Synopses & Reviews
We live in an age of unparalleled opportunity for innovation. Were building more products than ever before, but most of them fail—not because we cant complete what we set out to build, but because we waste time, money, and effort building the wrong product.
What we need is a systematic process for quickly vetting product ideas and raising our odds of success. Thats the promise of Running Lean.
In this inspiring book, Ash Maurya takes you through an exacting strategy for achieving a "product/market fit" for your fledgling venture, based on his own experience in building a wide array of products from high-tech to no-tech. Throughout, he builds on the ideas and concepts of several innovative methodologies, including the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and bootstrapping.
Running Lean is an ideal tool for business managers, CEOs, small business owners, developers and programmers, and anyone whos interested in starting a business project.
- Find a problem worth solving, then define a solution
- Engage your customers throughout the development cycle
- Continually test your product with smaller, faster iterations
- Build a feature, measure customer response, and verify/refute the idea
- Know when to "pivot" by changing your plans course
- Maximize your efforts for speed, learning, and focus
- Learn the ideal time to raise your "big round" of funding
Get on track with The Lean SeriesPresented by Eric Ries—bestselling author of
The Lean Startup: How Todays Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses—The Lean Series gives you solid footing in a proven methodology that will help your business succeed.
Review
Praise for Natalie MacNeil
“We need more miracle workers in leadership positions, and I love Natalie and the work shes contributing to the world in the service of others.” —Gabrielle Bernstein, New York Times-bestselling author of May Cause Miracles
“Its fantastic what you are doing . . . You inspire me.”
—Arianna Huffington
“Natalie MacNeil was one of the very first entrepreneur-writers invited to blog on ForbesWoman, and for good reason. Her blog, like her book, is smart, upbeat, inspirational, and full of practical advice for women who want to own their dream careers.”
—Caroline Howard, editor of Forbes Woman
Praise for She Takes On the World
“Stop listening to what other people are saying about how you should live your life and start reading Natalie MacNeils book, which will help you gain control over your future. In this uplifting chronicle of her experiences, coupled with timeless career advice, you will become smarter and more confident in your career.”
—Dan Schawbel, New York Times-bestselling author of Promote Yourself
Synopsis
Are you an entrepreneur about to create a new web application? If you want to maximize your chances of building something customers want, this book demonstrates ways to apply and test techniques for customer development, Lean Startup, and bootstrapping. Learn how to identify and engage customers throughout the development cycle so you can focus on building a product that people will actually buy and use.
By rigorously following the techniques described in this updated edition, you can eliminate waste—whether it's time, money, effort, or all of the above—and get your product to market quickly. Refined through the real-world experiences of dozens of startup companies, these techniques are part of Eric Ries' Lean Startup methodology.
Principles covered in this book include:
- Find a problem worth solving, then define a solution
- Demo before building
- Pricing is part of the product
- Maximize for speed, learning, and focus
- Build a continuous feedback loop with customers throughout the product development cycle
- Right Action, Right Time
- Build a path to customers from day one
"In Running Lean, Ash Maurya lays out a clear, practical plan for giving your startup the best possible chance. We used his approach at Year One Labs with every one of our startups. It's the best way for new companies to find their groove, explain their business model, and ultimately, grow their business." —Alistair Croll, founding partner, Year One Labs
Synopsis
Business plans are one of the last remaining spaces in publishing where intimidating lingo, dry writing, and overly long verbiage are still the norm. You know what these books look likebig and manual-like, theres usually a middle-aged man standing with his arms crossed (or pointing!) on the cover, making promises in all caps about the money youll make.
The Conquer Kit is an interactive journal experience that brings business planning into the realm of play. Readers are invited to sketch, scribble, glue, dream, and write on the pages . . . all while developing an airtight business plan with proven money-making methods and strategies. Author and entrepreneur Natalie MacNeil encourages readers to build a strong foundation with the four pillars of every successful business (the right name, the right business setup and entity, a sound legal structure, and a basic financial system), create heart-centric products and marketing plans, put together their A team, envision the bigger picture, and bring their dream business to life.
About the Author
Natalie MacNeil is an Emmy Awardwinning media producer; the author of (self-published)
She Takes On the World: A Guide to Being Your Own Boss, Working Happy, and Living on Purpose; and the creator of SheTakesOnTheWorld.com.
SheTakesOnTheWorld.com is one of the top sites on the planet for entrepreneurial women. It was recognized by Forbes as one of the Top 10 Websites for Entrepreneurial Women” and was featured by Forbes Woman as one of the Top 100 Websites for Women.” She Takes On the World was also named the 2013 website of the year at the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
MacNeil is frequently quoted and interviewed in the media. She has appeared on top media outlets including CNN and in Glamour, People StyleWatch, Inc., Forbes, Forbes Woman, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur.com, The Globe and Mail, Mashable, and more.
Table of Contents
; Praise for Running Lean, Second Edition; Foreword; Preface; Safari® Books Online; We'd Like to Hear from You; Attributions and Permissions; Introduction; What Is Running Lean?; About Me; Disclaimers; Roadmap; Chapter 1: Meta-Principles; 1.1 Step 1: Document Your Plan A; 1.2 Step 2: Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan; 1.3 Step 3: Systematically Test Your Plan; Chapter 2: Running Lean Illustrated; 2.1 Case Study: How I Wrote Iterated This Book; Document Your Plan A; Chapter 3: Create Your Lean Canvas; 3.1 Brainstorm Possible Customers; 3.2 Sketching a Lean Canvas; 3.3 Now It's Your Turn; Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan; Chapter 4: Prioritize Where to Start; 4.1 What Is Risk?; 4.2 Rank Your Business Models; 4.3 Seek External Advice; Chapter 5: Get Ready to Experiment; 5.1 Assemble a Problem/Solution Team; 5.2 Running Effective Experiments; 5.3 Applying the Iteration Meta-Pattern to Risks; Systematically Test Your Plan; Chapter 6: Get Ready to Interview Customers; 6.1 No Surveys or Focus Groups, Please; 6.2 But Talking to People Is Hard; 6.3 Finding Prospects; 6.4 Preemptive Strikes and Other Objections (or Why I Don't Need to Interview Customers); Chapter 7: The Problem Interview; 7.1 What You Need to Learn; 7.2 Testing the Problem; 7.3 Formulate Falsifiable Hypotheses; 7.4 Conduct Problem Interviews; 7.5 Do You Understand the Problem?; Chapter 8: The Solution Interview; 8.1 What You Need to Learn; 8.2 Testing Your Solution; 8.3 Testing Your Pricing; 8.4 Formulate Testable Hypotheses; 8.5 Conduct Solution Interviews; 8.6 Do You Have a Problem Worth Solving?; Chapter 9: Get to Release 1.0; 9.1 Product Development Gets in the Way of Learning; 9.2 Reduce your mVP; 9.3 Get Started Deploying Continuously; 9.4 Define your activation Flow; 9.5 Build a Marketing Website; Chapter 10: Get Ready to Measure; 10.1 The Need for Actionable Metrics; 10.2 Metrics Are People First; 10.3 Simple Funnel Reports Aren't Enough; 10.4 Say Hello to the Cohort; 10.5 How to Build Your Conversion Dashboard; Chapter 11: The MVP Interview; 11.1 What You Need to Learn; 11.2 Formulate Testable Hypotheses; 11.3 Conduct MVP Interviews; Chapter 12: Validate Customer Lifecycle; 12.1 Make Feedback Easy; 12.2 Troubleshoot Customer Trials; 12.3 Are You Ready to Launch?; Chapter 13: Don't Be a Feature Pusher; 13.1 Features Must Be Pulled, Not Pushed; 13.2 Implement an 80/20 Rule; 13.3 Constrain Your Features Pipeline; 13.4 Process Feature Requests; 13.5 The Feature Lifecycle; Chapter 14: Measure Product/Market Fit; 14.1 What Is Product/Market Fit?; 14.2 The Sean Ellis Test; 14.3 Focus on the "Right" Macro; 14.4 What About Revenue?; 14.5 Have You Built Something People Want?; 14.6 What About the Market in Product/Market Fit?; 14.7 Summary; Chapter 15: Conclusion; 15.1 What's Next?; 15.2 Resources; Bonus Material; How to Build a Low-Burn Startup; Why Premature Fundraising Is a Form of Waste; How to Achieve Flow in a Lean Startup; How to Set Pricing for a SaaS Product; How to Build a Teaser Page; How to Get Started with Continuous Deployment; How to Build a Conversion Dashboard;