• by Fard Johnmar , Op-Ed Contributor, May 17, 2013

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you. I was deep into another series of meetings I’ve been holding with leadership teams from health organizations across the country. I had just finished describing how we can help them measure and predict the impact of Web and social media content on perceptions and behaviors. After a brief pause, an executive on the other end of the line asked: “So what?” 

For about five long seconds, I panicked. Had I failed the clarity test? Was the meeting going rapidly downhill? I calmed down when I remembered that I’d addressed this question many times in the past. I answered him using a framework I’ll share with you now. 

Lean: Not Just for Startups

In 2011, Eric Ries’ book, The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, was published to great acclaim. The product of years of public debate and refinement, the book accelerated the worldwide Lean Startup movement and has helped a range of companies avoid developing products and services no one wants. (NB: The principles outlined in the book were not originated by Ries, but built on concepts introduced and perfected in the manufacturing sector.) 

Since its publication, the ideas described in The Lean Startup have moved beyond the business world, influencing a range of fields, including digital measurement. A core component of the Lean methodology is the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop. Build refers to producing a product or service (or Minimum Viable Product) that can be quickly evaluated for viability. Measure requires conducting a series of tests to determine product-market fit. Learn involves using data collected during the measure stage to continuously refine the product and ship new versions to market.

Implementing digital marketing or communications initiatives requires flexibility and a willingness to experiment and iterate ideas quickly. Clearly, borrowing methods and concepts from the Lean methodology makes sense. In fact, I’ve come to think of many digital initiatives as Minimum Viable Products that should be continuously measured and refined based on new learnings. 

Addressing the “So What?” Question 

When digital is viewed from within the context of the Lean methodology, answering the “So what?” question becomes a simple task. Here’s why I think collecting and analyzing digital measurement data is important: 

• The digital world moves so quickly that no initiative is guaranteed to succeed (or continue succeeding). A healthy approach is to view them as Minimum Viable Products that are optimized to help us learn and fail faster. 
  
  
• Measurement data should primarily be collected to help organizations quickly determine if they are sparking specific actions or changing perceptions. 
  
  
• We should be unafraid to refine and even abandon initiatives that are not performing to expectations. 

Build-Measure-Learn: Are You Doing It? 

Traditionally, especially in health, many have built digital initiatives after a long planning process, been overly wedded to them during implementation and only measure when it is too late to make rapid adjustments. 

Would our ability to use digital tools to shape health perceptions and behaviors improve if we adopted a different approach? What if we built initiatives in a way that allowed us to change course quickly? What if we measured early and often? What if recognizing and learning from failure was rewarded rather than punished? 

What if? Are you asking this question?