Lean Forward is a methodology that gives agile teams the ability to explore new value by being customer focused and data driven.

Once established, it enables an organisation to be in constant learning mode with the ability to transform that learning in to new value (in the form of new products, features or business units).

It is designed to be easily integrated with an Agile process such as Scrum . Teams working with Lean Forward focus on outcome rather than deliveries. They are data driven and put customer first.

There are two main categories of Lean Forward teams:

  1. Explore teams who focus on discovering new business or product benefits. They seek to broaden the scope of a product or find new niches that it can fit in with. They are the engine of innovation and long term growth. Their goal is to discover product/market fit.
  2. Growth teams who focus on growing the reach of an existing product by either widening the audience or building retention – often a combination of both. Their goal is to fuel traction and rapid growth.

Sometimes these teams overlap and they can be hard to distinguish from each other but generally speaking, Explore Teams are working with more immature ideas and concepts while Growth Teams work with mature products.

Lean Forward suggests a balance of the two categories of teams in a portfolio setup. The framework is designed to minimise the risk of exploring, to ensure an organisation that is always ready to take the next step.