What company doesn’t want energized workers, delighted customers, genuine efficiency, and breakthrough innovation? The Lean Mindset shows how lean companies really work–and how a lean mindset is the key to creating stunning products and delivering amazing services.
Through cutting-edge research and case studies from leading organizations, including Spotify, Ericsson, Intuit, GE Healthcare, Pixar, CareerBuilder, and Intel, you’ll discover proven patterns for developing that mindset. You’ll see how to cultivate product teams that act like successful startups, create the kind of efficiency that attracts customers, and leverage the talents of bright, creative people.
The Poppendiecks weave lean principles throughout this book, just as those principles must be woven throughout the fabric of your truly lean organization.
Learn How To
- Start with an inspiring purpose, and overcome the curse of short-term thinking
- Energize teams by providing well-framed challenges, larger purposes, and a direct line of sight between their work and the achievement of those purposes
- Delight customers by gaining unprecedented insight into their real needs, and building products and services that fully anticipate those needs
- Achieve authentic, sustainable efficiency without layoffs, rock-bottom cost focus, or totalitarian work systems
- Develop breakthrough innovations by moving beyond predictability to experimentation, beyond globalization to decentralization, beyond productivity to impact
Lean approaches to software development have moved from novelty to widespread use, in large part due to the principles taught by Mary and Tom Poppendieck in their pioneering books. Now, in The Lean Mindset, the Poppendiecks take the next step, looking at a company where multidiscipline teams are expected to ask the right questions, solve the right problems, and deliver solutions that customers love.
Table of Contents:
Preface ix About the Authors xi
Introduction 1
Lean Is a Mindset 3
How Mindsets Work 4
The Fabric of Lean 6
Chapter 1: The Purpose of Business 11
The Rise of Rational Economics 11
Case: Who Are Our Customers? 15
The Rise of Rational Work Systems 19
Case: Working Together at Ford 23
Cooperative Work Systems 26
Case: When Workers Are Volunteers 32
Questions to Ponder 36
Chapter 2: Energized Workers 39
Full Potential 39
A Challenge That Changed the World 45
The Science of Expertise 55
When Can We Trust Intuition? 64
Questions to Ponder 69
Chapter 3: Delighted Customers 71
Ask the Right Questions 71
Solve the Right Problems 75
Design a Compelling Experience 81
Develop the Right Products 92
A Design Toolbox 96
Questions to Ponder 99
Chapter 4: Genuine Efficiency 101
What Is Efficiency? 101
Lessons in Flow: Ericsson 102
Lessons in Speed: CareerBuilder 110
Lessons in Learning: Lean Startup 115
Build the Right Thing: Spotify 119
Questions to Ponder 129
Chapter 5: Breakthrough Innovation 131
Seeing the Future 131
Focus 135
Change the Focus 141
An Innovation Checklist 155
Questions to Ponder 158
Epilogue 159
References 163
Index 169
