Lean Impact

Three principles for success

Our Testing and Learning Support is grounded in the three principles of Lean Impact.
1 Think Big
Fall in love with the problem, not your solution. Set long-term goals that move the needle relative to the size of the problem.
2 Start Small
Run focused learning loops to reduce risks, uncover unknowns, and keep your community at the core.
3 Seek Impact, Value and Scale
Build the mindset, capacity, and culture to evolve your solutions and strategies based on real-world learnings

We developed our Testing and Learning Practice with Ann Mei Chang, author of ‘Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good’ and Steve Nagai-Ma, one of our sector’s most experienced lean impact practitioners.

How this works in practice

We guide teams to unlock impact at scale through:

Bespoke Testing and Learning Support

We support organizations to iteratively develop solutions and models capable of sustainable impact at scale.

Innovation Advisory

We support organizations to iteratively develop solutions and models capable of sustainable impact at scale.

Lean Impact for Scale Training

We support organizations to iteratively develop solutions and models capable of sustainable impact at scale.

One Goal: Developing a culture of testing

One Goal: Developing a culture of testing

We helped One Goal, an organisation dedicated to equity in higher education, embed a systematic approach to continuous testing and learning. By executing iterative real-world tests, we developed robust scale strategies, enhancing their viability, impact, and sustainability.

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Building an Innovation function for Sexual and Reproductive Freedom

Building an Innovation function for Sexual and Reproductive Freedom

We helped a leading U.S. healthcare nonprofit build an internal innovation function dedicated to sexual and reproductive freedom. By implementing innovation sprints, we enabled them to develop impactful solutions, including a practical Abortion Checklist.

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Lean Institute: Helping teams scale with confidence

Lean Institute: Helping teams scale with confidence

We partnered with two UK-based donors to help 26 mission-led organisations across South Africa, the UK, and the US strengthen their ability to scale effectively. Through the Lean Institute, we combined deep consultancy for selected beacon organisations with rigorous training for a broader cohort, and created open tools and networks to sustain learning across the ecosystem.

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It equipped us with the actual methodologies, practices and mindsets we need to be able to innovate more quickly and adjust our work to achieve greater impact.

Lisa Countryman, JVS CEO

WHY FOCUS ON TESTING AND LEARNING?

  1. Practice co-creating and testing with constituents
  2. Get real-world data using learning loops, that helps validate your scaling strategy, model and solutions
  3. Improve on your models’ key metrics for scale including financial sustainability, priority community member impact, and stakeholder value

WHO IS TESTING AND LEARNING FOR?

  • Teams developing a model or solution to create sustainable impact at the scale of societal problems
  • Teams that want to inform their strategies for impact at scale based on real-world, community-centred data
  • Any team focused on embedding the practices and culture of innovation

Interested in testing and learning support?

DIVE DEEPER

Learn more about how Testing and Learning could support you reaching your impact goals.

Adapting and innovating in times of extreme uncertainty

Ann Mei Chang, author of the book Lean Impact, client, JVS, and Spring Impact discuss how to build team culture, skillset, and capacity to navigate rapidly changing external conditions.

Enable your teams to make impact at scale

 

Partner with us

Develop strategies with communities at the heart of everything

Reach out to us to learn how you could benefit from our free resources, training programmes or hands-on consultancy.
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