We talk a lot at Creative HQ about Lean Startup Methodology. We’ve been using it with our startups since the term’s inception in 2006. So, what is lean startup methodology?
Read on to find out – and if you want to know how it can help your business – whether you’re a startup, a business or a government agency – get in touch.
Startup success can be engineered by following the process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.”– Eric Ries
WHAT IS LEAN STARTUP?
The Lean Startup methodology provides best practice to innovate at speed in the face of dynamic market forces and external disruption.
Coined by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Eric Ries, Lean Startup methodology is all about maximizing impact with minimal resources at extreme pace. Whether you are building a high-growth tech startup, a mobile app, a piece of hardware, working in a non-profit, or in a multinational organisation, adopting Lean Startup methodology can help you overcome obstacles and set up effective systems.
THE MAIN POINTS OF LEAN STARTUP METHODOLOGY
- You can apply the scientific method to business
- Entrepreneurs are everywhere
- Entrepreneurship is management
- Validated learning
- Build-measure-learn
- Innovation accounting
SO JUST WHAT IS LEAN STARTUP?
The Lean Startup methodology makes starting up a business a science rather than an art. It creates and manages startups to get a product into customers’ hands faster – saving both time and money. The Lean Startup methodology teaches you how to steer, when to pivot, when to keep going and how to grow your business with acceleration.
VALUE VS WASTE
Lean Startup Methodology teaches that anything you can only improve your product by measuring what customers actually do and will pay for. Anything you do which is not contributing to learning what your customers want, is a form of waste. To discover what your customers want, you must build a “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP) because if you don’t know what your customers WANT, you won’t be able to build it.
PRINCIPLES OF LEAN STARTUP
FOUNDERS CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE
Creative HQ firmly believes that founders are everywhere – whether that’s at a startup, an established business or a government agency.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS MANAGEMENT
As The Lean Startup says, “a startup is an institution, not just a product, so it requires management”. For Creative HQ, this means that we don’t just teach you how to start something, we give you the tools to manage a project or a business in an entrepreneurial manner. We take the guesswork out of innovation and make it a process, not just a “hope for the best” scenario.
BE SUSTAINABLE
Creative HQ thrives because we teach you to be sustainable. This means that you are taught how to test each element of your project, what you need to learn from those tests and how you can shift your project or business into a sustainable model.
INNOVATION ACCOUNTING
As fun as startups are (and don’t doubt they are!), we need to do the boring stuff like measuring progress, milestones, prioritise work and more. A focus on process will lead to entrepreneurial success.
BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN
We teach that we must turn ideas into products, measure the response and then pivot or persevere. Accelerating this feedback loop, regardless of your industry, means that you do not waste valuable time building a solution that doesn’t fit their needs.
HOW CAN LEAN STARTUP HELP YOUR BUSINESS?
When done right, collaborations between large organisations and startups can have ‘win-win-win’ results. Large organisations get to tap into the ingenious local talent. Startups get to work with a high calibre client and see the direct impact of their solutions applied to a large customer base. And finally, consumers win because the solutions put out by startups are customer-centric, innovative and intuitive.
