A comprehensive theory of entrepreneurship should address all the functions of an early-stage venture: vision and concept, product
development, marketing and sales, scaling up, partnerships and
distribution, and structure and organizational design. It has to
provide a method for measuring progress in the context of extreme
uncertainty. It can give entrepreneurs clear guidance on how to
make the many trade-off decisions they face: whether and when to
invest in process; formulating, planning, and creating infrastructure;
when to go it alone and when to partner; when to respond to
feedback and when to stick with vision; and how and when to
invest in scaling the business. Most of all, it must allow
entrepreneurs to make testable predictions.
For example, consider the recommendation that you build crossfunctional
teams and hold them accountable to what we call
learning milestones instead of organizing your company into strict
functional departments (marketing, sales, information technology,
human resources, etc.) that hold people accountable for performing
well in their specialized areas (see Chapter 7). Perhaps you agree
with this recommendation, or perhaps you are skeptical. Either
way, if you decide to implement it, I predict that you pretty quickly
will get feedback from your teams that the new process is reducing
their productivity. They will ask to go back to the old way of
working, in which they had the opportunity to “stay efficient” by
working in larger batches and passing work between departments.
It’s safe to predict this result, and not just because I have seen it
many times in the companies I work with. It is a straightforward
prediction of the Lean Startup theory itself. When people are used
to evaluating their productivity locally, they feel that a good day is
one in which they did their job well all day. When I worked as a
programmer, that meant eight straight hours of programming
without interruption. That was a good day. In contrast, if I was
interrupted with questions, process, or—heaven forbid—meetings, I
felt bad. What did I really accomplish that day? Code and product
features were tangible to me; I could see them, understand them,
and show them off. Learning, by contrast, is frustratingly intangible.
The Lean Startup asks people to start measuring their
productivity differently. Because startups often accidentally build
something nobody wants, it doesn’t matter much if they do it on
time and on budget. The goal of a startup is to figure out the right
thing to build—the thing customers want and will pay for—as
quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way
of looking at the development of innovative new products that
emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and
great ambition, all at the same time. p30
Raspberry Pi 🍓/ Carberry- Crowpi 🔧/ Augmented Reality💎 🔨👷 Engineers' interested in being drafted on our Team roster send an inquiry to: anunnakigoldltd@gmail.com or stanfordstartupscamp@gmail.com 🌃 (currently drafting for all-female engineering team)
0 Comments