Beyond Buzzwords: An Introduction to The Lean Startup
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Beyond Buzzwords: An Introduction to The Lean Startup
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Transcript of Beyond Buzzwords: An Introduction to The Lean Startup
Beyond Buzzwords:An Introduction to The Lean Startup
Paul Parent@paulp
This is a book endorsed by some real heroes of entrepreneurship.
Geoffrey Moore • Tim O’ReillyTim Brown • Dan HeathRandy Komisar • Steve BlankRoy Bahat • Noam WassermanSheryl Sandberg • Marc Andreessen
“ Popularity has a price: people sometimes distort ideas, and therefore fail to reap their benefits.
– Carol Dweck
Today’s Talk• Context for The Lean Startup
• What is a “startup”?
• Customer Focus
• Minimum Viable Product
• Measure Progress
• Pivot or Persevere
What to expect:
Map a framework…
Internalize a few big ideas…
Move forward,empowered
Context
(just a little)
Where did The Lean Startup
come from?
Tested 2004
Refined 2008
Published 2011
Well-established ideas New domain
… and some new ideas
What is a startup?
“ A startup is an organization formed to search for a sustainable business model.
– Steve Blank
“ A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.
– Eric Ries
People creating something new under uncertain conditions in search of a sustainable business.
Nobody knows.
So, we search.
This is big!It changes what we work on,who we hire, andhow much capital we raise.
We optimize for more searching.
What are we looking for?
Product / Market Fit
“ Product / market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.
– Marc Andreessen
identify a real problem
create a solution for customers
in a market big enough to support its development and delivery
1
Product / Market Fit
2
3
* Some people say that if 1 and 2 are in place, you have problem / solution fit.
Quick tests at low costs lengthen the company’s runway, allowing more opportunities to achieve product / market fit.
Sales
Time
We’ve learned two big ideas…• a “startup” is a search
• seek product / market fit
Focus onCustomers
Why do startups fail?
“ Life’s too short to build something nobody wants.
– Ash Maurya
genchi genbutsu
Nobody knows,but we can find out.
Do customers recognize they have the problem we want to solve?
If there were a solution, would they buy it?
Would they buy it from us?
Can we build a solution for that problem?
1
Key Questions
2
3
4
*
We’ve learned three big ideas!• a “startup” is a search
• seek product / market fit
• focus on the customer
What do we build?
What if you knew you wouldn’t get it right
on the first try?
move faster spend less learn more
*Minimum Viable Product
Sales
Time
Aimhere…
…nothere
We don’t really know what our customers want.
So, we make an assumption and test it.
Test central assumption
Learn from real customers
Keep the team moving fast*
1
Objectives for the MVP
2
3
* Going slow is expensive and increases risk
“ Not building to build, building to learn.
– David Bland
* Paraphrased
Be brave, be explicit. “We assume…”
Test it!Build the simplest thing that will test the riskiest, most-central assumption.
* An assumption we can test is upgraded to a hypothesis.
Assumption MVP
Zappos People will buy shoes over the internet.
Bought shoes retail as orders came in
Dropbox People will try a new service to help them sync files between computers.
Youtube video
Airbed & Breakfast
People will stay on a stranger’s air mattress when hotels are full.
Listed founders’ apartment on simple website
“ If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
– Reid Hoffman
We’ve learned four big ideas!• a “startup” is a search
• seek product / market fit
• focus on the customer
• build a minimum viable product
Measure Progress
Why we measure:Seek evidence that a sustainable business can be built around a startup’s products or services.
What do we measure?
Keep metrics focused on customers
Concentrate on few, important metrics
Anchor metrics in qualitative understanding
1
Principles
2
3
X per Y • Transactions per User • Revenue per Transaction
% • Conversion Rate • Retention Rate
Good Metrics are…
actionable, accessible, and auditable
Beware!• Vanity metrics flatter, but mislead us
• Insight and judgment are still required
*MeasureLearn*
Build
We’ve learned five big ideas!• a “startup” is a search
• seek product / market fit
• focus on the customer
• build a minimum viable product
• measure results
Pivot or Persevere
*A pivot is a major change in strategy after learning that the team was wrong about one of its central assumptions.
Not just any big change
[show basketball player]
“ Love the problem, not your solution.
– Ash Maurya
We’ve learned six big ideas!• a “startup” is a search
• seek product / market fit
• focus on the customer
• build a minimum viable product
• measure results
• pivot or persevere
Thank You!Acknowledgments PHX Startup Week team • Sean Tierney • Cameron Donnell • Jennifer Boonlorn Erin McInerney • Jonas Zygas • Gabriel Ramirez • Tim Hoiland • David TischlerColby Gergen • Caleb Barclay • Jonathan Cottrell • Vikram Ramakrishnan Kelly Parent
Download slides bit.ly/lean-talk
Contact me [email protected] • @paulp
