Learning Launch

Challenge      I am currently leading the development of new businesses related to energy efficiency solutions

for the company that I am working for. Preparing a proposal just for one client currently takes us 4-6  months since the process of establishing a baseline for the client, analyzing all the technical information  to determine the problem, coming up with an economically sound solution, and seeking approval from  our management to submit an offer is quite rigorous. This approach worked for us for some time, but  more aggressive targets were set by our board. They expect us to double the business in 2-3 years. If we  do not think of a way to become more agile, it would be impossible for us to achieve the set targets.    Selection      To overcome the challenge mentioned above, our team decided to use the Learning Launch Tool

which could be found in this linked video. We picked this tool since we do not have the luxury of spending  too much resources and time thinking of how to be more agile in preparing proposals then selecting one  big potential client to test out our new approach. We had to decide quickly and test the new process  immediately on a few smaller clients to limit out risk exposure.    Application      I called for a meeting with some internal stakeholders involved in preparing a proposal. These

included our technical, business development, and finance teams. I started the meeting by establishing  the challenge that we are facing and telling everyone to let go for the moment all current business  processes and practices that we have been used to doing and to freely share any thoughts on how to  address the problem even if they seem to be out of the box ideas.

The first group to share their insights was the technical team. They told us that the task that

requires the most time for them to complete is the audit done in the client’s facilities to determine the  baseline. They suggested that the process could be faster if we would be more comfortable on using data  from previous studies we did on other similar clients and establish acceptable ratios and benchmarks  which could be used in determining a new client’s baseline without the need for a full audit of the facilities.

The next set of insights came from the business development and finance teams. They shared

that the main reason why they always require a full audit for new potential clients is because our  management team got used to that approach and may not be comfortable with numbers that just came  from ratios and benchmarks.

The sharing of thoughts and ideas resulted to us identifying 2 key bottle necks in the process. The

first one is the full audit which we always require for every single project. The second one is the  management team’s preference to always use the latest information about the client’s facilities.

After agreeing on the 2 key bottle necks in the process, we came up with a set of ratios and

benchmarks which we all agreed were realistic enough to be used for other clients who fit certain criteria.  We then presented to our management team a short case study which proves that using these ratios and  benchmarks would not result to less accurate baselines compared with the ones that would come from a  full audit. We also secured approval to try our new approach through a Learning Launch by preparing an  actual proposal for one of our smaller clients. We were transparent that there is the risk of losing the  client if he is not happy with our proposal. However, we would also learn a lot in trying the new approach  regardless of the outcome. Thankfully, the result was that we came up with a proposal which was  acceptable to the client in half the time we normally take. The positive feedback from the client gave us  the confidence to replicate the same approach to more and even bigger clients. Now, we are able to churn  out proposals faster than before which gives us a big chance to achieve the targets that were set by our  board.    Insight      After using the Learning Launch Tool, I realized that each member of the team already had ideas

on what could be improved on to make us more agile. They were just hesitant to challenge the status quo  because of the fear of wasting our resources or losing a big potential client. With a Learning Launch, all  the team members and even our management team became comfortable enough to deviate from how  we usually do things to test new ideas on how we could move faster with minimal risk exposure.    Approach      In using the Learning Launch Tool again, I will involve our management team earlier in the process

to also get their inputs. They will definitely help us see the situation from a different angle and will have  valuable insights on how to create a better Learning Launch which considers the company’s overall  objectives.

