The Lean Approach
“No business plan survives first contact with customers.” — Steve Blank
The lean approach is a way to think about the start up process that emphasizes the business model over the business plan, and encourages a process of customer discovery and development, and iteration to achieve the right product/market fit. Steve Blank explains this method and several of its crucial elements, providing practical advice about how to implement this approach in your startup.
Transcript
For 21 years I did eight startups in a variety of industries; two semiconductor companies, enterprise software, video games, consumer electronics, military intelligence. And it was the most exciting thing I could imagine spending my life doing. But now for the last 14 years I’ve been an educator. I’ve been teaching entrepreneurs how to think a different way about startups and how to build their companies in a very efficient way. Hi, I’m Steve Blank. I’m a retired serial entrepreneurial.
In this series we’re going to talk about two big ideas, how are startups different from large companies. And that second thing is something called The Lean Startup. And inside The Lean Startup we’re going to talk about the customer development process. We’re going to talk about how to build a minimum viable product, how to build prototypes. And then we’re going to talk about customer acquisition. How do you actually get out of the building, talk to customers and get them, you know, to use or buy your product.