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The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation…
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The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses (original 2011; edition 2011)

by Eric Ries (Autore)

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2,126287,476 (3.86)1
I really like the scientific theory behind the Lean Startup, but somehow the book failed to interest me cover to cover.

Again, the typical American style (overly simplifying things, endless repetition, etc...) puts me off, as in most non-fiction books. Also, the examples used to underscore certain points didn't really serve that purpose.

Still, I got some very valuable lessons from this book and will certainly change the way I'm running my business for the better.

I would say it's recommended reading, but don't expect to be blown away. ( )
  bbbart | Dec 27, 2020 |
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Idea: four stars
Implementation: two stars
This book contains some interesting ideas about the development of products and companies. It provoked numerous thoughts and questions about where I want to go with my own company, so it was definitely useful. However, I feel that the things described in the book can be summarized in a few pages -- as many have said before me. Ries' tone gets repetitive and a bit preachy after a few chapters. The case studies do add something to the book, but since they only cover a very specific kind of startup they are not of interest to all readers. ( )
  jd7h | Feb 18, 2024 |
This one was difficult to grasp onto. Or I am not his audience or not in a place to receive it. The author might have had important points, but it was difficult to find them. I wish he used more concrete structure and less buzz words. I think it's something about modeling your product as you go live? Frequent examples of success in reference to "the Lean Startup model" but not many references to what the method actually is. So at about 50% I stopped reading. ( )
  mimo | Dec 18, 2023 |
Very good foundational book in terms of the concepts it is promoting, "Lean way". I felt the writing was very okay-ish. Nevertheless, this books has laid me seeds for the next set of my readings. In general, I would recommend this to anyone trying to improve and grow their business. ( )
  Santhosh_Guru | Oct 19, 2023 |
This is a book I have been meaning to read for years and never got around to. It contains lots of useful advice and good case studies explaining experiences of what has and hasn't work. The book is oriented towards software development startups (and software development innovation in general in any sized organisation) and could have easily been condensed into a third its size.

Key takeaways:
- Build, Measure, Learn (go through this loop as fast as you can)
- Use validated learning and measure using actionable metrics, not vanity metrics. Use cohort analysis.
- Do split testing to measure what matters to customers
- Build a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), gain quick feedback from customers, learn quickly and evolve as required
- Use 5 whys for root cause analysis and identifying what to target in terms of improvements ( )
  gianouts | Jul 5, 2023 |
The Lean Startup is one of those books I wish I would have read earlier. Book's author talks about how he adapted LEAN methodology used in manufacturing to startups ecosystem. It is all about

Author is stating that it all lies in Build -> Measure -> Learn loop

Build - Most Viable Product (MVP) is definitely my favorite concept of all the LEAN methodology. It is so simple, yet so many businesses haven't discovered it. It is very closely related to Validated learning - eliminate everything that is not absolutely necessary to find out what customers want.
Measure - quit using vanity metrics, collect only data which helps make decisions and shows how particular changes are affecting customers.
Learn - Pivot (no necessarily product, could be also customer segment) or persevere. Do not get stuck for too long if this is not working out, use data but do not forget that MPVs are usually for early adopters. If something goes wrong use 5 WHYs (one leading to another) to figure it out.

All in all, amazing book, full of examples for each case. Despite a fact it is a bit dry, it is a must read for everybody related to startups. ( )
  Giedriusz | Oct 16, 2022 |
Building block for entrepreneurs. Simple concepts with high applicability
  aiman123 | Sep 12, 2022 |
The key idea of The Lean Startup is that a successful startup[1] needs to optimizes for learning. It doesn't matter how quickly something is being built if it's the wrong thing.

I saw this book as having two big ideas. First, the goal of a startup should be to move as quickly as possible through the Build-Measure-Learn cycle[2]. Because of this, he emphasizes the tool of the min viable product. Any team working under uncertainty should start by forming a hypothesis about their value proposition. They should then build the minimum product that they think could deliver on that value (or perhaps just part of it). Once this is in front of customers, the team should measure the impact of the min viable product and integrate what they learned from that into building a next min viable product (which may build on the first or may be completely different).

This approach feeds directly into the second big theme of the book: effective measurement. Many startups measure their success based on what Ries calls vanity metrics -- overall usage numbers that are not clearly related to any particular change. The danger of vanity metrics is that they conflate multiple factors. Is the user base growing because of the new feature you added or an advertising campaign? Even more dangerous is that these metrics may not be measuring the values that drive the growth model for the startup. If the number of signed-up users is what is being measured but it's the number of 7-day actives that drives success, a team getting lots of signups for users that never come back may think it's succeeding when it's actually failing.

Two tools for dealing with the metrics problem both take advantage of slicing the space to be measured. General product metrics should be divided up by cohort. Which cohorts to split on depends on what is being measured, but common ones are time based (e.g., signed up within the last month vs old users) or account state based (e.g., free vs paying users).

Slicing by cohort provides more insight into how users are behaving, but it still doesn't provide fine grained answers to the question of what is causing a particular change. To deal with that, changes should be rolled out as experiments, and the behavior of the different experiment groups compared against each other. If a team hypothesizes that a certain feature will increase engagement among new users, release the feature to half the new users and see whether or not engagement increases. Experimentation is most valuable when it is the default, so this may require a culture shift.

Overall, I found this book interesting although not deeply surprising[3]. Even without finding a lot to surprise me, I did still find value in the application of measurement and targeted iteration to a business model.


[1] This book defines a startup as any team trying to build a product quickly under uncertainty. Thus, a team within a large company trying to break into a new market may benefit from the techniques discussed in this book -- and later in the book, Ries gives some tips on how to allow such teams more startup-like freedom while still integrating them into the larger company.

[2] Uh oh. Aren't cycles a warning signal that we're about to go into the land of hand waving business pseudo-science? If they're not true cycles, yes, but in this case, Ries makes it clear how this is a true cycle where each step really does feed again into the next.

[3] I did spend some time working on an experiment platform within Google Analytics, so my experience may not be typical. ( )
  eri_kars | Jul 10, 2022 |
I really like the scientific theory behind the Lean Startup, but somehow the book failed to interest me cover to cover.

Again, the typical American style (overly simplifying things, endless repetition, etc...) puts me off, as in most non-fiction books. Also, the examples used to underscore certain points didn't really serve that purpose.

Still, I got some very valuable lessons from this book and will certainly change the way I'm running my business for the better.

I would say it's recommended reading, but don't expect to be blown away. ( )
  bbbart | Dec 27, 2020 |
Late to the game on this one but I still thought the book had good ideas that haven't been fully integrated in the startup scene. I found a few parallels with this book and [b:The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win|17255186|The Phoenix Project A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win|Gene Kim|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361113128s/17255186.jpg|23848838] with regards to how it looks at software development from the angle of lean manufacturing. Keeping work-in-progress low and getting fast feedback on new products are intuitively explained. ( )
  rsanek | Dec 26, 2020 |
The ideas behind this book are very powerful and have the potential to change entrepreneurship and innovation creation for the better. That's the reason why I gave 5 stars. Every entrepreneur should read this, and also listen to Eric's talks on YouTube. Let's stop wasting people's time! I love it :) ( )
  remouherek | Feb 24, 2020 |
S'inspirant d'expériencs vécues ces cing dernières années dans le cadre de sa collaboration avec certaines de ces organisations, des associations sans but licraif, des ONG et des instances gouvernementales, l'auteur propose un système de management entrepreneurial qui conduit les organisations de toutes tailles et de tous secteurs à une croissance durable et à un impact de long terme.
  ACParakou | Dec 6, 2019 |
Brings a scientific approach to start-up companies and entrepreneurial projects. Lots of great ideas, but unfortunately written in a rather pedestrian style, which lacks the energy and enthusiasm he describes. A great reading list and supporting information in Chapter 14. Worth the read and worth referring back to. ( )
  jvgravy | Jun 2, 2019 |
dsdfsf
  lmattiazzi | Nov 25, 2018 |
Great book with lots of ideas to really connect to your customers! ( )
  BenLinders | Jul 30, 2017 |
Effective book at communicating startup principles.

- How to create a minimum viable product. Best to take a product to market at that stage, to receive user feedback and see how it can be iterated upon to create Product Market Fit (PMF).

- Importance of being able to pivot based on customer feedback. ( )
  shakazul | Jul 3, 2017 |
Ik had al wel eerder Eric Ries zijn belangrijkste ideeën over Lean Startup, continu leren, het Minimum Viable Product en de Pivot horen uitleggen. Concepten als deze hebben inmiddels hun weg gevonden in bijvoorbeeld het manual van PRINCE2 Agile of de Leading SAFe training. Zoals bij meer sprekers is het zaak ook eens het hele boek te lezen. Dat kan voor De Lean Startup dan ook worden afgevinkt.

De meeste startups mislukken namelijk. Hoe goed bedoeld, en gefinancierd ook. Ergens ontbreekt het aan vermogen de aansluiting met de markt te vinden of te houden, mist de ervaring om een bedrijf te leiden, en baseert men beslissingen op verkeerde metrieken. Serieel ondernemer Eric Ries die de internetbubbel meemaakte en onder meer met IMVU ervaring opdeed, deelt waardevolle lessen in zijn boek voor ondernemers. Wat hem betreft is ondernemer een functie, en kom je die zowel in gevestigde bedrijven als nieuwe (letterlijk) startups tegen.

Geënt in de wetenschappelijke benadering van bedrijfsvoering zoals Frederick Taylor die een eeuw geleden voorstond, de LEAN principes, zoals die voortkomen uit het Toyota Production System, waar ook Just in Time (JIT) en het Kanban bord hun basis hebben, is De Lean Startup degelijk en tegen het meer kwantitatief aan dan menig enthousiast ondernemer wellicht lief is.

Het gaat om vermijden van verspilling, zowel in het kleine, maar ook op grote schaal, agile principes voor ontwikkeling, de kracht van experimenteren en leren. ( )
  hjvanderklis | Jun 2, 2017 |
This one is worth reading. ( )
  JennysBookBag.com | Sep 28, 2016 |
A clear and well define method to improve inovation effectiveness. A must to read for any innovator. ( )
  jmbenedetto | Sep 4, 2016 |
A pretty good read. I very much agree with the central points of the book: rapid iteration, small batches, actionable metrics, learning as progress, and above all, following a scientific method when building a startup. The book occasionally sounds a little bit like an infomercial, but for the most part, it's well balanced, and Eric Ries stresses the point that the magic is not in any specific terms or processes he coins, but in the general theory/idea of following a scientific process.

Some fun quotes:

"Because startups often accidentally build something nobody wants, it doesn't much matter if they do it on time and on budget. The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build - the thing customers want and will pay for - as quickly as possible."

"I've come to believe that learning is the essential unit of progress for startups. The effort that is not absolutely necessary for learning what customers want can be eliminated. I call this 'validated learning' because it is always demonstrated by positive improvements in a startup's core metrics."

"In fact, entrepreneurship should be considered a viable career path for innovators inside large organizations. Managers who can lead teams by using the Lean Startup methodology should not have to leave the company to reap the rewards of their skills or have to pretend to fit into rigid branches of established functional departments. Instead, they should have a business card that says simply 'Entrepreneur' under the name."

A quote in the book from Peter Drucker: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should be done at all." ( )
  brikis98 | Nov 11, 2015 |
It is a pretty good book, but it did not greatly excite me. ( )
  shdawson | Nov 25, 2014 |
An awesome and energizing book about how to apply scientific hypothesis testing to startup ideas. There are many great ideas for anyone who's ever had the urge to be an entrepreneur, or an intrapreneur. After reading this book, I lose sleep over how I could start testing ideas to turn them into realities. ( )
  VVilliam | Apr 18, 2012 |
A very good book about the new science of starting a company - either as a stand alone company, or a disruptive product / division within a larger organization.

It's much more detailed than the many blog posts by Eric Ries and includes a kind of accounting to track the learning a start up needs to know.

Written with many anecdotes and stories but each illustrates a principle that you can take away and apply to different situations. ( )
  BizCoach | Sep 30, 2011 |
my review is inferred. ( )
  dtn620 | Sep 22, 2013 |
teste ( )
  jaimengama | Jun 29, 2012 |
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