Mindset, Process & Skills
I’ve spent my career across startups, innovation consultancies, growth teams and charities. I’ve used and taught Design Thinking, Lean Startup, rapid experimentation, venture building, growth and corporate innovation. I don’t believe one framework fits every problem.
My Mindset
START WITH THE PROBLEM, NOT THE TOOL
Understand the organisational goal, customer problem and decision before choosing a method.
THE BRIEF IS A HYPOTHESIS
Evidence may change the question; that is a successful process, not a failure.
EVIDENCE BEATS OPINION
When we can observe what people do, learn rather than debate.
TEST THE WATER BEFORE JUMPING IN
Build the smallest credible experiment before committing significant money, technology or effort.
FAILURE IS DATA
An invalidated assumption can save more than a superficially successful test.
INCREASE THE COST OF SAYING YES
Move from preference to click, sign-up, time, data, money, repeat behaviour and real-world use.
KILL YOUR DARLINGS
Make it safe to stop weak ideas; projects earn further investment through evidence.
INNOVATION DOESN’T END AT THE PILOT
Plan adoption, ownership and transfer early.
LEAVE CAPABILITY BEHIND
Help teams understand how decisions were reached so they can repeat the process.
STAY CURIOUS
Understand what has changed, test what is useful and share what works.
My Process
I ask: what do we need to learn, what is the biggest risk, what is the cheapest credible way to reduce that uncertainty, and what decision will the evidence allow us to make?
Uncertainty
Understand the problem
Identify assumptions
Test the cheapest credible experiment
Gather evidence
Make a decision
Pilot / Transfer / Scale / Stop
PORTFOLIO — EXPLORE + EXPLOIT
Balance improving what an organisation understands with investigating new audiences, technologies, propositions and business models. Influenced by oneUp and the 9 Diamond Framework; I use the principle, not the framework mechanically.
PROJECT — DOUBLE DIAMOND
Discover the customer, market and context; define the real problem; develop possible propositions; deliver through testing, pilot and investment decisions. The discipline is to separate understanding the problem from falling in love with a solution.
EXPERIMENT — GROWS
Gather opportunities from evidence and insight; Rank by potential impact and uncertainty; Outline a falsifiable hypothesis, experiment, metric and decision; Work at the smallest useful scale; Study what happened and decide whether to scale, iterate, test again or stop. The point is better decisions, not experiment velocity for its own sake.
VALIDATION — DESIRABILITY, FEASIBILITY, VIABILITY AND IMPACT
Do people want it? Can it be delivered? Can the economics work? Should we do it? For emerging technology, add trust, governance, data, safeguarding, bias, security, adoption and human oversight.
DECISION
Scale, iterate, pivot, pilot, partner, build, transfer to BAU, park or stop. Have we reduced enough uncertainty to justify the next investment?
TRANSFER + ADOPTION
Decide who owns it, what capability and process changes are needed, what governance and training are required, and what happens when the innovation team steps away.
What Influenced My Thinking
GROWTH TRIBE
Rapid experimentation, growth mindset, customer-centricity, data-informed decisions, GROWS, retrospectives, blocker mapping and capability building. I trained and coached 9,000+ professionals across 1,000+ organisations and facilitated 250+ workshops.
ONEUP + 9 DIAMOND FRAMEWORK
Corporate innovation, Explore / Exploit, portfolios, opportunity radar, validation, MVPs, pilots and transfer. The framework is oneUp’s; I draw on its ideas as an influence, not as something I created.
DOUBLE DIAMOND + DESIGN THINKING
Diverge and converge; separate problem discovery from solution development; research with people rather than designing around assumptions.
LEAN STARTUP + CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT
Assumptions, hypotheses, MVPs, Build–Measure–Learn and evidence before scale.
STARTUPS + OPERATING EXPERIENCE
CUTR and founder experience taught me that sometimes you need to ship. Frameworks should improve speed and judgement, not become bureaucracy.
9 Diamond Framework · oneUp
An original, simplified reading of the framework’s influence on my practice—not a reproduction of oneUp’s published model. Explore and Exploit help frame a portfolio: pursue new opportunities while improving what already works. An opportunity Radar helps teams notice and shape possibilities. Validation reduces uncertainty before larger commitments. MVPs and pilots create a practical next test. Transfer considers how validated work moves into an organisation and finds an operational owner.
Explore
Pursue new opportunities
Exploit
Improve what already works
Opportunity Radar
Validation
MVP / Pilot
Transfer
See It in Practice
I’ve also spent years teaching these methods. Watch some of my talks and explainers on experimentation, innovation and growth.
WHAT I CAN DRAW ON
OPPORTUNITY + RESEARCH
Customer and ethnographic interviews, stakeholder research, Jobs to Be Done, journey mapping, personas, surveys, market and competitor research, trend scanning, audience insight and problem framing.
PROPOSITION + VENTURE DESIGN
Value propositions, service and product design, Business Model and Lean Canvas, commercial propositions, partnerships, go-to-market, MVPs and pilots.
EXPERIMENTATION
Assumption mapping, hypotheses, prioritisation, A/B and multivariate tests, smoke / fake-door tests, landing pages, price, prototype and usability testing, behavioural validation, analytics and learning loops.
COMMERCIAL + STRATEGY
Innovation strategy, portfolio management, business cases, ROI, unit economics, market sizing, revenue and acquisition modelling, partnerships, stage gates and investment recommendations.
LEADERSHIP + CAPABILITY
Cross-functional leadership, senior stakeholders, facilitation, coaching, team development, retrospectives, blockers, adoption, partner management and translating evidence into decisions.
AI + EMERGING TECHNOLOGY
Opportunity discovery, AI experimentation, synthetic audiences, knowledge assistants, copilots, workflow automation, human-in-the-loop design, governance, safeguarding, low-code prototyping and responsible adoption.
The Toolbox Is Contextual
I have used and taught a large toolbox of research, innovation, growth and experimentation methods. I don’t start by choosing a framework or tool; I start with the uncertainty. To understand a problem, I might use interviews, ethnography or journey mapping. To test demand, a landing page, smoke test or fake door. To understand willingness to pay, I increase the commitment. To prove operational feasibility, I run a real pilot. If a spreadsheet answers the question before software, I use the spreadsheet. The right tool is the cheapest credible way to answer the question.
How I Build Teams and Capability
Small cross-functional team
Close to customers
Empowered to decide
Evidence-led
Adoption-minded
I prefer small, cross-functional teams close to customers, able to make decisions, comfortable with data and empowered to experiment. A project may bring together innovation or product, insight, design, data, technology, commercial expertise, operations and the people who will own the solution. Bring the people needed to learn and act into the room early.
My work is also about helping others become better at innovation and experimentation. At Growth Tribe I trained and coached 9,000+ professionals across 1,000+ organisations and designed or facilitated 250+ workshops. I focused on experiment velocity, learning, blockers, confidence, retrospectives and whether teams could continue after coaching ended.