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Twas the night before a new release of FDA guidelines
Not a developer was stirring waiting on the sidelines;
The keyboards were hung by the monitors with care,
In hopes that interoperability soon would be there;

The physicians were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Vinod Khosla danced in their heads;
And UX with their wire frames, and agile scrums
Had settled down with new problems but did not succumb.

When out in the office there arose such a clatter
New healthcare policies that really do matter
Away to the window I could only deduce
Tore open the shutters – hey meaningful use

The moon on my mobile phone my fingers did tap
Gave me comfort in seeing a new treatment app
When what to my wonderment a transformation
A process and method for new innovation

With a lots of health challenges and new informatics
I knew in a moment it was solved with mathematics
More rapid than standards and new care models
And a whistle and shout – no more waddles or dawdles

Now ONC, now PHI, and EHR
On HIT, on HHS and EMR
To the top of the challenges and problems we face
Now dash away, dash away and let us keep pace

Their eyes — how they twinkled, the patients did say
New help and better outcomes now that’s the way
Technology enabling and helping with costs
Payers and providers the message not lost

They sprang to their iOS, Android and Windows 8
Away they all flew new apps, wow that’s great!
And the delivery team exclaim as they moved with great stealth
Happy Holidays to all and to all Good Health!!

The challenges in healthcare are big -

• 5% of patients accounting for 50% of costs
• FDA regulatory is continuing to evolve
• Improving outcomes and reducing cost are key performance measures
• Security and privacy concerns exist
• Interoperability and the development of standards continue to stifle progress in some areas

2012 brought lots of change and 2013 promises to bring much more. In this holiday season we are reflecting on the work we’ve done and the work that is to come and find ourselves humbled by the impact that we’ve had with our customers on the lives of millions and the healthcare eco-system. We look forward to working and collaborating with others that are tackling the big and important healthcare problems because it makes a difference in the world.

On behalf of the Pathfinder team, we wish you and yours a blessed, peaceful holiday season.

Poem by:  Ted Wallhaus

It’s been a whirlwind year at Pathfinder. Our focus on bringing innovative solutions to the healthcare space has continued to bear fruit. We’ve added Fortune 500 clients and innovative startups in the device, diagnostic and health insurance industries.

Mobile
Our clients continue to innovate in their use of mobile technology. Many of our projects now involve developing mobile applications on iPhones, iPads and Android smartphones and tablets. Projects this year have included:

• Heart monitoring solutions involving wearable sensors, bluetooth communication to android devices, cloud based predictive analytics and real time alerting
• Apps for patients managing chronic diseases
• Apps and devices providing clinicians with diagnostic support in operating rooms and on the hospital floor.

Staying Agile in an FDA Regulated Environment
Our approach to making extraordinary healthcare apps relies on a few key ingredients:

• Developing a deep understanding of customers, users and their problems
• Applying great technical and design talent to solve them
• Using analytics and fast feedback cycles to continuously improve engagement and effectiveness.

Quite a number of the products we develop are considered Class II and Class III medical devices and require clearance or approval by the FDA. Applying an agile approach in this environment poses significant challenges, but carries great benefits for quality, speed and market viability,

We’ve met these challenges by developing a quality management system that conforms to the IEC 62304 standard for software development supported by the FDA, and have integrated our process to our clients quality management and hazard analysis processes.

This effort culminated in a series of passed audits on our quality management system this summer.

Scaling Lean Innovation in the Enterprise
2012 saw tremendous progress in our lean innovation practice. Our summer lean startup teaching program, the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge taught 107 teams how to accelerate from Idea to traction. The videos from our Semifinalists tell a great story of how much you can accomplish in 8 short weeks.

We’ve been collaborating with a number of enterprise customers to apply the lean innovation approach at scale, using innovation accounting and stage metrics within a portfolio management approach. This approach allows our customers to make better investment decisions on their innovation portfolio and develop more disruptive innovations faster. We’ll have lots more to share on this in the coming months.

We’re proud of what our clients have been able to accomplish in 2012, and are excited about what we can accomplish together in 2013.

Bernhard Kappe, Pathfinder’s CEO, gave a talk at the new healthcare startup accelerator Healthbox, and tailored his Lean Startup presentation for medical innovators.

Healthbox is a new Chicago based healthcare centric accelerator program that started it’s inaugural class of ten startups earlier in January. For three months, these teams will share space and ideas in Chicago, where they will push toward the next stage of development.

The principles of the Lean Startup Method apply to any innovator developing a new product or business with extreme uncertainty indifferent to the size of the project or industry. The healthcare industry has significant change on the horizon and stakeholders hungry for the solutions of tomorrow, there has never been a better time for innovation and collaboration. Using customer development and experiments with fast feedback loops can help to guide medical trailblazers toward valuable solutions for all the stakeholders in the field.

The innovation engine in most companies is broken, burning large quantities of fuel, generating lots of heat and smoke, but doing precious little to accelerate company growth beyond a few sputtering lurches.

Most efforts to boost innovation focus on generating or capturing new ideas. Yet for most companies, this is not where the problem lies. Instead the problem lies in determining which of those ideas can be successfully scaled into profitable new lines of business. Most companies place big bets on the wrong ideas for the wrong reasons. As a consequence, 9 out of 10 new products fail.

We’ve been collaborating with a number of large enterprises who are pioneering the use of lean startup techniques to make better investment decisions and reduce the risks of new product failure. Through this work, a new model has started to emerge that promises to turbocharge enterprise innovation efforts to generate explosive growth.

Next Sunday at Tech Week, Chicago’s largest digital innovation conference, I’ll be sharing some of our lessons learned in a talk titled Building a Better Enterprise Innovation Engine.

Here’s what I’ll cover:

• How a lean innovation approach provides a more efficient way to determine which ideas merit further development and to rapidly bring the right ones to product/market fit.
• How business model analysis, rapid cycles of hypothesis testing using minimal experiments and feedback from real customers can help you decide when to pivot, when to persevere, and when to allocate your innovation budget to other ideas.
• How to manage an innovation portfolio to maximize returns
• How to staff an innovation department

If you’re interested, you can sign up at Techweek – the lineup of speakers is very impressive. You can use discount code twspeakers_30 to save $115 on admission.

If you’re unable to attend but would like to find out more, drop us a line.

Pathfinder’s CEO Bernhard Kappe assembled a panel for last weeks AITP Spring Technology Conference focusing on how large enterprises are employing lean startup principles to improve innovation outcomes.

The panelists included:

Jorgen Hesselberg, Senior Manager, Agile Enterprise Adoption, Nokia
Greg Healy, Chief Product Officer, Encyclopedia Britannica
Brian Chau, Director of Product Innovation, Wheels, Inc.

The videos are now available on the Pathfinder vimeo channel.

Current innovation best practices focus heavily on different ways of generating ideas for new products. Yet for most companies, this is not where the problem lies. The problem lies in determining which of those ideas can be successfully scaled into profitable new lines of business. Most companies place big bets on the wrong ideas for the wrong reasons. As a result, 9 out of 10 new products fail.

The Lean Startup approach to innovation provides a more efficient way to determine which ideas merit further development and to rapidly bring the right ones to product/market fit. Business model analysis, rapid cycles of hypothesis testing using minimal experiments and feedback from real customers can help you decide when to pivot, when to persevere, and when to allocate your innovation budget to other ideas.

By combining lean startup principles with appropriate staffing of innovation departments and a portfolio strategy based on innovation accounting, enterprises can generate more successful products faster with fewer costly misses.

Watch the video for real world examples of how to implement lean practices at an established corporation.  

Your job as an innovator is to discover a product and model that works before you run out of time and money. 9 out of 10 new products fail. So fail faster, fail cheaper. So use Fast Innovation with Lean + UX + Agile to iterate and pivot your product and model to success. Join us for a half day workshop on January 20th, 2012 to experience what fast innovation can do for you.

Pathfinder Software’s Amy Willis (UX) Bernhard Kappe (Products Strategy) and Reid MacTavish (Agile Development) share their lessons learned in using lean+ux+agile to deliver software products that customers want and will pay for.

They’ll cover:

• Pragmatic Marketing and Lean Startup- which is right for you?
• Lean UX – Design as the differential gear between customer development and agile development
• How to run a successful inception
• It’s never too early for metrics and analytics
• Agile practices and pitfalls
• Continuous deployment and A/B testing
• Team composition and how to hire

If you’d like to join us, you can rsvp here: http://pathfinderleanux.eventbrite.com/

How To Do Customer Interviews.
Pathfinder CEO Bernhard Kappe and Broker Savant’s Todd Wyder talk on how to do problem and solution interviews at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle.

Too many entrepreneurs follow the “Field of Dreams” approach to product development. As entrepreneurs we hear a little voice in our head, and it says “if you build it, they will come”.

Maybe the voice is right. Maybe it is wrong. Either way interviewing your potential customers will give you significant insight into developing your product or service if you ask the right questions. The difference between asking questions, and asking the right questions is huge. Asking the right questions can make all the difference. You can build the the most innovative, technically sound product imaginable, but unless you validate that the product is something that consumers want all your effort is pointless.

Watch this video to avoid the critical mistakes that most first timers make, and get the most out of your interviews.

Customer interviews are a critical step in the lean startup methodology. Get them right, and you’re on the way to increasing the chances of your new ventures success. Get them wrong, and you’re likely to wander in the wilderness until you run out of time and money.

We’ve also put the presentation on Slideshare: How to Do Customer Interviews

In September I did an interview with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle.

Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe Interviews Eric Ries on the Lean Startup.

Eric was in fine form – funny, engaging, with self deprecating humor, great stories and insights. If you’re involved in innnovation, either at a startup or a large organization, I think reading the book and watching the video will be great food for thought.

Congratulations to SoapBox, the winner of the first annual Chicago Lean Startup Challenge, for an excellent presentation and execution of the lean startup ideals.  They’ve created a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, that gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension in real time.  Now students have the ability to ask questions digitally, without the embarrassment of raising their hand, and teachers have a tool to understand their students comprehension in real time.  Our fantastic sponsors provided $75,000 in cash and prizes to SoapBox  and our other finalists to continue their endeavors.

A Great Group of Finalists

A special thank to our finalists ScoutmeCoach, Farmfixe, Travel720, and all of this years participants. It was incredibly hard to pick a winner with the high level of competition.  The agility, ingenuity and persistence all of our finalists demonstrated on Thursday night was awe-inspiring.  These fantastic founders made great progress over the 3 months of the challenge, and we are eager to see how their companies continue to evolve. 

Making a Difference

We created theChicago Lean Start Up Challenge to teach Chicagoland founders how to practice the lean startup method in order to create a wave of lasting startups in the Chicagoland area. Based on the presentations by our finalists, the first season was an overwhelming success.  Our finalists showed not only a great depth of knowledge, but the value of developing a idea based on reality, not assumptions.  Each of our finalists developed their original idea based on actual feedback from their target customers, be they teachers, organic farmers, college coaches, travelers, students, or even strangers at the grocery store.  This feedback allowed each team to modify their original assumptions, and rapidly evolve their business model based on the reality of the market place.

Crain’s Chicago had a nice feature on the event last week as well, so it seems we’re making something of a wider impact.

The 2012 Lean Startup Challenge

In true lean startup fashion, we’re gathering lessons learned from this year’s competition and applying them to make next year’s contest even better.  If you want to keep up to date on next year’s contest, or are interested in applying, join the Lean Startup Challenge mailing list.

In September of this year, Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe and Broker Savant’s Todd Wyder organized the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge. It’s the opposite of a business plan competition.   Instead of creating huge documents and proformas based on assumptions, contestants spend ten weeks making meaningful progress on their business based on real market feedback.

On October 1st, 146 startups answered the call, and entered “The Challenge”.  The teams have spent 10 weeks running experiments validating their business models and building their companies.

Out of this group, they’ve picked the four leanest, meanest startups to tell their story and pitch our judges for $75,000 in cash and prizes.

These are the finalists:

FarmFixe helps local foodies discover and buy the best local artisanal foods. In doing so, FarmFixe helps local food producers find new customers and develop impactful brands.

travel720 is focused on providing funding solutions to students and travelers who want to study/volunteer/work abroad.  We help the traveler earn their trip through through creating a budget & savings plan, then fundraise money through upcoming gift giving occasions (e.g. birthday, holiday, graduation) – turning gifts into educational experiences that are shared with family & friends!

SoapBox is a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, and gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension, in real time.

ScoutMeCoach connects college coaches with student athlete prospects so they can recruit while they sleep. Say goodbye to filling out lengthy profiles and say hello to a more timely and cost effective recruiting experience, in a few clicks.

Who will be crowned the Lean Startup Champion, and collect $75,000 in cash and prizes? 

Come to the finals on Thursday, December 15, and watch the four finalist pitch to a panel of judges and a select audience of 250 entrepreneurs and investors. Network with other entrepreneurs and investors over beer and wine, listen to 4 fantastic pitches, and ask the finalists your own questions while they are on the hot seat in real time via twitter.

The Sponsors

This competition would not have been possible without the help of our sponsors. In addition to Pathfinder, those sponsors include:

• The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship at Northwestern
• The Pritzker Group
• Stevens & Associates
• Lean Launch Lab
• Walker Sands Communications
• Braintree
• Code Academy
• KISSMetrics
• Unbounce
• Illinois Launch
• Joone Studios
• VentureSHOT
• TechNexus
• TechWeek
• Snap Engage
• Heroku
• Built In Chicago
• Technori
• Tech.li

About the Lean Startup Challenge

The Lean Startup Challenge is the opposite of a business plan competition.   Instead of creating huge documents and proformas based on assumptions, contestants spend ten weeks making meaningful progress on their business based on real market feedback.