The Lean Startup - Eric Ries [25]
Next, using a technique I call the concierge minimum viable product (described in detail in Chapter 6), Caroline could make sure the first few participants had an experience that was as good as she could make it, completely aligned with her vision. Unlike in a focus group, her goal would be to measure what the customers actually did. For example, how many of the first volunteers actually complete their volunteer assignments? How many volunteer a second time? How many are willing to recruit a colleague to participate in a subsequent volunteer activity?
Additional experiments can expand on this early feedback and learning. For example, if the growth model requires that a certain percentage of participants share their experiences with colleagues and encourage their participation, the degree to which that takes place can be tested even with a very small sample of people. If ten people complete the first experiment, how many do we expect to volunteer again? If they are asked to recruit a colleague, how many do we expect will do so? Remember that these are supposed to be the kinds of early adopters with the most to gain from the program.
Put another way, what if all ten early adopters decline to volunteer again? That would be a highly significant—and very negative—result. If the numbers from such early experiments don’t look promising, there is clearly a problem with the strategy. That doesn’t mean it’s time to give up; on the contrary, it means it’s time to get some immediate qualitative feedback about how to improve the program. Here’s where this kind of experimentation has an advantage over traditional market research. We don’t have to commission a survey or find new people to interview. We already have a cohort of people to talk to as well as knowledge about their actual behavior: the participants in the initial experiment.
This entire experiment could be conducted in a matter of weeks, less than one-tenth the time of the traditional strategic planning process. Also, it can happen in parallel with strategic planning while the plan is still being formulated. Even when experiments produce a negative result, those failures prove instructive and can influence the strategy. For example, what if no volunteers can be found who are experiencing the conflict of values within the organization that was such an important assumption in the business plan? If so, congratulations: it’s time to pivot (a concept that is explored in more detail in Chapter 8).3
AN EXPERIMENT IS A PRODUCT
In the Lean Startup model, an experiment is more than just a theoretical inquiry; it is also a first product. If this or any other experiment is successful, it allows the manager to get started with his or her campaign: enlisting early adopters, adding employees to each further experiment or iteration, and eventually starting to build a product. By the time that product is ready to be distributed widely, it will already have established customers. It will have solved real problems and offer detailed specifications for what needs to be built. Unlike a traditional strategic planning or market research process, this specification will be rooted in feedback on what is working today rather than in anticipation of what might work tomorrow.
To see this in action, consider an example from Kodak. Kodak’s history is bound up with cameras and film, but today it also operates a substantial online business called Kodak Gallery. Mark Cook is Kodak Gallery’s vice president of products, and he is working to change Kodak Gallery’s culture of development to embrace experimentation.
Mark explained, “Traditionally, the product manager says, ‘I just want this.’ In response,