12 Months of Failure: Lessons Learned in Year One of Bromford Lab
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Bromford Lab, celebrating its first year, has focused on fostering a culture that embraces failure as part of the innovation process, highlighting that 67% of concepts did not advance due to feasibility issues or lack of enthusiasm. The lab has successfully implemented a structured process for nurturing creativity, achieving notable successes alongside 31 aborted projects to prevent ineffective initiatives. Moving forward, the lab aims to improve its testing efficiency, enhance internal communications, and seek partnerships while targeting a 75% failure rate for concepts to better refine its innovation pipeline.
![Example: Our work around an “older persons service offer” was sent to the
Innovation Graveyard
We realised we were in danger of grouping older people [a segment we couldn't
even define] into one homogenous group.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12monthsoffailure-lessonslearnedbybromfordlab-150605141646-lva1-app6891/85/12-Months-of-Failure-Lessons-Learned-in-Year-One-of-Bromford-Lab-8-320.jpg)
12 Months of Failure: Lessons Learned in Year One of Bromford Lab
- 1. 12 months of failure Our lessons from year one of Bromford Lab
- 2. Bromford Lab was one year old on 28th May We’ve been working pretty much in public and sharing openly But we wanted to take stock at this important milestone What’s worked? What’s not? And how much does this all cost?
- 3. The Lab is founded on four principles Failure as well as success Impact - not just creativity More testing better piloting Transparency and open innovation
- 4. “Our number one objective was to create an environment where failure was not just accepted , but encouraged” Innovation Coach Paul Taylor
- 5. Impact this year: We believe we’ve begun to build a culture that promotes failure 67% of concepts failed to complete the Lab Pipeline The main reasons were feasibility, new direction being identified or loss of enthusiasm
- 6. We received 77 unique ideas in our first 10 months 20 ideas have been successful 14 ideas have been matched to other pieces of work
- 7. We’ve learned that it’s not possible to process all ideas immediately We’ve had to create the organisational capacity to explore certain ideas and we’ve founded squad working 7 ideas are shelved until we can explore them 19 are ongoing
- 8. Example: Our work around an “older persons service offer” was sent to the Innovation Graveyard We realised we were in danger of grouping older people [a segment we couldn't even define] into one homogenous group.
- 9. Impact: In total we’ve stopped 31 things that could have transformed into ‘zombie projects’ We believe this is our true value. Preventing pointless or ill-defined projects infecting the organisation. It’s not all about creativity..
- 10. “Innovation and creativity are not the same thing. Innovation is about discovering a problem, seizing an opportunity and making an impact. No impact = no innovation.” Lab Manager Vicky Green
- 11. Our biggest single impact this year is that we have created a process for the nurturing of creativity within Bromford. Working with our Project and Insight teams we have articulated a clear path – from problem definition – to testing – to piloting – to evaluation. Every idea has to travel through this to prove its impact.
- 12. Not that we can’t have fun We believe we’ve created the right mix of excitability, evaluation, sexiness and science. All our ideas face rigorous testing
- 13. Our number one objective was to create an environment where failure was not just accepted , but encouraged. Innovation Coach Paul Taylor “Prove it” Tom Hartland , Lab Designer, on testing
- 14. Our tests have dedicated measures are typically small scale and low risk ventures… they seek to either prove the concept, test assumptions or evaluate how successful a solution is If something was going to fail, tests are our way of finding out quickly and cheaply
- 15. Improvement Point: We need to get much faster at testing. We need to test more , pilot less We’ve identified problems in the time spent in the Lab pipeline and a difficulty in getting to test stage The creation of Bromford Squads means this should be resolved
- 16. Once a test is passed it might progress into a pilot. They typically last longer and require more resources A pilot needs internal approval and bespoke measures designed by the Insight team A pilot always has an end date for evaluation. You can see the current pilots on the Lab Trello board
- 17. “Everything we work on is open to the public. We don’t differentiate between internal and external. We know the power that lies in the network. Increasingly, we must harness that.” Lab Connector Amy Morgan
- 18. Success: We launched a new website. We gained 1500 Twitter followers. We’ve been praised for our openness Failure: We’ve received criticism about our internal communication. We’ve not made enough use of Lab Testers
- 19. Transparent on Costs We spent £187,954 £184,725 of this was on salaries The rest was running expenses with the most significant spend being £2,448 on tech such as XBOX, 3D printer, Google Glass
- 20. Our Targets for Next Year We need to get better at failing so 75% of our concepts won’t make it through the pipeline We need to keep a better audit of our impact so we’ll produce a twice a year summary of the products/services that wouldn’t have existed without a Lab We need better evidence of the impact of our network so we’ll produce a twice a year summary of the innovation sourced from outside Bromford
- 21. Our Targets for Next Year We need to get faster at progressing concepts through our pipeline so 70% will be completed within 12 weeks We need to improve internal and external communication – so outcomes of 100% of Lab sessions will be shared. A separate comms plan will be produced in June We want to test a Lab Partnership for likeminded organisations. We are aiming for five partners by March 2016
- 22. We’ve had an imperfect start Here’s to an imperfect future @bromfordlab www.bromfordlab.com