The Top 3 Lean Startup Books to Inspire Your Business
These three lean startup books guide founders on the best practices and principles to go from product inception to launch without wasting time or money.
Which lean startup books should you add to your reading list?
Whether you’re trying to grow your idea into a legitimate business or want to launch a new product, hearing advice from the top experts in this field may inspire you with a winning game plan.
After all, running a startup isn’t easy. And if you have staff relying on your success or investors breathing down your neck, the pressure to get this right the first time is even more intense.
The authors of the lean startup books in this quick guide know what works. So you can follow their lead and run toward the finish line with fewer hiccups and headaches getting in your way.
Before we get to their strategies, let’s first make sure we’re all on the same page by answering this question:
What Does It Really Mean to Be a Lean Startup?
If you’re not familiar with the term “lean startup,” you may initially think it refers to operating your business on a shoestring budget. Though tight funding is one of the first things to expect when working at a startup, that’s not what this means.
Lean startup methodology focuses on developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to launch ASAP. The process involves running experiments and creating multiple iterations based on customer feedback until you have a winner.
When you get the MVP out quickly to a small “test” group of customers, you can determine:
- Whether your product/service is truly valuable to your target audience
- What customers like and dislike
- Which tweaks need to be made
- Which metrics you can improve
- An accurate price point/pricing model
Once your team generates this feedback from a select few, you can confidently update your product and successfully launch it to the masses.
So rather than losing a bunch of money or tarnishing your reputation launching a product with glaring problems, operating in this manner helps you work out all the kinks before hitting the big leagues.
You’ll find all the details on how to manage this process in the three lean startup books up next.
The Top 3 Lean Startup Books to Inspire Your Business
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to lean startup principles or best practices. You’re already moving mountains to disrupt markets or industries, especially if you’re one of the newest UK startups changing the world or aspiring to be like one of these awesome green startups.
So follow the roadmaps outlined by the authors of these three lean startup books, and your business can find success early on and well into the future:
1. The Lean Product Playbook
The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen is an easy-to-read guide that teaches you the fundamentals of building products that people actually want (and investors love).
Using a clear step-by-step path, you’ll find guidance about how to put lean principles into real-world practice. You’ll also have a repeatable plan to help your team iterate products so well that your customers can’t wait to get their hands on them.
Olsen’s book also helps you figure out who your target customers really are. He walks you through how to uncover their actual needs, create a product strategy that resonates with them, build and test your MVP, and iterate it swiftly.
Since Olsen teaches you how to deliver exactly what your customers are looking for, it’s one of the best all-around lean startup books to begin with.
2. The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is another popular book in this category, and for good reason.
Ries illuminates readers on how to create exceptional products while facing an uphill battle of uncertainty, something most startups can identify with.
His approach focuses on “validating learning” and rapid scientific experiments, which he shows you how to tackle. You’ll learn how to test your vision and make adjustments before it’s too late.
Ries’s method assures readers that they can reduce their product development cycles, track progress without using vanity metrics, and uncover what customers are really looking for.
He also shows founders how to be more efficient with their capital and shares his ideas on what it takes to find the right talent as a startup. Ries even provides helpful tips for leveraging and pulling the creativity out of your team so you can build the best products possible.
So if you’re coming from an engineering background or want a more scientific approach to reaching startup success, this book may be the best one for you.
3. Lean Analytics
Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll is another must-read when it comes to getting the lean startup methodology right.
Croll helps readers minimize the risk of building a product that no one wants by showing them how to use data to make informed, strategic decisions. He walks you through how to validate your product, deciding what to build, how to monetize, and what it takes to create product/brand awareness.
But Croll’s main focus throughout the book is teaching readers to pay attention to The One Metric That Matters.
You’ll learn how to concentrate solely on improving this to get your business ahead. And if you discover that your product isn’t going to work based on that metric, Croll shows you how to pivot and briskly change course so you don’t waste time or money.
Croll even shares 30 case studies and a year’s worth of interviews from 100 startup founders and investors. This bonus can be a major help if you’re someone who likes to see real-world examples of lean startup principles in action.
Final Thoughts on These 3 Lean Startup Books
Whether you read one of these lean startup books or all three, your business will be stronger and more successful thanks to your effort.
Running a lean startup is no easy feat — with constant pressure from investors and the need to launch products quickly that people will love, it pays to lean on the experts (no pun intended) and follow their best practices.
Having a clear plan of attack may prevent costly mistakes, speed up your time to launch, and save your team from crippling stress.
With this intel under your belt, you may just develop the product or service that takes your startup to next-level profits and ultimate greatness.
Did we miss any lean startup books you can vouch for? Share your thoughts and let us know!
PS: If you’re looking to add more talent to your team, you don’t need to experiment to find the best startup job board on the planet (hint: it’s UnicornHunt)!
