Inside a large company, the business case for a new product often takes longer to write than the first version would take to build. It carries a five-year forecast and a launch date. Almost none of it has met a customer.
Steve Blank described the old startup routine the same way. Founders raised money on a detailed plan and then built in stealth, with little feedback from the people they meant to sell to. Lean startups search for a business model instead. They test hypotheses against customer feedback and change the product as they learn. Blank also pointed out that large companies such as GE had started applying the approach to internal innovation.
What the workshop should test
A lean startup and product sprint starts by writing the bet down, including who it is for and why it would matter if it were true. Then the room separates what it knows from what it hopes, and picks the riskiest assumption. That is usually something dull, like whether a customer will switch providers or whether the sales team will carry the new offer.
The test comes next, and it should be the smallest experiment that could change your mind. A landing page or a concierge version run by hand will often do. The room should leave with evidence it collected itself.
Who has to be in the room
Bring the sponsor who funds or kills the idea. Before the test runs, agree with them what result would end the idea and what result would earn more money, while nobody is attached to the outcome. Ideas that survive only because someone senior likes them eat budgets for years. Test the bet before you fund it has more on setting that line.
Bring a live idea, too. A canned case teaches the method and leaves your pipeline untouched. Programmes that only ever practise on hypothetical cases are one of the types of innovation theatre I see most often. Regulated teams can run real tests as well, provided each test learns something without putting customers or the licence at risk.
After the sprint
The sprint should end with a decision the sponsor signs: stop the idea or fund the next test. If your funding process still demands a full business case before any test, read the business case alternative before you book. Otherwise the evidence will lose to a spreadsheet in the next budget round.
Tell me the idea on the table and who signs off on it. We will shape the sprint around the riskiest assumption in that idea.
