Running Lean, 3rd Edition

Foreword

“Practice trumps theory.” When I first read those words on Ash Maurya’s blog more than 10 years ago, I knew he would be a valuable addition to what was then the fledgling Lean Startup movement. In those early days, what we needed more than anything were people who could turn Lean Startup principles into practice and then share that practice with others. Ash was a key figure in that mission, and in the years since, he’s passed his knowledge on to teams, coaches, and stakeholders of all kinds, all over the world. In no small part because of people like him, the Lean Startup movement has grown and evolved in ways I never could have imagined. As the very first book in the Lean series, Running Lean has long been an important part of that growth. Now it, too, has evolved.

This revised and expanded new edition reflects just how much deeper and more inclusive Ash’s thinking about what Lean Startup can be and do has become. It also shows his continuing commitment to helping entrepreneurs find the way to turn their passion into a sustainable business. Instead of making a few changes here and there, he’s tested the information he presented in earlier editions, refined it, and then added to it in response to feedback. He calls this new approach the Continuous Innovation Framework, and it reflects where the Lean Startup movement is now, rather than where it was a decade ago. The name he’s chosen indicates the understanding that, in order to survive and thrive in an increasingly—unceasingly—uncertain ...