Evidence Based Innovation Begins at AIM Code School

An old creativity adage among artists is “just make a decision, stupid.” That’s good advice. Spend too much time thinking about what you should do and you’ll never do it. The work of innovation requires bold decision-making, the idea goes, so leap. Again, good advice—for artists. But what about businesses? You can’t simply decide things and…

An old creativity adage among artists is “just make a decision, stupid.” That’s good advice. Spend too much time thinking about what you should do and you’ll never do it. The work of innovation requires bold decision-making, the idea goes, so leap.

Again, good advice—for artists.

But what about businesses? You can’t simply decide things and hope it all works out someday. The costs of innovation are exorbitant, and growing: a 2017 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that research productivity across all sectors drops 50 percent every 13 years. In other words, companies spend twice the amount of money every 13 years just to maintain a steady output. This trend has been consistent since 1930.

So how do you stop yourself from making a series of costly mistakes in the name of innovation? How would you even know you’re messing up?

Enter Evidence Based Innovation, a data-driven innovation & risk mitigation class offered by the AIM Code School in partnership with Scott Data Center. Evidence Based Innovation helps organizations manage the inherent risk and cost of trying something new. With this neoteric approach—designed and taught by Ken Moreano, president of Scott Data Center, and Traci Williams Hancock, co-founder of Aksarben Innovation Initiative—companies of all sizes are able to make evidence-based adjustments to their ideas before investing too much time and effort into them.

How Does Evidence Based Innovation Work?

Teams of three to five professionals (from any industry) come to class on Day One with a problem to solve—anything from internal processes to product design, startup ideas to tangible inventions. At the end of the ten-week course, students will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, who will then determine whether the team has successfully used data to devise a creative solution—and, ultimately, whether they’ve actually solved their problem.

If a proposed solution is monetizable, the judges may even help a team find funding, which has happened. For instance, one team in the construction sector used the Evidence Based Innovation class to test a new product they’d developed to streamline their construction process. Soon after, they sold the product, now widely used across the construction industry.

Evidence Based Innovation classes will take place every Tuesday and Thursday from April 23 to June 27. On Tuesdays, classes meet in-person from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. On Thursdays, teams go out and implement the course methodology, gather research, conduct interviews, and wend their way toward an innovative solution to the problem they’ve identified.

The class is good for startups and companies on the verge of a product launch. Because teams conduct at least 50 field interviews throughout the course, students come away with actionable market research to help them chart their way forward. But organizations of any size can benefit, including large enterprises.

“Anybody can use this process to solve any problem they may have,” says Ellen Myer, director of AIM Code School. “It can be an internal problem, like a high turnover rate. It can be a processes issue, like a communication gap. It can be a tangible idea, a concept, an invention, or a startup they want to get off the ground.”

It’s not Agile. It’s not Lean. It’s an entirely different innovation process, informed by data, to help companies leap forward in a way they won’t eventually regret.

Take the Evidence Based Innovation Class at AIM Code School

To join the Evidence Based Innovation class, apply at interfaceschool.com/course/ebi/.

AIM Code School is an Omaha-based web developer training school that helps build and retain tech talent in the Midwest through accelerated courses in web development and career placement services. For more information, visit aimcodeschool.org.

Scott Data Center offers more than 110,000 square feet of facilities to meet the advanced data storage needs of companies across the country. Located in Omaha, Nebraska, Scott Data Center is nationally recognized as an industry leader in data storage and security, having received Tier III Certification in design and construction from the Uptime Institute.

AIM Institute is an innovative not-for-profit that grows, connects, and inspires the tech talent ecosystem through educational and career development initiatives.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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