If you’re a long time reader of this blog, chances are high you’ve read my first book: Running Lean. But did you read my second book: Scaling Lean? My research says probably not. You’ve probably been waiting to pick up the second book for when you’re actually scaling your product.
Being a deliberate reader myself, I’d probably have done the same. But what if I told you that, despite the title and book cover, Scaling Lean is actually sort of a prequel, not a sequel.
It’s not a book about dealing with the right side of the hockey-stick curve, but rather setting you up with a solid foundation, during the earliest stages of an idea, for systematically getting you to the right side of the hockey-stick curve.
Scaling Lean shows you how to
measure the 3 stages of the product lifecycle: problem/solution fit, product/market fit, scale with metrics — so you aren’t running blind,
identify your riskiest assumptions without guesswork — so you focus on right action, right time, and
run better experiments by learning how to source, rank, and test better ideas from your teams — so you avoid garbage in, garbage out.
When asked to recommend a reading order of the books, I tell people to read
the first 3 chapters of Running Lean,
then the first 3 chapters of Scaling Lean,
back to Running Lean, then Scaling Lean.
Therein lies the challenge for books like these. While books are snapshots of the best thinking of the time, ideas and frameworks are constantly evolving. And something more dynamic is needed to better connect the dots.
Meet the Continuous Innovation Academy
We are launching a new initiative for delivering stage based playbooks that teach you just the key mindsets, skills, and strategies you need to move your idea forward.
Playbooks are curated how-to guides that help you define and achieve key milestones in your entrepreneurial journey by letting you focus on what matters and ignoring the rest.
These playbooks were curated over thousands of hours of workshops and bootcamps and tested across a wide range of products and teams. They are delivered using a combination of self-guided content, integrated tools, and 1:1 coaching — so they always reflect the latest thinking and battle-tested tactics.
They build upon all the principles covered across both books and aren’t meant to replace them (that would just be an ebook), but complement them using curated and updated content, the latest tactics, and more examples.