The Lean Startup by Eric Ries in just 250 words

All the important bits you need to know to build products that add value to your customer’s lives

Learning what your customers actually want is how you build a sustainable business. You learn by running experiments on your ideas and gathering data. This is validated learning and is the most important thing your business can do. Everything you do needs to be about learning what adds value to your customers. Everything else is a waste.

To determine what adds value, define the KPIs that both analyse customer behaviour and reflect your vision and strategy. They are the metrics that continuously test your hypotheses and help you learn whether you’re building a sustainable business. These are not vanity metrics (e.g. total new users, total revenue). They need to measure the value you’re delivering — for example, conversion and retention rates. Derive them from the hypotheses underpinning your vision and strategy.

The process of experimentation is to test your ideas: in your product with your customers. You will gather empirical data and insights into whether you have advanced your chosen KPIs with the implementation of the ideas. If they do, you know they add value. And if they don’t, you’ve learned something and have the data to show it. This is validated learning.

What you want to learn defines what you measure, and what you build is determined by the idea you want to test. You test your product ideas with real customers and gather data to learn their value and impact. Your validated learning helps you know what to do next.

Build, measure, learn. As quickly as possible. Repeat.

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