Masters of Scale – Reid Hoffman:  Lean Startup’s Eric Ries

Masters of Scale – Reid Hoffman: Lean Startup’s Eric Ries

Forget writing that business plan. Design an experiment instead. So many products and companies fail because the assumptions in their beautiful business plans were just wrong. So stop writing and start testing. No one knows this better than Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and founder of the Long Term Stock Exchange.

After his first product failed, he developed a new method of product design based on running small, fast experiments, measuring the results, and learning from them.

It starts with establishing your own measure of success — then experimenting, improving, and trying over and over again. The feedback loop never stops.

Produce top-quality products in no time

Real-live experimentation

The skunk works project – a remarkable innovational response.

During World War II, the U.S. needed a response to the Germans’ first operational jet-powered fighter plane. Lockheed Martin took on the challenge but had no factory space and no spare engineers. Kelly Johnson, the chief engineer at Lockheed, was given the project and hand-picked a team to design a new way.

They worked under a circus tent and said that his engineers and fabricators were free to fabricate parts. They were able to create a prototype in a mere 143 days, which is remarkable for a jet aircraft. The Skunk Works project used a Minimum Viable Product concept before it became popularized in Silicon Valley.

Pivot and use the data

So I had this genius idea that as an emotional defense mechanism, I would write a blog post or two, writing some of these stories down.

And then the next time someone called me for a meeting, I would first say, “Hey, why don’t you read this blog post, and if you think I’m crazy, then maybe we don’t have to have the meeting – and please don’t yell at me.” Honestly, I really did not like that experience. 

Pivoting and staying flexible

Long-term stock exchange

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