Build Measure Learn

  • Startup needs to:
    1. Decide what your goals are right now (they change over time!)
    2. Analyze them to determine metrics for growth and success
    3. Loop to tune the engine of growth:
      1. Measure current metrics
      2. Conduct Experiments to try and move reality towards
      3. Rinse and repeat until you have tuned your engine
  • AKA: “Iterating”
  • Put in different terms:
    • Are you making your product better?
    • How do you know?
    • Are the changes you are making affecting the measures you care about?
    • How do you decide what measures you care about?
  • Back to first principle: “Is this a business or a hobby?”
  • Basic pattern:
    • Use an MVP to get real data to test a belief
    • Make a series of micro changes (parallel or serial)
    • Measure whether metrics are better or worse
    • When you feel like you are not making real progress
    • Perhaps pivot if micro changes are not moving the needle in the right direction
  • Start with the highest return (cost/risk/reward) assumption

Illustration