Lean summer of 2015 – Week 6

31. July 2015 — 1 Comment

Can 6 tech students help a telecom giant innovate in 6 weeks? Telenor Norway wants to solve real problems for real people. As summer interns in Iterate – the lean startup consultancy in Norway – we’ve been hired to build, measure and learn how to unleash the power of future telco technology. Every week we blog about what we’ve learned.

Here’s week 6.

Our Lean summer has come to an end.

Six weeks ago we were given a task; to help Telenor innovate in different areas. With the rise in popularity and functionality of webRTC, Telenor wanted to know whether or not this technology could help.

Six nervous students preparing for their first day

We didn’t expect this project to be easy, and didn’t expect it to go without issues or problems. We expected guidance, but we also hoped for some freedom to try and fail for ourselves. Mistakes are a great opportunity to learn, but only if we can make and solve them on our own..

Six great friends enjoying a last party together before going their separate ways

The values of innovation

10. July 2015 — 1 Comment

They say groups make bad decisions. That’s why we need leadership.

The solution might be a team leader, who makes decisions on behalf of the group: Limit decision power, and decisions will become consistent, on target and effective.

This works great in a number of circumstances. In a restaurant kitchen, for instance, nobody wants chefs who disagree on how long to cook the aspargus. People are hungry – we need a ruler.

Conversely, a ruler is a disaster in innovation. To creative minds, pursuing “the next big thing” (whatever it may be), nothing pacifies more than a micromanaging split- and conquer regime.

Give them a clear objective, a business goal, you might say. “Increase market share by 20% over the next 18 months”. If the goal is realistic, they may reach it. But will it be innovation?

En hektisk og morsom sisteuke!

27. July 2012 — Leave a comment

Siste uken her har vært litt hektisk, litt slapp, og veldig moro. Vi har blitt intervjuet av Computer World, hatt medarbeidersamtaler, fortsatt med brukerintervjuer og mye god feedback, i tillegg til et veldig hyggelig Skype-møte med Kent Beck. Computer World-artikkelen kom ut allerede på torsdagen, noe vi syntes var veldig stas.

Etter publiseringen av applikasjonen på Google Play Store begynte vi umiddelbart med bug-fiksing. Når vi lastet opp Strandfunn var vi klar over flere feil og mangler, men vi prøvde å være strenge mot oss selv, og få den publisert så fort som mulig. Vi fulgte de vise ordene “Man skal være litt flau når man gir ut app’en”. Idet applikasjonen var live, og man kunne kjøpe den, fikk vi ekstra motivasjon til å polere applikasjonen og gjøre den bedre. Det tok ikke lang tid før vi fikk tilbakemeldinger på feil og mangler, og da var det bare å hive seg rundt, fikse feilene, og laste opp en ny versjon så fort som råd var. Alt dette ville antakeligvis ikke blitt tatt hånd om så raskt som det ble, hvis den ikke hadde vært ute og tilgjengelig for salg på et tidlig stadie.