(From David’s 7/25/15 post on medium.com, link here)
After 15 years advising startups and corporations, here are David’ top 7 learnings
- MVPs are optimized for learning, not scaling. Start at the Learn step of Build-Measure-Learn loop. What do you need to learn about the customer, the market, the problem? Your first solution probably isn’t the right one—starting with Learn helps avoid building the wrong solution straight away
- You decide what’s Minimum, the customer decides what’s Viable. The first iteration of an MVP by definition isn’t be the final solution—it generates the qualitative and quantitative data you’ll combine with your vision to create your final product
- Customer Pivots happen when you discover you focused on the wrong group of users. Problem Pivots happen when you didn’t start with users’ worst pain point. Solution Pivots happen when your solution isn’t a good fit—the value proposition resonates yet no one wants to use your solution
- Use Innovation Accounting correctly. It’s one of the most power concepts but hasn’t been fully realized
- Money can be hard to raise for a startup. Lean Startup might not make your product a unicorn, but it can significantly increase your chances of raising base hit funding
- Never stop customer discovery—analytics can only tell one part of the story. You must continually talk directly with customers to keep your product aligned with their needs
- Lean Startup will be the catalyst for the next generation of entrepreneurship and modern product development
