate Net-Zero, Commit Early but Decide Late
A growing number of major companies are following the lead of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to set aggressive targets for achieving net zero carbon emissions in their businesses. To hit those commitments, companies need to make important decisions about where to focus the time, energy, and money they have to invest in sustainability. It may […]
Good Decisions Can’t Be Scored
Why Numbers Lead You Astray in Your
Most Important Decisions
When my partner and I were driving through the Luxembourg countryside, we enjoyed the beautiful sights: scenic mountains with hilltop castles and lush forests. As night began to fall, the fog descended. At first, it was beautiful. Then visibility became more and more restricted. Relaxation turned into apprehension as we realized the increasing danger on […]
Too Many Key Decisions or Knowledge Gaps?
Find Your NUDs to Find Your Focus
In the last two years, my thinking about Key Decisions has changed. I used to think that teams needed to address all their high impact / high unknown Key Decisions and that teams could be trusted to come up with the right ones within a few cycles of replanning, even if they struggled during the integration […]
Are Gantt Charts Evil?
In March of 2021, Denmark announced that that they had approved the construction of an artifical island to supply offshore wind power. The island will collect power from offshore wind turbines to transform and transmit it to the Danish electrical grid. The first stage won’t be operational until 2033. A huge project like this will probably have an overall project director, and an army of project managers working on the pieces of the puzzle. Although project management is waste by definition, it is also the epitome of necessary waste for a massive infrastructure project like this.
But this project also has a lot of unknowns. It’s the first time anything like this has been attempted. The group needs solutions that have not yet been invented. If the team attempts to run the entire project with traditional project management tools, they are likely to disappoint. According to researchers at Oxford University, large-scale projects like this have only a 0.2% chance of being delivered on time, on budget with the expected performance.