Implementing Agile Learning

Hoping Agile Innovation is the key to launching your next blockbuster??More likely than not, a better place to start might be to infuse Agile Learning approaches into your innovation process.

It’s often difficult to apply Agile behaviors and have teams operate consistently with an Agile mindset, particularly in environments that have established innovation processes or that are not used to more entrepreneurial approaches.?Sometimes Agile can even be viewed with skepticism or resistance, making it difficult to make progress.

What is Agile Learning?

Agile Innovation has really become a buzzword, maybe too much so. Instead, I like to call it Agile Learning which helps to focus on the core of what makes this approach beneficial.?It can be applied to all stages of Innovation, however I think it’s easiest to initiate and get buy-in for at the ‘Fuzzy Front End’.

Agile Learning is an approach to creating innovation that is flexible, fast, iterative and cost effective.?It’s primary purpose is to help you learn as much as you can as quickly as possible.?As a follow up to my article I thought I was an Agile Innovator… until I became one, I wanted to share some insights, examples and practical suggestions to help you apply Agile Learning.

As background, I have over 15 years of Innovation experience in both corporations and private companies in 3 different industries (Consumer Packaged Goods, Pharmaceuticals and the Construction/Industrials). However, it’s only the last 5-6 years where I feel like I've been practicing Agile Learning.

More recently, I’ve been creating new businesses in a start-up like environment.?I’ve learned that I can move faster and spend less while still de-risking projects.?That enables me to spend more quality time refining and building the ideas that are resonating with users and have the best business potential.

What project should I start with?

If you're just getting started, I would recommend finding projects that are important enough to spend time on but not ‘mission critical’ company priorities which often have a lot more oversight (making it riskier and difficult to experiment on).?You want something where your small team has decision making authority and where you can pivot quickly as the learning guides the way.?I generally like to focus on new user groups which helps the team (and naysayers) stay in a learner’s mindset.?Remember, it’s about learning as much as you can quickly so you can adjust and pivot your approach.

To set the right expectations, you probably won’t find a billion dollar new business on your first try.?That would be nice but it’s more likely that your first experiments will teach you valuable insights and hone some new behaviors that will inform your innovation process and ultimately lead to a more successful big innovation win over time.

Think like a start-up entrepreneur

Sure, it’s a cliche but it does help get into an Agile Learner’s mindset.?Thinking that you have limited means and need to find a scrappy way to move this forward tends to force trade-offs.?What are the most important questions we need to answer??What are the critical assumptions we have to validate??This approach helps to maximize learning for time/money spent.?Less is more…

This can be important for corporate innovators who often have good sized budgets which make it easy to spend a bit more to add extras or outsource the work.?I would advise against spending more than what is absolutely necessary in early stages.?This is about rolling up your sleeves and getting right into this by engaging in the primary work yourself… It’s not just about the money, it’s so you and those closest to the project really feel and understand what Agile Learning is like.

I’ll share an example to contrast Agile Learning vs how I approached innovation in the past. To come up with new product ideas not so long ago, I would likely work with an agency to start some research.?We would get lots of internal feedback on what we need to learn and how to do it and likely initiate some qualitative research.?We would then work on the concepts and again get a lot of internal feedback before putting it into a large quantitative study.?The whole process would take several months or longer.

In contrast, just last year, I used a more Agile Learning approach that was radically different.?We conducted a few 1-1 remote interviews to gain some insight into a new user type.?We then wrote up a few concepts and tested it in Facebook Ads within a week.?It sounds cool but truthfully, I struggled with the approach.?It caused me to use new muscles (not a bad thing) but mostly I was uncomfortable about the validity of the results.?You’re not controlling as many variables as I was used to.?Throughout the process, our team had some heated debates on whether this was how we should do things… but ultimately I believe it was a helpful step to narrow our focus in the Discovery phase.?Importantly, since we were moving quickly and inexpensively, we were able to run multiple experiments which helped to de-risk the proposition and mitigate concerns. Being involved directly also helped me understand the target user and the user experience we wanted to create in a deeper way.

Agile Learning is like figuring out what color to repaint a room

Most of us won’t just pick a color and go to town… because the amount of effort needed to paint a room only to find out that it isn’t quite what you wanted is just not something you want to do. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Instead, you might start by getting some paint swatches to put against the wall.?Then you might get some more swatches and get some feedback to narrow it down.?You might buy a small can of paint and start a test patch, to see if it’s something you like.?If all goes well, you might invest the time and effort to paint a whole wall.?Wait a day or two to see how it dries, if it matches your decor or how it looks in different light conditions or different times of day.?If it checks out, then you take the big step to buy a bigger can of paint, move all the furniture and paint the whole room. Voila!

With Agile Learning or the repainting process described above, you’re basically running several experiments of increasing scale as you figure things out, build alignment and de-risk the proposition.?It’s also about staging the work to focus on the most essential work first to minimize wasted effort.

Potential pitfalls as you get started

Pitfall 1 - Over emphasis on governance

This is a watch out for those of us who are more process oriented or who work in environments where there is a lot of processes.?Don’t get me wrong, process is very important to help get things done efficiently.?However with Agile Learning, you can waste a lot of resources and time defining detailed processes for something that is by nature, morphing and pivoting as you learn.

I’ve seen how much effort can go into creating and deploying governance processes which can become problematic as it creates a lot of administration and often slows you down.?There are often unanticipated situations which the process has not accounted for, which then drives a revision and redeployment, which causes version confusion and frustration etc, etc…

Instead, why not try a more entrepreneurial approach??Give a small team access to sufficient resources, decision making authority and check-in points.?Let them run experiments and generate some real learning to help guide what the innovation process should be, and minimize delays and wasted effort.

Pitfall 2 - Being too stealthy

Despite not being a fan of too much governance for Agile Innovation, it is still important to have organizational commitment and alignment.?In the short term, you need to have resources, x-functional support and ‘air cover’ for your experimentation.?Longer term, you will need alignment and partnership in the broader organization so you can eventually scale and launch these ideas.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be a standing item on the Executive Leadership Team agenda (which has its own potential pitfalls).?You just need the right person(s) to know you’ve got something cooking that will be a key enabler to future innovation success and be there to back you up when experiments take longer or take unexpected turns.

Pitfall 3 - Not having enough Agile Learners

Agile Learning is a team sport and it can get messy.?Having a small team around you that will support the approach and knows how to help is key.?I’ve seen Agile Learning derail when you only have a few individuals who have ‘tidbits’ of Agile knowledge but are either not sufficiently informed, willing or able to risk a new approach.

Even worse, you can have colleagues who don’t understand what’s going on or perhaps feel a loss of control who then become resistant to the idea.?I’ve seen that happen so many times that I call it the Schopenhauer effect.?Arthur Schopenhauer was a 19th century German philosopher who came up with one of my favorite quotes.

I’m sure you’ve seen this happen too… and yes, it's usually frustrating until you get to the third stage!?So as much as possible, try to create a team dynamic that believes in what you’re doing and has resources that can help you stay on track with an agile approach.?This can be fellow innovators facing the same challenges or hiring an external Agile Coach that can guide the team. It’s also important to keep adjacent teams engaged and supportive so they share ideas and alignment becomes easier later on.

Agile Learning - Key tips to remember

1) Don’t get overly focused on governance. Get enough internal support so you can start experimenting while building bridges with those whose support you will need later on.

2) Pick a smaller yet important project where you can be decisive and pivot quickly.

3) Guide your team to focus on the most important work to complete.?What essential questions must we answer? What are the critical assumptions to test? What must be true for this to work???

4) Be willing to abandon concepts early (but clearly document why) so you can focus resources on the most promising ideas.

5) Iterating experiments quickly will help you find the right path and de-risk over time.

6) Build and nurture a team of Agile Learners who can help you figure this out together and build momentum.

I hope this inspires some new ideas and approaches for you to grow your business.?We all know leading change is difficult and especially so when the approach is less familiar for you as well.?It will probably feel uncomfortable at first but just like when you got on your first bicycle, you’ll figure it out with practice.

Good luck! I’ll hope to hear of your successes (and fast failures) so we can all learn more together.

Garsen Yap is inspired to create bold new strategies and innovative new approaches to drive growth for category leading companies and brands.