start with an MVP then ... iterate, iterate ...
What Is Running Lean?
Why Are Startups Hard?
Is There a Better Way?
Customer Development
Lean Startup
Bootstrapping
How Is the course organized
Part 1: Roadmap
Part 2: Document Your Plan A
Part 3: Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan
Part 4: Systematically Test Your Plan
1. Meta-Principles
Step 1: Document Your Plan A
There Is an “I” in Vision
Capture Your Business Model Hypotheses
Your Product Is NOT “the Product”
Step 2: Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan
The Three Stages of a Startup
Stage 1: Problem/Solution Fit
Stage 2: Product/Market Fit
Stage 3: Scale
Pivot Before Product/Market Fit, Optimize After
Where Does Funding Fit into All This?
Step 3: Systematically Test Your Plan
What Is an Experiment?
The Iteration Meta-Pattern
2. Running Lean Illustrated
Case Study: How I Wrote Iterated This Book
Understand the Problem
Define the Solution
Validate Qualitatively
Verify Quantitatively
Is the Book Finished?
3. Create Your Lean Canvas
Brainstorm Possible Customers
Sketching a Lean Canvas
Problem and Customer Segments
Unique Value Proposition
How to craft a unique value proposition
Solution
Channels
Free versus paid
Inbound versus outbound
Direct versus automated
Direct versus indirect
Retention before referral
Revenue Streams and Cost Structure
Revenue streams
Cost structure
Key Metrics
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Revenue
Referral
Unfair Advantage
Now It’s Your Turn
4. Prioritize Where to Start
What Is Risk?
Rank Your Business Models
Seek External Advice
5. Get Ready to Experiment
Assemble a Problem/Solution Team
Forget Traditional Departments
Start with the Smallest Team Possible, but No Smaller
The three must-haves: development, design, and marketing
Be Wary of Outsourcing Your Problem/Solution Team
Running Effective Experiments
Maximize for Speed, Learning, and Focus
Identify a Single Key Metric or Goal
Do the Smallest Thing Possible to Learn
Formulate a Falsifiable Hypothesis
Validate Qualitatively, Verify Quantitatively
Make Sure You Can Correlate Results Back to Specific Actions
Create Accessible Dashboards
Communicate Learning Early and Often
Applying the Iteration Meta-Pattern to Risks
What About Unfair Advantage?
6. Get Ready to Interview Customers
No Surveys or Focus Groups, Please
Are Surveys Good for Anything?
But Talking to People Is Hard
Finding Prospects
Preemptive Strikes and Other Objections (or Why I Don’t Need to Interview Customers)
7. The Problem Interview
What You Need to Learn
Testing the Problem
Formulate Falsifiable Hypotheses
Conduct Problem Interviews
Welcome (Set the Stage)
Collect Demographics (Test Customer Segment)
Tell a Story (Set Problem Context)
Problem Ranking (Test Problem)
Explore Customer’s Worldview (Test Problem)
Wrapping Up (the Hook and Ask)
Document Results
Do You Understand the Problem?
What Are the Problem Interview Exit Criteria?
8. The Solution Interview
Testing Your Solution
Testing Your Pricing
Don’t Ask Customers What They’ll Pay, Tell Them
Don’t Lower Signup Friction, Raise It
The Solution Interview as AIDA
How Is This Different from a Pitch?
Formulate Testable Hypotheses
Conduct Solution Interviews
Demo (Test Solution)
Test Pricing (Revenue Streams)
Wrapping Up (the Ask)
Do You Have a Problem Worth Solving?
What Are the Solution Interview Exit Criteria?
9. Get to Release 1.0
Product Development Gets in the Way of Learning
Reduce your mVP
Get Started Deploying Continuously
Define your activation Flow
The Anatomy of an Activation Flow
Build a Marketing Website
The Anatomy of a Marketing Website
The Landing Page Deconstructed
10. Get Ready to Measure
The Need for Actionable Metrics
What Is an Actionable Metric?
Metrics Are People First
Simple Funnel Reports Aren’t Enough
Say Hello to the Cohort
How to Build Your Conversion Dashboard
11. The MVP Interview
Conduct MVP Interviews
Show Landing Page (Test UVP)
Show Pricing Page (Test Pricing)
Signup and Activation (Test Solution)
Wrapping Up (Keep Feedback Loop Open)
12. Validate Customer Lifecycle
Make Feedback Easy
Troubleshoot Customer Trials
Acquisition and Activation
Are You Ready to Launch?
What Are the Launch Criteria?
3, 2, 1 ... Launch!
13. Don’t Be a Feature Pusher
Features Must Be Pulled, Not Pushed
Implement an 80/20 Rule
Constrain Your Features Pipeline
Process Feature Requests
The Feature Lifecycle
How to Track Features on a Kanban Board
The Process Steps Explained
14. Measure Product/Market Fit
What Is Product/Market Fit?
The Sean Ellis Test
Focus on the “Right” Macro
What About Revenue?
Have You Built Something People Want?
What Are the Early Traction Exit Criteria?
What About the Market in Product/Market Fit?
Start by Identifying Your Key Engine of Growth
Summary
Design Pattern for a Network Effects Product
Design Pattern for a Multisided (Marketplace) Product
