In 2012, we were testing a bunch of new business ideas for Amex and I thought, “what if we had a tool that let us capture our assumptions, our experiments, and our progress?” So over a couple weeks, we hacked something out and tried it out on a few projects.
It was a complete waste of time.
Here’s what lean startup needs:
– a list of hard questions
– a creative mind
– a willingness to experiment
– a focus on outcomes
– good judgement mixing data and intuition
– the ability to make hard decisions
The only tools you really need are paper/whiteboards, google docs, and a decent metrics package.
It’s not about the tools. That’s a distraction. It’s about being willing to be wrong, and making the best decisions you can with the data you have, as quickly and intelligently as possible.
Simple right? Too bad human psychology, messy data, and market uncertainty make it so damn complex!