Part IIValidate
Setting an audacious goal, understanding the problem, and identifying a solution are the necessary first steps towards social impact at scale. Consider your goal, as defined in Chapter Two, as the North Star that captures your aspirational vision for a better world. In Chapter Three, we saw the importance of getting close to your customers and working with them to validate their underlying problems. Chapter Four followed with techniques to identify promising solutions. Then, Chapter Five explored the Lean Startup methodology for validating a solution: identifying the riskiest assumptions, forming measurable hypotheses, then testing these through one or more MVPs. As you may recall, Figure 1.2 illustrated the relationship between these elements in the Lean Impact workflow.
Now Part II dives deeper into validation – the iterative process of testing, learning, and improving that lies at the heart of Lean Impact. For this phase of the innovation journey, curiosity and humility will be essential. After all, we are working in complex ecosystems on long‐standing, intractable problems that involve a high degree of risk. Thus, the likelihood that any idea will be perfectly crafted from the start and optimally deliver the desired impact is infinitesimally low.
That doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel and go home. What it does mean is that we must proceed with a healthy dose of skepticism, adopt a learning mindset, and find ways to reduce risk each step of the way. ...
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