The concept of Lean was originally based out of Toyota Manufacturing. It is framed for efficiency, low waste, and iterative, flexible processes while aiming to maximize customer value. Effectively, creating more for and with less. The concept quickly cross applied to other areas of business -- the thought being that functioning in this state is available to any business and is something to span across the personality / core of a company.
Where is Lean in Leantime? Leantime utilizes a concept that gained traction in the Startup Community. When startups have a significant risk of failure (for a multitude of reasons), finding a way to test and proliferate a concept quickly and with "less" is ideal. The Lean Canvas then became a business model concept that is used to help validate business ideas / product development quickly and iteratively. A similar model to this is also known as the Business Model Canvas.
Leantime utilizes these concepts within the Research Boards. The Research boards don't start with the Lean Canvas. The system initially utilizes the Customer - Solution - Fit model in its' Simple Board View.
This model was formed around the principals of Lean and User Experience design. Its' goals are to optimize solution adoption, decrease time spent on testing, and get a better overview of the solution.
- Customer State Fit: this is to identify your customer base and their current solutions.
- Problem Behavior Fit: identifying the problem that these customers are having. Are there behaviors that support this problem?
- Solution: using the data to develop a solution to an actual problem that was identified. If your customers need it, it makes sense to build it.
These are the foundational business questions that we should be asking to optimize success of the product that we're building. Asking these questions and validating the answers allows us to better aim our building towards things that customers will use and need.
The Simple Research Board view is designed to capture the very basics of this concept.
As mentioned already, the Lean Canvas is an in-depth view into the "Why?" of product development. In this view, we're still examining the Problem, the Solution, and the Customers and then we're adding in:
- Unique Value Proposition: Why should customers pick you? Are you faster, cheaper, have more features?
- Unfair Advantage: What do you have that your competitors don't have?
- Key Metrics: How are you measuring the success of this idea?
- Distribution Channels: How are you getting this information to your customers?
- Cost Structure: What are the costs associated with this idea? Which key resources / tasks are the most expensive?
- Revenue Streams: How are you going to charge your customers / make money?
Asking these questions further aids in validating product ideas by identifying risks, competitive edge, user needs, competition space, cost, and finding the right target customer base. The goal in Lean is to eliminate waste, deliver value. Setting up your ideas to be successful requires the foundational work to ensure there's a user at the end of development.