Business Book Review: The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
The Lean Startup reminds you to embrace the science of creating and experimenting. Learning from your efforts as early on as possible.
My Rating: ★★★★
Length:336
Publisher: Portfolio
Released: 2011
Key Takeaways for Personal Branding
More than a decade on, the best seller Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup, remains timeless. Regularly topping recommendation lists, the book is a must-read for entrepreneurs. And is pertinent to anyone in business, especially those responsible for product development.
Ries proposes the prevalent failure of businesses, wasting time and resources, is preventable. The Lean Startup principles are founded in accelerated experimenting and learning. And is positioned as the new approach to innovation. There are several key take-outs for the business of your personal brand.
Value versus Waste
Among other disciplines, the Lean Startup movement builds on lean manufacturing. The revolution radically altered supply chains. And was characterised by shrinking batch sizes, just-in-time delivery and accelerated cycle times.
The Lean Startup reminds you to focus on value-creating activities. Eliminate any waste.
Minimum Viable Product and Batching
In 2001, Frank Robinson first coined the term ‘Minimum Viable Product’ (MVP). Ries helped further popularise it with this book.
The MVP is a product developed with minimal effort to test a specific value assumption.
In the creator economy of your personal brand, ‘batching’ has long been the buzzword. But, as Ries reminds us, smaller batch sizes accelerate the ‘build-measure-learn’ feedback loop. For example, imagine folding thousands of letters only to find they don’t fit into the envelopes. For entrepreneurs and creators, this reminds you to not hoard your content. Don’t wait for the perfect launch. Ship your work.
Ries reminds you most of us aren’t building rocket ships. These rightfully need excruciatingly detailed plans. But rather, most of us are steering a car toward a vision.
Favourite Quotes
At the root of every seemingly technical problem is a human problem.
The Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time.
Every new version of a product, every new feature, and every new marketing program is an attempt to improve this engine of growth.
Too many startup business plans look more like they are planning to launch a rocket ship than drive a car. They prescribe the steps to take and the results to expect in excruciating detail, and as in planning to launch a rocket, they are set up in such a way that even tiny errors in assumptions can lead to catastrophic outcomes.
Throughout the process of driving, you always have a clear idea of where you’re going. If you’re commuting to work, you don’t give up because there’s a detour in the road or you made a wrong turn. You remain thoroughly focused on getting to your destination.
Lean thinking defines value as providing benefit to the customer; anything else is waste.
What we needed to demonstrate was that our product development efforts were leading us toward massive success without giving in to the temptation to fall back on vanity metrics and “success theatre”—the work we do to make ourselves look successful.
The Lean Startup is a thorough, no-fluff guide for anyone in business. Pragmatically sharing realities for idealist entrepreneurship. Ushering in lean thinking for a new generation.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: Available on Amazon.
