I'd wish that I read the book by Eric Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, right after it was published in 2011. Been a product management practitioner for more a decade now, reading it is so refreshing, I could not put it down once started. I've been nodding constantly along the way, thinking "why I didn't do that using what he describes so that I didn't have to make that mistake". The concept of "validated learning" rings so true with any sized companies, large or small. "The unit of progress ... is validated learning -a rigorous method for demonstrating progress when one is embedded in the soil of extreme uncertainty."
The principles of Lean Startup are so important and worth repeating until all members of the organization understand them, take them to heart, and start to use them in their daily work routine. It's a mindset, and if everybody practices it, you will have a successful business over time.
| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Entrepreneurs are everywhere. | They exist in startups, mature companies, non-profit organizations and government agencies. |
| Entrepreneurship is management. | It's a new kind of management specifically geared to its context. |
| Validated learning. | Entrepreneurs learn how to build a sustainable business. This learning can be validated scientifically, by running experiments that allow us to test each element of our vision. |
| Innovation accounting. | It is used to improve outcomes, and to hold entrepreneurs accountable. |
| Build-measure-learn. | Turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. Accelerate this feedback loop to be successful. |