The Lean Startup · Eric Ries · 2011
This is a hugely influential book in the product management community. The Lean Startup codified how to take a scientific approach to create and manage startups. The author also explains why traditional firms have such trouble navigating uncertainty. The Lean Startup emphasises the importance of learning, and validating assumptions. This book popularised a number of concepts that are now considered foundational in product management (e.g. build-measure-learn, pivot, minimum-viable-product). It’s a must-read for anyone building digital products.
Key Highlights
The Lean Startup Approach
- Startups operate in conditions of extreme uncertainty. Traditional management tools are inadequate.
- The Lean Startup applies lean manufacturing principles to innovation.
- The goal is to figure out the right thing to build as quickly as possible through validated learning.
- Learning is the essential unit of progress. Eliminate all effort not contributing to learning.
- Build cross-functional teams accountable for hitting learning milestones.
Formulating and Testing Hypotheses
- Startups should focus on experiments that test their strategy and assumptions.
- Break hypotheses down into a value hypothesis (does the product deliver value?) and growth hypothesis (how will customers discover it?).
- Identify and test leap-of-faith assumptions that the entire venture rests upon.
- Success is learning how to solve the customer's problem, not just delivering features.
Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop
- The startup is a catalyst to transform ideas into products. Customers interact, generating feedback.
- The loop is: Ideas → Build → Product → Measure → Data → Learn → Repeat. Minimise time through the loop.
- Have early contact with customers to clarify problems and craft provisional customer archetypes.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- An MVP is the fastest way to get through the Build-Measure-Learn loop, testing fundamental business hypotheses.
- It tests viability, usability, and feasibility. Additional work beyond starting learning is waste.
- 15. MVPs challenge traditional notions of quality. Without knowing the customer, we don't know what quality is.
- The MVP rule: remove anything not contributing directly to the learning you seek.
- Reduce brand risk by using a different brand for MVPs if needed.
Innovation Accounting
- Establish a quantitative financial model based on leap-of-faith assumptions.
- Use an MVP to establish the baseline of where the company is now.
- Make changes to tune the engine and improve results toward the ideal.
- Assess progress and decide whether to persevere or pivot the strategy.
- Use actionable metrics over vanity metrics. Cohort and split test metrics are superior.
The Pivot
- If you're not making sufficient progress, you may need to pivot your fundamental business strategy.
- Time between pivots and MVPs decreases as you improve at measuring and decision making.
- Your startup's runway is the number of pivots you can still make.
- Have a regular "pivot or persevere" meeting cadence, perhaps monthly.
Process Principles
- Use small batch sizes to increase efficiency, find defects faster, and determine if you're building the right thing.
- Use cross-functional teams to get one thing done at a time.
- Employ just-in-time production, with later steps pulling work from earlier ones. Avoid overproduction of inventory.
- Apply "pull" to your hypotheses about the customer, not literally to building only what they request.
Engines of Growth
- Sustainable growth comes from the actions of past customers via: word of mouth, side effect of usage, funded advertising, repeat usage.
- Types of engines: Sticky (focus on retention), Viral (growth from usage), Paid (balance lifetime value and acquisition cost)
- Tiny changes to viral coefficient cause huge changes in growth.
- Evaluate progress to product-market fit by tuning your growth engine.
Developing for Speed
- Shortcuts in quality, design or infrastructure slow you down later via rework, morale, and complaints.
- Low quality can inhibit learning by preventing customers from experiencing benefits.
- Use the "5 Whys" to trace technical problems to human causes. Make proportional investments in prevention.
- Strive for a blameless culture of trust, empowerment and ownership.
- Be tolerant of first-time mistakes but never allow the same one twice.
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The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two · George Miller · 1956
Miller proposed as a law of human cognition and information processing that humans can effectively process no more than seven units, or chunks, of information, plus or minus two pieces of information, at any given time. That limit applied to short-term memory and to a number of other cognitive processes, such as distinguishing different sound tones and perceiving objects at a glance.
Even if the science of 70 years ago isn’t perfect - the subject matter of this paper is becoming increasingly more relevant. The constraints of mobile phones and audio interfaces make information architecture increasingly important. I find ‘seven, plus or minus two’ to be a useful way to start a conversation about user journeys and information overload. Also - the title of this paper is one of the best examples of copywriting I can think of.
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Book Highlights
What exactly is it that makes a great boss great? The results of a study of 300,000 leaders indicates that the top-five leadership skills most important for success are: inspires and motivates others, displays high integrity and honesty, solves problems and analyses issues, drives for results, and communicates powerfully and prolifically. Petra Wille · Strong Product People
On small bets. If you’re optimising an existing, mature product, the best way to get data to back up your assumptions is simply to start testing your bets using a/b or multivariate testing. Banfield, Eriksson, Walkingshaw · Product Leadership
Designers are often reluctant to take advantage of them. Faced with the prospect of using a convention, there’s a great temptation for designers to reinvent the wheel instead... Krug Steve · Don’t Make Me Think
What are the chances that the business book you’re reading is exactly what you need right at this moment? What are the odds that every single insight from a podcast interview is immediately actionable? Tiago Forte · Building a Second Brain
Tell me what your average day looks like. What really frustrates you in how you do your job? What keeps you up at night? What is the straw that broke the camel's back? What made you seek a new way of solving the problem? If you had a magic wand to create something that could do anything, what would it do? What's the last problem at work you spent money to fix? Martina Lauchengco · Loved
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Best of X
There are different types of hard work:
- Outthinking (a better strategy, a shortcut)
- Pure Effort (working longer, intensity)
- Opportunistic (positioning yourself to take advantage of change)
- Consistency (doing average things for longer)
- Focus (saying no to distractions)
Each of these requires a different type of hard work. Shane Parish
Napoleon was unstoppable because he understood the paradox of prep. ‘There is no man more pusillanimous than I when planning a campaign.’ In the planning stage, Napoleon exaggerated, in his mind ‘all the dangers and calamities’ possible. But while fighting, he forgot everything ‘except what led to success.’ Be paranoid in preparation. But i the midst of action…do not waver. Josh Dholanni
I bought my boss two copies of The Mythical Man Month so he could read it twice as fast Randall Koutnik
Networking is overrated. Become first and foremost a person of value, and the network will be available whenever you need iT. Naval