Opinno delivers a training course to LeasePlan

Our world is evolving at a rapid pace and therefore companies must be able to adapt more quickly to the new and ever-changing needs of their customers. To this end, large corporations are borrowing from young startups lean, aka agile methodologies, which deliver the rapid development of new solutions.

We, as an expert in innovation, not only apply this methodology internally, but also train companies on the application of this methodology within our own organization. The car leasing company LeasePlan commisioned us to design a workshop on lean startup methodologies. Irene Martin, one of the consultants responsible for organizing this training session explains, “We believe that these methodologies can be applied within any company, irrespective of their size or industry.”

The training session was held on November 5th as part of the annual congress of the Business Process Management (BPM) division of LeasePlan in Barcelona, Spain.  The 35 attendees from the BPM division received the basic tools for improving their practices which, under the umbrella of lean startup methodologies, are centered around Customer Development and Design Thinking approaches.

The workshop kicked off with a presentation from the director of the Ideas division at Opinno, Daniel Medina, who explained the challenges faced by organizations in the current economic climate. The lack of resources, the development of products which do not interest consumers and the difficulty of adapting to frequent technological changes are the primary obstacles to effective innovation.

This was followed by a dynamic session which allowed the attendees to arm themselves with the most appropriate tools to tackle these problems. First the concept of Customer Development was defined as a way of helping organizations to get to know their customer base, understand their needs and develop an offer which adds value.

In accordance with lean startup methodologies, an enterprise must be agile not only when prototyping new solutions, but also when launching them commercially to identify mistakes as quickly as possible to achieve the best possible version of their product offering in the shortest possible timespan. In order to evaluate whether a prototype has worked, it is paramount to analyze its impact. Martin explains the methodology applied in the case of LeasePlan: “We adapted the web metrics tool to apply it to the product development process.” To this end, they established a series of parameters which must be achieved in order for the project to continue. One example would be that 12 of every 20 customers state that they would purchase the product.

“It is important to be rigorous with these metrics; if the limit is initially set at 12, and only 10 customers confirm they would pay, the project cannot continue,” Martin explains. The consultant highlights this because “these situations can lead to self-deception” and to the insistence on moving forward with an ineffective solution. “One must fall in love with the problem, not with the solution,” Martin states, while pointing out that as wonderful as an idea might seem, if it doesn't work within the marketplace, it is not commercially viable.

The workshop we delivered forms part of a larger collaboration with LeasePlan in which the company has looked to Opinno to drive their innovation processes. The methodologies in which we trained the attendees will help the company face day-to-day problems with the mentality of a startup; the best mentality for continuous innovation.