Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster
Marc Andreesen once said that “markets that don’t exist don’t care how smart you are.” Whether you’re a startup founder trying to disrupt an industry, or an intrapreneur trying to provoke change from within, your biggest risk is building something nobody wants.Lean Analytics can help. By measuring and analyzing as you grow, you can validate whether a problem is real, find the right customers, and decide what to build, how to monetize it, and how to spread the word. Focusing on the One Metric That Matters to your business right now gives you the focus you need to move ahead–and the discipline to know when to change course.Written by Alistair Croll (Coradiant, CloudOps, Startupfest) and Ben Yoskovitz (Year One Labs, GoInstant), the book lays out practical, proven steps to take your startup from initial idea to product/market fit and beyond. Packed with over 30 case studies, and based on a year of interviews with over a hundred founders and investors, the book is an invaluable, practical guide for Lean Startup practitioners everywhere.
Q. Why is your book timely– what makes it important right now?
A. There’s been a flurry of startup activity made possible by the lowered barriers to entry of cloud computing, social media, and app platforms. But there’s less accountability. If you look at the numbers, it’s a bloodbath: you’re almost certain to fail. One reason for this is that founders are delusional. But data doesn’t lie, and the right data in the right place at the right time can change your business (to steal from Steward Brand.) That’s what this book is about– using data to build a better business faster.
Q. What information do you hope that readers of your book will walk away with?
A. We have a ton of concrete data– ideas of what’s normal; what metric to watch at what time; and so on. But more than any of this, we hope they’ll come away with an experimental eye, realizing that they’re not building a product. Instead, they’re building a tool to figure out what product to build.
Q. What’s the most exciting and/ or important thing happening in your space?
A. That nearly every mature industry is ripe for disruption. An entrepreneur, working within a host organization, can absolutely revitalize the business (as Procter & Gamble did when it introduced Swiffer, for example.) And a small business can tackle giants or entrenched competitors by being more agile (as Uber did to taxis, or Airbnb did to hotels.) Mops, taxis, and rentals aren’t new. But they’re hugely susceptible to change if it’s applied in a measured, careful way.
