Thanks to attending Seedcamp this year in London, I got a chance to already read a copy of “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries, which is not officialy released yet!
I learned a lot about the lean methodology when it comes to managing a business. I particularly liked the root cause analysis using “The Five Why’s”. This consists of looking at a problem, and keep on asking “Why?” until the root cause of a problem is uncovered. I remember being young and sometimes keep on asking my parents “Why?” in response to some answers, and being told that I’m being childish, but I guess the inquisitive nature of children is the right approach to take when doing business.
The book also taught me about other invaluable tactics such as the Build-Measure-Learn loop, and how to find valuable metrics for the performance of your business.
The only thing that I currently lack is a business to be able to apply this Lean methodology to, but hopefully this period won’t last too long!