The Lean Startup

The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.

We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.

Reading is good, action is better.

A startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.

The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built? This places us in an unusual historical moment: our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations.

Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop is at the core of the Lean Startup model.

Innovation is a bottoms-up, decentralized, and unpredictable thing, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be managed.

The lesson of the MVP is that any additional work beyond what was required to start learning is waste, no matter how important it might have seemed at the time.

if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.

When blame inevitably arises, the most senior people in the room should repeat this mantra: if a mistake happens, shame on us for making it so easy to make that mistake.

This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.

Customers don’t care how much time something takes to build. They care only if it serves their needs.

Metcalfe’s law: the value of a network as a whole is proportional to the square of the number of participants. In other words, the more people in the network, the more valuable the network.

In the Lean Startup model, an experiment is more than just a theoretical inquiry; it is also a first product.

Leadership requires creating conditions that enable employees to do the kinds of experimentation that entrepreneurship requires.

You cannot be sure you really understand any part of any business problem unless you go and see for yourself firsthand. It is unacceptable to take anything for granted or to rely on the reports of others.

The point is not to find the average customer but to find early adopters: the customers who feel the need for the product most acutely. Those customers tend to be more forgiving of mistakes and are especially eager to give feedback.

The ability to learn faster from customers is the essential competitive advantage that startups must possess.

Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.

Entrepreneurs are everywhere. You don’t have to work in a garage to be in a startup. The concept of entrepreneurship includes anyone who works within my definition of a startup: a human institution designed to create new products and services under conditions of extreme uncertainty. That means entrepreneurs are everywhere and the Lean Startup approach can work in any size company, even a very large enterprise, in any sector or industry. 2. Entrepreneurship is management. A startup is an institution, not just a product, and so it requires a new kind of management specifically geared to its context of extreme uncertainty. In fact, as I will argue later, I believe “entrepreneur” should be considered a job title in all modern companies that depend on innovation for their future growth. 3. Validated learning. Startups exist not just to make stuff, make money, or even serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business. This learning can be validated scientifically by running frequent experiments that allow entrepreneurs to test each element of their vision. 4. Build-Measure-Learn. The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop. 5. Innovation accounting. To improve entrepreneurial outcomes and hold innovators accountable, we need to focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to set up milestones, and how to prioritize work. This requires a new kind of accounting designed for startups—and the people who hold them accountable.

What if we found ourselves building something that nobody wanted? In that case what did it matter if we did it on time and on budget?

If we do not know who the customer is, we do not know what quality is.

entrepreneurship should be considered a viable career path for innovators inside large organizations.

Ask most entrepreneurs who have decided to pivot and they will tell you that they wish they had made the decision sooner.

Failure is a prerequisite to learning.

All innovation begins with vision. It’s what happens next that is critical.

After more than ten years as an entrepreneur, I came to reject that line of thinking. I have learned from both my own successes and failures and those of many others that it’s the boring stuff that matters the most. Startup success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Startup success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.

Anything those customers experience from their interaction with a company should be considered part of that company’s product.

there is no bigger destroyer of creative potential than the misguided decision to persevere.

It is insufficient to exhort workers to try harder. Our current problems are caused by trying too hard—at the wrong things.