The document discusses an approach called Lean Innovation to reduce the failure rate of new products. It recommends three steps: 1) Document your initial business plan or "Plan A", 2) Identify the riskiest assumptions in the plan, and 3) Systematically test those assumptions through experiments to validate problems and solutions with customers before building the full product. This approach advocates searching for the right solution instead of executing prematurely on ideas without customer validation. It also recommends scaling ideas in stages through three phases: problem/solution fit, product/market fit, and scale.

1. Succeeding with a Lean
Innovation Process
Ash Maurya - Founder of LEANSTACK, Author of “Scaling Lean”
IET10T
CA ACCELERATOR ZONE

2. 9/10startups fail
products

3. WHY do most new
products fail?

4. Here are a dozen reasons
1. No funding
2. Poor team
3. Poor product
4. Bad timing
5. No customers
6. Competition
7. Lack of focus
8. Lack of passion
9. Bad location
10. Not profitable
11. Burn out
12. Legal issues

5. About Me
ASH MAURYA
@ashmaurya
ash@leanstack.com

6. All my ideas started out as awesome ideas.

7. Not all them became awesome products.

8. Good ideas are rare and hard to find.

9. So I was ready for the search process.

10. But what really bothered me was my
cycle time between ideas.

11. 18-24 months between ideas.

12. Life’s Too Short to Build Something
Nobody Wants.

16. BACKWARDS

17. Show me
traction

18. How does this solve my problem?

20. #1reason why
new products fail

21. We waste needless time, money, and effort
building the wrong product.

22. Solution
Awesome
The Innovator Bias

23. Your business model, NOT your solution,
is THE product.
1st MINDSHIFT

24. http://RunningLean.co
200+ pages of HOW to do this!
575+ 5-Star reviews

25. 01 Document your Plan A
META-PRINCIPLES
02 Identify the riskiest parts of your plan
03 Systematically test your plan

26. Document your
Plan A

27. Reasonably smart people can rationalize
anything but entrepreneurs are
especially gifted at this.

28. Business Model versus Business Plan

29. Business Model versus Business Plan
A document investors make you
write that they don’t read

30. Business Model versus Business Plan
A single diagram of your business

31. Problem
Top 3 problems
Solution
Top 3 features
Unique Value
Proposition
Single, clear,
compelling message
that states why you
are different and
worth paying
attention
Unfair Advantage
Can’t be easily
copied or bought
Customer
Segments
Target customers
Key Metrics
Key activities you
measure
Channels
Path to customers
Cost Structure
Customer Acquisition Costs
Distribution Costs
Hosting
People, etc.
Revenue Streams
Revenue Model
Life Time Value
Revenue
Gross Margin
Lean Canvas is adapted from The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike 3.0 Un-ported License.
PRODUCT MARKET

35. Problem
Top 3 problems
Solution
Top 3 features
Unique Value
Proposition
Single, clear,
compelling message
that states why you
are different and
worth paying
attention
Unfair Advantage
Can’t be easily
copied or bought
Customer
Segments
Target customers
Key Metrics
Key activities you
measure
Channels
Path to customers
Cost Structure
Customer Acquisition Costs
Distribution Costs
Hosting
People, etc.
Revenue Streams
Revenue Model
Life Time Value
Revenue
Gross Margin
Lean Canvas is adapted from The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike 3.0 Un-ported License.
PRODUCT MARKET

36. Identify the riskiest parts
of your plan
Document your
Plan A

38. Systematically test
your plan
Identify the riskiest parts
of your plan
Document your
Plan A

39. What is an Experiment?

40. Systematically test
your plan
Identify the riskiest parts
of your plan
Document your
Plan A

41. Systematically test
your plan
Identify the riskiest parts
of your plan
Document your
Plan A
Business Model Development Process

42. Blog
Teaser
Page
Iterated
Time
How I Wrote My Book
RUNNING LEAN
Illustrated

44. WHATis the
riskiest assumption?

51. WHATis the
riskiest assumption?

52. ROADSTER

53. WHY did they use the
Lotus Esprit versus
another car model?

54. STAGE 2: MODEL S

55. STAGE 3: MODEL 3

56. Scale your idea in stages.
2nd MINDSHIFT

57. 3 Stages of a Product
PROBLEM/SOLUTION
FIT
PRODUCT/MARKET
FIT
SCALE
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

58. 3 Stages of a Product
PROBLEM/SOLUTION
FIT
PRODUCT/MARKET
FIT
SCALE
Do I have a problem worth solving?

59. You don’t need to build a product first to
find customers.
COUNTER-INTUITIVE PRINCIPLE

60. 3 Stages of a Product
PROBLEM/SOLUTION
FIT
PRODUCT/MARKET
FIT
SCALE
Have I built something people want?

61. You don’t need lots of customers to
validate your business model.
COUNTER-INTUITIVE PRINCIPLE

62. 3 Stages of a Product
PROBLEM/SOLUTION
FIT
PRODUCT/MARKET
FIT
SCALE
How do I accelerate growth?

63. Establishing repeatability is a pre-requisite
for growth.
COUNTER-INTUITIVE PRINCIPLE

64. Systematically test
your plan
Identify the riskiest parts
of your plan
Document your
Plan A
Business Model Development Process

65. Document
your Plan A
Time

67. Document
your Plan A
Time

68. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Time

69. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Time

70. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Time

71. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Define
Solution
Problem/Solution
Fit
Time

72. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Define
Solution
Problem/Solution
Fit
Time

73. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Define
Solution
Problem/Solution
Fit
Validate
Qualitatively
Time
Product/Market
Fit

74. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Define
Solution
Problem/Solution
Fit
Validate
Qualitatively
Scale
Verify
Quantitatively
Time
Product/Market
Fit

75. Document
your Plan A
Identify riskiest
parts of your plan
Systematically test
your plan
Understand
Problem
Define
Solution
Problem/Solution
Fit
Validate
Qualitatively
Scale
Verify
Quantitatively
Time
Product/Market
Fit

76. Search before execution.
3rd MINDSHIFT

77. One final takeaway…

78. You can’t brute force a solution…

79. Starting with a solution is like building a key
without a door.

80. ASH MAURYA
@ashmaurya
ash@leanstack.com
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