Written by Felipe Martinez Rodriguez
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 8:11 am
Running Lean Method: How to successfully iterate my plan?
“It is a systematic methodology to iterate from a plan A to a plan that works, before resources are exhausted,” is how Ash Maurya, author of the book “Running Lean” , defined this well-known method that is used and applied in the world of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Why do products and services fail? The answer is that products or services are built that nobody wants, where we have two leaps of faith:
Can we build it?
Is anyone interested?
The way to avoid building the wrong products and services is to know what your customers really want. So the question arises: Does the customer have all the answers? The answer is yes, but we can't ask them directly. “You can't just ask phone number in philippines customers what they want and then try to give it to them. New ideas come from observation, from talking to people, from constantly asking questions and getting out of the office,” explained Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple
What does Ash Maurya propose to avoid failed products and services?
Step 1: Describe your initial idea in writing
Lean Canvas is Ash Maurya's step-by-step tool for creating successful products and services.
Identify three most important problems that the value proposition solves for target customers:
Think about where or how customers solve those problems now. List those resources because they are your competition.
Ask why people will pay for the product and what makes it different or better enough to compel them to buy.
Focus the value proposition to attract key early adopters in a way that is highly practical for them.
With Plan A, determine the plan components that carry the greatest risk and develop different versions of the plan for each client group.
Step 2: Create a Lean team
Once you have identified your target customers and selected the most critical hypotheses, it is time to start talking to people to test assumptions. Form a small team to learn and build MVPs of your product or service. The ideal team should have development, design, and marketing skills.
Note: It is not necessary to leave your daily jobs or tasks at the beginning. You can keep everything, especially in the marketing area of the company.
Step 3: Talk to customers to learn
Talk to customers about their problems, but don't talk about solutions. Don't ask what they want, because you won't get useful answers.
To determine what they really want, you need to observe what they really do. Structure an interview script and try to maintain a personal relationship.
The first major milestone for a startup is achieving product-market fit which is not just about building the right product but about building a scalable business model that works.
Recommendations for conducting interviews:
Conduct three rounds of interviews, with ten people in each group.
Focus on:
The problems you have identified to solve.
The solution.
Minimum viable product (MVP).
Introduce yourself and explain the reasons for the interview.
Ask specific questions to confirm your target customer group.
Conclude interviews by sharing your concept. Tell your story in two minutes. Ask if you can follow up later and see if they can suggest other potential clients you should interview.
Conduct interviews in pairs. Talk to 30 clients and stop when you are not learning anything new from the interviews.
Step 4: Design the problems that the solution will address
Ask respondents to rank the problems in order of importance. Ask how they solve those problems now.
Persist for details, explore any new issues that arise, and assess their level of enthusiasm for solving each problem.
Review and evolve interviews as learning increases.
If no one rates one of the issues as important, remove it and introduce an issue that is important to the interview customers.
Listen carefully to descriptions of the alternatives (your competitors) that customers use to solve their problems.
Once you have identified your target customers, find out their problems and look for solutions to solve them.
“It is a systematic methodology to iterate from a plan A to a plan that works, before resources are exhausted,” is how Ash Maurya, author of the book “Running Lean” , defined this well-known method that is used and applied in the world of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Why do products and services fail? The answer is that products or services are built that nobody wants, where we have two leaps of faith:
Can we build it?
Is anyone interested?
The way to avoid building the wrong products and services is to know what your customers really want. So the question arises: Does the customer have all the answers? The answer is yes, but we can't ask them directly. “You can't just ask phone number in philippines customers what they want and then try to give it to them. New ideas come from observation, from talking to people, from constantly asking questions and getting out of the office,” explained Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple
What does Ash Maurya propose to avoid failed products and services?
Step 1: Describe your initial idea in writing
Lean Canvas is Ash Maurya's step-by-step tool for creating successful products and services.
Identify three most important problems that the value proposition solves for target customers:
Think about where or how customers solve those problems now. List those resources because they are your competition.
Ask why people will pay for the product and what makes it different or better enough to compel them to buy.
Focus the value proposition to attract key early adopters in a way that is highly practical for them.
With Plan A, determine the plan components that carry the greatest risk and develop different versions of the plan for each client group.
Step 2: Create a Lean team
Once you have identified your target customers and selected the most critical hypotheses, it is time to start talking to people to test assumptions. Form a small team to learn and build MVPs of your product or service. The ideal team should have development, design, and marketing skills.
Note: It is not necessary to leave your daily jobs or tasks at the beginning. You can keep everything, especially in the marketing area of the company.
Step 3: Talk to customers to learn
Talk to customers about their problems, but don't talk about solutions. Don't ask what they want, because you won't get useful answers.
To determine what they really want, you need to observe what they really do. Structure an interview script and try to maintain a personal relationship.
The first major milestone for a startup is achieving product-market fit which is not just about building the right product but about building a scalable business model that works.
Recommendations for conducting interviews:
Conduct three rounds of interviews, with ten people in each group.
Focus on:
The problems you have identified to solve.
The solution.
Minimum viable product (MVP).
Introduce yourself and explain the reasons for the interview.
Ask specific questions to confirm your target customer group.
Conclude interviews by sharing your concept. Tell your story in two minutes. Ask if you can follow up later and see if they can suggest other potential clients you should interview.
Conduct interviews in pairs. Talk to 30 clients and stop when you are not learning anything new from the interviews.
Step 4: Design the problems that the solution will address
Ask respondents to rank the problems in order of importance. Ask how they solve those problems now.
Persist for details, explore any new issues that arise, and assess their level of enthusiasm for solving each problem.
Review and evolve interviews as learning increases.
If no one rates one of the issues as important, remove it and introduce an issue that is important to the interview customers.
Listen carefully to descriptions of the alternatives (your competitors) that customers use to solve their problems.
Once you have identified your target customers, find out their problems and look for solutions to solve them.