Have you heard? My new book Continuous Discovery Habits is now available. Get the product trio's guide to a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery. “I think we should use folders.”
“I think we should use tags.”
“I know. Let’s test them both.”
Does this sound familiar? I bet it does.
By far the most common mistake teams make when they are new to Lean Startup methodologies is they fall into the trap of substituting judgment with experimentation.
Instead of thinking through which option might work best, teams throw spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks.
This is both ineffective and expensive.
The Lean Startup gives us tools to test our judgment, not replace it. – Tweet This
As founders, product managers, and UXers, we still have knowledge and experience to bring to the table.
We can and should reason our way to good solutions.
The Lean Startup doesn’t change that.
It encourages us to maintain a state of doubt long enough to test our reasoning. – Tweet This
Instead of moving forward with certainty, the tools in the Lean Startup toolbox encourage us to pause and test our assumptions before barreling forward with a solution.
Just as scientists don’t test every permutation in their space, instead they use insights to identify the most promising experiments, we can and should do the same.
Next week, I’ll be speaking at The Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco, CA.
During my session, I’ll teach attendees how to ensure those insights occur.
We’ll do a “mapping the challenge” exercise that will help product teams learn how to explore the problem space, defining the goals and constraints of their challenge, so that they can better determine which experiments to choose next.
If you’ll be at The Lean Startup Conference, I’d love to have you join my session.
