Adopting Lean Startup methods to validate ideas
The Lean Startup method was devised based on the company start-up experiences of its author, Eric Rees. It aims to shorten product development times by using a hypothesis-driven incremental delivery approach, which is combined with validated learning.
In the following section, we'll provide a brief introduction to Lean Startup thinking and how this might apply generally, not just to organizations that are in their start-up phase.
Build, Measure, Learn
We mentioned just now that Lean Startup is a hypothesis-driven approach; let's pull this apart a little for more understanding. The hypothesis-driven approach involves setting up an experiment to test out if a theory we have has legs or not. It could be as simple as writing a statement with the following template:
- We believe that by creating this experience
- For these people
- We will get this result
- And we'll know this is true when we see this happening
A hypothesis has four parts:
- The belief: This is something...
