Lean for Social Change is a 8-week course inspired by the Lean Launchpad Class pioneered by Steve Blank. In this course you will learn how to test, validate, and adapt your vision of change to ensure you’re creating the greatest impact and investing your time in something that truly meets your stakeholder’s and customer’s needs.
Lean for Social Change draws on the latest thinking in Silicon Valley on how to build companies that maximize customer value while minimizing wasted effort and makes it relevant for social innovators.
The lean approach relies on validated learning, experimentation, and iterative product releases to shorten product development cycles, measure progress, and gain valuable customer feedback. In an environment where the majority of startups fail, lean principles aim to give startups a better chance of success by helping entrepreneurs learn more quickly what works and discard what doesn’t.
These principles aren’t just for high tech startups but tools for life for any innovator, especially those determined to solve the world’s toughest social problems.
YOU'LL LOVE THIS COURSE IF
You’re an aspiring or very early stage social entrepreneur/founding team member that is building an impact enterprise to tackle a specific issue of poverty in your local community
You’re looking to learn the lean mindset to drive a social change initiative in a larger organization (For example, you could be an employee within an established business, public sector organization or non-profit)
You just completed the Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation course and are ready to take your project to the next level
By the conclusion of this course you will:
Have a framework for taking a social impact idea and assessing its potential for creating long-lasting impact and achieving financial sustainability
Understand how to create and validate a business model intended to create social impact
Develop a “lean mindset” for tackling problems of poverty that can be applied to other settings in the corporate, public, and NGO sectors
This is a practical but intensive class where you will learn by doing. In this course you will:
Be expected to come with an idea for a new model to solve a problem of poverty
Work in teams learning how to take your idea and assess its potential for achieving long-lasting impact and financial sustainability.
Learn how to use a tool called The Business Model Canvas to brainstorm each part of a business and Customer Development, a systematic approach that forces you to get out of the building, to see whether anyone other than you would actually want to use your product/service.
Along the way you’ll have the opportunity to recruit a mentor from Acumen’s community to accompany you through the course, And at the end, the top-ranked teams will get a chance to pitch their ideas for feedback to a virtual panel of social impact investors.
You can take this course by yourself but it will be a lot of work. We highly recommend you form a team of 3-4 people, preferably located in the same place. You may enter the course with a team or find a team using the course platform once the course starts.
Sasha Dichter, Chief Innovation Officer, Acumen
Sasha is responsible for growing the impact of Acumen’s work through its investments in leaders and also oversees Acumen’s leadership programs: Global Fellows, Regional Fellows, and +Acumen; Acumen’s metrics and understanding impact; as well as resource mobilization from Acumen’s global Partner community. Sasha is also a noted speaker and blogger on generosity, philanthropy and social change, author of the Manifesto for Nonprofit CEOs, and the creator of Generosity Day. His talks have been featured on TED.com and at the DO Lectures. Sasha has been recognized as an Innovation Agent by Fast Company and as one of the top 10 Business Bloggers by Say 100 Media.
Before Acumen, Sasha worked at GE Money to expand financial offerings to underserved communities; and at IBM, spearheading the company’s corporate citizenship strategy and launching a leadership program for school administrators Sasha holds a BA from Harvard College, a Masters in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard’s Kennedy School and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Bob Dorf, Startup Coach & Co-Author of The Startup Owner’s Manual
A serial entrepreneur, Bob Dorf is likely the second most knowledgeable Customer Development expert on the planet, second only to its developer and Godfather, Steve Blank. Together the two spent nearly two years conceiving, outlining, drafting, rewriting, and revising the global bestseller, The Startup Owner’s Manual, now a business bestseller in the U.S. and many countries around the world.
Entrepreneurial since age 12, Dorf founded seven companies. Bob’s track record as a founder, as he says: “two home runs, two base hits, and three great tax losses.” Bob travels the world, helping startups, incubators, governments, and established corporations learn how to effectively deploy Customer Development process through speaking, workshops and hands-on Startup Boot Camps. He’s invested in or advised more than a score of start-ups and teaches Customer Development at Columbia Business School.
10 hours per week
1-2 hours of that will be online watching videos/reading, the rest will include:
“Getting out of the building” to talk to 5-10 potential customers/beneficiaries, partners, domain experts per team member and gather real-world data;
Synthesizing what you learned;
Preparing your homework assignments. There are 5 assignments in total.
You need a computer that allows you to watch videos and the ability to upload your assignments which will be PowerPoint/video presentations.
STATEMENTS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT:
Subject to course completion (completion of all assignments), you will receive a Statement of Accomplishment from +Acumen.
E-mail Jessica at plusacumen.courses(at)gmail.com
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