This semester I decided to change. I was ready to prove myself that I could be the best athlete and at the same time keep up with my academics and be the best as well. In order to face this goal I had to meet the IA (Innovation Academy’s) standards. As any other student I have my pros and cons, but something that I really struggle with is Reading. I just like Reading books that I select and not any random book that I am given be it a fiction or non fiction book. I was ready to start by changing this goal.
In the IA, we are starting a business of smoothies for our entrepreneurship unit. In order to make our business successful we had to learn how to manage a real business. What a better way to get informed than a book. We began Reading “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries. As I mentioned before, I decided that I would put every single bit of me to be able to create a passion for reading; I started in the right direction. This is why I would like to show what I have learned in just 5 chapters of the book. The book started by mentioning how important it is to have a clear vision of what you want to do, after that you need to develop your strategy so you can get to the final stage and make your product. I took this quote from the book: |
"Products change constantly through the process of optimization, what I call tuning the engine. Less frequently, the strategy may have to change (called a pivot). However, the overarching vision rarely changes."
Then, a startup is a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Leaders have to be careful on how they manage their companies. At a certain point they may fail, which is normal and you will learn through the process but something to keep in mind is that learning is a cold comfort to your employees since there are following you to the unknown.
It is essential that a business understands their customers, without customers your business will not be successful. When you understand your customers, you are able to improve your products and you will magically become more productive. As the book mentioned: “. Aligned with a superior strategy, our product development efforts became magically more productive--not because we were working harder but because we were working smarter, aligned with our customers’ real needs. “
It is essential that a business understands their customers, without customers your business will not be successful. When you understand your customers, you are able to improve your products and you will magically become more productive. As the book mentioned: “. Aligned with a superior strategy, our product development efforts became magically more productive--not because we were working harder but because we were working smarter, aligned with our customers’ real needs. “
A lean startup is great because a strategic plan could take months to be completed while this experiments can start immediately. But remember this four tips: 1. Do consumers recognize that they have the problem you are trying to solve? 2. If there was a solution, would they buy it? 3. Would they buy it from us? 4. Can we build a solution for that problem?” | “Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer’s problem.” |