High Velocity Innovation

CONCLUSION

THE RIGHT IDEA AT THE RIGHT TIME

I freely admit that I didn't invent the concept of “Rapid Learning Cycles.” The phrase first appears, as far as I can tell, in a small book called The Lean PD Skills Book, self-published in 2004 by Dr. Allen Ward of the University of Michigan.¹

Dr. Ward was one of the original researchers into Toyota's Product Development Process, alongside his more famous colleague, Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way.² Then Mark Swets and Tim Schipper of Steelcase expanded on this idea in their book, Innovative Lean Development, published in 2010.³

Pull for Rapid Learning Cycles

Starting in 2011, a series of client engagements pulled the Rapid Learning Cycles framework together. These clients were in different ...