Lean startup

Let's start doing stuff and then adapt to what's going on.

I mean, there is this book also, The Lean Startup, and it's very much also around that philosophy that I think things should be done.

what advice would you give someone working in biotech who is struggling with these new technologies to actually to understand what should they focus on because we have so many different things coming and it's sometimes difficult to differentiate whether this is true added value or it's hype so from your experience now as an investor i imagine you look at a lot of different things even perhaps before when you were at DataHow, what are the things that tell you, well, this is a technology you should focus on and perhaps a technology you think is not so relevant? That's

another excellent question.

Today on the Super Creativity Podcast, I'm joined by someone whose ideas have shaped how an entire generation thinks about innovation, entrepreneurship, and building new ventures.

Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup Movement, author of the global bestseller, The Lean Startup, founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, and one of the leading voices on how organizations can innovate, adapt, and grow in a world of uncertainty.

And in his new book, Incorruptible, Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, Eric asked a bigger and deeper question.

Why do so many mission driven organizations lose their way as they grow? And what would it take to design companies that stay true to their values, resist short term pressures and create long term value without losing their soul? So in this conversation, we're going to explore the hidden forces that shape company culture, the idea of financial gravity, what creativity has to do with governance and organizational design, and what founders, leaders, and innovators can do to build companies that are not just successful, but worthy of trust.

Thanks for having me.

So, Eric, I

know the way we first you came on this on this podcast a few years ago, and many people know you through the crazy success of the lean startup.

But I'd love to go back a little bit further than that.

process.

A specific question about starting a company in Nigeria and what types of methodologies to use, such as Lean Startup, Six Sigma, etc.

It's specifically about Nigeria, but it's really a question that's general.

It comes back to the point about not sitting in an office with the door locked, putting together a 100-page business plan.

That others use when referring to it.

The Lean Startup now is a thing.

Yes, yes.

And that's one of the first things you told me, is if you're going to create a thing, you need to name this, a reverse media search.

I was too busy in the software factory part.

When did Lean Startup come out? I think that was kind of my first inkling of like...

And we started an

understanding of the MVP.

So they wrote the book and, you know, where it went from there.

So I was looking at the date on that.

So Code Lean Startup by Eric Ries was published on 2011.

2011? Yeah.

Yeah, but I'm not delivering anything.

They'll ask, what are you delivering? And that living with uncertainty, even if you just do a design sprint, right? Like one week, right? Like go out and meet people, get out of the building, as the lean startup people say.

But that uncertainty, will I build the right thing? If I spend too much time asking, do I even build anything? Right.

Do you see that also

What is also very important is to have baked in user testing or any way to talk to users during this, at least designing the test in order to When we choose the solution to the challenge, we will test it on the next day, right? There are many methods we can use to test ideas rapidly.

So I really love that because it's very practical.

There was at some point a workshop that went around the world from the Lean Startup community.

I don't know what it was called, Lean something.

10 years.

And then I first heard of it, Steve Blank, Was that now, I don't know, outside of Steve and Lean Startup, was it known in the business community prior, and Steve brought a different audience to it? Or maybe he had no impact whatsoever, but just from my perception, we already had an impact.

So I think he

had an impact later on for sure.