MakerLab and publisher VAN IN: the 8 lessons from IN-house innovation programs

When an employee asks, "Can we do another MakerLab program?" you know you're doing something right with the customer. That you are putting something in motion with an innovation program that resonates permanently with people within the company. MakerLab and VAN IN, Belgium's largest educational publisher, have been working together successfully for nine years. MakerLabs managing partner Sander Goudswaard spoke with Vicky Adriaensen, managing director at VAN IN, about the lessons they've learned from innovating together.

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1. Long or short? Make a choice

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Sander: 'We have done short and long trajectories with VAN IN, but the last program was perhaps the most ambitious: a four-month trajectory. Totally different from, say, one intensive week.'

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Vicky: "The advantage of such a longer trajectory was that people had space, but at the same time that was also a disadvantage. In between you go back to the delusion of the day. You had to regain that focus every time. That takes energy.'

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Sander: 'The counterpart is that it did give you time to do thorough interviews and experiments. However you shape a project, you always have to make choices - there is no right or wrong.'

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Vicky: "That's right. In one week, you might not be able to get hold of the right people and therefore the end result is based on slightly superficial know-how. Now we created space for each process step. From research to prototyping and from validation to business modeling; the teams had time to go deep and that made the step to actually developing products, after 4 months, not a big one. '

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2. You don't get that focus overnight

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Vicky: "In a company you have the daily hassle and in between you start thinking about innovation. In a MakerLab pool like this, you're 100% focused on it. You lock people in a conference room, so to speak, and throw away the key.'

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Sander: "Every so often at VAN IN, you put in a shot of innovation to loosen things up. Then it trickles into the day-to-day. It echoes for a long time.'

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Vicky: 'MakerLabs expertise is that they challenge you everywhere. The pains and gains are hammered into us.'

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Sander: 'When you see the culture change before your eyes ... those are Eureka moments. You can't plan or buy that, it has to happen while you're at it.'

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Vicky: "I hoped someday to bring that expertise to us, but someone who does this day in and day out always adds more value. This is your DNA, Sander. It makes the end result so much sharper.'

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3. Today says nothing about tomorrow

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Vicky: "As a publisher, we usually spend a long time creating a teaching method. If you only test whether the customer is happy with it after three years of investment, you run quite a risk. This method forces you to make it an iteration. Now we test an idea at the embryonic stage. By then, the customer may well say, "This is not what we want." You make adjustments faster, and you keep making adjustments along the way.'

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4. It really is all about the customer

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Vicky: "Every company shouts, "I'm customer-centric!" We all have that ambition, but still: how customer-centric are you really? You can't be more engaged with your customer than in this journey. At each stage, you engage with the customer and ask for feedback. Because what the customer asks and what the customer really wants are often not the same either. It doesn't get any more pure than that.'

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5. Dare to change, even when it chafes

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Vicky: "We have our client in house, people who have been teachers or school principals, and that offers an incredible richness. The big risk is that it makes them think: I know what the client wants, because I WAS the client. Of course, that's not always true. There are many different types of customers and it's also constantly evolving. So keeping a finger on the pulse is important.'

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Sander: "We then ask, "Do you have any proof?" A gut feeling is not enough. That creates tension, because someone is challenged on their expertise. Then when you start investigating it, you see things happen. Hey, wait a minute, I'm being challenged and suddenly I'm learning new things or things were a little different. Some people like that more than others, that's part of it.'

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6. One person cannot innovate alone

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Vicky: "Publishers are strongly in the lead, but we always look for a multi-functional approach. We look at each project to see which feature groups can connect. That also makes the end result richer. Sometimes you want someone from finance or sales to be there, other times it's people from tech who join in. The great thing is that, as a result, the new idea does not come from the publisher alone, but from many more people.

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Sander: 'If we approached someone with the question "you are an expert in this field, can we hear you out?", that worked very well to get people involved in a team. That gave us the interaction we were hoping for.'

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7. Provide short lines to the top

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Sander: "By doing recurring sessions with a small MT team, this time we made gains on more levels. That was really a learning. You see that there are also different needs there. One wants to create the best possible and most highly developed proposition, while the other thinks: as long as everyone participates, that's fine by me. That can conflict in such a program. Now we were able to name it in advance: be aware that if you go in this direction, you will have to admit something.

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8. Make it real

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Vicky: "The process is intense and tough. It's not a quick think, a nice pitch and that's it. We want the ideas to really land. We try to give this innovative process the necessary attention within our organization.'

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Sander: 'At such a pitch event, for example, many people are present, including the MT. We practice intensively for two days: how do you tell a story? People have learned a lot and actually want to tell everything, but a good pitch gets to the point quickly.'

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Vicky: "I believe in this approach. We have now taken concrete steps with some projects. That's a compliment to MakerLab.'

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