The Lean Startup in A Nutshell

 

Are startups smaller versions of large companies? No.

Large companies have tools to manage strategy, operations, organizational theory, and so on. Startups don’t. They need a different set of tools.

According to the book, a startup is a faith-based organization. You believe in your idea. But there are no facts. So, what is a startup to do?

Part 1: Go outside the building and meet with customers. Get some feedback. Gather facts. (The book calls this the Customer Development Process).

Part 2: Have something to show customers, no matter how simple the version. Products are built incrementally. Take an incremented version of the product, improving it in stages. (The book calls this Agile Engineering).

Part 3: What is the startup taking outside the building? What should they be testing?

They need information and to make decisions about- Who are the customers? How does the startup create and sustain demand so as to continue to get business? What distribution channel to utilize? Costs, resources. This third part is summarized as Business Model Design. Components that turn an idea or technology into a company.

Therefore, the lean startup is made up of 3 pieces:

1.       Customer development

2.       Agile Engineering; and

3.       Business Model Design.

For more insights, please check out this episode of Outside In the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6iiXfwtGPea4LkqWZjyto7?si=F-tdvOm2RsGBxDwbs36Hhw

Outside In is the Customer-centric approach. From the Book by Harley Manning, Josh Bernoff, and Kerry Bodine: Outside In The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business.