The Lean Startup-Ries

The Lean Startup

Metadata

Highlights

A startup’s job is to (1) rigorously measure where it is right now, confronting the hard truths that assessment reveals, and then (2) devise experiments to learn how to move the real numbers closer to the ideal reflected in the business plan. — location: 1472

One of the most dangerous outcomes for a startup is to bumble along in the land of the living dead. — location: 1475

employee-to-employee viral adoption rather than a traditional sales process, — location: 1488

are you making your product better? They always say yes. Then I ask: how do you know? — location: 1490

Innovation accounting — location: 1498

use a minimum viable product to establish real data on where the company is right now. — location: 1516

MVP allows a startup to fill in real baseline data in its growth model—conversion rates, sign-up and trial rates, customer lifetime value, — location: 1531

Once the baseline has been established, the startup can work toward the second learning milestone: tuning the engine. — location: 1540

were critical to our engine of growth: customer registration, the download of our application, trial, repeat usage, and purchase. — location: 1564

These investigations produce new ideas—new hypotheses—to be tested, leading to a possible pivot. Each pivot unlocks new opportunities for further experimentation, — location: 1616

establish the baseline, tune the engine, and make a decision to pivot or persevere. — location: 1617

They had customers but did not know them very well. They were deluged with feature requests from customers, the internal sales team, and the business leadership. — location: 1638

Even worse, the team had no clear sense of whether any of the changes they were making mattered to customers. — location: 1640

Grockit switched to cohort-based metrics, and instead of looking for cause-and-effect relationships after the fact, Grockit would launch each new feature as a true split-test experiment. — location: 1756

For a report to be considered actionable, it must demonstrate clear cause and effect. — location: 1841

“Metrics are people, too.” — location: 1895

pivot and when to persevere. — location: 1913

product, strategy, and engine of growth. — location: 1919

stuck in the land of the living dead. — location: 1981

have a regular “pivot or persevere” meeting. In my experience, less than a few weeks between meetings is too often and more than a few months is too infrequent. However, each startup needs to find its own pace. — location: 2147

much enterprise software is sold (with extensive customization) by consulting and professional services firms. — location: 2301

value in a startup is not the creation of stuff, but rather validated learning about how to build a sustainable business. — location: 2350

What products do customers really want? How will our business grow? Who is our customer? Which customers should we listen to and which should we ignore? — location: 2351

Today’s companies must learn to master a management portfolio of sustainable and disruptive innovation. — location: 2371

Sustainable growth is characterized by one simple rule: New customers come from the actions of past customers. — location: 2688

Be tolerant of all mistakes the first time. Never allow the same mistake to be made twice. — location: 3070