The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Summary:

The book walks through how to apply a lean process model to a startup business. This allows you to be agile in direction planning and make decisions driven by data. The book uses many anecdotal references to make most of it’s points. One of the underlying messages of the book is that even large companies can operate as a startup for innovating new products or process.

Learn as you go, create a hypothesis and test it. Test it with actual customers as soon as possible. Create an MVP, minimally viable product. Focus on getting the most basic feature set out the door so you can get feedback early. Avoid vanity metrics, use cohort analysis as a tool to help find meaning in the numbers. Pivot or Persevere, when things aren’t working decide if a pivot should be made or if the status quo should be maintained.

Likes:

The methodology described and very logical from a Six Sigma, data driven approach. It coincides very well with Agile. Build, Test, Measure, Pivot all make sense.

Dislikes:

The author beats the reader over the head a little with examples. I think he is trying to get the reader to buy in that this is not just a sales pitch, but an actual approach that works. However, as the reader I found myself saying “just get on with it.” The metrics section is a little light. I would have liked to see a little more content around what to look for and measure.