Mini-bio
Hi, I’m Tristan Kromer and I help product teams go fast.
As an innovation coach, I work with innovation teams to run at least one experiment/research per week to improve their product and business model.
To do this, my team and I apply lean principles and break down big problems in small steps.
For early stage startups, I volunteer my time with office hours.
For larger companies and governments, my team at Kromatic and I coach teams on an ongoing basis and help design Innovation Ecosystems.
(Here comes the self-promotional part…)
Professional Life
I’ve helped a wide range of organizations create and grow their innovation programs, from nonprofits (ChildFund, Cancer Research UK, Kiva) to government agencies (the U.S. and the U.K.) to some of the biggest brands on the planet (Unilever, Target, Salesforce, Walmart, LinkedIn).
I’ve worked with more than 30 technology accelerator programs, including government-funded initiatives such as Innovation Norway, Vinnova (Sweden), Enterprise Ireland, NEST’up (Belgium), StartSmart (Estonia), and the Innovation Partnership Program (Vietnam-Finland). I also designed lean startup programs such as the Build or Die Bootcamp for TechBA (Mexico) and the Boom Reactor (Belgium) in addition to being part of Luxr, whose Core Curriculum has been used by 13 accelerators internationally, including Singularity University, 500 Startups, & The United States Innovation Fellows.
I regularly speak, appear on panels, and give workshops internationally with organizations such as the Stanford Center for Entrepreneurial Studies & D-school, Global Product Management Talks, Lean Startup Machine, General Electric (GE), and more.
Personal Stuff
I am originally from New York City, have lived in Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Vietnam, and currently reside in San Francisco, USA.
At TristanKromer.com, I keep a brief history of side projects and some personal goals like space travel, reforming our educational system, and fixing the democratic process for the 21st century.
I really enjoy working with great people and seeing progress over the long haul. That’s why I coach team instead of doing straight up consulting. (Yes, they are different.)
I spent 10 years in the music industry, much of it playing music, before moving to IT security for 5 years and eventually to the innovation sector itself.
Why GrasshopperHerder?
This is my personal blog only. Most of my professional writing has moved to Kromatic.com/blog. I write this blog to help organize and share my thoughts.
The title of this blog does not mean that I am some sort of zen expert at jumping the lean shark with a pivot.
Grasshopper Herder refers to my morning routine when I lived in Nashville, TN.
I woke up every morning and collected all the grasshoppers that crawled in under my door (apparently they liked the cool air) and put them back outside. There was nothing mystical about it although I was doing quite a bit of Kung Fu and Tai Chi at the time.
So if you came here looking for the mythical “expert” to answer to all your questions, you may be disappointed.
I can only promise you more questions and my own attempts to find some answers.
Cheers,
Tristan Kromer