Running Lean, 3rd Edition

Chapter 3. Stress Test Your Idea for Viability

Viability: Can you monetize this?

While a Lean Canvas is a great way to deconstruct your early-stage idea into a more coherent business model story, your stakeholders (investors or budget gatekeepers) probably still struggle to see what you see. A business model story—even with early customer validation—just doesn’t cut it for them (Figure 3-1).

Figure 3-1. A Lean Canvas is not enough

Why is that? Because investors are in the business of getting a return on their investment, they need to see the numbers side of the business model story. Before you discount this as just an investor-only perspective, you too need to learn how to see your idea through the lens of an investor.

Why? Because you are Investor #1 in your idea. While you may not be investing with lots of money, you invest with your time—which is more valuable than money.

Time is your scarcest resource.

The amount of money you have can go up and down, but the amount of time you have moves only in one direction—down. All ideas, especially good ones, consume years of your life. Do you really want to spend the next three years on an idea with a “Let’s see what happens” approach?

If you don’t have a “big enough” problem worth solving (one that’s not even plausible on paper), then why expend any effort on it?

For this reason, you need to be even tougher on your idea than a ...