Ten Years Later, Lean Startup Still Has a Culture Problem

It’s been a full decade since Elizabeth Engel and Guillermo Ortiz de Zárate wrote a spot-on white paper about the Lean Startup methodology and how to apply it in associations. That was only about four years after Eric Ries released his book on Lean Startup. I saw him speak at South by Southwest around that time, and remember being really impressed with the concepts, like “minimum viable products” and iterative development where you didn’t figure out the perfect thing at the beginning and then work to build it—you kept improving (with feedback from users/customers) and the “perfect” thing would emerge.

So here we are, ten years later. The methodology is not only still out there, it’s stronger. We have access to more tools, cheat sheets, and case studies than ever before. But associations? Gotta be honest: most haven’t been jumping in with both feet on this. Some are using it, but the adoption is by no means broad. And as you might have guessed, I think the culture inside associations is partly, if not mostly, to blame.

That is why I jumped at the chance to work with Elizabeth and Guillermo on a new version of the white paper: Lean at Ten: Culture Eats Methodology for Lunch, which we released this week. You can download it here (for free, and you don’t even need to leave your name/email; that’s not how Elizabeth rolls). It starts with an overview of the Lean Startup process and design thinking, so you can get up to speed, and it ends with three solid case studies of how associations have used lean startup to do real innovation that is generating real revenue.

In between, there’s the big section that I focused on, and that’s squarely on culture. As the white paper title implies, culture is the biggest roadblock to applying the lean startup methodology in associations. Even if you want to up your innovation game and use lean startup methods, your culture might not let you.

I draw from decades of research that Maddie and I have done on culture to identify four aspects of culture that you need to pay attention to if you want lean startup to work:

• Innovation practices

• Effective action

• Organizational clarity

• Difficult conversations

A lot of associations struggle very specifically in these areas, but I break them down for you, and in the conclusion I offer some advice on how to improve your culture’s support of those areas in ways that can help bolster your attempts to do lean startup.

Lean Startup is still absolutely relevant for associations—but only if we deal with the culture challenges first. That’s where the leverage is. That’s how you actually turn “innovation” from an aspiration into a habit, and then from a habit into results.

👉 Download Lean at Ten: Culture Eats Methodology for Lunch here.

Also, if you want to get some hard data around how your culture deals with areas like innovation practices and difficult conversations, consider running our culture assessment. It will help you see the patterns that could be getting in your way.