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The Lean Product Playbook
Book

The Lean Product Playbook

How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback

Dan Olsen
Wiley, 2015
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

Dan Olsen, a “lean product process” guru, offers a detailed, workable schematic for innovation success. Start here, now do this, remember that – and voilà: You’ve created the next-generation travel app or transportation technology that satisfies genuine customer needs while providing viable “product-market fit.” While distilling invention, innovation and marketing down to a simple system, the author talks you through each move with patience and clear examples, just as a coach would with novice players. Olsen’s advice applies to creating software, apps and online products, but offers useful guidance for start-ups and innovations in any field. getAbstract recommends his manual to entrepreneurs, product developers and managers who want to see their ideas become powerful products.

Summary

“Product-Market Fit”

The “lean product process” is a step-by-step developmental approach to creating better products. To keep your target customers and their insufficiently served needs in mind, begin in the “problem space” by defining what they seek. Then move to the “solution space” of creating a fitting product. Your guiding star should be achieving viable product-market fit. Determining how well your product meets market needs is fundamental to product development. When you create a new app, for example, you want customers to rave about it and buy it. Why else would you devote time and energy to your product?

“The Product-Market Fit Pyramid”

Climb the product-market fit pyramid from bottom to top to navigate five different aspects of your product and your market: 1) Targeting consumers, 2) Meeting unserved needs, 3) Creating a “value proposition,” 4) Making the product’s “feature set;” and 5) tracing the “user experience.”

The steps of the product-market fit pyramid echo some of the steps in the lean product-creation process. Successful product developers climb the pyramid layer-by-layer, aiming for a product-market fit that beats the competition. ...

About the Author

Dan Olsen, a former product-development team leader at Intuit, now consults for Silicon Valley clients on lean product design.

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