Lean Enterprise Institute webinar, April 28

I can barely write, as I'm still recovering from the amazing but overwhelming Startup Lessons Learned conference last Friday (great summary here). I'll follow up with a more detailed post later, but for now let me just say: thank you to everyone who participated, spoke, sponsored or helped organize. It exceeded my expectations totally.

Want to learn more about lean startups? Want to talk about applying the lessons beyond software, internet, and small companies? The Lean Enterprise Institute, the official keepers of lean, are hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, April 28. Details are below. This will be a unique cross-cultural meeting between entrepreneurs and traditional lean experts. I believe we have much to learn from each other.

920 people from over sixty countries have already signed up to attend - help us break 1000 by registering here.

Lean mindsets and methods for innovation in any company
a free webinar featuring:
Eric Ries
April 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM EDT

The "Lean Startup" is the application of lean thinking to the process of innovation in startup companies — defined as a type of business where both the problem (customer need) and the solution (product) are unknown. Traditional product development efforts often invest millions of dollars and years of time into one fixed product concept that is assumed to meet known customer needs — creating a high level of risk that the "waste of overproduction" occurs and creating a product that customers reject. The "Lean Startup" methodology, instead, tests new ideas early and cheaply, with early and frequent customer feedback. Critical to product success is creating a learning feedback loop that's company-wide, continuously testing new ideas so that idea failure doesn't have to equal company failure. Iterating more quickly is the key to success rather than having the one initial perfect concept.

Since successful startups grow into larger mature companies, how do the lessons from "Lean Startups" apply? How can businesses of all shapes and sizes use lean methods to be innovative and disruptive? Where a startup is a high uncertain opportunity in a highly uncertain business, how can more stable businesses use these methods for their new uncertain products or ideas? How do familiar lean manufacturing mind sets and philosophies for quality management, training, and problem solving contribute to innovation?

Specifically, you will learn:

• How to define "value" in an innovation setting
• What is a "minimum viable product" and why is that preferable to big batch
  development?
• How to create a blame-free development culture that encourages learning, root
  cause problem identification, and improvement
• How a process focus can lead to discipline, not bureaucracy
• How to apply the right learnings from "Lean Startups" to a non-startup environment

Who Should Attend:
This webinar is designed for a broad audience: everyone who is interested in learning how companies with unknown problems and solutions can use rapid P-D-C-A cycles to better understand and meet customer needs. This is intended for anybody who is working on new innovations, whether that means continuous improvement at the front lines, or new product development in a mature manufacturing company.

I hope you'll join us. More information is available here.