Running Lean, 3rd Edition

Part I. Design

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 new products still fail.

The more interesting fact is that of those startups that succeed, two-thirds report having drastically changed their plans along the way. So, what separates successful startups is not necessarily starting with a better initial plan (or Plan A), but finding a plan that works before running out of resources.

Up until now, finding this better Plan B or C or Z has been based largely 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. This book presents a systematic process for iterating from Plan A to a plan that works before running out of resources.

There Is an “I” in Vision

All men dream: but not equally. Those that dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that all was in vanity: but the dreamers of day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia

The media loves to celebrate stories of visionaries who saw the future and charted a course to intersect it with a “groundbreaking” new product offering. In a visionary product launch there is no place for being too early or too late.

While these ...