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Nature, to Be Commanded, Must Be Obeyed

August 17, 2014

Lean Startup Notes - Part 2: Techniques

“If we stopped wasting people’s time, what would they do with it?”

—Eric Ries

This is the second part of my The Lean Startup notes. Enjoy!

Waste Not!

  • Pull, don’t push.
    • “…our hypothesis about the customer, that pulls work from product development and other functions. Any other work is waste.”
    • Kanban makes non-techies accountable for their decisions.
  • Small batches.
  • Cross-functional teams.
    • Incentivize achievement of bottom-line goals instead of optimization of individual productivity.
    • Accountability as a team.
    • Related; Open Allocation
  • An MVP doesn’t necessarily have a growth model to test leap-of-faith assumptions.
    1. Video as a MVP.
    2. Concierge MVP.
      • Personally cater each customer.
      • Little to no automation.
  • “Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth. In other words, successful pivots put us on a path toward growing a sustainable business.”

Effective Learning

  • Genchi gembutsu: go and see for yourself.
  • Root cause analysis.
    • Five Why’s.
    • “Make a proportional investment at each of five levels of the hierarchy.”
    • Avoid five blames – get everyone affected in the same room.
  • Prefer cohort analysis over gross measurements (vanity metrics).

First part is here.

If you have any questions, suggestions or corrections feel free to drop me a line.