Rapid Learning Cycles for Climate Tech 101
How to apply Rapid Learning Cycles to your climate tech project
Once every other week, we add a new article to this series for Paid and Founding Subscribers that shares how to use the Rapid Learning Cycles framework in the context of climate tech development and implementation.
Faster Innovation — Fewer Failures
How Rapid Learning Cycles Can Accelerate Climate Tech
If ever there was a problem we humans created that we must not fail to solve, it’s climate change. By 2050 and hopefully sooner, we have to decarbonize all of the major systems that provide food, shelter, clothing, and all the other goods and services we need. It’s the biggest engineering challenge we’ve ever faced.
Why Most Products Deliver Disappointing Results
Research shows* that across industries, 40% of new product launches deliver disappointing results. In the study, “disappointment” is defined from a senior leader’s perspective: a product is disappointing when it misses targets for revenue growth, sales and/or profitability.
Learn to Talk About Technology Development
These are some terms that are often thrown around by the people you’ll encounter: designers, engineers, contract manufacturers, certification agencies and more. Take a few minutes now to learn what you need to know, so that you can talk intelligently with the people you’ve partnered with to bring your idea to life.
Upcoming Articles In This Series:
Week 4: What Rapid Learning Cycles Does Differently:
to Eliminate the Root Causes of Failure
Week 5: The Rapid Learning Cycle:
What Teams Using RLCs Actually Do Day to Day
Week 6: RLCs for Small Teams and Startups:
How We Scale Down RLC for “Just Enough” Structure
Week 7: The Agile Roots of the Rapid Learning Cycles Framework:
And Why Climate Tech Teams Can’t “Just Use Agile”
Week 8: Cut Through the Fog of Uncertainty:
Where and When to Use Rapid Learning Cycles for Climate Tech
Week 9: Resilient Key Decisions:
How to Make Your Most Important Decisions Stick
Week 10: Five Requirements for Effective Decisions:
How to Work with Decision Makers to Get Better Decisions
Week 11: Key Decisions Have Knowledge Gaps:
How to Resolve the “Known Unknowns” for Confident Decisions
Week 12: What Are Your “Unknown Unknowns”?
How to Avoid Nasty Surprises at the Wrong Time
Week 13: “We Were Huge Idiots and Didn’t Know What We Were Doing”
How to Learn Faster than Elon Musk by Pulling Learning Forward
Week 14: Not Every Knowledge Gap Should Be Closed:
How to Prioritize Your Knowledge Gaps
Week 15: Time-Based, Multi-Level Plans:
How the RLC-Driven Team Organizes Work
Week 16: RLC Events for Collaborative Decision Making
Learning Cycle and Integration Events to Generate Pull
Week 17: RLC Events Don’t Move:
The Principle of Timeboxing to Pull Better Solutions
Week 18: The Best Obtainable Version of the Truth:
How to Build Confidence in Areas of High Uncertainty
Week 19: Real-Time Knowledge Capture:
How to Write Down “Just Enough” to Support Good Decisions
Week 20: Do You Need a Phase Gate?
How Do You Know It’s Time for a Little More Formality?
Week 21: RLC for Large, Complex Teams
How to Use RLC for Big Climate Tech Projects
Week 22: RLC for Sustainability Teams
How to Evaluate and Implement Climate Tech
Week 23: RLC On Your Own:
How to Become a More Effective Decision Maker
Week 24: RLCs for Climate Tech:
How to Accelerate Net Zero