Tristan Kromer

Talk

Corporate Startup Ecosystems & Innovation Obstacles

Large companies aren't like startups, and copying their tactics can be frustrating and sometimes foolish. A big corporate is more like an ecosystem that has startups inside it, trying to survive. The CEO can't simply command innovation to occur and expect greatness. But we can change the ecosystem to support intrapreneurship.

So should we build a program like GE Fastworks? Or just copy Intuit's Innovation Catalyst? All ecosystems are different and blindly copying a model from Silicon Valley can lead to disaster. Every company must take it's strengths and weaknesses into account and design an innovation program to complement them.

This talk will focus on how to map out your corporate ecosystem and identify obstacles to innovation that are putting the brakes on innovation.

corporate innovation corporate startup ecosystems innovation obstacles

Unconference

Which Test Should I run?

Should I run a Concierge or a Wizard of Oz test? Maybe a smoke test? And what exactly is "Picnic in the Graveyard"?

Lean Startup is full of buzzwords and jargon that is beyond confusing. Our reaction is to over simplify our advice to startups into Step 1, 2, 3 dogma that often results in bad advice. Does every startup need to create a early signup smoke test? Will a B2B product focused on the energy sector really have a CIO sign up based on a landing page?

Real Startups don't need dogma or a step by step process. They need a well organized toolbox that let's them choose the right tool at the right time.

This talk will focus on how to coach startups to identify their biggest risks and choose the right experiment or research method to find their business model.

About Tristan Kromer

Tristan Kromer helps product teams go fast.

As a lean startup coach and founder of TriKro, he works with innovation teams to run at least one experiment/research per week to improve their product and business model.

For larger companies and governments, Tristan and his team work with teams and leaders to build innovation ecosystems. They have worked with companies ranging from
early stage startups with zero revenue to established businesses with >$10M USD revenue (Kiva, JustAnswer, StumbleUpon) to enterprise companies with >$1B USD revenue.
(Swisscom, Pitney Bowes, Fujitsu, LinkedIn) With his remaining hours, Tristan volunteers his time with Lean Startup Circle and blogs at GrasshopperHerder.com.