An Inside Look Under The Hood Of The Intuitive Startup Machine

The Ultimate Startup Vehicle: Bennett Blank of Intuit Looks Under The HoodIt’s not a Ferrari.Actually, it’s not even close to a Ferrari.It’s an off-road vehicle.The one that kind of looks like it’s falling apart.It’s a Jeep.If you look at the passenger side, you can see that one of the wheels doesn’t match.There’s a massive jack in the back, some gas cans on the side, a winch, and rope. Lots of rope.You watched it pull into the parking lot and you’re curious to know where that car is going. The passengers are all sitting in the front, with surfboards on the roof, and what looks like enough gear for a month.You feel a deep urge to join them, but you aren’t sure why.Recently in San Francisco, at the Lean Startup Conference, I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of the conference’s most sought-after presenters: Bennett Blank, Innovation Leader at Intuit Inc.When I asked about Bennett’s title, he told me with a smile that he proposed the role of ‘Innovation Leader’ to his boss at the time (the Vice President of Innovation), then set out to create a job description he would fulfill. The rest, Bennett explained, was top secret.Bennett works in a group called Innovation and Transformational Change, which sits inside of Intuit’s central CTO organization. Their goal is to help Intuit’s employees across various business units become more innovative. His job is to teach as many people as he can the tools, techniques, and philosophies required for innovation, therefore helping employees become more entrepreneurial within the company.After several years as a product manager tasked with creating new products, Bennett saw an opportunity to teach Lean Startup at scale within Intuit. He created an interactive training experience to bring employee ideas to life, an idea which helped move Bennett from the role of hands-on product manager to the role of coaching others.He saw a need to act as the eyes and ears for innovation across the company, making connections between various projects and ideas that teams were pursuing.His boss gave him the green light, so he created a series of Lean Startup training programs called 100 Startups in 100 Days, scaled the programs, and won accolades from the company’s founder and CEO in the process.At Intuit, internal innovation is not only encouraged, but expected as part of the job. All employees are supported in their exploration of ideas that they are passionate about during “unstructured time.” Employees address Grand Challenges and problems that Intuit’s consumers face, then develop solutions to benefit customers and dramatically improve their financial lives.Bennett crosses all company borders and has the exciting job of helping these internal teams create and grow into mini-startups. Thinking of these mini-startups as cars, and Bennett as the well experienced car mechanic, I asked him to describe elements of the ultimate startup vehicle and how these car parts corresponded to Lean Startup principles.Here’s what he said:The Chassis of the Car = Know your Customer.Like the chassis of the car, the most fundamental part of a startup is knowing your customer. You can’t change the foundation of your car once it’s running. The wheel base tends to set the tone for the shape of the car, as does your ability to understand the customer. It’s okay if you don’t understand everything about them, but you need to know right away who the customer is, and how you might improve their life in a distinguishable way.While it’s important to learn more about your customer, you’ll need to establish a fundamental and uncomfortably narrow market segment to start. This knowledge will make a solid foundational frame.Gears = Stages of your startup.The engine will rev the same whenever you push the gas pedal. However, in the lower lower gears, you put out more low-end energy, while in the higher gears, your energy helps you move faster.Knowing what stage your startup is in will help you take the right steps to not grind any gears along the way. Start in first gear, and wait until you have enough speed to move up through higher gears.Safety System, Airbag, and Seat Belt = The Process of the Lean Startup.The Lean Startup process insulates your vehicle from the slings and arrows of misfortune that happen when you run experiments. Because things never go as planned, the safety systems within the scientific method are there to protect you from a destroyed ego and disrupted team dynamics.Instead of pointing fingers at one another, teams can comb through documented experiments together to learn what might have gone wrong. This establishes blame to the experiment, rather than the individuals of the startup team.At Intuit, Bennett forces teams to write out and post their experiment details on the wall, for all to see. Teams must document their leap of faith assumptions, hypotheses, methods, numeric targets, measurements, etc. Doing so helps everyone (including new team members) understand how the vehicle arrived at its current location.Oil = Customer Feedback.It is a good idea to always check the oil level of your car; if you spring a leak and run your engine without oil, it could blow up. Similarly, you always need to check on customer feedback for your startup. Oftentimes, after the first, second, and third release of a product, teams are feeling confident.They forget to check the “oil” — customer feedback — which can lead to things blowing up as the idea begins to scale. It’s a good idea to constantly check-in with your customers to make sure you are aligned with their needs, especially when new team members come along, the marketplace changes, or the competitive market changes. What used to be unique and innovative might not be the case any more. Checking with customers on the benefits that you deliver is crucial for your startup engine to run smoothly.Transmission = Insight from the Customer.Just like the transmission of a car changes gears and directions, insight from your customers actually changes the work. When you get customer feedback that has insight, it transmits the energy from the engine.The transmission, or customer insight, could put you in reverse, forward, or neutral. Maintaining a solid transmission will help your startup car keep moving in the right direction. All new directions should be based on new insight from your customer.Steering Wheel = Vision.Your steering wheel is the ultimate customer metric. Bennett always asks teams, “What is the improvement in your customer's life that your product will provide?” This specific improvement is a very important metric — it’s what you’re trying to do to improve their life.Making sure you’re using your steering wheel is like having a clear vision for your product. Making a right or left turn means that you know how to tweak your products to orient your vehicle towards that metric’s outcome. It is usually quantitative numbers that the customer understands.Your startup team should be steering for a direction that delivers an increase of benefit to the customer.Breaks = Passion of the Team Members.On a car, being able to stop is one of the most important safety items. It is recommended that you have your brake pads checked regularly, and replace them about every 40,000 miles.Bennett shared that oftentimes, he finds teams forget to check on the engagement and passion of the team members themselves. It’s common for startups to have one foot on the gas and one foot on the brakes during a project. At some point, smoke is going to billow out of the tailpipe while you go nowhere. This friction could represent misaligned team members.Checking in on your team’s passion will help you realize when you need to brake and make sure everyone is on the same page.Trunk = Business Metrics.The trunk of a car gathers the things that you might need at some point, but not immediately. In business, we have many things that we learn in the process of experimenting, and the trunk of your startup car is a great place to store this information.Keeping them close in the trunk will allow your team to have quick access to such information when needed, but out of the way in the meantime.Engine = The Lean Cycle Time.The more risk involved, the steeper the hill. And the steeper the hill, the lower the gear you need to be in to power up the hill. As you get up there and the hill has less of an incline, you can shift into a bigger gear.When you begin, your experiments are slightly longer for each turn of the crank. But once you make it up the hill, you’ll take less time to run better experiments, building on previous insights. Once you’re cruising downhill in 6th gear with a good market fit, there is less risk.Keeping your engine running at optimal RPMs while using gears to your advantage will help your car get to the top of the hill and even further.Dashboard Picture = Picture the Afflicted Customer.Some people have pictures of loved ones on the dash of their cars. Bennett suggests that in your startup car, you should have a picture of the customer who has the problem you are solving. Empathy for that person helps drive the reason for the startup in the first place.Every day, the team should be driving towards the customer. It is the heartbeat of the team. No one talks about it, but this core empathy for a customer is what separates the good teams from the great. The Lean Startup can measure your way along the journey.The most successful teams have something they have experienced or someone they know, for whom they have gained empathy.The teams that see and understand the customer’s struggle are motivated to find the strength to get up every day.Always aim to go on a road trip with a fun group of people who are in it for the adventure, and not just the destination.Radio = The Excitement of the Initial IdeaIn a car on a long road trip, good music is crucial to staying motivated and entertained. For your startup vehicle, Bennett equates good tunes to the fundamental thing that got you excited about the idea in the first place.So the next time you see a rusty off-road Jeep with a bad paint job, mismatched wheels, and a bit of mud on the tires, take a moment and appreciate it. Maybe it’s what your startup would look like as a car.Make sure that your startup vehicle passes safety inspections for the fundamentals that keep it running and headed in the right direction: the direction of delivering value to your customer.Happy off-roading on your startup adventure!Can you describe other parts of the Ultimate Startup Vehicle in terms of Lean Startup? Share your thoughts as comments.#leanstartup