Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works

RUNNING LE

AN:

ITER

ATE F

ROM PLA

N

A TO

A P

LAN T

HAT

WORKS

BY: ASH

MAU

RYA

Lauren ByrdJ7100Entrepreneurial JournalismMarch 25, 2015

LIFE’S TOO SHORT TO BUILD

SOMETHING NOBODY WANTS.

- ASH MAURYA

WHAT IS RUNNING LEAN?

• A process for iterating from Plan A to a plan that works, BEFORE running out of resources.

• Being lean = eliminating waste or being efficient with resources.

INNOVATION

• Innovation is occurring all around us.

• Cost of building new products is at an all time LOW.

• However, most startups still FAIL.

(John Mullins and Randy Komisar, Getting to Plan B (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2009)

RUNNING LEAN IS ABOUT…

Speed

Learning

Focus

LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS

Listening to customers is key, but you have to know

how.

You can’t ask customers what they want, you have

to listen to them.

LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. - Henry Ford

It is not your customer’s job to know what they want. - Steve Jobs

THE #1 REASON WHY PRODUCTS FAIL

We waste time, money, and

effort building the wrong product.

(because we didn’t listen)

KILLER IDEA OR SOLUTIONWhen entrepreneurs, come up with an idea, they fall in love with the solution.

TOO UNIQUE?

We are often told to build something unique or

different, so we purposely define the solution in such a manner that when we look

around, we find no competition.

WHAT ABOUT “FIRST TO MARKET”?

ToyotaFord

Apple Microsoft

GoogleFacebook

THEY WERE NOT FIRST!

They were all “fast followers”.

WHEN WE PITCH ONLY OUR SOLUTIONWe are given a...

NO

WHAT INVESTORS LOOK FOR

CUSTOMERS….

Don’t care about your

solution

WHAT DO CUSTOMERS CARE ABOUT?

TRUE JOB OF ENTREPRENEUR: DE-RISKING YOUR BUSINESS MODEL

RUNNING LEAN META PRINCIPLES① Document your Plan A

② Identify the riskiest parts of your plan

③ Systematically test your plan

LEAN CANVAS

IDENTIFYING RISKIEST PARTS OF YOUR PLANFor most products, solution is not

what is riskiest

SYSTEMATICALLY TEST YOUR PLANExperiments, Learning feedback

loop