Lean startup intro (with no buzzwords)

Lean gets bogged down in tactics & tools. This presentation is about what are, in my opinion, the big principles behind lean startup

Things are nowhere near as bad as they were in the dotcom days

The typical startup spends little money, focuses on product, and tries to build traction. That is not too bad! Lean begins from there and helps us make it better

Once we think of a product, we need to back up and look at the questions behind it

There is, of course, one big question

And if it turns out that the answer is negative, we look at our bank balance and give it another try if we can. This is sub-optimal, and is basically how the dotcom companies were run, albeit with less cash at stake

Our first big job when we look at a new idea is to break it up into smaller pieces

For the graffiti biz, I would look at these three questions first

And once we have the questions in mind, we can usually find cheaper and easier ways to answer them than building the entire product

The 2nd big principle is that people will judge you by traffic and revenue unless you tell them otherwise. And if you focus on those metrics, you will go out of business too soon.

You need to decide which questions matter to your particular business, and then obsess about answering those. When you talk to your team or VCs, bring them back to your own questions

For example, succeeding at PR before you have retention is actively unhelpful

You are building a product, but are also building a team and a process and a way to make money

A few tools from lean startup. I am not going to go into detail, but you should be able to find more information easily if that bit is relevant to you

5 whys (root cause analysis) is a way to dig into problems when they happen, so that you can fix the cause instead of the symptoms

Cohort analytics and funnel metric (start with Pirate AARRR Metrics if you are new) are priceless once you have a website live

Your mom will always say your business is a good idea, but so will most people. To get an honest signal from people you talk to, you have to ask the questions the right way. Customer Development and UX both have good tools for doing this

Getting a little philosophical, I believe that entrepreneurship is a career path. You have to believe that you are probably wrong this time, and you have to invest the time and energy in making yourself better for the future

Craftspeople will invest in building their own tools. If you were a carpenter without a workbench, but you only had to build one chair, you would probably just do it on the ground. But if you knew you would be making chairs for the rest of your career, you would take the time to build your workbench first

My granddad had completely filled his house with these sorts of customisations. You should do the same with your company and career

The entrepreneurial press is obsessed with upside — the exit, the big sale, the riches. But for you, it is more important to manage your downside — how much money you stand to lose. If you risk too much, then you are prevented from starting another business. Lean is about front-loading your learning instead of front-loading your costs

You have questions. Make them explicit, make them smaller, measure progress, find the next question