It’s been almost a decade since Ash Maurya published “Running Lean, Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works.” And in that time, corporate leaders’ mindsets have shifted from merely running MVP (Minimum Viable Prototype) tests to using them to build viable business models, and they’re looking to scale. We’ve continued to look to Ash’s thought leadership on this topic and encourage others to do so. In his most recently published book, “Scaling Lean, Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth,” Ash speaks to the above as he offers viability metrics, business model blueprints, and other information these leaders need as they begin to shift and scale their MVP strategy.
We’re excited to announce that Ash Mayura will be joining us for a Facebook Live stream on Tuesday, May 15th from 1-2pm EST where we’ll discuss Scaling Lean and startup tactics, and opening the convo up for questions.
You don’t need to have read Scaling Lean to participate in the discussion, but we’d highly recommend you give it a read if you’re in the corporate innovation & growth space.
Here are some of our top takeaways from our recent book club discussion about Scaling Lean:
- Learning can’t just be for learning’s sake. We’ve heard it said, “that was great learning!” but didn’t necessarily see action or application coming out of the purported learning. We found this quote to help us stay grounded in the end-goal (building a repeatable and scalable business model before running out of resources) when conducting research:
- “The pursuit of raw knowledge is a scientific pursuit. In that realm, learning is truly the measure of progress. But entrepreneurship is goal driven. Empirical learning is a part, but not all, of the final goal: to build a repeatable and scalable business model before running out of resources. While empirical learning is a key part of that process, unless you can quickly turn that learning into measurable business results, you are just accumulating trivia.”
- Ash shares one of our favorite quotes: ”It is not enough to measure what your prospects say – you have to measure what they do.” Ash couples this with the idea of putting an offer out in-the-wild and seeing if it garners actual purchase, which contrasts starkly with sharing a concept for hypothetical purchase interest.
- We loved that Ash called the repeatability of customer data “The Groundhog Day Effect.” Essentially, small tests can be shown true over and over again. “A stable benchmark gives you permission to aggressively experiment with bold new ideas with the goal of creating a spike in the flatline…” This repeatability allows us to do small-scale Build-Test-Learn cycles and assume that they have broad-scale implications.
To tune in, follow The Garage Group on Facebook on May 15th at 1 pm EST.
Here’s a sneak peek at just a few of the questions we’ll be asking Ash:
- It’s been almost a decade since you published Running Lean…what has changed in the world and what have you learned since then?
- On page 184 you include your Validation Plan: Is this just another Stage Gate? Do you have any cautions to getting over-processed, over-constrained to milestones?
- Can you Compare and contrast Google Sprint and Scrum? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each? Or do they co-exist?
- How can we embrace and leverage constraints?
- You shared that “guesses can only be proven wrong.” Can you tell us more about that and cautions you have about trusting in “validation”?
Have specific questions of your own? Be sure to tune in on May 15th and ask them.
