Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth

Scaling Lean has been a great addition to my business library because it actually includes some useful calculations and math that you can use to test your business idea, instead of just theory and case studies. This math alone has made the purchase of the book worthwhile for my business.This is also not the type of business book that you are going to read through quickly and then set aside. You are going to revisit this book over and over again to help you put the ideas in the book into action. Even on my first read through my book is filled with post it notes and dog-eared pages for the sections I know I am going to need to come back to again and again.If you are not a big fan of doing math, don't be scared away from the book, the calculations are not difficult, and will give you some real insight into the path you can take building your business.I run a small business on my own from my basement, and although the concepts are adaptable to my business, it takes a bit of work to make the numbers make sense at my much smaller scale compared to other businesses. The concepts in the book still work, just realize you will need to do some work on your own to adapt the math and concepts to your business if you are a smaller business like I am.The only thing that puts me in the "four star" and not "five star" category is that I haven't had a chance to take action on the concepts in the book yet (I only just received it and read it) and I don't think it would be right to give a five star rating until I have battle-tested the concepts fully in my business.

I run a number of lean startup seminars, primarily in the Colorado area, ones that cover the inception->product stage and ones that cover the "how to incubate new ideas in an existing enterprise". Lately the bulk of these have been based on Ash's Lean Canvas, a model that in my opinion exposes risk and next steps more effectively than Alex Osterwalder's BMC (also a great tool).The big issue that comes up after companies run their initial tests and get a first working model is "what next" -- or more specifically, how do maintain the pace of innovation my organization requires after the initial excitement period, and how do I create an organization that supports this pace?Ash's approach in Scaling Lean gives you ways to find your answers to several questions:-- How do I know if I have traction? Specifically, how do I use real-world, non-vanity metrics to know what's working.-- How do I know where my bottlenecks and contraints are? Specifically, what can I do to identify and make progress given the realities of my current situation?-- How do I run effective experiments? What should I be testing, and what should I test first, based on my company's business model, size, etc.-- Where should I focus? How do I add up all the above to know where to spent the limited resources (time, money, and people) I've got?Scaling Lean answers these questions in an effective and concise way, or at least gives you the tools to be able to find the path to answering them yourself (which is what lean startup is all about). It's relatively short, and not filled with too many anecdotes- the real-world examples are well chosen and not just filler (like so many business books).

This is by far the best book I have read on entrepreneurship. Ash has successfully elevated entrepreneurial thinking and created models and tools that create clarity and focus on the right thing at the right time. Every page has so much value it's hard to summarize the value.A few of the concepts/tools I found most useful were:- ballpark the value of an idea/business model- defining minimum success criteria to determine if an idea was worth pursuing and if teams were aligned- the framework for experiments- traction roadmapI have used the traction model and lean canvas with a few of my consulting clients and have gotten great feedback on the clarity and acceleration they have experienced. This book has saved me and my clients months of work.I have been an entrepreneur for 30+ years and I have successfully exited a startup. I wish I had run into his work earlier. The structure and tools would have saved us time and money and allowed us to get the right product to the right customer faster.After reading both of Ash's books, I signed up for his workshop to deepen my skills. I am impressed by his brilliance and can't wait to continue to learn from his future books and training.

For many years I struggled with setting goals--not just in business but in my personal life as well. I would agonize over trying to pick the right target and make the right plan only to change my goal almost immediately after confronting a painful dose of reality or even just finding new information.My frustration with goal setting led me to adopt a "no goals" approach. I would only focus on the process and just "do the best that I could." This was better than trying to define the perfect goal but it still had a major shortcoming: I had no idea how to prioritize this idea over that. The "process-only" approach was good for developing my skills but not for "counting the costs." Sometimes I would execute projects very skillfully but they were doomed to go nowhere from the start.Ash's solution is brilliant. He teaches you how to use the "Fermi Estimation" and "orders of magnitude" to quickly ballpark your idea and then work backwords to determine what inputs you need to get there. Immediately after doing the exercise you'll know which ideas are clearly not worth pursuing.If you struggle with estimating revenue targets and timelines, you definitely need to read this book.The Fermi Estimation is a method Ash teaches early in this book on how to create ballpark goals based on "orders of magnitude"

Exactly as advertised. I very pleased.

Creo que es muy útil para emprendedores que ya llevan un ratito en el mercado, o que los productos ya han sido probados por los consumidores. Esto porque justo aborda cómo potenciar las ideas y cómo hacerlas crecer. Lo utilicé como libro de consulta en una materia en la maestría y creo que es altamente recomendable para proyectos personales y profesionales.

I have read far too many of these types of books and Scaling Lean is in a league of it own. Great work.

日本語版が出ていることを知らずにこちらを読んでしまった。Running Leanの著者が、PSF, PMF、スケールそれぞれに対して、課題・方法論を視覚化して、検証可能にした上で取り組むためのフレームワークを教えてくれる。実践する価値が非常に高いと感じた。

Excelente libro con una visión correcta de lo que es un negocio y te da herramientas para poder hacer tu negocio escalable y repetible !

Great companion to Running Lean. Ash is as brilliant as ever. Took the concepts and ideias he introduced in his first book and pushed them further, adding new concepts. If you’re into Startup and follows the Lean Startup movement and ideas then you should get this. If you don’t know Lean Startups or haven’t started to apply it yet, then you should go and do it Now before you build anything. And do yourself a favor and add Lean Customer Development, Running Lean, Lean Startup, Designing for Growth and Startup Owner’s Manual to your reading list as well.