The Lean Startup
About this book
Ries applies manufacturing derived thinking to new products under uncertainty. The build measure learn loop, validated learning, innovation accounting and the pivot all originate or are popularised here. The book separates vanity metrics from actionable ones, describes cohort analysis and split testing as the basis for deciding whether to persevere or pivot, and covers small batch working and the andon cord as applied to software.
Description via Product Digest.
Topics
Related concepts
- Product metricsThe four kinds of number a product produces, what each one is good for and how each one misleads, a worked case where the mean and the median disagree by the width of the whole population, and the property that separates a measure a team can act on from one that only ever rises.
- Product discovery and validating assumptionsEvery backlog item carries an assumption that someone wants it. Discovery finds the assumptions, validation buys evidence, and the choice of technique is a trade between cost and quality of learning.
- Hypotheses and the overall evaluation criterionThe hypothesis as a prediction specific enough to fail, the four parts it needs, the overall evaluation criterion set out by Kohavi, Tang and Xu in 2020, and a worked composite where the weights agreed in advance decide whether the same result reads as a win or a loss.
- How to Identify and Test Strategic AssumptionsTurn a strategy into testable claims, prioritise important evidence gaps and define success, failure and inconclusive results before a test.
- Why Product Strategies Fail and How to Run a Strategy ReviewDistinguish delivery problems, weak adoption and unsupported strategic assumptions before deciding whether to improve execution or change direction.