http://www.wrike.com - The Lean product development approach is all about delivering a great product without wasting time or resources. When it came to building the first airplane, The Wright brothers had far less money, fewer resources, and a smaller team than any of their major competitors. And yet their names are written down in history as the Fathers of Flight. Use these Lean lessons from the famous brothers to make your product development more efficient. See the video we prepared that discusses this in more depth: https://www.wrike.com/blog/09/30/2014/Product-Development-Tips-Wright-Brothers-Video

1. LESSONS IN
LEAN PRODUCT
DEVELOPMENT
FROM THE WRIGHT BROTHERS 5
The Lean approach is all about delivering a great product without wasting or
underusing time and resources. When it came to building the rst airplane, the Wright
brothers had far less money, fewer resources, and a smaller team than any of their
major competitors.
And yet their names are written in history as the Fathers of Flight. Use these Lean
lessons from the famous duo to make your product development more efcient.
RETHINK YOUR PROCESS
Learn rst, design later. While others focused on
building the perfect plane, the Wrights built a
wind tunnel, scaled kites, and unmanned gliders.
Only after thousands of tests and revisions on
paper did they build their rst successful model.
1.
TRANSFORM DATA INTO
ACTIONABLE KNOWLEDGE
2.
Rather than continually rebuilding expensive test
models, the Wrights analyzed their wind tunnel
data to correct errors on paper rst.
This approach radically shortened their product
development cycles, making the process faster.
3. BUST ASSUMPTIONS
Through testing, the brothers discovered that the
lift and drag calculations other airmen took for
granted were incorrect.
They used their data to optimize wing shapes and
control surfaces, giving them an advantage over
the competition.
4.
5. PINCH YOUR PENNIES
Unlike some competitors, the Wright brothers had no
federal money. Instead they used $2,000 they earned
from their bicycle shop to fund their ventures in
controlled ight.
This made them cautious with resources, and forced
them to carry out experiments efciently.
WANT TO LEARN
MORE ABOUT LEAN?
Curious about how to make your projects more efcient?
Go to bit.ly/leanprojects
SOURCES
www.wright-brothers.org; www.loc.gov; wrightstories.com;
The Lean Machine by Dantar P. Oosterwal;
Ready, Set, Dominate by Michael N. Kennedy
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
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management software
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BREAK THE PROBLEM DOWN
The Wrights divided the problem of ight into
three separate elements: lift, propulsion, and
control. They focused on one element at a time
(and nothing else) until each one was resolved.