Spring Impact US
Testing and learning support
The world changes too quickly to craft a detailed plan and expect it to work as planned. Our support helps mission-based organizations navigate uncertainty, adapt, and progress towards sustainable, lasting impact at scale.
Three principles for success
Our Testing and Learning Support is grounded in the three principles of Lean Impact.
We developed our Testing and Learning Practice with Ann Mei Chang, author of ‘Lean Impact: How to Innovate for Radically Greater Social Good’ and Steve Nagai-Ma, one of our sector’s most experienced lean impact practitioners.
What we do
How this works in practice
We guide teams to unlock impact at scale through:
Bespoke Testing and Learning Support
We help organizations build a systematic practice of testing, running real-world experiments that turn assumptions into evidence before committing to scale.
Innovation Advisory
We work alongside your team to design and embed the internal capability needed to keep innovating, from hiring the right people to building the right tools.
Lean Impact for Scale Training
We equip funders and their grantees with practical, lean methodology, so teams can scale their impact with confidence, not guesswork.
One Goal: Developing a culture of testing
We helped One Goal, an organisation dedicated to equity in higher education, embed a systematic approach to continuous testing and learning. By executing iterative real-world tests, we developed robust scale strategies, enhancing their viability, impact, and sustainability.
Building an Innovation function for Sexual and Reproductive Freedom
We helped a leading U.S. healthcare nonprofit build an internal innovation function dedicated to sexual and reproductive freedom. By implementing innovation sprints, we enabled them to develop impactful solutions, including a practical Abortion Checklist.
Lean Institute: Helping teams scale with confidence
We partnered with two UK-based donors to help 26 mission-led organisations across South Africa, the UK, and the US strengthen their ability to scale effectively. Through the Lean Institute, we combined deep consultancy for selected beacon organisations with rigorous training for a broader cohort, and created open tools and networks to sustain learning across the ecosystem.
“It equipped us with the actual methodologies, practices, and mindsets we need to be able to innovate more quickly and adjust our work to achieve greater impact.
”
Lisa Countryman, JVS
CEO
WHY FOCUS ON TESTING AND LEARNING?
- Practice co-creating and testing with constituents
- Get real-world data using learning loops that help validate your scaling strategy, model, and solutions
- Improve on your models’ key metrics for scale including financial sustainability, priority community member impact, and stakeholder value
WHO IS TESTING AND LEARNING FOR?
- Teams developing a model or solution to create sustainable impact at the scale of societal problems
- Teams that want to inform their strategies for impact at scale based on real-world, community-centered data
- Any team focused on embedding the practices and culture of innovation
Interested in testing and learning support?
DIVE DEEPER
Learn more about how Testing and Learning could support you in reaching your impact goals.
Adapting and innovating in times of extreme uncertainty
Ann Mei Chang, author of Lean Impact, client JVS, and Spring Impact discuss how to build team culture, skillset, and capacity to navigate rapidly changing external conditions.
3 key principles to scaling up social imapact
Steve Nagai-Ma, expert Lean Consultant and Senior Advisor for Spring Impact, talks through the key principles of lean innovation and how to iteratively develop solutions capable of sustainable impact at scale.
Partner with us
Develop strategies with communities at the heart of everything
Reach out to us to learn how you could benefit from our free resources, training programmes or hands-on consultancy.
