At MIGSO-PCUBED, we define Lean Innovation, also referred to as Lean Process Improvement, as an end-to-end solution that delivers rapid innovation by continuously re-engineering processes, products, or services to reduce waste, optimize performance, and maximize value. The Lean innovation framework blends the core principles, tools and techniques from Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile, into a catalyst to accelerate an organization’s portfolio and innovation goals.

This framework allows an organization to identify new improvement opportunities aligned to the needs of the end user using Design Thinking and Lean Six Sigma problem solving. Second, it provides an approach for rapidly developing and iteratively testing solutions using Lean Startup and Agile ways of working. And finally, for those solutions best aligned to the organization’s strategy, it utilizes Agile for scaling continuous innovation out to the organization in bite sized increments.

The key benefit is its straightforward methodology centered around learning. Teams begin with identifying a minimum viable product, i.e. the smallest amount of features that will deliver what the end customer really needs and wants. Then the team quickly tests those assumptions in experiments designed to solve a problem with the least amount of investment required. This allows the team to learn early on that the end opportunity will provide value before scaling the additional investment needed to go to market.

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