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. In essence, we must walk before we run. The good news is that there is a time‐proven process to do so – the scientific method. Just as for a scientific inquiry, we’ll identify implicit assumptions, formulate a hypothesis, predict the anticipated outcome, run experiments, and analyze the results. Chapter Six tackles the nuts and bolts of validation, with an eye towards starting small and speeding up our feedback cycle.
In the three chapters following Chapter Six, we’ll explore in depth all the critical dimensions of validating interventions for social good, along with a wide array of practical, real‐world examples. What types of assumptions do we need to test? How do we collect data? And, what do MVPs look like in a mission‐driven context? A full chapter is dedicated to each of the three key pillars of social innovation: value, growth, and impact. Chapter Seven focuses on the value we deliver to our customers and beneficiaries. Chapter Eight explores the diverse range of potential paths to accelerate growth and scale. And, Chapter Nine tackles the challenges associated with assessing social impact. Throughout Part II, we will examine the common barriers to innovation in the social sector and the successful strategies organizations have discovered to overcome them.
Whenever we run an experiment, we risk embarrassment or disappointment. We put ourselves on the line by introducing a visible measure for success or failure. It can be tempting instead to plow ahead blindly, and hope for the best. Yet, the only way to learn is to be willing to fail. And, learning as fast as possible is what drives innovation.