Running Lean

Identify a Clear Problem: Start by pinpointing a specific problem that you or people in your target market are facing. This should be something that is not currently being solved effectively by existing solutions.

Develop a Hypothetical Solution: Based on the problem identified, brainstorm a solution that could potentially solve this problem. It doesn't have to be perfect or fully fleshed out at this stage.

Engage with Potential Customers: Reach out to individuals who are facing the problem you've identified. This can be done through surveys, interviews, or social media engagement. The goal is to gather feedback on whether your perceived problem is genuine and if your proposed solution would be of interest.

Iterate Based on Feedback: Use the feedback gathered to refine your problem statement and solution. This may involve tweaking your solution or even identifying a different problem altogether.

Validate the Solution: Once you have a refined solution, seek validation from your target audience again. This could involve creating a minimal viable product (MVP) and getting it into the hands of potential users for testing.

If you're aiming to solve the problem of busy professionals not having enough time to cook healthy meals, your initial solution might be a meal prep delivery service. You would then engage with busy professionals to validate both the problem and your proposed solution, iterating based on their feedback.

For someone looking to address the issue of inefficient water usage in residential homes, an initial solution could be a smart water management system. By engaging with homeowners and gathering feedback, the solution can be refined and validated to ensure it effectively addresses the problem.

Sketch Your Own Lean Canvas: Grab a piece of paper or use an online template and start filling out each section of the Lean Canvas. Begin with your value proposition, which is the problem you're solving or the need you're fulfilling for your customers.

Identify Your Customer Segments: Think about who your ideal customers are. Are they businesses or consumers? What are their needs and pain points? Write these down in the customer segments section.

Outline Your Channels and Revenue Streams: Consider how you'll reach your customers and how you'll make money. Will you sell directly online, through retailers, or both? What will be your primary source of income - product sales, subscriptions, or something else?

List Your Key Metrics: Determine what metrics or indicators will show that your business is successful. This could be the number of users, subscription rates, or revenue milestones.

Regularly Review and Update Your Lean Canvas: As you learn more about your market and customers, revisit your Lean Canvas. Update it to reflect new insights, which will help you pivot or adjust your strategy as needed.

Imagine you're launching a subscription-based meal planning service for busy professionals. Your Lean Canvas might highlight a value proposition of saving time and promoting healthy eating, customer segments might include working parents and single professionals, channels could be social media and partnerships with fitness centers, and revenue streams could be monthly subscription fees.

Consider a tech startup developing a project management tool for remote teams. The value proposition could focus on improving communication and efficiency, customer segments might be small to medium-sized businesses with remote workers, channels could be direct online sales and webinars, and revenue streams could include tiered subscription models based on team size.

Identify the Core Problem: Start by clearly defining the problem you are trying to solve. This will help you focus on what features are absolutely necessary for your MVP.

Engage with Potential Users Early: Before you even start building, talk to potential users. Understand their pain points and what solutions they might be looking for. This feedback is invaluable in shaping your MVP.

Build, Measure, Learn: Adopt a cycle of building a small feature set, measuring its impact through user feedback, and learning from the results. Then, iterate based on what you've learned. This keeps your development agile and responsive to user needs.

Prioritize Features Based on Feedback: Use the feedback from your early adopters to prioritize which features to develop next. Focus on what adds the most value to your users, not what seems cool or innovative.

Keep It Simple: Resist the temptation to add more features. Keep your MVP as simple as possible while still solving the core problem. This makes it easier to test hypotheses and iterate.

A startup aiming to improve personal finance management could start by creating an MVP that simply tracks daily expenses and income, rather than a full-featured app with budgeting, forecasting, and investment advice. Early user feedback might reveal that users are particularly interested in budgeting tools, guiding the next phase of development.

An online education platform might initially launch with just a handful of courses in a specific subject area to gauge interest and gather feedback on the format and content. This approach allows them to refine their teaching methods and course offerings based on actual user preferences before expanding their curriculum.

Start Small: Begin by implementing continuous deployment on a small scale. Choose a minor feature or update to release, and use this as a test case to refine your deployment process.

Automate Your Deployment Process: Use tools like Jenkins, Travis CI, or GitHub Actions to automate the steps of your deployment process. This reduces human error and frees up time for more important tasks.

Gather User Feedback Continuously: Set up mechanisms to collect user feedback as soon as you deploy a new update. This can be through in-app surveys, feedback forms, or direct customer outreach.

Iterate Based on Feedback: Use the feedback you gather to make informed decisions about what to improve or change in your next update. Prioritize changes that align with user needs and business goals.

Monitor Performance Metrics: Keep an eye on key performance indicators (KPIs) related to your updates. This could include user engagement metrics, bug reports, or downtime. Use these metrics to guide your continuous improvement efforts.

A small e-commerce website implements continuous deployment by automatically pushing code changes to their live site every week. They use A/B testing to compare user engagement between the new update and the previous version, allowing them to quickly iterate based on real user data.

A mobile app development team releases a new feature to 10% of their users to gather feedback before rolling it out to everyone. They use automated deployment tools to manage this process and collect user feedback through in-app surveys. Based on the feedback, they make necessary adjustments and then deploy the improved version to all users.

Identify Key Metrics: Before you start split testing, pinpoint the key metrics that matter most to your product's success. This could be anything from user sign-ups, time spent on your platform, to purchase rates. Knowing what you're measuring is crucial.

Create Two Versions: Design two versions (A and B) of the element you want to test. This could be a landing page, a feature within your app, or even an email campaign. Ensure the variations are distinct enough to measure but not so different that you're comparing apples to oranges.

Use Split Testing Tools: Leverage tools like Google Optimize, Optimizely, or VWO for your split testing. These platforms can help you distribute your versions evenly among your audience and collect data on their performance.

Analyze and Implement: After running the test for a significant amount of time, analyze the results. Look for statistically significant differences in performance between the two versions. Implement the winning version as the default, but don't stop there. Use the insights gained to inform future tests and continuous improvement.

Imagine you run an e-commerce site and you're unsure if adding customer reviews on product pages will increase sales. You create two versions of a product page: Version A (without customer reviews) and Version B (with customer reviews). By directing half of your traffic to each version, you can measure which one results in higher sales or engagement, thus making an informed decision based on actual user behavior.

Suppose you have an email newsletter and you're trying to improve open rates. You decide to test two different subject lines: Version A uses a straightforward approach ('This Week's News Digest'), while Version B uses a more intriguing, question-based approach ('Can You Guess What Changed This Week?'). By sending each version to a portion of your subscriber list, you can track which subject line generates a higher open rate, guiding your strategy for future emails.