The numbers are sobering: only 23% of Design Thinking projects and 19% of Lean Startup programs achieve measurable results in large enterprises. The problem doesn’t lie in the methods themselves.
Systemic Barriers, Not Implementation Errors
Agile methods originated in contexts with flat hierarchies, short decision paths, and high autonomy. Corporations operate under different conditions: established power structures, multi-stage approval processes, incentive systems that reward risk avoidance, and governance mechanisms that prioritize control over speed.
Transferring startup methods into this context without simultaneously changing the systemic framework conditions produces, at best, innovation as theater.
System Design Instead of Method Training
The relevant question isn’t which agile method is the right one. It’s which organizational prerequisites must be created so that iterative, experimental ways of working can actually take effect.
This requires system design — the deliberate shaping of structures, decision-making logic, and cultural patterns that enable adaptability.