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

Cover
Copyright
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
	O’Reilly Online Learning
	How to Contact Us
	Acknowledgments
Introduction
	A Tale of Two Entrepreneurs
	One Year Ago…
		Off to the Races
		Six Months Later
		Catch-22
	A Traction-First Approach Is the New Way Forward
	What Determines Success Isn’t Differing Skill Sets But Differing Mindsets
		The Stakes Are Much Higher This Time
		Speed of Learning Is the New Unfair Advantage
		Succeeding in the New World Requires New Mindsets
	You Can’t Afford to Wait for an Idea Whose Time Has Come
		Steve Learns About Minimum Viable Products
	Don’t Start with an MVP
	There Is a Systematic Approach to Entrepreneurship
	About Me
	How This Book Is Organized
		Part I: Design
		Part II: Validation
		Part III: Growth
	Is This Book for You?
	Does It Work for Services and Physical Products?
	Practice Trumps Theory
Part I. Design
	Chapter 1. Deconstruct Your Idea on a Lean Canvas
		Sketching Your First Lean Canvas
			Customer Segments
			Problem
			Unique Value Proposition
			Solution
			Channels
			Revenue Streams and Cost Structure
			Key Metrics
			Unfair Advantage
		Refining Your Lean Canvas
			So, How Do You Avoid the Goldilocks Problem?
			How Do You Know When to Split Your Lean Canvas?
			Steve Splits His Big Idea Canvas into Specific Variants
		What’s Next?
	Chapter 2. Stress Test Your Idea for Desirability
		Defining Better
		Our Innovator’s Bias Gets in the Way
		Meet the Innovator’s Gift
			Unpacking the Innovator’s Gift
			Steve Challenges the Innovator’s Gift
		Using the Innovator’s Gift to Stress Test Your Idea for Desirability
			Customer Segments: Keep It Simple
			Early Adopters: Forget Personas
			Existing Alternatives: Transcend Category
			Problems: What’s Broken with the Old Way?
			UVP: How Will You Cause a Switch?
		Steve Realizes He Has a Hammer Problem
	Chapter 3. Stress Test Your Idea for Viability
		Don’t Create a Financial Forecast; Use a Fermi Estimate Instead
			What Is Traction?
			Welcome to the Customer Factory
		Testing the Viability of Your Idea Using a Fermi Estimate
			Define a Target Throughput Goal
			Test Whether Your Idea Can Deliver Your Target Throughput Goal
			Revise Your Goal or Fix Your Business Model
		Running a Fermi Estimate on Your Idea
		Steve Reviews His Business Models with Mary
	Chapter 4. Stress Test Your Idea for Feasibility
		Charting a Traction Ramp
			Steve Charts His Traction Roadmap
		Formulating a Now-Next-Later Rollout Plan
			Stage 1: Now—Problem/Solution Fit
			Stage 2: Next—Product/Market Fit
			Stage 3: Later—Scale
		Steve Gets a Lesson on Right Action, Right Time
		Steve Learns About Wizard-of-Oz MVPs
		Steve Formulates His Now-Next-Later Rollout Plan
	Chapter 5. Communicate Your Idea Clearly and Concisely
		What’s Your Elevator Pitch?
			Outlining Your Elevator Pitch
		The Different Worldviews of an Idea
			The Investor Worldview
			The Customer Worldview
			The Advisor Worldview
		Delivering Your Business Model Pitch
		The 10-Slide Business Model Pitch Deck
			Desirability
			Viability
			Feasibility
		Steve Shares His Business Model Pitch with Others
Part II. Validation
	Chapter 6. Validate Your Idea Using 90-Day Cycles
		The 90-Day Cycle
			A Typical 90-Day Cycle
		Getting Ready for Your First 90-Day Cycle
			Assemble the Right Team
			Establish a Regular Reporting Cadence
		Seven Habits for Highly Effective Experiments
			1. Declare Your Expected Outcomes Upfront
			2. Make Declaring Outcomes a Team Sport
			3. Emphasize Estimation, Not Precision
			4. Measure Actions, Not Words
			5. Turn Your Assumptions into Falsifiable Hypotheses
			6. Time-Box Your Experiments
			7. Always Use a Control Group
		Steve Establishes an External Accountability Structure
	Chapter 7. Kick Off Your First 90-Day Cycle
		Steve Calls a 90-Day Cycle Kickoff Meeting
		The Problem/Solution Fit Playbook
			Customers Don’t Buy Products, They Buy a Promise of Something Better
			How to Make a Promise of Better
			When Are You Done with Problem/Solution Fit?
		Steve Calls a 90-Day Cycle Planning Meeting
		The Mafia Offer Campaign
			Building a Mafia Offer
			Running a Mafia Offer Campaign
			When to Use a Mafia Offer Campaign
		Steve Tries Taking a Shortcut
			Mary Bursts Steve’s Bubble (Again)
		No Surveys or Focus Groups, Please
			Are Surveys Good for Anything?
			Preemptive Strikes and Other Objections (or Why I Don’t Need to Interview Customers)
	Chapter 8. Understand Your Customers Better Than They Do
		The Problem with Problems
			Case Study: Using Problem Discovery Interviews to Drive New Home Sales
		Focus on the Bigger Context: The Job-to-be-Done
			Case Study: Using Problem Discovery Interviews to Build Better Drill Bits
			Finding the Bigger Context
			Scoping the Bigger Context
			Diving Deeper into a Bigger, More Specific Context
		Running a Problem Discovery Sprint
			Broad-Match Versus Narrow-Match Problem Discovery Sprints
			Finding Prospects
			Steve Kicks Off the First Problem Discovery Sprint
			Conducting Interviews
			Steve Creates a Meta-Script for His Interviews
			Capturing Insights
		Steve Reviews the Results of the Broad-Match Problem Discovery Sprint
		When Are You Done with Problem Discovery?
		The Altverse Team Uncovers Several Additional Jobs-to-be-Done
	Chapter 9. Design Your Solution to Cause a Switch
		Steve Learns About the Concierge MVP
		Running a Solution Design Sprint
			Addressing Desirability
			Addressing Viability
			Addressing Feasibility
		The 5 P’s of MVP
		Steve Takes a Stab at the 5 P’s of MVP
	Chapter 10. Deliver a Mafia Offer Your Customers Cannot Refuse
		Case Study: The iPad Mafia Offer
		Running an Offer Delivery Sprint
		Assembling Your Offer
			Define the Characters in Your Customer Story Pitch
			Outline the Structure of Your Customer Story Pitch
			Steve Shares His Customer Story Pitch Outline with the Team
		Delivering Your Offer
		Optimizing Your Offer
			Measure Your Customer Factory Metrics Weekly
			Identify Your Key Constraint
			Formulate Ways of Breaking the Constraint
		Steve Meets with the Team to Review the Results of Their First Offer Delivery Sprint
		When Are You Done with Offer Delivery?
	Chapter 11. Run a 90-Day Cycle Review
		Steve Calls a Pre-Review Meeting Just with Mary
		Preparing for the Meeting
			Collect/Update Artifacts
			Assemble a Progress Report Pitch Deck
		Running the Meeting
		Steve Calls a 90-Day Cycle Review Meeting
Part III. Growth
	Chapter 12. Get Ready to Launch
		The Altverse Team Prepare for Launch
		Keep Your Customer Factory Running
			Look for Ways to Automate Your Customer Factory
		Race to Value Delivery
		Extend Your Customer Factory Metrics Dashboard
		Roll Out Your MVP in Batches
		The Altverse Team Launch Their Concierge MVP
	Chapter 13. Make Happy Customers
		The Altverse Team Learns About Behavior Design
		The Happy Customer Loop
			Don’t Be a Feature Pusher
			Implement an 80/20 Rule
			Prevent a Switch
			Outlearn the Competition
			Reduce Friction
			Learn the Science of Habits
			Chart a Customer Progress Roadmap
			Trigger Your Customers
			Help Your Customers Make Progress
			Reinforce Progress
		The Altverse Team Calls a 90-Day Cycle Review Meeting
	Chapter 14. Find Your Growth Rocket
		The Altverse Team Learns About Growth Rockets
		The Rocket Ship Growth Model
			Launching Rocket Ships
		The Three Types of Growth Loops
			The Revenue Growth Loop
			The Retention Growth Loop
			The Referral Growth Loop
			Can You Have Multiple Growth Rockets?
		Finding Your Primary Growth Rocket
			Short-Listing Growth Rocket Candidates
			Validating Your Growth Rocket
			Optimizing Your Growth Rocket
		Steve Makes Mary an Offer She Can’t Refuse
	Chapter 15. Epilogue
		The BOOTSTART Manifesto
			1. Entrepreneurs Are Everywhere
			2. The Persona of the Garage Entrepreneur Has Changed
			3. There Is No Better Time to Start
			4. Most Products Still Fail
			5. A Dozen Reasons Why Products Fail
			6. The Number One Reason Why Products Fail
			7. The Number Two Reason Why Products Fail
			8. You Don’t Need Permission to Start
			9. Love the Problem, Not Your Solution
			10. Don’t Write a Business Plan
			11. Your Business Model Is the Product
			12. Focus on Time, Not Timing
			13. Not Acceleration, but Deceleration
			14. Not Faux Validation, but Traction
			15. Remove Failure from Your Vocabulary
			16. It’s Time to Act on Your Big Idea
References and Further Reading
Index
About the Author