Lean-Startup and Customer Development
"We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want."
— Eric Reis, The Lean Startup
I have been mentoring startups for decades and was an early proponent of lean and agile methods. I have delivered countless seminars on this subject and how it relates to Design Thinking.
A startup is not a small version of a big company. A startup can be you alone in your garage or can be on 50th floor of a downtown office tower as a skunkworks project at a Fortune 500 company.
A Startup is any entity in search of a sustainable business model. You’re trying to decide if you’ve found a problem worth solving (large enough market) and a solution that works (product-market fit).
Once you’ve achieved Product-Market fit, you start scaling and aren’t strictly a startup any longer.
What Is Lean Startup?
Simply stated, it’s a method for spawning a new business or product with minimal waste, time and spending between conception and the decision to scale or stop. The emphasis is heavily on hypothesis testing, multiple incremental iterations of product releases and validated learning to determine if a certain business model will be viable. A focus on incremental learning helps reduce overall risk and avoid large capital raises without market validation.
Unlike the traditional startup, in the Lean enterprise you put sales before design and production. How do you know what to design or produce, if you’ve never talked to a customer?!
Product releases occur often and incrementally. Early products should represent the minimum viable product that can solve at least part of the problem the startup seeks to address, so that costs are minimized and learning is maximized. Knowledge is the currency in a Lean Startup..
How we do it.
- Lean principles can be applied in any sized organization looking to achieve product-market fit. that has a project involving
- Brad can help you re-organize for growth, or make sure you select the ideal new-hire candidate. A combination of psychological tests along accompanies a bespoke personal assessment. Together those makes sure you get the right people – in the right seats – on the bus.
Hire Brad for Lean Startup and Customer Development
- Lean Startup Workshops and Seminars
- Leading a lean startup project
- Advising a lean startup or agile project