Why startup teams need to be interdisciplinary and to get out of the building

The awakening

Back in 2013 I stumbled upon Steve Blank’s blogpost and hence also the business model canvas, Alexander Osterwalder and the lean startup approach.

I was hooked instantly because here was the answer to a problem I was facing; How to instruct want-to become-entrepreneur people, in a hands-on and learningfull way on how to figure out the right business model for their medical technology inventions.

Knowledge from the well

Off I was and as one of the first Danes to attend the “teach-the teacher” program at Berkeley (2014). I received instructions and had discussions with the founding father himself, Steve Blank, in the lean startup methodology. It was a fantastic experience and if the course still runs I can only recommend entrepreneurship teachers to go. Returning to Denmark, I immediately implemented my learnings into the then early pilot of the BioMedical Design Novo Nordisk Foundation Fellowship Programme.

Well, honestly I and my co-founder of BioMedical Design did not implement it 1:1. We did have some reservations to parts of the methodology and where it could go wrong. I’m glad we had because now there is empirical evidence that we were right. More about that later.

Spreading like fire

When the Lean Startup approach appeared it quickly spread like fire in entrepreneurship support-environments. Also a lot of consultants very quickly started selling (dubious) courses in using the business model canvas, but forgot to put emphasis on the ‘Get-Out-Of-The-Building’ part that is essential for the success of the approach.

Obviously, the methodology is appealing because it is so intuitive, ones you accept it.

Headless chicken run

As all new fashion phenomenons Lean Startup also met some critique, and mostly on that the hypotheses-driving iterations of tests would show endless and hinder the entrepreneur in progressing his/her idea effectively towards realisation.

This is also one of the points where I had my initial doubts about Lean Startup, but I addressed this in class with a focus on proper interview techniques and demanding teams to be sharp on what was the key and immediate most pressing assumption to get cleared and that would ensure progress in their projects.

Now, we finally have confirmation of the critique since Riitta Katila and Michael Leatherbee have performed the first actual empirical study on the use of the Lean Startup approach.

Take home message

Okay, summed up in plain language:

1. Get-Out-Of-The-Building means that you first formulate your business idea assumptions and then you go out and talk with the relevant people to test if you assumed right or not. (As a scientist I simply can’t make myself use the word hypothesis which is the LeanStartup wording so I always used the word assumptions)
2. If you are serious about building a business and haven’t done it before then Get-Out-Of-The-Building. This will turn your business idea sharper and you will have better early traction with funding. You will be surprised with how much important, but tacit knowledge there is out there and which you need to get a hold on.
3. As now accounted for by Riitta et al. (I hope consultants with dubious courses read this) it is not about generating as many assumptions on a business model canvas as possible. Rather spend sufficient time to formulate a good number of high quality assumptions, spend time on preparing high quality interviews and then go out and collect data.
4. Quality in assumptions and in interviews = convergence of the business ideas and hence an end to the Get-Out-Of-The-Building race.
5. Teams with diversity in educational backgrounds outperform educational homogenous teams in using and having success with the Get-Out-Of-The-Building approach. Again a very comforting empirical evidence to support the emphasis we put in BioMedical Design on composing highly interdisciplinary teams.

Go read yourself at HBR (for the easy reading) or the main article (if you are an entrepreneurship teacher)

I’m very satisfied to now see empirical evidence for a methodology that I chose to believe in early on and have been promoting ever since — all though in an adapted manner and today blended with other methodologies into our full scale BioMedical Design Novo Nordisk Foundation Fellowship Programme.

In a follow-up article I will touch upon one of the other elements where I had my doubts about the Lean Startup methodology, namely the business model canvas itself and where I have sought and tried out adaptations that would work better in the world of medical device and health tech innovation. Stay tuned.