“Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
The journey that led us to launching RocketSled started in 2013 at Slalom, a technology and business consulting firm, where we began experimenting with a new type of offering centered on accelerating the creation of digital products. Our collective experience in traditional software development at both start-ups and enterprises had taught us that there was a lot of waste in the process of getting digital products to market.
In some cases, the product was engineered well but the experience failed to live up to user's expectations. In other cases, the product idea and design were stellar, but the technology failed to deliver a smooth and stable experience. In both cases, a lot of money and time had been spent before anyone knew the product was a failure. We knew there must be a better way.
Building off of Lean Startup and the Agile Manifesto, we explored a new approach that involved starting smaller, learning faster, and proving the value of the product with consumers every step of the way. We tested and validated our methodology with progressive clients like Chicago-based startup PointDrive before forming a new practice around it called Products & Innovation. As a niche group within Slalom, we brought strategists, designers and engineers together as "special ops" product teams to help clients rapidly invent, model and launch new digital products.
After two years of constant learning and refining, we realized that our passion for working with entrepreneurs extended beyond just accelerating the path to production. As part of Ringleader Ventures, RocketSled partners with entrepreneurs to invent, build and operate new products. Just as the name RocketSled implies, working with us will be a fast and fun ride (with none of the side effects of experiencing 46.2 G's of force)!
Ready to take off? We want to hear from you.