Why Successful Lean Manufacturers "Lean" Towards Growth Driven Design For Website Redesign

In manufacturing, waste would be something like having a large inventory of unsold stock, ordering materials months in advance before they are needed, or waiting for a colleague to finish their task before yours can be started.

Instead of embarking on a grand overhaul that can be a disruptive, difficult, expensive, and demanding process, the lean methodology prioritizes continuous small-scale improvements that are simple to accomplish but can lead to impactful results.

As these small improvements accumulate, they can lead to a higher level of efficiency, productivity, and ultimately success. And just because you’re zeroing in on the small improvements doesn't mean that you cannot make larger improvements if they are required.

You know what it reminds us of? Inbound Marketing’s Growth Driven Design.

Growth-Driven Design is a smarter approach to web design that eliminates all of the headaches and drives optimal results using data. Similar to the lean manufacturing methodology, this philosophy focuses on improving parts of your website that can make the most impact and can be quickly launched. 

With a lean philosophy, you enjoy the benefit of continuous improvement. So, rather than making rapid, irregular changes that are disruptive to the workplace, you make small and sustainable changes that the people who actually work with the processes, equipment, and materials will take forward.

Same is true for Growth Driven Design. Improvements are data-driven and executed month-over-month. Unlike the traditional way of redesigning a website that often requires a huge time investment, large up-front costs, tends to be delivered late, and is more often than not over-budget, Growth Driven Design yields faster results without wasting time or wasting money.

The Lean Manufacturing Growth Driven Website

There are three main stages in lean manufacturing:

• Stage 1 – Identifying waste

• Stage 2 – Analyzing the waste and finding the root cause

• Stage 3 – Solving the root cause and repeating the cycle

These aforementioned stages are almost identical to the three stages of Growth Driven Design. Let’s take a look:

• Stage 1 - Strategy

  Growth Driven Design starts with discovery. The goal in this stage is to develop a clear understanding of and immersion in your buyer personas’ world and how the website can solve problems along their journey. Doing so lets you prioritize which items are important, which items can wait, and which ones to consider waste and should be discarded.

• Stage 2 - The Launch Pad

  Kinda like identifying the “root cause” in lean manufacturing. You are identifying and building the mothership here. The only difference is that instead of identifying a problem, you are identifying a solution and building it — a launchpad website that will look and perform better than what you currently have, but is essentially not a final product. This will serve as the foundation on which to build and optimize from.

• Stage 3 - Continuous Improvement

  The third stage is continuously improving your website. This is where we will start to privatize which changes really matter and can be delivered faster. With a launch pad site live and collecting user data, you can start identifying the high-impact actions you can take to grow your business and continuously make improvements to your website without the strenuous demands and pitfalls of a complete redesign.

If you’re a believer of the lean methodology (a method that has resulted in enormous success for a number of manufacturing companies as well as companies in other industries), then Growth Driven Design fits you well. Growth-Driven Design is built on the premises of SCRUM agile + lean methodology and weaves together various concepts into a comprehensive and highly effective web design methodology.