The concrete things to do are build, measure, iterate. I think the case studies in the book are extremely helpful to entrepreneurs. I think you need to have some entrepreneurial experience to get much out of it though. Until you've run into some of the problems that the lean startup proposes to solve, you'll probably find the concepts too abstract.
If you're looking for a book to take you from step 1 to the end of building a successful, profitable business, you'll be looking for the rest of your life. There are far too many variables to create a completely replicable business. Instead, it's better to know what things to look for going in, and have a framework in place that makes it easy for you to see if you're on the right track. I think Eric's book does a great job of showing that side of things.
If you're looking for additional reading on the topic, you might find '4 Step to the Epiphany' worth reading. 'Business Model Generation' also gives some additional tools. You won't find anything (worth reading) that gives you step-by-step instructions, but there's enough literature out there on the Lean Startup methodologies that you should have enough to get started.
It's obviously impossible to provide a 'template' book that "walks you through it". If it were that simple, everyone would be doing it.
I've read plenty of business books, and most of them tend towards the "few big ideas, expanded to fill a book", and I'm getting the impression this one may fit that mold.
Rob Walling's (honest, I'm not paid to promote it:-) Start Small, Stay Small, gives you a bunch of very practical tools and numbers to use to work on a small startup, and is my new benchmark for this kind of book.
It's easy to write "build, measure, iterate". What kinds of useful details does Ries go into about those, though?
Comments
The concrete things to do are build, measure, iterate. I think the case studies in the book are extremely helpful to entrepreneurs. I think you need to have some entrepreneurial experience to get much out of it though. Until you've run into some of the problems that the lean startup proposes to solve, you'll probably find the concepts too abstract.
If you're looking for a book to take you from step 1 to the end of building a successful, profitable business, you'll be looking for the rest of your life. There are far too many variables to create a completely replicable business. Instead, it's better to know what things to look for going in, and have a framework in place that makes it easy for you to see if you're on the right track. I think Eric's book does a great job of showing that side of things.
If you're looking for additional reading on the topic, you might find '4 Step to the Epiphany' worth reading. 'Business Model Generation' also gives some additional tools. You won't find anything (worth reading) that gives you step-by-step instructions, but there's enough literature out there on the Lean Startup methodologies that you should have enough to get started.
It's obviously impossible to provide a 'template' book that "walks you through it". If it were that simple, everyone would be doing it.
I've read plenty of business books, and most of them tend towards the "few big ideas, expanded to fill a book", and I'm getting the impression this one may fit that mold.
Rob Walling's (honest, I'm not paid to promote it:-) Start Small, Stay Small, gives you a bunch of very practical tools and numbers to use to work on a small startup, and is my new benchmark for this kind of book.
It's easy to write "build, measure, iterate". What kinds of useful details does Ries go into about those, though?