Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas launched their 2018 season showcasing an intimate afternoon spent with entrepreneurial, philanthropic, content creator Brandon Stanton. He’s the founder of the hugely successful Humans of New York (HONY) documentary project.

Characteristic to Stanton’s story is that like many entrepreneurs before him, his approach and journey epitomizes the successful application of Agile methods. Useful particularly when experiencing frustration with circumstances and possessing a desire to change an outcome or occupy ‘difference’ and or ‘gaps’ in potential markets. As Stanton spoke I noted the following applicable Agile lessons:

  • Test, iterate, learn… repeat or Don’t wait for ‘Perfect’-Despite Stanton's shortcomings as a photographer, he didn’t wait for the idea of HONY to come to him before he established his path.
  • Once ideated, validate and crowd-fund support where and however you’re able to-Stanton admits he made a series of embarrassing phone calls to former hedge fund employees alerting them to his auctioning of less than average original photographic works.
  • Pivot, pivot, pivot.-Stanton turned his energies toward growing an audience via social media. A new strategy to post one single photo a day would represent discipline and gradually grow interest for his project.
  • Find your point of difference and move toward it- Stanton realized the success of HONY and the appeal that his type of storytelling offered was one that focused on the empathic connection, his audience could feel with another’s shared story.
  • Pivot around your point of difference-The success internationally and concurrently through his body of work beyond the HONY photo vignettes for Stanton was summed up by his sharing of some photos including his travels to Pakistan.
  • Seek brand-aligned partnerships only-Stanton in closing demonstrated his video content series and it’s no surprise the launch partner was Facebook.

Read the full article about agile methods in entrepreneurship by Ruby Wow at Medium.