The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Validated learning is absolutely essential for startups. Validated learning is defined as a process in which one learns by trying out an initial idea and then measuring it to validate the effect. It's easy to kid yourself about what customers want and it's also easy to learn things which are irrelevant.

Productivity in a start up is not about producing things it is about how much validated learning we're getting for our efforts.



Use experiments to test hypothesis and gain results. Don't use guesswork or focus groups and put a product out there to find out later that your ideas failed.

One of the follies of existing market research is to ask a customer what they want. The problem with this is that many customers don't know what they really want. Creating an experiment proves what they want.

1. Break down the experiment into its component parts and test the assumptions. 
1. Test the value hypothesis, whether a product delivers value to customers once they are using it.
2. Test the growth hypothesis, which tests how new customers will discover a product aka how will it spread.

An experiment can be summed up by treating a product / business as an experiment, identify the elements of the plan that are assumptions rather than facts, and figure out ways to test them. 

Use experiments to determine which of our efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful.

You can use experiments to get quantitative data on whether something works or a customer wants to sign up. If those experiments fail, you have a great pool of subjects to go get qualitative data from.