There’s lots of talk these days about the so-called “
lean startup.” Most would think that just meant a startup without a lot of outside capital. According to thought leaders
Eric Ries and
Steve Blank, a lean startup is one developed along a build-test-revise-build-more-test-more strategy.
It’s
closely related to what they call agile (or rapid) program development.
It’s product development that doesn’t mean spending forever planning a
project before getting started. Instead, it’s a cycle of build, test,
correct, then build, test and correct.
And that idea, the cycle, the
test and revise, the small correction, and the quick pace, is ideal for a
next-generation style of business planning. So I’d like to explore here
what kind of planning might be related to the lean startup. And I hope,
as you read this, that it sounds like a better planning process for a
lot of organizations, not just the lean startups.
