An interesting concept spinning around my head this morning is the whole “experimental” mindset

– what it means,

– what it takes

– and why it could matter

When you look for definitions of experimenting it sets the scene for what, in these uncertain times we may need to embrace far more than we think.

The mindsets, the context, the approach to experimenting is some what different to that of the mass change world that many organisations have today.

Maybe if you had a R&D role or a role in an innovation hub you would be a natural at the mindset and approach but scaling it up into the main stream of delivery is maybe taking it to a place it needs to go – with the world we currently live and work in today

This definition is great ..

1. A procedure .. this could be a concept, a process or a product.

2. Controlled conditions.. to me suggests something is being tested, and that is clearly articulated in how and for how long what needs to be tested will be tested

3. To discover an unknown effect or law .. what’s the hypothesis that needs to be tested to assess desirability, feasibility and viability

4. And after all before significant money and effort is being put into scaling up its critical that the experiments happen, the findings are considered and the decision to experiment again, or to scale up and deliver can be made.

In my experience the decision to invest at scale based on PowerPoint papers and limited experimentation has been the norm – busienss cases have been pulled together on optimistic based assumptions and pessimistic risks, tech has been selected based on internal assumed customer needs , and large project teams have been pulled together to acquire, configure, develop the solution over many months maybe years ahead of going live.

At go live I may have heard the words alpha or a beta release, the first time the product or service actually got in front of a real user/customer to test the functionality and enable scaling up in a controlled way.

Todays word is different, you can stand up a skeleton of the tech to experiment, you can mobilize customers to get engaged and connected into your concept and you can set up controlled experiments and learn so much ahead of more detailed development and scaling and deploying to the masses.

The approach to shaping, mobilising, gaining financial sign off and delivery is different but it has to be the way forward.

How much are you experimenting before scaling up into major programmme modes .. do you have paper prototyping, do you have model offices, do you have testbeds and are you finding creative ways to engage real customers and try out different things in a controlled way to enable you to scale and give the customer and employees the experience that you know they want, need and will pay for !

Let me know