Many of budding entrepreneurs thinking that Lean business model means moving fast, raising funds quickly, replicating products or companies as soon as possible. It is a wrong assumption; the Lean startup is all about to develop a customer viable product with minimum production cost within less time. This article should clear doubts for entrepreneurs about the Lean model.

The startup is not a theory of learning which is already proved, it is an experiment with a lot of uncertainty. For instance, a product has been developed by investing lot of human efforts, money and time. You did a grand release and realized that it is not viable for the customer.

A typical customer mindset is to buy a car which has advanced features, excellent mileage, great engine for less price. Consequently, don’t forget to think like a customer before being an entrepreneur 🙂

Minimum viable product (MVP):

What is minimum viability? A product which has minimum features can address minimum requirements of a customer. For instance, you have ten different great and unique features in the product which would take two years to develop. How do you survive these many days without any returns on investment? Never wait until ten features got developed to get into the market. Prioritize few features release the product with minimum which can address immediate customer needs. Consequently, it helps a lot in

• Create little revenue.
• You can obtain customer feedback at early stages.
• The product is going to be the best fit by the time all features got incorporated.

Minimize uncertainty:

How many startups are finding customers first and building product next? Is it happening in reality? Why? Since the majority of the startup ideas come under the below category.

• The problem which pains an individual.
• As the founder is the techie and can build a product.
• Picking an idea to fulfill his/her entrepreneurial dreams.

I believe the majority of the people are finding target customers for the sake of writing a business plan. I would suggest, approach them if possible explain the product and take the feedback. Plan the development with less number of iterations. Based on the customer inputs improve the design in the phase of development rather than working on numerous enhancements which would take a lot of effort to produce a market fit.

I don’t ask you to spend a lot of time in market analysis either. Development and taking customer inputs should be parallel activities; I would suggest engaging 20% of your human resources with clients before the product is ready.

Validate learning:

We do mistakes in the journey of entrepreneurship. However, learning from mistakes is important.

For instance, a small incident which happened recently. My seven yrs. Old daughter asked me to help her project.

The Project: 1. What is creativity 2 Describe one great creator 3. Create something with your creative skills.

I liked that project and started helping her,

Answered the first point, for the second point the discussion between my daughter and me.

Me: Write my name as a creative guy.

My daughter: Dad, I wanted to write about a famous creator, not you.

Me: I got embarrassed 🙂 and no words to say, I have attempted to convince her by saying type Narasimha Mohan in Google so that you will understand.  However, I created a joke on Startups and Entrepreneurs with cartoon characters.

My daughter: What is this? is it a joke? I didn’t understand.

Then I realized and came out of my world and understood her requirement. Subsequently, I created a joke on Barbie doll and Dora.

My daughter: Dad, this is good I liked it. Finally, she approved that I have some creative skills 🙂

Me: Thank god, you made me succeed, and my learning here is not to create a project for her. I should guide her creating a project. I am sure I will not repeat it again 🙂

Takeaways here:

• When you fail to convince at home how can you convince a typical customer?
• Don’t develop a product which you like, produce a product which customer like.
• Learn from mistakes, validate and don’t repeat them again.

Dear entrepreneur, this is what lean startup is. Hope it clarifies what lean model is. Perhaps few of you are already following unknowingly if you don’t follow take a look if it fits for you.

Also Read: How to start a startup journey with basic business plan

Narasimha Mohan

He is the Author, Product Specialist, Business Consultant, Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, Thought provoking writer, and Joke writer. Follow him on Twitter