Lean Startups for Social Change

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Discovery IV: Pivot, Proceed, or Quit

When is solution testing over? The end of solution testing and of the entire discovery phase comes when one of three things happens:

1. You Haven’t Found a Solution That Works for Enough of the People You Are Trying to Reach

Congratulations, you’ve failed fast! Undoubtedly you were trying to solve a difficult social problem, and, as we’ve discussed, that problem may be so serious that it has to be solved sooner or later. (Failure may not, in fact, be an option.) The lean startup process helped you figure out faster than ever before that your approach wouldn’t work, preserving human and financial capital for the next run at the problem. You’ve tried and you’ve learned, and, most important, you have not wasted ...