Podcasts about us global development lab

In 2008, entrepreneur Eric Ries wrote the seminal book ‘Lean Startup'. Many social entrepreneurs tried to use the ‘Lean Startup' principles but missed the need for impact at the core of any social change initiative. In today's episode, we talk to Ann Mei Chang, a leading expert on social innovation and author of “Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good” - the book that puts impact at the heart of Lean. Starting her career as a tech executive, Ann Mei then served as the Chief Innovation Officer at USAID and first Executive Director of its US Global Development Lab. On the show, we chat about why vanity metrics inhibit impact, how to unblock the barriers to impact in the social sector, and how changemakers can get started in applying the Lean Impact practices. Get a copy of Ann Mei's book here. -- Learn more about Spring Impact. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Ann Mei Chang is the Executive Director of Lean Impact at Lean Startup Co., a company that  encourages all organizations, especially ones seeking solutions to social problems, to think like startups. She is also the author of the new book LEAN IMPACT: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good, which takes a closer look at the idea of applying entrepreneurial thinking to social problem solving and explores examples of how these theories have played out in advocacy organizations around the world. Ann Mei came to this work through a winding path of both social and technological innovation. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in computer science, she went to work in Silicon Valley as a software engineer, and quickly climbed her way up the management ladder as she moved between tech startups. But after 20+ years in fast-paced Palo Alto, Ann Mei decided it was time to use her skills as an engineer and innovator to truly make the world a better place. More specifically, she set out to end global poverty. She began a career in government work and again climbed the management ladder quickly, becoming the Chief Innovation Officer at USAID and later the first Executive Director of the US Global Development Lab. She also served the US Department of State as Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues and, after moving from government to NGO work, Chief Innovation Officer at Mercy Corps. Today, Ann Mei combines the skills she’s developed over her two illustrious careers to bring a new approach to solving global social issues by thinking like the innovator and engineer she always will be. The post 63: Lean Impact Solutions to Social Problems With Ann Mei Chang, Lean Startup Co. [Main T4C Episode] appeared first on Time4Coffee.

As the former Chief Innovation Officer at USAID, Ann Mei served as the first Executive Director of the US Global Development Lab.  In this role, Ann Mei was responsible for identifying breakthrough innovations and transforming the way development was done in order to accelerate our pace of progress.  Her firsthand knowledge in both tech and...

Global poverty is at the root of so many things. So many things. From hunger, to the orphan crisis, to human trafficking, to drug trafficking, to homelessness, to disease and HIV/AIDS - global poverty is at the root. Reducing or even eliminating global poverty is the key to reducing and eliminating so much hurt and pain in the world. But this issue is so complicated, as most issues are. But it is one that is incredibly important. My guest today left a life of comfort and security, working in the area of technology startups, to pursue a deeper calling. My guest this week is Ann Mei Chang, the Executive Director of Lean Impact at the Lean Startup Company and author of the book Lean Startup that will be released soon! Previously, she was the Chief Innovation Officer USAID and Mercy Corps, and served the U.S. Department of State as Senior Advisor for Women in Technology in the office of Global Women’s Issues. Prior to her pivot to the public sector, Ann Mei had more than 20 years experience as a technology executive at leading companies such as, you know, Google and Apple. Heard of them? This was such an incredible and interesting conversation and I learned so much from it! SILICON VALLEY & A QUEST FOR DEEPER MEANING From early on, Ann Mei was fascinated by computers. When they first came out when she was 12-years-old, she taught herself how to program and went she went to college in California, she studied computer science. Her career for the first 23 years after college was in Silicon Valley in the tech industry working for both big and small companies, and having a lot of fun with it. At the same time, she always felt a yearning to do something more meaningful. Ann Mei donated and volunteered, but her work was very consuming at there were limits to how much she was able to do on the side. She was inspired by the idea of spending the first half of her career in Silicon Valley and the second half of her career in the public or social sector - trying to find some way to do some good in the world. It was in her early 40’s during her time at Google that she decided to make that shift. Ann Mei decided to take a leave of absence from Google and she ended up going to the State Department through a fellowship program. She calls it her “custom Masters in Public Policy.” Rather than going back to school and spending her time in the classroom, she learned by doing. AT THE ROOT OF IT ALL: GLOBAL POVERTY Ann Mei realized during her time at the State Department that Global Poverty was at the root of the majority of the issues she cared about. She firmly believes that talent is evenly distributed and opportunity is not - that many of the ills in the world arise because people do not have better options. The good news is that we have made dramatic progress in global poverty - the number of people in extreme poverty has been cut almost in half. The bad news is that where poverty remains, it is becoming even more entrenched. LOVING EVERY SECOND Michelle went back to school to focus on communications and public relations. As an extroverted and analytical individual, she excelled and fell in love with the industry. Upon graduating, she worked at a major PR firm and spent time in the nonprofit world. She began searching for what kind of business she could create where she could do what she loved, while escaping the 9-5 work life. It was during a midnight breastfeeding session that, while on Instagram, she first stumbled upon the world of business coaching. She was incredibly inspired by this concept, and pulled on all of her past experiences in deciding what the business would look like. Today, Brandmerry is a business that is all about branding and business mentoring. Michelle works with female entrepreneurs at every stage of the business, from coming up with the idea and launching, to running and scaling it successfully--and she loves every second of it. About Ann Mei Chang, Executive Director at Lean Impact: Ann Mei Chang is a leading advocate for social innovation and author of LEAN IMPACT: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good (Wiley, Oct. 30, 2018). As Chief Innovation Officer at USAID, Ann Mei served as the first Executive Director of the US Global Development Lab, engaging the best practices for innovation from Silicon Valley to accelerate the impact and scale of solutions to the world’s most intractable challenges.  She was previously the Chief Innovation Officer at Mercy Corps and served the US Department of State as Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary's Office of Global Women’s Issues. Prior to her pivot to the public and social sector, Ann Mei was a seasoned technology executive, with more than 20 years’ experience at such leading companies as Google, Apple, and Intuit, as well as at a range of startups. As Senior Engineering Director at Google, she led worldwide engineering for mobile applications and services, delivering 20x growth to $1 billion in annual revenues in just three years. Ann Mei currently serves on the boards of BRAC USA and IREX, is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, is a member of the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Fellows’ class of 2011, and was recognized as one of the “Women In the World: 125 Women of Impact” by Newsweek/The Daily Beast in 2013. Ann Mei is a keynote speaker who has been featured at TEDx MidAtlantic, SxSW, Social Good Summit, SOCAP, and Lean Startup Week, as well as numerous nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies. CONNECT WITH ANN MEI Lean Impact: https://leanstartup.co/social-good/ Lean Impact Book: https://www.annmei.com/ https://amzn.to/2qjUjAw Facebook: Lean Startup Co. Contact: Lean Startup Co. Linkedin: Lean Startup Co. Twitter: @leanstartup Special thanks to Cultivate What Matters for sponsoring this week’s Business with Purpose podcast. Visit http://www.stillbeingmolly.com/cultivate to shop! Join my Purchase with Purpose Facebook group and let’s continue the conversation! https://www.facebook.com/groups/purchasewithpurpose/ Subscribe to the Business with Purpose podcast (and I’d love it if you left a review** on iTunes!) Subscribe on iTunes** Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on Radio Public Subscribe via Podcast RSS Feed **Want to know how to leave a review of the Business with Purpose Podcast on iTunes from your iPhone or iPad? Launch Apple’s Podcast app. Tap the Search tab. Enter “Business with Purpose“ Tap the blue Search key at the bottom right. Tap the Blue album art for the podcast. Tap the Reviews tab. Tap Write a Review at the bottom. Enter your iTunes password to login. Tap the Stars to leave a rating. Enter title text and content to leave a review. Tap Send.  

Mark Peterson, ex-Division Chief, Data and Analytics at US Global Development Lab, USAID, founded a team to create new ways to generate, share, and analyze data to more effectively meet the challenges of poverty, hunger, and disease. He brings amazing knowledge and experience of research as a scientist and a practitioner. Currently, he is researching ways to further development at Orange Silicon Valley. In this talk, he shares: How cell phone data can provide clues about the spread of diseases How private support, not only in dollars, but also in data, can help us solve some big problems How information asymmetry can create inequity How geo data can help the world food programs as well as fight credit card fraud. These were some great insights into the partnerships of for-profit companies and international development. Great conversation for idea generation too!

International development actors are taking cues from Silicon Valley’s boom to improve their ability to better serve the world’s most disadvantaged, transforming development in the 21st century. Technology, science and innovation are key to discovering new solutions to long-standing problems. Cutting-edge data techniques can help us measure the impact of interventions, continually improving services and scaling proven solutions to reach hundreds of millions of people. Leading technology firms are also major philanthropists, providing both financial resources and technical expertise to support development innovations. By partnering together, alongside other non-traditional stakeholders, we can achieve what human progress has only now made possible — the end of extreme poverty by 2030. How can development interventions become more adaptive and transparent? In what ways could shifting the culture of the way development organizations do business make them more responsive to beneficiary needs? How can we include local innovators and their contextual knowledge? Join us on for a discussion with Ann Mei Chang, Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of the Global Development Lab, a new entity within USAID at the forefront of these breakthrough solutions, and Jacquelline Fuller, the Director of Google.org, which provides over $100 million yearly to support innovators using technology for humanity. Speakers Ann Mei Chang is the Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of the US Global Development Lab at USAID and Jacquelline Fuller is the Director of Google.org. The conversation is moderated by Scott Wu, Partner and Head of Investments, Omidyar Network. For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1649

There is no shortage of talk about innovation in the aid and development space - but how much of this talk has actually moved beyond small scale piloting programs into standard operations for funders and implementors? My unscientific read from the field continues to say "not much," especially in the case of large-scale implementors. Like any established system or process, fundamentally shifting the way business is done takes both time and unwavering leadership. The US Global Development Lab at USAID seeks to be a mechanism for taking ideas to change-making action. As explained by Alexis Bonnell, my guest on the 124th Terms of Reference Podcast, the Lab seeks to be a catalyst for nothing less than "the transformation of the development enterprise by opening development to people everywhere with good ideas, promoting new and deepening existing partnerships, bringing data and evidence to bear, and harnessing scientific and technological advances." Alexis is the Division Chief in Applied Innovation and Acceleration for The Lab. As you've come to expect from TOR guests, she is definitely someone to listen to: she has developed and delivered over a billion dollars of humanitarian and development programming in over 25 conflict, post-conflict, and emergency countries, in almost every sector from education to stabilization, for more than 30 International Bi-lateral donors, 10 UN agencies, the military, and the private sector.