“70% of our projects fail... that’s the nature of the beast”.
This is what a product developer told me last year.
My name is David Bain and I have a tendency to filter things through a “how-can-we-make-this-better” lens. Add to that the fact that I enjoy teaching and you probably have some idea of what’s coming next.
In recent years I’ve wondered how to bring all my strengths to the table, especially to benefit new business endeavours. Said another way, “how do you turn incurable curiosity and the love of teaching into a system that reduces risk?”
It took a few missteps, conversations and experiments but 2018 has convinced me that I’m on to something. A better way to determine viability of your next projects. The business name is Incrementic and we “Reduce risk and save time by rapidly testing the viability of new opportunities”
Stealing great ideas
Our mission is to:
Awaken the Inventor’s mindset.
Accelerate “eureka moments”.
Establish systems of innovation.
One of the really great ideas that helps us with our mission is the Design Sprint. The author of the methodology, Jake Knapp, describes it as “fast-forward[ing] into the future to see your finished product and customer reactions, before making any expensive commitments”. I was so convinced of its effectiveness that by early 2018, I changed the focus of Incrementic from being a technical startup to being one that provides rapid idea validation through sprint methodologies.
We do this through training and facilitation services. If you’ve been to one of our events or workshops, you've seen the practice of continuous curiosity in action.
Missteps, conversations and experiments
In January 2018 we started with an experiment in repackaging the Design Sprint as the Customer Experience (CX) Sprint. My hypothesis? CX was something sorely needed in our market. By applying the sprint principles we would help organisations reinvent specific aspects of their customer journey. This resonated a bit with our early audience but I spent too much time unpacking the ideas. Even worse, when I did come across persons interested in testing new ideas and products, I had to jump through hoops to explain how our CX Sprint was the right thing for them. I needed something that clicked.
By the end of the first quarter, based on feedback from advisors, clients and prospects, it became clear that the CX perspective, while worthwhile, might be going after the wrong audience and too small a box.
After further conversations a pattern started to emerge. I learned that risk reduction and time savings were core values that the methodology addressed. It was also becoming apparent that the approach was universally valuable to businesses of all kinds, but especially attractive to those with an agile mindset.
By the second quarter of 2018 we dropped the CX Sprint and started to call it what it was, the Design Sprint.
What's next?
Our broad vision is to move forward boldly with continuous curiosity. We know this isn’t for everyone, but innovation favours those who are prepared enough to tame the beast. Incrementic seeks to partner with others who are incurably curious. Let’s talk, you’ll probably discover that you’re one of us.
