The Lean startup method is based on five fundamental principles:
- Entrepreneurs are everywhere. They work in companies of all dimensions, in all sectors and in conditions of great uncertainty.
- Entrepreneurship is a form of management. A new type of management is needed, one that can operate in uncertain conditions, because a startup is an institution.
- Validated learning. It is thought that startups create products, when they actually learn how to create a sustainable business. Learning happens through frequent experiments that enable companies to continually check in on the central vision.
- Build-Measure-Learn. This is a cycle of feedback that involves three main activities: the transforming of ideas into products, the measurement of customer reaction, and the understanding whether to persevere with an idea or to try a new angle.
- Accounting for innovation. Any progress made needs to be measured, milestones must be set and priorities defined about which tasks to be performed. This improves the overall outcome of entrepreneurial activity.
The lean startup method springs from existing theories and they are: lean manufacturing, design thinking (a design theory that brings creativity and operative solutions together), from customer development and from agile development (the light method of developing software). Everything is based on lean manufacturing and the scientific way in which measurements are made, which enables validated learning. The whole entrepreneurial process can be divided into three steps: vision, guidance and acceleration. The book is divided into these three parts.
