Running Lean, 2nd Edition

Introduction

What Is Running Lean?

We live in an age of unparalleled opportunity for innovation. With the advent of the Internet, cloud computing, and open source software, the cost of building products is at an all-time low. Yet, the odds of building successful startups haven’t improved much.

Most startups still fail.

But the more interesting fact is that, of those startups that succeed, two-thirds report having drastically changed their plans along the way.^[1]

So, what separates successful startups from unsuccessful ones is not necessarily the fact that successful startups began with a better initial plan (or Plan A), but rather that they find a plan that works before running out of resources.

Up until now, finding this better Plan B or C or Z has been based more on gut, intuition, and luck. There has been no systematic process for rigorously stress-testing a Plan A.

That is what Running Lean is about.

Running Lean is a systematic process for iterating from Plan A to a plan that works, before running out of resources.

Why Are Startups Hard?

First, there is a misconception around how successful products get built. The media loves stories of visionaries who see the future and chart a perfect course to intersect it. The reality, however, rarely plays out quite as simply. Even the unveiling of the visionary computer, the iPad, in Steve Jobs’ words was years in the making, built on several incremental innovations (and failures) of software and hardware.

Second, the classic product-centric approach ...