Josh Howell and Mark Reich, LEI President and Chief Engineer Strategy, respectively, speak with Scott Heydon, former VP of Global Strategy at Starbucks, McKinsey & Co. consultant, and a Senior Lean Coach with LEI since 2014. They discuss Scott’s efforts to transform Starbucks with lean thinking, learning lean methods and new ways of problem-solving along the way, and how he’s taken that knowledge to other organizations.

Scott says at Starbucks he evolved his own problem-solving from that of a top-down, MBA-style focused on financials and strategic analysis to include a recognition of problems from the bottom up and a need to develop the capability of others to incrementally improve and problem-solve at the local level to “get better every day.” His work at Starbucks included a four-store lean experiment, which involved then Starbucks colleague Josh and was eventually expanded across the coffeehouse chain. The effort was revised midcourse, says Scott, as his programmatic approach shifted to a better understanding of the processes and problems that need to be solved specific to individual stores and asking store leaders, “What problem are you trying to solve?”

Scott offers two pieces of advice for those in leadership positions progressing with their own lean learning and working to develop and support others who are learning with them:

• “Spend more time where the work happens. That can be challenging as a leader because people will operate differently” and the perspective viewed may not always be authentic. Scott worked in a local store as a barista for a few hours each week, and told people on the line he was trying to learn and was not there to judge. It also helped that he had an idea of what to look for, a key skill learned from LEI coach Jeff Smith while at Starbucks.

• Turn off the problem-solving in your brain as you talk to someone, and instead ask questions to learn from them about what they are doing and ask questions that can help them become a better problem-solver. “To develop that capability in others and to create improvement by supporting others is a really important capability for leaders.”

In this episode of The Design Brief, we speak with Fabrice Bernhard. Fabrice is cofounder and chief technology officer of Theodo, a leading tech consultancy in Europe, and coauthor of The Lean Tech Manifesto. Fabrice discusses what it takes to create great digital products, how high-performing teams can use AI with care, and how LPPD (lean product and process development) thinking works with generative AI to strengthen businesses and teams.

The conversation explores:

• What intentional use of AI in product development looks like (while keeping human beings at the center)

• Where Fabrice and his team have focused their energies helping companies make the digital transformation

• How AI helps teams practice the LPPD principle of “building in learning and knowledge reuse” to create better products

• How business leaders can use AI to “translate” legacy systems into the modern systems we need to do value-creating work now

• Common pitfalls leaders run into when experimenting with AI in product development

Get Started with Lean Product & Process Development

Improving how you develop and deliver products doesn’t require a full transformation to start—it begins with learning to see problems clearly, involve your team, and improve how work gets done.

At the Lean Enterprise Institute, we help organizations:

• Focus on customer-defined value

• Reduce delays and rework

• Build learning into the development process

• Align people, processes, and purpose

Whether you're exploring Lean for the first time or want to improve your development system, we’ll meet you where you are.

Explore your next step:

• Read Designing the Future or The Power of Process

• Take the 60-minute Lean Product and Process Development Overview course

• Join the Designing the Future Workshop for hands-on practice

• Bring a coach into your organization for customized support

Let’s take the first step—together. Learn more at lean.org/LPPD »

Josh Howell, LEI President, and Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, join Olivier Larue, President of Ydatum, and discuss the Toyota Production System (TPS), the three elements embedded within TPS that make it more than just a production system, and the ability of TPS to foster problem-solving and creativity. Olivier worked with Mark at the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in the late 1990s and has led Ydatum since 2000, assisting companies in implementing its version of TPS. Olivier recently authored the first of three volumes of The Toyota Economic System, which will present the three elements of the “Toyota triangle” — philosophical, technical, and managerial — and their necessity in making TPS an economic system for growth.

TPS has enabled mass production to accommodate customization, which had been minimized in the pursuit of lower costs for large quantities of standardized goods, says Olivier. TPS allows companies to “build a product affordably and very much customized to the desires of the customer, one without compromising the other.” Yet when attempting to apply TPS it remains difficult for many organizations to simultaneously achieve the primary goals of TPS — highest quality, lowest cost, and shortest lead time.

Josh and Mark explore with Olivier the importance of the Toyota triangle in achieving TPS goals, especially longer-term goals, and examine the relationship of the triangle to the better known TPS “house” (the roof of three goals, supported by jidoka and just-in-time columns, etc.). The house embodies philosophical, technical, and managerial elements throughout, notes Olivier, but they are not specifically called out in the house. Human development, also not shown in the house, is at the center of the Toyota triangle. Olivier says human development is critical because despite advances in artificial intelligence, currently only people can solve complex problems, human problems. “TPS at the end of the day is trying to solve a human problem using people through the human creativity and the human intelligence.”

Olivier also discusses the organizational problems he encounters with problem-solving. For example, he often sees people gravitating toward problems they know how to solve instead of solving the right problem. This occurs because it’s not always safe to solve the right problem and individuals don’t have the courage to take them on. “It’s very important for companies to realize that if they don’t provide an environment where it’s safe to solve problems, two things are going to happen: problems are not going to get solved, or if some problem gets solved it will be the wrong one... As management and leaders, you have to be able to encourage the people to solve difficult problems without fear of having negative consequences if they fail.”

Learn more about TPS and lean leadership at lean.org