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Last week, as the brown line chugged along on my way to work, I started to think back on my experience at Tech Week. The energy in the room was palpable as techies (and those of us who are accidental techies) discussed innovation in relation to local startups. What really stood out to me was the presentation given by Bernhard Kappe of Pathfinder and organizer of the Chicago Lean Startup Circle. The key takeaway I have held on to is that the growth of lean startups in Chicago happened when companies stopped doing what they wanted to and started to listen to the market needs of their customers. They did this BEFORE putting their innovative ideas into motion.

This immediately made me think about the work we are doing at i.c.stars in growing our social enterprise and how we are using the lean startup approach. There are many successful and innovative social enterprises in Chicago. From The CARA Program, to Sweet Miss Givings, to Bright Endeavors, we all are out talking to our consumers and molding a product to fit their needs. Never before did I connect the dots that social enterprise organizations pull many aspects from the lean startup model.

Looking out the window as the el winded me through Chicago; a clear memory came to me of my mother, an elementary school teacher, reading me “The Little Engine that Could”. Instead of just trudging along blindly saying, “I think I can, I think I can”, social enterprises and businesses take the time to identify the pains and needs of our clients and target market. We follow the lean startup model and talk to our users and structure our business to address their needs. We test everything we do three times, before we build it, so we can say, “I know I can, I know I can”.

A huge part of the lean approach is to ask the market for feedback. “What do you think about the services we are offering you?” What business problems are you facing?” We do this to understand what the market wants and needs. If it is not a top issue in the users mind, it is not what is valuable right now. With that being said, these are some of the top issues that we have found many companies have when it comes to using social media to connect with their target audiences:

• They see the value in blogging and being able to engage in conversations with their audience, but do not have a lot of time to do it.
• Many IT professionals would like to use social media to supplement their speaking engagements and remain connected with people.
• Many larger marketing companies focus on strategy and ways to reach people, but do not aid in producing content that is valuable to the market.

People and companies spend a lot of time and money producing products and services that people do not really want or need. Products fail due to a lack of market understanding. i.c.stars and social enterprises in Chicago are practicing the lean approach and have been for quite some time. We are user focused. We pride ourselves on testing various methods and developing what people are interested in, while continuing to learn more about the pain points of others.

What are some of the pains or hardships that you are facing in your business and your industry? What is holding you back right now from addressing your #1 pain point?