Exactly a year ago, a dozen entrepreneurs showed up for the inaugural LeanCoffeeTO, a Meetup built on the pillars of community, the Lean Startup ideology and of course, good coffee.  A year later, the LeanCoffeeTO community is now 500 entrepreneurs strong and growing both in size and in reputation. But to continue the momentum and impact of LCTO, the Organizers decided the best way to “celebrate” our one year anniversary would be to hold a Meetup every morning with the objective of addressing what the state of Lean is in Toronto. Enter Lean Week.

The vision for Lean Week was that it would allow us to reflect on what we’ve done right (and wrong) and more importantly, how this community can evolve to continue providing value for entrepreneurs. To facilitate this goal, each host company committed to crafting a post on what was learned from that day’s session, to act as a framework for the next morning to start from, rather than 5 straight days of the same conversation. That way, come Friday, this community has a clear plan and focus for the next 52 week cycle.

Here’s what we learned today:

Why has LeanCoffeeTO been successful to date?

• This is the one of the few groups in our city where someone isn’t afraid to call bullshit and provide constructive criticism.
• The early start time and Lean branding/focus has organically curated the community.
• The decentralized nature of the group (each week there are different hosts), helps maintain LCTO as a community-orientated group, rather than one being organized for different motives.
• Case studies have been few in number but extremely helpful.
• When hosts do some homework and provide attendees information in advance, more people tend to contribute.
• The community’s growth and willingness to be inclusive has created value. Not asking people to prove that they are practicing lean is good.
• Valuable that we are not learning from experts but from each other. Making this possible is that there are no companies that have made it enough that we feel like we’re on different levels.

What are the Trends that we’re seeing in the community?

• There are not a lot of companies in the city who we would refer to as “Lean Startups”, but that’s not a knock since a year ago there were virtually none.
• Questioning ourselves and whether there are “Lean Startups” in Toronto is in itself, a positive product of our evolution. That we could assess the State of Lean is a sign of progress.
• We need more accountability as entrepreneurs and as a community if we want to continue to grow. Currently, there is one “splinter group” run by Max Cameron called doosh.it.
• But in general we need to get over the fact that we might look bad in front of each other because we are all in the same boat. To overcome that, one needs context and more groups like doosh.it are the potential forum for that.
• Mentoring is happening both in and outside the community.

 What recommendations and questions can we provide for Days 2-5?

• It had ballooned significantly (verifying that it is tapping a need). Should we run some experiments as to how the lean experiment should run?
• It is very difficult to build up that context in an hour session with people you aren’t entirely comfortable with. Case studies are great but we can’t expect full context in such a short time so it might be hard to give appropriate feedback.
• How much are we going to revisit the initial concept now that there is a book? How much are we going to refocus on those topics?
• How do we approach the challenge of talking frankly about where you are at and saying real numbers?
• Do we need to set up formalization to get people to meet up in smaller groups?
• Recommendation: Let’s practice experiments on topics we want or are interested in. The rest of the week could address what those experiments might be.  So, for example, someone could champion leading a problem/solution splinter group and see if there is traction/value.