Bio

Summary

My hypothesis is that most organisations would like to be more successful in bringing products and services to market using a straightforward innovation process. I think Lean Startup can really help make this a reality.

I worked for nearly ten years as a business consultant in enterprise IT.

Now, I work with Clients to harness the Lean Startup framework to create growth, innovation, and greater agility. I've always loved ideas - having ideas myself, and now empowering others make the most of theirs. Together we figure out ways to make great things happen.

I like to think big, work in partnership with others, and do my best to "pay it forward". Please get in touch so we can explore what's next and how we can make a difference together.

Offerings

Set out below are a number of offerings to assist early-stage innovators in both startups and established organisations.

‘Lean Innovation’ consultancy

Applying the insights of the Lean Startup framework to existing organisations is a challenge! By combining proven business change disciplines with Lean Startup techniques adapted for corporates, innovators can bring together incremental, adjacent, and breakthrough ideas in one ‘continuous innovation’ model.

You can follow in the footsteps of General Electric, Intuit, Amazon and other organisations who foster a culture of experimentation to gain insights and test your ideas in quick, cheap and low risk ways to find out what existing and potential customers want and will pay for.

Suitable for

Innovation Managers; I am seeking early adopter Clients to act as co-creators for my approach.

Coaching and Mentoring

The key aim is to empower those being coached to make effective and timely decisions – through guiding them to find their own responses, rather than fixing or saving them.

Having started my own consultancy business in 2008; worked in a startup; been instrumental in setting up a startup accelerator programme; and bootstrapped a social enterprise for two years, I can combine my experience with my Psychology degree and qualifications such as Master Practitioner in NLP.

Suitable for

All Founder and Intrapreneurs who are grappling with the “emotional struggle of entrepreneurship”.

Lean LaunchPad

Should a longer course format be appropriate, I can make use of open source courseware to deliver an eight week ‘flipped classroom’ whereby students learn using an online learning tool [which hosts course material]; talk to customers between debriefing sessions; test their business model canvas hypotheses; and interact once a week with me, their tutor.

Suitable for

Founders, Intrapreneurs, Scientific researchers; those wanting a ‘deep dive’ into these techniques.

‘Playing Lean’ half day

I could also run a half-day workshop for those wanting a taster to Lean Startup, using a board game designed specifically for the purpose.

Suitable for

Senior and Middle Management; Finance; Sales & Marketing teams.

Track record

Since December 2013 I have created and delivered two dozen workshops to 100-150 early stage entrepreneurs (and ‘intrapreneurs’ in existing organisations) based on a growing and robust body of knowledge – the Lean Startup framework.

Clients have included a-n The Artists Information Company, Durham County Council, Teesside University, Northumbria University, and the Business and IP Centre at Newcastle Library.

Typically, I employ open source tools around product management and business modelling, and have recently created a printed checklist for students conducting ‘customer development’ so they are guided to ask open questions about customer problems, and also to test pricing.

Workshops are delivered using a mix of multimedia, including slides, videos, wallcharts / post-it notes, team exercises, real-life engagement with potential customers, and whole class engagement. 

Business ideas that participants have developed include clothing, mobile apps, consumer goods, foodstuffs, tech infrastructure, dog walking, and childcare materials.

Testimonials

“The process worked well. Thinking about what our customers might want is not the same as knowing. The best way to find out is to ask them. The alternative way, of launching a product only to find then if there is a market, is much more risky approach. The real insight for me is that it flushes out all our assumptions that underpin the viability of the offer. We assume that there are customers. We assume that they have a need. We assume that we can fulfil that need and above all we assume that they will pay us for the pleasure.

The beauty of the Lean Start-up process is that it forces us to reconsider what we believe to be true and test it against what our customers, potential or not, believe to be true. As Saul Kaplan said we need to take our ideas off the whiteboard and into the real world.

Thanks Justin.”

And:

“The Lean Start-up training is paying dividends already. […] I have come to realise that the things I think I know are