The terms of the Lean Start-up movement (www.theleanstartup.com) such as minimum viable product (MVP), pivot, and continuous innovation have been common for several years. Ultimately, they trace back to the thinking approaches of agile software development and customer development concepts from the 1990s. From today’s perspective, these are approaches that apply not only to innovative start-ups but also to large companies – especially if they are also operating in an uncertain environment.
Some of the basic principles of Lean Start-ups are:
- Early involvement of customers in the discovery and design process
- Quick and regular feedback loops
- Iterative and incremental product development
- Working in agile development teams
- Constant verification or falsification of made assumptions and hypotheses
- Continuous cycling through the loop: Build – Measure – Learn
Steve Blank, the founder of the Customer Development concept, recently presented the origins and methods of Lean Start-ups again in a very readable HBR article Why The Lean Start Up Changes Everything.
But what are also the possible limitations of this method?
On one hand, incomplete and one-feature products are not in the interest of customers. They expect a well-thought-out and functionally deep product – and that is exactly different from a Lean Product.
On the other hand, in practice, there is occasionally a tendency to not have thought through the fundamental architectures. Various problems in later development steps and scaling stages are the late consequence.
What do you think?
The terms of the Lean Start-up movement (www.theleanstartup.com) such as minimum viable product (MVP), pivot, and continuous innovation have been common for several years. Ultimately, they trace back to the thinking approaches of agile software development and customer development concepts from the 1990s. From today’s perspective, these are approaches that apply not only to innovative start-ups but also to large companies – especially if they are also operating in an uncertain environment.
Some of the basic principles of Lean Start-ups are:
Steve Blank, the founder of the Customer Development concept, recently presented the origins and methods of Lean Start-ups again in a very readable HBR article Why The Lean Start Up Changes Everything.
But what are also the possible limitations of this method?
On one hand, incomplete and one-feature products are not in the interest of customers. They expect a well-thought-out and functionally deep product – and that is exactly different from a Lean Product.
On the other hand, in practice, there is occasionally a tendency to not have thought through the fundamental architectures. Various problems in later development steps and scaling stages are the late consequence.
What do you think?