4+1 main pillars of Lean Startup — Issue #4
The Minimun Viable Product is a version of a new product that allows the entrepreneur to reach the maximum amount of validated knowledge toward customers by applying the least feasible amount of effort.
Although the definition is somewhat complicated it can be schematized through the setting up of a prototype that has minimum characteristics to suffice validation of the business hypotheses made.
An MVP therefore represents the synthesis of all the features that solve the problem for our Early Adopters; the goal is not to make a product that is incomplete but to make a product that would be enough to allow for tests and experimental telltales.
“Minimal”, as an adjective, doesn’t stand hereby as a synonym of “scarce” but as something that has been built by using the least possible amount of resources.
The prototype must therefore be a summary of the basic features and must be able to bring value to the customer, it must be able to solve the problem within the first range of customers.
Obviously, only through continuous development we can, through learning, pass from a prototype to the final product or service.
The continuous development cycle is very important because we need to be able not only to develop the product or service by implementing new features but also to learn from what our customers tell us through feedback and, whenever possible, even from what they do not tell us — for example by analyzing how they actively use our product or service.
It is therefore necessary to measure every single step, every stage of their experience of using our product or service, to continue to improve the product and to understand what characteristics to eliminate, because even if for our viewpoint they are of value, they actually might turn out to be secondary.
The entrepreneur must try to keep his strategy as flexible as possible; the product will become the consequence of both the applied strategy both the experimental attempts carried out — this strategy may change many times, as indicated by the word Pivot.
The continuous development cycle withinward the Lean Startup context is an optimum development procedure that takes into account both the experience of users both the mistakes to troubleshoot.
It aims to measure the new features introduced and the effect of the removed features.
Once we have found the right balance between product and market, our clientele might increase exponentially, allowing the entrepreaneur to scale the idea of a business model.
But what does it mean to be scalable?
Acervating the business model means finding a way to accelerate growth, expand the business to more markets or more types of customers — this is absolutely important for our startup to become a true profitable business.
Theoretically, we can point out that to start a scalability process we need to refine the MVP with features we have deliberately not implemented yet but that we try to add step by step through a steady learning.
We said that collecting feedback from our users is critical to learn, and to do that, Lean Startup tips us up with two keypoints: testing and metrics.
Regarding the methodologies of analysis, Lean Startup places great emphasis on the Split Testing, also called A / B Testing, which propels an experiment in which two different versions of the product or service (two products with different characteristics) are offered to customers at the same time.
Instead of comparing the results serially (one after the other) which is making changes to the features of your product or service one day at a time and then offering an “upgraded” product every time to our customers (a traditional way to do it), in Split Testing this is done as different customer groups experience different products trials at the same time, allowing evaluating which of these groups has had better performance more easily and with more data to refer to; the results we receive allow us to define our metrics.
But what are metrics?
Metrics indicate an pointer that is used to measure the performance of the product or service offered.
It is pivotal to point out that there is no standard metric to adhere to, which is good for all startups and for all products and services, as finding the right one is what every entrepreneur is expected to learn to steer their own startup to triumph.
An entrepreaneur should also learn to understand when it is time to change the chosen type of metrics in parallel with the evolution of business and through the knowledge of customers and market that has been acquired over time.
The Lean Startup methodology pays particular attention to the difference between Vanity Metrics, those indicators that are not helpful at defining the course of your business path, and the Actionable Metrics, the influential metrics for our business.
Metrics to consider are those indicators that have effective action that can be understood and are accessible by everyone within the company.
We can then summarize it by saying that “actionable” metrics are something that binds to specific actions and is repeatable to clear achievements.
Finally, the concept of Pivot can be defined as the moment when it is understood that none of the experiments in progress is yielding the expected results and therefore it is necessary to change direction towards a new strategy that allows new experiments.
A Pivot is therefore a change of strategy without changing our Vision.
Lean Startup is a rigorous process to face out of plane A to reach a plan that works — Ash Maurya
But what do we mean by Vision?
Vision, in the startup ecosystem, shows how the entrepreneur imagines the market after their product or service has reached the goals set, indicating in some way the point of arrival of our business venture, the goal that we do want to reach.
Having a clear and well-defined Vision also means pushing away everything that put the project out of the goal you want to achieve.
It won’t only be important to the success of the business project, such Vision; it will be important for a clear sharing with other people involved in the project such as stakeholders and team members above all.
It will be important to find the people who fit the Vision best and the honest and truthful sharing of that will allow the team members to ride together in the same direction.
The entrepreneur must also cultivate this ability, be open and sincere without considering the startup as his “jewel” or “treasure” but as “only an attempt”, a simple theory to validate.
Photos by Scott Webb, Sebastian Davenport, Todd Quackenbush, Kelly Sikkema, Maarten van den Heuvel.
