The founders of lean startups don’t begin with a business plan; they begin with the search for a business model. Only after quick rounds of experimentation and feedback reveal a model that works do lean founders focus on execution. On the left are features of a lean startup. On the right are features of a traditional startup.
Lean | | Traditional |
Business model Hypothesis driven | Strategy | Business plan Implementation |
Customer development Get out of the office and test hypotheses | New Product Process | Product management Prepare offering for market following a linear, step-by-step plan |
Agile development Build the product iteratively and incrementally | Engineering | Waterfall development Fully specify the product before building it |
Customer + agile development teams Hire for learning, nimbleness, and speed | Organization | Departments by function Hire for experience and ability to execute |
Metrics that matter Customer acquisition cost, lifetime customer value, churn, viralness | Performance | Accounting Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement |
Expected Fix by iterating on ideas and pivoting away from ones that don’t work | Failure | Exception Fix by firing executives |
Rapid Operates on good-enough data | Speed | Measured Operates on complete data |
Source: Blank, Steve. Why the lean startup changes everything. Harvard Business Review.

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