How can you use lean startup to test your assumptions and learn from your customers?

Sin lugar a duda esta forma de optimizar los recursos en una primera fase puede ser muy poderosa, aqui expongo 3 factores importantes a tener en cuenta: 1- identificar la hipotesis central es decir, que problema estoy solucionando . 2- tener un MVP en su version basica para este inicio. 3- Definitivmente medir los resultados, sin miedo a lo que se pueda encontrar.

The Lean Startup approach focuses on rapidly testing assumptions and learning from customers to minimize risk and optimize product development. Start by identifying your core assumptions—beliefs about customer needs, product-market fit, and business model viability. Use the Build-Measure-Learn cycle: quickly build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that addresses key assumptions, launch it to a small customer segment, and gather feedback through direct interaction and data analysis. Learn from the results, whether by validating your assumptions or pivoting based on customer insights. This iterative process allows continuous refinement, ensuring your product evolves to meet real customer needs.

The Lean Startup methodology emphasizes iterative testing, learning, and adaptation for developing businesses and products. Key strategies include identifying assumptions, forming hypotheses, creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for validation, testing, measuring, and learning from customer interactions, deciding to pivot or persevere based on results, continuous iteration, and engaging with customers through development to align with their needs. Following these principles can help build a successful and customer-centric business. #LeanStartup #Entrepreneurship #Innovation

Lean Startup: Build-Measure-Learn Cycle: Iteratively build a minimum viable product (MVP), measure its performance, and learn from customer feedback to refine assumptions.

Incorporating lean startup principles involves developing a hypothesis about your product or service, then creating a minimum viable product (MVP) to test that hypothesis. By engaging with your target customers early on and collecting feedback, you can rapidly iterate and refine your offering based on real-world data. This iterative process allows you to validate assumptions, identify market needs, and adapt your solution accordingly, ultimately leading to a more customer-centric and successful venture.

From my experience, lean startup mindset can be useful not only in the context of starting up a business but also in other (may-sound-not relevant) fields. For example, lean startup mindset helps me to learn and progress in my academic career. I had zero experience in writing research papers, but I applied the lean startup mindset: BUILD a draft manuscript asap, MEASURE the quality by sending it to research team leader to get feedback and LEARN from these feedback and create the next version of the manuscript. Overall, each of my paper may go through almost 30 iterations. But it helped me to learn so much and get my first paper published after only 4 months of starting in the field.

To apply Lean Startup principles for testing assumptions and learning from customers: Build-Measure-Learn Cycle: - Build: Create a minimum viable product (MVP) quickly. - Measure: Collect relevant data and metrics from real customer interactions. - Learn: Analyze data to validate or invalidate assumptions, adjust strategy accordingly. This iterative cycle helps startups efficiently test hypotheses, reduce waste, and adapt based on real customer feedback.

How NOT to apply Lean startup principles: have a vision a product you think customers want, then build the very minimum version of it. That just leads to building a bad version of something that you don't actually know if anyone wants. The right way: - work out the riskiest assumption that is baked in to your vision of the product that you think people want. - work out how to test that assumption in the smallest possible way (an FB ad, a landing page, a sales call etc). That is your first MVP. - then do it again with your next riskiest assumption. MVP by MVP, layer by layer you'll build your way towards a full working product - one that you *know* meets the market it. Oh, and it *definitely* won't be your original vision.

Focus on the problem and the customer. If the customer wants the problem solved, they don't care if it's a well-built app doing it using AI or the founders taking care of the problem with a spreadsheet. Most first time founders focus on building a solution for a problem they think the customers will pay for. The focus becomes the solution, while the problem or the customer is not properly validated. This is a great recipe for keeping the founders busy for some time but not necessarily building a sustainable business that solves real problems. Problems first. Solutions next. When you do it for enough customers to know that this product is worth building, you can work on automation and building a better solution.

é Importante destacar a importancia de o ciclo construir-medir-aprender para o sucesso empresarial. Por exemplo: um aplicativo de entrega de alimentos organicos foi medido o engajamento dos usuários, coletado feedback e aprendemos que os clientes valorizavam a conveniência e a origem sustentável dos alimentos. Outro exemplo é uma plataforma de aprendizado de idiomas. Em ambos os casos, come?aram com vers?es simples dos produtos, mediram o engajamento dos usuários e coletaram feedback para melhorar continuamente. Ao longo do tempo, usando métricas de reten??o de usuários e eficácia do aprendizado, essa abordagem permite que adapte-se os produtos às necessidades e expectativas dos usuários?de?forma?útil.

Lean Startup methodology benefits entrepreneurs by significantly reducing the risk and cost associated with launching a new business. It enables them to test their hypotheses with minimal resources, learn from customer feedback early, and iterate rapidly, thus avoiding the development of products or services that do not meet market needs. By focusing on validated learning, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions, pivot when necessary, and find a market fit more efficiently. This approach fosters a culture of agility and adaptability, which is crucial for success in today's fast-paced business environment.

Lean Startup Benefits for Entrepreneurs: 1. Rapid Iteration: - Quick testing and adjustment of assumptions. - Accelerates learning through fast iteration cycles. 2. Customer-Centric Approach: - Focuses on understanding and meeting customer needs. - Prioritizes feedback to refine products/services. 3. Resource Efficiency: - Minimizes waste by avoiding large-scale development without validation. - Ensures optimal use of resources based on validated learning. 4. Risk Reduction: - Identifies and mitigates risks early in the development process. - Enhances adaptability to market changes, reducing overall risk.

Lean Startup helps entrepreneurs minimize risk by validating assumptions before investing significant time and resources into building a product. It enables faster innovation and adaptation to market changes by fostering a culture of experimentation and learning. Lean Startup encourages a customer-centric approach, leading to products and services that better meet customer needs and preferences. By prioritizing validated learning over intuition or guesswork, Lean Startup increases the likelihood of success and reduces the chance of failure.

Reduces Risk of Failure: Entrepreneurs can test assumptions early, learn from customer feedback, and avoid investing too much in unproven ideas, minimizing wasted resources. Speeds Up Innovation: Lean startup encourages quick iterations, allowing entrepreneurs to improve their product based on real data and customer feedback, leading to faster progress. Enhances Customer Satisfaction: By focusing on customer needs and preferences, entrepreneurs build products that are more likely to meet market demands and expectations.

I'm using the lean startup principles and models to coach my solopreneur clients. They have very good expertise, but struggle to get customers and create a sustainable revenue stream. I'm working with them to develop concrete assumptions, having cost-effective and quick ways to test their assumptions, and build upon the results of these experiments.

To get started with the Lean Startup methodology, first, identify the core problem your business intends to solve and articulate your key assumptions about the market and customer needs. Develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that allows you to test these assumptions with the least effort and resources. Use customer feedback on the MVP to learn about the market's actual needs and preferences. Analyze this feedback to decide whether to pivot (make a significant change to your product based on feedback) or persevere (continue developing your initial idea). Iterate this process, continuously refining your product based on validated learning from real customers, to build a solution that truly meets market demands.

I'd recommend the book Running Lean by Ash Maurya too. Very easy to read, practical, with great examples. Interesting story about he wrote the book itself by applying the lean startup principles.

- Set a vision - Translate the vision into falsifiable hypotheses - Specify MVP - Prioritise tests - Run tests and learn from them - Persevere, pivot or perish - Scale the business

I would recommend "The Startup Owner's Manual" by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. Not to read from cover to cover, but to use as a reference.

Familiarize yourself with the principles and techniques of Lean Startup by reading Eric Ries' book "The Lean Startup" and exploring online resources and case studies. Identify the key assumptions underlying your business idea and formulate hypotheses to test them. Develop an MVP that allows you to quickly and cost-effectively validate your assumptions with real customers. Implement a process for collecting and analyzing customer feedback, and iterate on your product or business model based on the insights gained.

Dinr (food industry), Movile (e-commerce), Aviron Interactive (fitness industry), Rent the Runway (apparel industry), EcoWash, GasBuddy and so many more

Lean startup principles have fostered impressive growth from modest beginnings. For instance, Dropbox, before building their platform, garnered thousands of sign-ups with a simple video concept validation, enabling focused development and rapid iteration based on user feedback. Similarly, Uber's initial SMS-based MVP for private car services allowed them to refine offerings and strategically expand into a global ride-hailing leader operating in over 900 cities. These success stories illustrate the power of prioritizing MVPs, gathering user feedback, and iterating rapidly, ultimately minimizing risk and maximizing growth potential.

Airbnb started with a basic website to rent out air mattresses during a conference in San Francisco. Uber initially launched as UberCab with a basic app and quickly responding to user feedback.

Dropbox is a notable lean startup success, starting with a simple video demonstrating its cloud storage concept. Buffer, a social media management tool, initially launched as a two-page website to gauge interest. Airbnb transformed from renting air mattresses to a global lodging giant using lean principles. Zappos, the online shoe retailer, began by taking pictures of shoes from local stores before building its inventory. These success stories highlight how starting small, testing ideas rapidly, and adjusting based on customer feedback can lead to significant growth and market impact, showcasing the effectiveness of lean startup principles in diverse industries.

Duas startups notáveis que adotaram o método da Startup Enxuta em suas fases iniciais s?o o Dropbox e o Airbnb. Ambas utilizaram princípios essenciais desse método, como o Desenvolvimento de Cliente, o Produto Mínimo Viável (MVP) e a aprendizagem validada, para crescer e se tornar líderes em seus respectivos mercados. A Dropbox enfrentou o desafio de convencer os usuários da necessidade de um servi?o de armazenamento na nuvem, optaram por criar um MVP na forma de um vídeo demo, mediram o interesse do público e só assim seguiram na constru??o do produto. A abordagem lean permitiu que o Airbnb se adaptasse rapidamente, com novos recursos com base no feedback dos usuários, de um simples site de listagem para uma das maiores plataformas.

One thing I learned from my mentor: when thinking of MVP ideas, it's not easy to get a breakthrough idea. For example, if you are an solopreneur selling your expertise services, the MVP can be some type of content, such as short post, long form, short video... Difficult to find a very unique idea for the MVP. But what you should pay attention to is WHAT you actually but in the MVP - the content! These should be VALUABLE INSIGHTS you got from interviews with clients. That'll help you to touch the potential clients' heart, and get some results from the experiement.

3 mindset you need to build in order to execute this is: 1) Start very small 2) Do not fall in love with the product, only the problem and customers 3) You're solving a problem with minimal wastage, that's it.

Lean startup methodology is essential for testing assumptions and learning from customers. Begin by identifying key assumptions about your business model and customer needs. Create a MVP quickly, utilizing no-code or low-code tools. Develop testable hypotheses and design experiments, such as customer interviews or landing page tests, to validate these assumptions. The goal is to get customers to pay a small fee for your product, proving real market demand. Working with an experienced venture builder can accelerate this process. They bring expertise, resources, and proven methodologies to help you avoid pitfalls and speed up the build-measure-learn cycle, refining your product and effectively reaching your target market.