Skip to main content

Stuck on a challenge that seems too big to solve? Overwhelmed by uncertainty? Need to move faster to stay ahead?

It’s time to 

What We Do

We are a rapid innovation firm and method based in Silicon Valley, practiced around the world. We help leaders, organizations and communities break their big goals into smaller, more actionable pieces, so they can take action and get results. Fast. We do this through our SMALLIFY Labs.

SMALLIFY Lab for

Teams

Structured, project-based experiences to accelerate implementation of products, services, processes, policies, or strategies (from concept to pilot in 90 minutes to 90 days).

SMALLIFY Lab for

Leaders

Results-focused professional development and team-building programs based on SMALLIFY tools (human-centered design, rapid innovation, futures thinking, systems thinking, collaborative problem solving, trust-building, conflict and change management, and innovation leadership).

SMALLIFY Lab for

Organizations

Dedicated support and delivery of SMALLIFY Labs and training programs to accelerate an organization’s objectives and key results and build sustainable capacity in SMALLIFY tools across a workforce or leadership network.

Our Tools

SMALLIFY is built around a set of practical problem solving and rapid innovation tools. Like “Lego” pieces, SMALLIFY tools are modular and can be tapped at any time, for any duration, in situational leadership.

SMALLIFY

How to break big goals and challenges into smaller, more actionable pieces, and make progress faster through small bets and small wins.

THINK BIG

How to set clear and measurable “North Star” goals to address customer or societal needs and identify emergent opportunities in markets or systems.

FEAR LESS

How to adopt a growth or entrepreneurial mindset, open to experimentation, iteration and change.

OPEN UP

How to develop insights on customer needs and opportunities and design solutions to address those needs (human-centered design).

SAY YES

How to set up conditions for innovation and generate ideas using futures thinking, improv and other techniques for creative collaboration to conceive of new possible solutions.

MAKE STUFF

How to bring ideas to life quickly and affordably through rapid prototyping for fast customer and stakeholder feedback.

BET SMALL

How to use small bets (rapid experiments, evaluation and iteration) based on affordable risk to move to action and accelerate learning.

GO BIG

How to use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to generate successive “small wins” to build momentum, validate solutions and accelerate implementation and scale.

Our Work

January 31, 2021

Societal Impact

January 31, 2021

Government

January 31, 2021

Business

January 31, 2021

Executive Education

January 31, 2021

Startups

January 31, 2021

Events

Our Team

Dave Viotti

Founder & CEO

Innovation whisperer, boundary crosser, explorer, inventor, and father. Believes in the power of breaking big challenges down into smaller pieces and taking action to achieve results quickly through small bets and small wins.

Guiding Star: Give people tools they need to create positive futures for ALL.

Hidden Talent: “I’m an improvisational comedian and chef (I feel lucky when the jokes get more laughs than my culinary creations!)”

Here’s a short bio suitable for cutting and pasting:

Dave Viotti is the founder and CEO of SMALLIFY, a global innovation capacity-building organization based in Silicon Valley and practiced around the world. Dave has delivered SMALLIFY Labs and workshops to 30,000 leaders in over 1,000 organizations around the world in the corporate, start-up, government, and non-profit sectors. Dave serves on the faculty of the Executive Leadership Program at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He was on the founding teams for Fuse Corps, the Civic Accelerator at Points of Light, the Collaborative Solutions Lab with the federal government at the Presidio Institute, and the Westly Prize for innovation in California. Career highlights include: U.S. Chief Learning Officer and Corporate Counsel at Sun Microsytems, intellectual property lawyer at Faegre & Benson, Assistant Producer of CNN’s Burden of Proof, Executive Director of the Junior Statesmen Foundation, and Henry Luce Scholar at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong. Dave received undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in International Relations from Oxford University where he was an Allbritton Scholar. Dave is a long-time practitioner of improv comedy and a devoted chowhound and chef. Dave’s basecamp is Menlo Park, California, though he travels and works around the world (in person or remotely) to support clients and partners who are building positive futures for ALL.

Payton Shubrick

Change agent. Expert at helping organizations adopt new technologies. Passionate about creating sustainable cultures and practices for diversity, belonging, equity, and inclusion in systems, organizations, and teams.

Career Highlight: Founder, R&D Lab, Mass Mutual

Guiding Star: Create inclusive communities where everyone genuinely belongs.

Hidden Talent: “I can make a really good pound cake from scratch.”

Megan Christenson

Maestro of early-stage ventures. Expert in customer discovery. Accelerator of for-profit and social enterprises for growth and large-scale, sustainable impact.

Career Highlight: Founder, The Lean Jane Co.

Guiding Star: Empower purpose-driven problem solvers to move from idea to solution confidently.

Hidden talent: “I can name all 10 styles of pizza you'll find in Chicago.”

Chris Block

Global expert in systems change and network leadership. Curator of collaborative solutions. Passionate about helping leaders think expansively about the future and their power to create it.

Career Highlight: CEO, American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley

Guiding Star: A world where people collaboratively address complexity.

Hidden Talent: “I know what people want before they ask for it.”

Alice Chen

Oracle of individual and team dynamics, executive coach, leadership development strategist, designer, facilitator, holistic wellness counselor, yoga teacher, world traveler.

Career Highlight: Founder, Wayfinding Wisdom

Guiding Star: “I help individuals and organizations develop the confidence and skills they need to find their way through uncharted waters in their work and lives.”

Hidden Talent: “I can spontaneously burst into broadway ballads.”

Aubrey Yee

Futurist, systems thinker, innovator, poet, mother and friend to many. Passionate advocate for positive social transformation. Most at home when imagining new ways of being and living in the world that revel in the sacredness of all life.

Career Highlight: Network Weaver, The Hawaii Leadership Forum (Omdiyar Fellows)

My Guiding Star: A world where everyone feels empowered and capable of imagining and then creating beautiful futures.

My Hidden Talent: “I can find the good in even the worst of situations.”

Kerrie Urosevich

Network builder and societal change agent. Global expert in cross-sector, collective impact networks, conflict resolution and systems design. Believes in the power of transformation through collaboration, conflict, resilience, and rapid innovation.

Career Highlight: Founder, Early Childhood Action Strategies Network + Ceeds of Peace

Guiding Star: Creating peaceful and just communities.

Hidden Talent: “I’m great at unclogging things -- from drains to relationships to complex systems”