The FIRETM Process
Our trademark FIRE™ Process (Fast, Iterative, Responsive Experiments) combines the best parts of modern agile business methods into an effective and repeatable process to quickly and efficiently forge ideas into results.
FIRE™ is an acronym for our trademark process that stands for Fast, Iterative, Responsive Experiments, and it combines the best parts of modern agile business methods into an effective and repeatable process that focuses on the things that really matter.
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Best of all, it gets results fast.​
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FAST: Shorten the gap between idea and results
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Instead of measuring progress in months, quarters, or years, recalibrate your measurement to hours, days, and weeks. No complex project management meetings, and no PERT or Gantt charts required.
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ITERATIVE: Process of continuous improvement
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Ensure that your idea is continually developing, consistent with real market feedback, and designed for users’ changing needs.
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RESPONSIVE: Data-driven decisions
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Even the best strategies need to be responsive to today’s dynamic competitive landscape. Use a data-driven approach to test and learn.
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EXPERIMENTS: Maximize learning
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Instead of crossing your fingers that your big up-front investment doesn’t go up in smoke (or worse, throwing good money after bad in a vain attempt to rescue a doomed project), you’ll be able to quickly cut your losses on the experiments that don’t work, and double-down on the experiments that do.
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The underlying principles of the FIRE™ process
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Manufacturers use Lean production methods and Six Sigma programs to improve quality and reduce costs. Software developers use Agile and Scrum programs to reduce waste and improve client responsiveness. Silicon Valley startups use Lean Startup and programs like Startup Weekend to build and test ideas quickly. Google Ventures uses their own Sprint process to vet concepts for the companies they invest in. Design Thinking has revolutionized everything from app design to consumer goods to industrial products.
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None of those methods alone are a perfect fit for financial services companies operating in a highly regulated environment. That’s why we created the FIRE™ process:
We leverage the FIRE™ Process in our corporate and executive growth programs from the Alloy Labs Institute, which is the industry leader in helping financial institutions build and leverage their innovative capacity to create competitive advantage and drive growth.
We have taught these principles in boardrooms and classrooms around the world, including at leading graduate schools of banking. Unleash exponential growth potential, build internal innovation capacity to "unbreak the bank", and quickly forge ideas into results.
You can also learn and apply some of our industry-leading tools and frameworks and learn best practices from peers on operationalizing innovation in our open (co)Lab sessions. Both are open to non-Alloy Labs member financial institutions.