Respond to this Innovation Buying Request on the USA National Innovation Marketplace.

Respond to this Innovation Buying Request on the USA National Innovation Marketplace.

Respond to this Innovation Buying Request on the USA National Innovation Marketplace.

Respond to this Innovation Buying Request on the USA National Innovation Marketplace.

OK so this posting is a little long.  That’s what happens when I write a blog post while flying from Cincinnati to Seattle to lead a Leadership Institute.  This post covers today’s  “best practices” for Implementing Innovation Engineering within your organization.  I think the issue is an important one – I hope it helps you.  Sorry for any typos – I’m not the best at editing on screen . 

BACKGROUND:  The changes to the system were sparked by hundreds of pieces of feedback.  For example, at a recent Innovation Engineering Training program there was a debate about what should come first DO versus STUDY.   That is – when it comes to implementing the Innovation Engineering Management System should an organization — Plan, Do, Study, Act?   Or should they Plan, Study, Do, Act?

Leading the “STUDY” then “DO” side of the debate was a pair of senior executives from an organization who urged caution.  To be clear – they weren’t against Innovation Engineering – they just had a cautious mindset.   They proclaimed “changing the culture is something we should not rush into” and “before we DO we need to fully understand what we are “doing” and it’s consequences.”

Leading the “DO” then “STUDY” side of the debate were a diverse blend of old veterans and young people.  They proclaimed “That’s our classic approach — study, study, study – let’s try something different” and “what’s the downside of just getting started?”

As I travel the county -  meeting every day in person or via the blog, idea requests or emails – I’ve developed some empathy for both mindsets.  I’m not going “soft” but rather I’m gaining understanding that  for many business leaders the idea of changing their culture is very scary.

To help reduce the stress they feel we’ve been testing a few changes.  Based on the success we’re seeing I think it’s time to “expand the learning”  to the entire Innovation Engineering community.

The three changes are:

1. Start with ACCELERATING a small team of WILLING volunteers:  Instead of trying to change the entire organization start the transition with a small group of WILLING employees who have a passion for innovation.  The purpose of the small group is to accelerate quick wins AND to adapt and optimize the process so that it works for your specific culture.   It’s important that the team members be WILLING volunteers so to leverage the power of intrinsic motivation.

Focus initial energy on accelerating existing projects and ideas that the team has but that have not been acted on. (see point #3 below for step by step method).

As confidence builds – we then move from the ACCELERATE phase to the EDUCATE Phase where we involve more employees and managers.   The success of the ACCELERATE stage pulls more volunteers into the innovation process.  Training includes Innovation Engineering Green Belt and Black Belt Training – plus having key employees attend Innovation Engineering Leadership Institute.

After: 1) ACCELERATE and 2) EDUCATE comes the sustaining stage 3) CULTURAL CHANGE.   Here we engage the entire culture (division, subsidiary and/or company).  It involves mass training – and deployment of tools to transform the culture:  a) private Innovation Social Networking Platform, b) Certification of one or more full time Innovation Engineering Black Belts to lead process, c) Systemic systems for continuous stimulus mining, breaking down silos and connecting with suppliers and customers who make up your Innovation Supply Chain.

2. Changes to the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Meetings:  In extreme cases we even label each of these meetings as  “study” sessions – to release tension – for those who have concerns about the changing of the culture.  Our latest “best practices” for these meetings are as follows:

Weekly Project Meetings:  The purpose of these meetings is to provide a disciplined structure for increasing speed and decreasing risk.  During the Discovery Stage – the first task of the meetings is to STUDY what has been learned and to make a conscious decision on 1) Should we kill the idea because we have learned something fatal?, 2) Should we recommend the idea for development because all Death Threats are mitigated?, or 3) Should we do a another week of learning?

We then document – PLAN/DO – what we are doing during the next week.

This is a change.  We we started with the Innovation Engineering Management System the deep thinking was once a month. Today we STUDY more deeply each week.  This dramatically REDUCES management stress factor.

ADDITION:  To maintain focus the weekly project meetings are kept focused on project management.   Separate from the project meetings we’ve added 1 to 4 hour CREATE sessions to problem solve solutions to Death Threats.  These use the complete Innovation Engineering Tool Kit (and Black Belt advanced tool kit) to Create, Communicate and Commercialize ideas.

Monthly Process Meetings:  With the yes/no/learn more decision moved to each week – the monthly meetings have become process improvement meetings.  The focus is on  “what have we learned” from a system/process standpoint during the previous month.  AND, to make adjustments to how we motivate, manage and implement the innovation system during the next month.  By stopping and THINKING we move the focus from the details to the bigger picture system.

Quarterly Growth Pipeline Meetings:  These meetings “connect the dots” between the projects we are working on and the longer term company plan for growth.  At these meetings the Growth Pipeline is compared versus the 3 year goal for profitable growth – in sales and profits – as well as growth in % of sales from New Customers/Markets and % of sales from New Products/Services.

These quarterly meetings reinforce a sense of purpose to the Innovation projects.  They give everyone – employees, managers, management, shareholders – a clear understanding of where we are and where we are going.

HINT: Don’t SKIP Monthly and Quarterly Meetings. When you have a motivated project leader the project meetings have lots of energy behind them – and are rarely missed – at least in the beginning.  However, if you’re not careful the Monthly and Quarterly meetings can be seen as not as urgent and as a result get skipped. And this is the reason why the Innovation efforts are abandoned – and soon weekly meetings are not held either.

The Monthly and Quarterly Meetings are critical for the sustainable success of the system.  The monthly meetings drive continuous improvement in the system within your organization.  This increases ownership and engagement.. The quarterly meetings move innovation from a “nice to do” to a critical driver of the company’s future profitable growth.  They make it part of “what we do” to grow sales and profits.

Given the importance of the monthly and quarterly meetings making sure they happen is the responsibility of company Management.  Project leaders are focused on “doing” – only Management has the bigger picture system view and responsibility.

3. Start with a Focus on REAL Change – SYSTEMIC Change not “magical events”: In the past we ran “Innovation Engineering Jump Starts” to spark company momentum.  Sadly, these Jump Starts rarely generated enough momentum to break free of the gravitational pull that exists in most organizations against innovation driven change.  One of two results occurred in 95% of Jump Starts:

a. Ugly Result:  Because most of the people attending the Jump Start were not “volunteers” and had negative attitudes (as shown via the company assessment) the session became a giant “bitch session” where employees complained and/or didn’t engage.  At the end of the session they would declare with pride “see I told you so – we can’t innovate.”  If the project was lead by a passionate coach and/or company leader – a project came out of it that was PUSHED through into a month or so of learning cycles. And that was the end of an organized innovation effort.

b. Best Case Result:  The participants were polite and used the session to gain visibility on an idea they were already working on or an existing idea they had not taken action on.  Working on existing ideas is  not a problem – however the fact that the CREATE session resulted in an existing idea being the idea we’re working on -  tends to deflate organizational confidence in their ability to innovate.

Today, we no longer recommend starting with a JUMP START.  Instead we have found that it’s most effective if we implement the system by ACCELERATING Success with a team of 3 to 8 volunteers over a 3 month trial of the system.  The process begins with a very disciplined 4 week program of meetings and homework:

Week 1 – Documenting Where We Are:  A two hour work session is held to review: 1) Our company Innovation readiness Assessment, 2) Our 3 year Growth goals (we make them up if we don’t have them) and 3) The Innovation Engineering Process Coach (Black Belt) teaches everyone how to fill out a “Yellow Concept Card” on all of our existing projects as well as any ideas for growth that we’ve had but not acted on.   Homework for the week is to write 6 to 12 cards each.

Week 2 –  Thinking Deeper:  A two hour work session is held to review all of Yellow Cards.  Each team member then picks two projects or ideas that are both important for the organization AND that they have a passion for.   The Innovation Engineering Process Coach (Black Belt) then teaches how to fill in the Project Acceleration Portal of Innovation Engineering Labs.com – Customer Concept, Math Game Plan and Learning Plan.  Homework for the week is for each person to DEFINE on Innovation Engineering Labs (or on paper using the Word Document template if your organization is not on the path to becoming an Innovation Engineering Black Belt company.)

Week 3 – Decision Point:  A two hour work session is held to review all of the DEFINE proposals – Concept, Math, Learning Plan.  Then have an honest conversation about the ideas based on the company’s current cultural mindset, business situation and goals.   The Management Coach MUST facilitate this conversation . And, must be very Honest and Helpful.  The goal is to decide do we “have ideas” that are worth working on. Or, do we “need ideas” to work on.

If the team “has ideas” (which is usually the case) – then the Innovation Engineering Black Belt helps the team pick two to get started with and the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles of learning begin.

If the team “needs ideas” – then the Innovation Engineering Black Belt sets up a CREATE project and team members are giving stimulus mining homework.

HINT: Having Ideas in DEFINE sparks continuous innovation and smarter decisions.  When you have a collection of good ideas that have been DEFINED – then you make smarter decisions during your weekly coaching.  You make smarter decisions because you have other options you can pursue if an idea is death threats turn out to be fatal.  Conversely, if you don’t have other options – then you tend to force ideas forward by making fatal compromises in the promise, product or math.

Week 4 – Two Options & Monthly Process Meeting:  If we “have ideas” then Weekly Project meeting is held to increase project speed and decrease risk.  If we “need ideas” then a CREATE session is held.

In addition, the first Monthly Process meeting is held to review what have we learned as a team – and what should we do in the next week.  At this meeting one to two CREATE sessions are usually scheduled for the upcoming month – to help problem solve issues with the two lead projects.

The three changes outlined above have made a dramatic difference in the transformation of companies into Innovation Driven Organizations.  Government organizations, Non-Profits and For-Profits are seeing faster and smoother start ups – with less stress.

HOMEWORK:  What have we learned?

Your homework this week is to gather together the team that attended Innovation Engineering Leadership Institute with you and ask “what have we learned since we attended the institute?  What has worked? What hasn’t worked?  Then, review the changes outlined above – and discuss if these changes would make it easier for you to be as successful as others have been.

DO IT YOURSELF or GET HELP:  You can do this yourself.  If you have questions or need help – post your questions on the Innovation Engineering START UP Request that I’ve posted on Innovation Engineering Labs.com.

Alternatively – you can get expert help from a nationwide network of certified Innovation Engineering Black Belts or Black Belt Candidates who work under the direction of a Master Black Belts (Maggie Slovonick, Renee Kelly, Maggie Nichols, and or myself).  If you need help connecting to a Black Belt call the Eureka! Ranch at 513-271-9911 and ask for Corie.

More important than HOW you do it is that you JUST DO IT.  In today’s economy it’s important that every company Increase Innovation Speed and Decrease Risk.  And, the way to do this is through systemic change lead by management not by “beating the workers.”   Innovation Engineering is a system for achieving systemic change that works.

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It’s been a glorious week.  A week focused on the here and now.  A week looking towards the future.

This week I felt like I was inside the secret building at Apple where the next three years of innovations are laid out.   At Apple their Innovation Pipeline is not a 30 day, 90 day or one 1 year pipeline but rather a 3 year pipeline.  And everything has a looks like prototype built for it.  Jony Ives, Steve Jobs “soul mate” for design describes it this way in the new book Steve Jobs.

The great room is the one place in the company where you can look around and see everything we have in the works.  When Steve comes in he will sit at one of these tables.  If we’re working on a new iPhone, for example, he might grab a stool and start playing with different models and feeling them in his hands, remarking on which ones he likes best.  Then he will graze by the other table, and see where all the other products are heading.  He can get a sense of the sweep of the whole company, the iPhone and iPad, the iMac and laptop and everything else we’re considering.  That helps him see where the company is spending its energy and hot things connect.  He gets to see things in relationship to each other, which is pretty hard to do in a big company.  Looking at the models on these tables, he can see the future for the next three years. 

For 25 years I’ve been on a mission to change the world of innovation.

• To turn the art of innovation into a science.

• To create systems that increase speed and decrease risk.

• To empower the worker and enable the leadership to lead.

It’s been a long journey.  There have been great moments and sad moments.  Over the last two years as the Innovation Engineering Institute has come to life with the support of:

• Government (NIST/MEP Network of 1,300 field people)

• Education (University of Maine + 5 other Universities) and

• Industry (Eureka! Ranch and corporate for profit & non-profit clients)

This week over a two day period a group of visionaries from NIST/MEP, the Ranch and the University (I was the link to the University) presented their visions for Innovation Engineering for the next 3 years.  We showed each other “works like” and “looks like” prototypes of the future that are MIND BLOWING.   (Sadly – they told me they want to keep the ideas secret as they have much to do – and they swore me to silence).  We shared ideas for 2012, 2013 and yes even 2014.   We shared ideas for new editions of Innovation Engineering Leadership Institutes, IE Green Belt, Black Belt and Master Black Belt programs, new methods of improving our teaching, new web tools, new web site designs, new metrics systems for reporting impacts, integration with new government services, new sales systems, new tools for helping organizations go even faster with innovation and with less risk.  We even shared a new system for yes — increasing speed and decreasing risk with the ideas that are for 2013 and 2014!!!!!

Together we got a sense of the sweep of all of Innovation Engineering. together we could see where the whole system is headed. 

I am here to report – that the Future is Bright. In fact it’s WICKED GOOD!  This meeting inspired your homework for this week.

Your Innovation Engineering Homework for This Week is Future Mining and Developing  your longer term Innovation Growth Pipeline 

Step 1:  Write your mission.  Mission is your higher purpose.  Your reason for existence.   Note: mission is not a financial goal.  It’s not x% increase in sales.  It’s not y% increase in market penetration.  For Innovation Engineering it’s simple:

To Change the World —- of how people innovate

Specifically – a Sustainable Innovation Management System For Increasing Innovation Speed and Decreasing Risk.

Our method for accomplishing this is by teaching students (on campus, in government and in industry) an integrated system of tools and building within them the confidence to Create, Communicate and Commercialize Meaningfully Unique Ideas.

Step 2: Do some Future Mining  Gather a small group of proactive thinkers (3 to 6).    Note, I’m not interested in any REACTIVE people participating.  Give them the mission in writing and have each of them them do some Future mining.  Talk to thought leaders, do some internet mining, stop and trust your gut instincts about what the future could be.   Download the Future Mining worksheet from InnovationEngineeringLabs.com if you want a more structured approach.

Step 3: Leverage Diversity  Get the small group out of the office – and spend an evening – or half a day thinking about the future.  Again, I’m only interested in having proactive people attend – there will be plenty of time for reactive nay saying later.

Three stimulus prompts for you to ponder:

1. What are ideas that are NOT POSSIBLE TO DO TODAY – but that would create a meaningful leap forward for our mission.  Note, if you can do them today – they don’t count.  I’m saying this so to push you towards thinking further out.

2. What are the IDEAL solution to our mission 20 years from now?

3. Assume that your organization has gone out of business.  What is the product, service, customer change, cultural change, government change that caused that to happen?   Then – what could you have done to prevent it from happening.

Talk about the above for 2 hours and no longer.   Then in the next 2 hours – build a bridge from some of the future ideas to today.  Put the idea for the future on the right side of a chart pad or piece of paper.   Then Mind Map back to the left – to today.  What things would you do today to make the future ideas become reality tomorrow?

When you’re finished.  Download the Pitch Package – or if your organization is deploying the Innovation Engineering Management System then use the on-line forms and put your ideas into DEFINE.  Define the customer, problem, promise, proof, math game plan and the death threats.

Then, bring together a multi-disciplinary team to review the ideas and pick two for moving into Discovery.

The week after next Maggie and I are in Seattle with the Leadership Institute – December we are in Little Rock

We are close to announcing 15 more dates for the 2012 Edition of Innovation Engineering Leadership Edition.  It’s going to be WICKED COOL.

In addition in January you’re going to see….darn, they made me swear to secrecy …I’m not allowed to tell you what’s coming….:)

Cheers,

Doug

This is THE ROOM where Innovation Engineering took on a new urgency. The scene was a dinner where I was the keynote speaker. I was at a table with a number of company owners discussing innovation. Suddenly, one owner said, “Doug, I don’t get it. I don’t get innovation. I don’t do it. I don’t know how to innovate. My people don’t know how to innovate. And honestly I don’t think my customers are interested in innovation.”

UGH!

I was speechless.

In the car on the way back to Orono with Renee Kelley – I was frustrated beyond belief. How can it be so to see? Why isn’t it obvious that cheap and cheaper is the path to destruction it’s non-sustainable? Why don’t they see what’s coming? Why aren’t they taking charge of their destiny?

The next morning – I was even more frustrated. From the Foster Innovation Center at U Maine I lead a conference call with Renee, Maggie Nichols and Scott Dunkle of the Ranch.

I told the story of the night before and explained that we needed to develop a more comprehensive solution. We can’t “assume” that organizations will “get it” if we just give them cool tools for Creating, Communicating and Commercializing.

From the conversation the scope of Innovation Engineering moved from tools to a Management System. A system for leading organizations.

In practical terms – it would be about defining an Innovation Pipeline. The Innovation Pipeline would be a compliment to a company’s balance sheet.

Balance Sheet shows the past. Innovation Pipeline shows the future.

At that meeting was laid the plans for what we have today. The InnovationEngineeringLabs portal with Project Acceleration, Idea Requests and Tools.

HOMEWORK: Your homework this week is to spend time thinking about the Very Important Problems and Opportunities for your organization.

Send the following e-mail to 5 people.

To: One of Five people from Inside and/or outside the organization

Subject: 10 Minutes of your time would really help my thinking

Innovation Engineering teaches that we need to stop from time to time to look at the bigger picture issues facing us.

I’d like your help thinking about where we are as an organization and where we should be going. Please take ten minutes to answer two questions based on your opinion.

1. What are the 3 most Important Problems we face as an organization?

2. What are the 3 biggest Opportunities we have as an organization?

There is no need to justify your answers. I’m interested in your gut instincts.

Print out the responses and read them as a set. Then THINK! Mindmap the responses looking for agreements and disagreements.

Finally, gather the team that responded together to share, discuss and learn from one another. From the conversation pick one problem or opportunity to take action on. Create Ideas – and get started driving out fear of action through Fail FAST Fail CHEAP experiments.

WICKED COOL: We’ve set a new record for Idea Requests this week. If you’ve not visited in a while log into InnovationEngineeringLabs.com and post some ideas or post a request of your own. Importantly, our tracking research one year later indicates that those who participate in posting and responding to requests develop greater confidence in their Innovation Engineering skills.

BOTHERED BY ALL THE REQUESTS? In IELabs preferences you can set to get requests instantly – once a day – once a week, etc.

A senior executive told me at the time “who knows we might have one of these on every floor one day.”

I replied, “Maybe on every desk.”

“Keep dreaming he said.”

Dreaming about a better future is the whole ideas behind Innovation Engineering.   But dreaming can be hard.  So I thought I’d let Steve Jobs explain his motivation for change.  It comes from his Stanford Commencement Speech.  It’s the motivation that drives true entrepreneurs.  It’s the motivation that drives the Innovation Engineering Community of 6 Universities and over 3,000 business people.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Steve Jobs – Stanford Commencement Address

HOMEWORK

Your homework this week is to think deeply about what is the right thing for you and your organization to do.   THEN GET STARTED!  NOW!

• What would be WICKED COOL?

• What would get you so excited to work on that you could hardly sleep?

• To ensure a 20 year future what must you do NOW!

• To change the world of your industry – what needs to be done?

- If not you?  Who?

Thinking about the future DOES NOT mean  being REACTIVE.  It means being PROACTIVE.  It means LEADING.  As Dr. Deming said.

“Did customers ask for the electric light? No.  They never asked for it, the producer produced it.  No one asked for a car, nor a telephone.  No one asked for a copy machine or a fax machine.  

Innovation does not come from the customers.  Innovation comes from the producer, from people who are responsible for themselves and have only themselves to satisfy.”

Steve Jobs felt the same way.    When asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.”

In memory of Steve Jobs and the Steve Jobs everywhere I’ll end with the closing from his Stanford address:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Innovation Engineering Leadership Institute returns to MAINE!

We are in Freeport October 17 to 19.  It’s going to be a HUGE Crowd.  There are a few – very few seats left.  It’s within a week or so of selling out.  If you want to see the latest (It improves every month) visit www.InnovationEngineering.info

In 24 hours of various meetings I was able to observe how the Innovation Engineering Management System is being implemented.   Here are just 2 of the 12 things I wrote down that I learned this week.

Lesson #1:  To Go Faster – Document Learnings Each Week.  Recall, last week I reported that a year after attending the Innovation Engineering Leadership Institute confidence in Commercialization declined while confidence in Create and Communicate grew.    The research also found that those attendees that use the Innovation Engineering Labs web site to manage their projects (or the Pitch Packet – see updated version inside InnovationEngineeringLabs.com) had the greatest commercialization confidence.

I saw it myself this past week.  I sat in weekly project meetings that were focused on going through the boxes on – customer concept – math game plan – death threats.  These meetings were highly productive.  In one case the company has made more progress in 3 weeks then in the two years previously!!!!!

I also sat in a couple meetings where it wasn’t used.  These meetings were far less productive.

GREAT BLACK BELT SUGGESTION:  In one case the Black Belt didn’t use the platform because they were working on a marketing message test and she thought it didn’t fit – as it wasn’t going into Discovery.   I had never thought of that issue.  We talked about it and it was suggested that in the case of Marketing Message projects you should first put them into DEFINE to get ready – then DEVELOPMENT as it is not a project that has “risk or unknowns”” rather it is simply something that needs to be Developed.

Lesson #2:  The Power of RESTARTING  I had an opportunity to connect with a great company that is helping us prototype a new Innovation Engineering RESTART project format.

It’s a very innovative company that has lost it’s way.  As the owner said 3 years ago they were doing great.  Then the economy changed, their customers changed and they didn’t change fast enough.

To get them going again he had 5 people from the company work for 5 days with a couple Innovation Engineering Black Belts.  The team worked from 8 in the morning till 10 at night creating, communicating and commercializing ideas.   They ran Fail Fast Fail Cheap cycles that were as fast at 1 hour.  Ideas were created – died – more created – more died.  At the end of the week – the team presented their recommendations for how to grow the company to the CEO – who had not participated in the week.

The CEO said yes to the ideas – and I had the honor of sitting in during the weekly update meeting with their Innovation Engineering Black Belt.   I wish all of you had been there.   It was very impressive to see what these folks are doing.  The Owner and I talked about how great it was to have projects being lead and moved forward by his team – without him.

By the way – the title of this Blog Post comes from the RESTART CEO – he said his company needed the RESTART and the weekly coaching from the Black Belt to “Light a Fire Under Their Butt”

HOMEWORK:

1. Document your learnings.   Take a project you are working on – and document the customer concept, math game plan and death threats/learning plan.   Use either the online or downloadable version inside InnovationEngineeringLabs.com

2. Do a 2 Hour Restart:  Assemble your team and take a death threat and have them find a way to Fail FAST Fail CHEAP in 2 hours.  Have them learn more from others, dig for wisdom on the internet, make it real and run customer research or build a prototype.

I can’t wait for this week to continue.  We have the largest ever Innovation Engineering Leadership Institute going on – over 300 People!   As you’d expect – Maggie Slovonic and I have some wicked cool new things we’ll be testing all week!

We’ve come a long ways since that cold and snowy January week at Sugarloaf in Maine.