Lean Inception

Most operating problems arrive as a bundle of symptoms and half-tried fixes. This session, adapted for hotel teams from Paulo Caroli's Lean Inception method, works through one of them in order: a problem statement the whole room agrees on, the current process walked step by step by the people who run it, user stories from every level of the team, and a vote on what to build first. While the room works, a prototype is built from what goes on the wall, and the session closes by walking through it. It runs on its own, or beside Prototyping & Automation when the team is ready to build.

Who it is for

General managers, owners and operations leads, together with the staff who run the process every day. Best for a known problem that has resisted earlier fixes, or a team preparing a pilot, an automation or a system replacement.

Learning objective

Take one operating problem from a tangle of symptoms to an agreed problem statement, a mapped current process, prioritised user stories, an MVP scope with success measures and a prototype walkthrough, in one working session with the people closest to it.

• Agree a single problem statement before anyone reaches for a tool
• Map the current process step by step, with its constraints and the systems it touches
• Write user stories from the front line and from management on the same wall
• Vote on priorities and draw the line between the MVP and what can wait
• Set the operational measures that will show whether the MVP is working
• Walk through a working prototype built from the session's own material

1. 20 min

   Frame the Problem

   The sponsor states the outcome the business needs and what good looks like. The room then separates the problem from the fixes already tried, names who is affected, and agrees one problem statement before moving on.

   You leave with: One problem statement everyone in the room agrees with.

2. 60 min

   Map the Current State

   The people who run the process walk it through on the wall, step by step. The facilitator captures the sequence, the constraints people carry in their heads, and every system, spreadsheet and informal channel the process touches.

   You leave with: The process as it runs today, with its constraints and systems.

3. 60 min

   Capture User Stories

   Every participant writes stories on sticky notes, in silence, in the form "As a…, I want… so that…", so front-line voices land alongside management. Authors read them aloud and the room clusters them by theme.

   You leave with: The spread of needs across the team, in their own words.

4. 35 min

   Vote and Scope the MVP

   Three dot votes each, placed on the stories that would make the biggest difference. The wall is reordered by votes, and the room draws the line between the MVP and what can wait, with the sponsor agreeing the cut.

   You leave with: A clear MVP scope the sponsor has committed to.

5. 35 min

   Define Success and Sequence the Roadmap

   The room agrees the operational measures the team will actually watch to judge the MVP, then sequences the remaining stories into later phases, with rough effort and dependencies.

   You leave with: Success measures and a phased roadmap.

6. 30 min

   Live Prototype Walkthrough

   Throughout the session a prototype is built in parallel from the photos, notes and process maps on the wall. The close walks through it live, then confirms owners, dates and what will be shared before the follow-up.

   You leave with: A prototype the team has seen working, and agreed next steps.

• A shared picture of the process today

  How the process actually runs, including its constraints and the systems involved, mapped with the people who run it.

• Prioritised user stories

  Stories captured from the people doing the work, ranked by the team in a dot vote.

• An agreed MVP and roadmap

  An MVP scope the sponsor has agreed in the room, the measures that will show it is working, and the remaining stories sequenced into later phases.

• A prototype walkthrough

  A working prototype built from the session's material, with named owners and dates for the next steps.

• Built around one operating problem the organisation chooses before the day.
• The people who run the process every day are in the room, alongside the sponsor.
• The prototype shown at the close is built from the session's own wall, photos and notes.