Running a startup but haven't read this book yet? You're probably doing it wrong;-)

Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup" is of course the canonical reference, but this book is a great addition. Packed with practical advice and guidance that has been through it's own lean validation process. ( )

Running a startup but haven't read this book yet? You're probably doing it wrong;-)

Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup" is of course the canonical reference, but this book is a great addition. Packed with practical advice and guidance that has been through it's own lean validation process. ( )

In today’s world of startups, popup business, and new fads in the work place it seems like a lot of folks are missing the basics. Namely that we’re not creating or marketing the right product. It’s great to have a cool new app that tells you the time in multiple languages, but is it worth the money to develop it? And will people want it? I remember in my hometown of about 34,000 a new business opened up that dealt exclusively with selling pool tables. No repairs or anything like that, just selling the tables. Needless to say it went out of business quickly and the owners likely could have gotten a lot from Ash’s book. While he sometimes states the obvious, conducting market research anyone?, he does a great job of explaining how to go about finding out what’s needed and creating a plan to get start or improve your place of work. Ash takes us through his process step by step by explaining how he used it to write this book. From the idea, to the testing, to the final publishing and marketing of the book, he shows us this process can make things work.

I have to admit this title (and some of the other books in this series) are a bit of strange choice to me. In part because I’m not a pure coder, but more so because I’m not likely to have a startup venture any time soon. So why did I choose this book then? Because even though I’m not likely to have a startup, I can still take the lessons from this book about problem solving and engagement, and put them into practice in my current job as a librarian. In addition, I can take some of what Ash talks about and relate it to User Experience, which is a passion of mine. There are always problems to solve and in this book Ash offer some great tips and inspiration on how to go about solving them.

For me what stands out the most about this book is that Ash provides a roadmap of how to proceed with getting things started to launching your new product. Although this sounds like something that everyone should already know, and honestly they should, Ash does a great job of laying out the steps so that it’s easy read and understand how to move forward. He starts off with basic, finding a problem that is worth solving and devoting your time to. Don’t find a solution for something that isn’t important, and this is something that everyone struggles with whether they’re a new startup or an established business. The other major thing that stood out to me, is that Ash talks about creating a plan A….and then being prepared to change and adapt it as you go along. Because by the time you succeed you might be on plan Z-12. Do your customers need to know this? No…but it’s nice that you know that you’ve made it and you did your homework throughly before launching.

Even though this book states some of the obvious, like talking to users to find out problems, it’s still a great book and Ash does provide different ways to combat problems. This concise and well written book is worth a read, whether you’re starting a new business or if you’re just looking to find ways to improve your current place of work. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

Review copy provided by publisher ( )