Lean Startup summary notes + some closing thoughts

Over the last few days I finished reading and compiling my notes on The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. The summary notes are available from the Learning page.

I really enjoyed the book. I particularly like the build-measure-learn feedback loop, and the concept of small batches. This has the potential to be tremendously influential in how I conduct my projects and work. I feel naturally drawn to hypothesis-driven development, and Lean Startup seems to provide a decent framework to execute this idea.

I’m not quite so sold on the concept of Innovation Accounting. I really like the idea, that we should measure progress based on learning experiences (and on tuning the growth engine so that we progress towards the ideal), but I feel like this is putting lipstick on the pig that is “improve KPIs”. At least the book makes a strong effort to dissuade what it calls Vanity Metrics in favour of metrics that actually contribute to your current “engine of growth” strategy.

All in all, there’s lot of good things here (plenty more than I’ve mentioned). So I would recommend reading it – especially if you’re newer to this line of thinking (like myself).

-Michael.