Rapid Learning Cycles Institute
We help innovators get their best ideas to market — faster!
Faster Innovation — Less Frustration
with Rapid Learning Cycles
Rapid Learning Cycles is an adaptation of Agile for hardware and other physical products — and other parts of the business where decisions are irreversible or expensive to change.
In these areas, the assumptions that drive the practices and tools of Agile Software Development do not hold true. Instead, we use the principles of Agile to deliver value early, while avoiding the waste of revisited decisions.
- Pull learning forward to eliminate uncertainty and burn down risk.
- Make decisions at the right time with the right people and the best available knowledge.
- Experience acceleration with less frustration, as the team encounters fewer roadblocks on the path to launch.
Rapid Learning Cycles Has Helped These Companies
Accelerate Innovation - Hear Their Stories
Trusted By
How the Rapid Learning Cycles Framework Helps You Have Faster Innovation with Fewer Frustrations
Accelerate
Innovation
Get your best ideas to market faster
Regain the confidence to innovate
Grow your business with innovation programs that deliver
Long, slow loopbacks cause most project delays and cost overruns
Shortcuts often make these loopbacks more prevalent and more damaging
Solutions people naturally try to accelerate innovation actually slow them down
Eliminate
Obstacles
Make Better
Decisions
Identify the decisions most likely to trigger loopbacks
Pull learning forward to build the knowledge needed to make these decisions
Delay key decisions as long as possible to maintain flexibility
Make decisions at the right time, with the right people and the best available knowledge
As Seen In
We Are All In
The Rapid Learning Cycles Institute is a proud signer of the America Is All In pledge to support our efforts to reduce US carbon emissions by 50% in 2030 (from 2005 levels) and become carbon neutral in 2050.
We have already taken steps to reduce our own carbon emissions with virtual offerings that reduce the amount of travel (especially air travel) required to participate in our events, and by converting all of our materials to electronic delivery instead of shipping paper around the world.
We Can Accelerate Net Zero
"Accelerate Net Zero" is our initiative to use everything we've learned to accelerate the development of the technologies we need to address climate change: renewable energy, sustainable materials, transportation, food production, carbon capture and more.
We do this by helping innovators, companies, investors and public policymakers to make decisions at the right time, with the right people and the best available knowledge.
Katherine Radeka hosts a podcast for these innovators, and delivers presentations on how we can Accelerate Net Zero.
To Learn More About Rapid Learning Cycles,
Start With One of Our Books
Explore the concepts of Rapid Learning Cycles — the breakthrough framework to accelerate innovation.
Discover how successful companies pull innovation from their teams to achieve high velocity innovation.
How to Introduce Rapid Learning Cycles to Your Organization
Experiment with concepts from Rapid Learning Cycles on your own projects — gain experience with the framework to build support for a pilot team.
Prove that Rapid Learning Cycles works within a single program or handful of programs — then leverage organic growth.
Provide training and support for the whole organization as they transition to High Velocity Innovation.
What Others Say About the
Rapid Learning Cycles Framework
Jason Anderson, Trimble Corporation
RLCI has shown how to pull together a combination of agile software management techniques within a phase gate development, with a process to follow, and made it easier to ask my organization to implement it. We have had two Kickoff events and the response has been very positive. The one thing I would change is having more people from my company attend.
Wouter van Essen, Sonion
I had some doubts about sending all our Project Managers and whether they would learn how to use Rapid Learning Cycles better for their own projects. But I am sticking with the decision to send them all as it is another positive experience with Rapid Learning Cycles when they are applying it together with RLC enthusiasts from other companies and more attention to the thinking behind the framework. The best part of the class was the three baskets that help determine which elements of Rapid Learning Cycles drive success and therefore must be applied rigorously, and which ones can be left for the team to decide.
The class prepared us very well for explaining Rapid Learning Cycles to teams that will work with it and convincing stakeholders of the logic behind it. The workshop will give you the tools and insights that you need to judge and positively influence the quality of the plans of the teams that you guide. With that the learning on how to successfully apply Rapid Learning Cycles in your company will be accelerated.
Vaas Conradie, Gallagher
I was concerned that the R & D executives would not buy into this. But the simplicity and logic of the approach made this an easier sell. Almost everybody we sent to the training is involved in an RLC project or is about to be. I especially appreciated the ongoing support that has been available to my team after the workshop.
Katherine Radeka developed Rapid Learning Cycles to eliminate the root causes behind delays and disappointing results for innovation teams with physical products.
She has shared the Rapid Learning Cycles framework with teams on every continent except Antarctica, working on products like medical devices, next-generation renewable energy, biotech, transportation, food production and consumer electronics.
Katherine is a professional keynote speaker and author of The Shortest Distance Between You and Your New Product: How Innovators Use Rapid Learning Cycles to Get Their Best Ideas to Market Faster. Her first book, The Mastery of Innovation, won the Shingo Research Award. Her most recent book, High Velocity Innovation was published in Fall 2019 by Career Press.
Meet Katherine
Find Out if Rapid Learning Cycles is Right for You Now
Talk with Katherine to discuss your next steps!
Now Available: Order Yours Today!
When you know why agile principles accelerate product development, you know where, when and how to apply them to increase speed, flexibility and responsiveness.