Recently our consulting-team was working with a large organization innovating on a significant initiative they wanted to move forward. Everyone was positive and engaged, but we became concerned about maintaining momentum, especially as we considered the backgrounds and possible tendencies of their leadership…many came from large organizations, operated in a significant amount of bureaucracy – i.e. long budget cycles, layers of approvals, many stakeholders, committees, etc. There was a clear risk of thinking too big too soon, getting bogged down, analysis paralysis, and failing to take the next small step forward.

Throughout the process we had been applying our “customer-focused innovation approach” (aka design thinking), in which we really pushed the idea of fast & lo-fidelity “prototyping”, doing small incomplete experiments for the sake of iteration and learning fast. However, we were still concerned that the words (“prototyping”) and the approach were still too theoretical. To breakthrough this mindset and bring it down to earth we thought of using the well-known illustration of the “lemonade stand itself.”

We loved the vividness and simplicity of the example, as well as the tension it creates…First consider “what it does” (attributes) – it’s fast (an afternoon or less), temporary (not built to last), incomplete, intensive focus on customer interaction (waving kids, cardboard sign), requires some but minimal skin in the game (customers pay ten cents, Mary sits for 2 hours, mom provides the lemonade powder & cups)….In short, all elements are focused on the shortest & minimalist path to “selling” (aka desirability!) and assume away the broader system of what it would really take to do it.

Consider “what it does not do” (we jokingly call it the “MBA perspective”) – what about funding/budgets? P&L? CEO/management team? marketing plan? strategic road map? regulations?…..and on and on…the lemonade stand doesn’t help much.

Does it mean these many concerns are not important? The answer is: “it’s a question of time” – when you’re first starting, all you care about is the quickest and lightest way to learn…specifically about your customers’ needs and whether or not your solution meets those needs. Later on, the focus evolves and “the MBA questions” indeed become critical, but can often still be approached in small, fast learning steps.

So as you consider the project you have in front of you right now…what does your “incomplete lemonade stand” look like? – fast, focused, temporary, scrappy, minimal, incomplete, intensive customer interaction, some skin in the game…. Remember the point is speed and targeted learning that informs the next critical step…the rest can come later.

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