What Startup Founders Get Wrong About Competition
When asked about competition, startup founders typically fall into two camps.
3 Steps for Running More Successful Pilots
Ever had a customer go cold after a sizzling start? You’ve just closed a big customer and can taste [problem/solution fit](https://www.leanfoundry.com/topics/problem-solution-fit). They’ve agr...
A Blueprint for Understanding How People Buy Anything
There is no such thing as an impulse purchase. Behind every purchase is a string of causal events and forces.
Find Better Problems Worth Solving with the Customer Forces Canvas
Inspired by the Scientific Method, the search for Problem/Solution fit starts with creating a model — specifically a business model using a Lean Canvas. On that Lean Canvas, you take your best gues...
Forget Personas
_If you were a marketer at a mattress company, when is the best time to run an infomercial?_
How to Pitch Pricing Without Getting Butterflies in your Stomach
If you’re a product-oriented founder like me, you probably get a little nervous when you get to the pricing conversation during a product pitch. You’d rather defer this conversation to later (like ...
Love the Problem, Not Your Solution
I recently got asked about the most common pitfall that trips up entrepreneurs. Top on my list is: **Falling in love with your solution**. I’ve previously labeled this pre-disposition for the solut...
Nailing Release 1.0
I recently declared that I’m [moving away from MVP](https://www.practicetrumpstheory.com/p/moving-beyond-mvp) in favor of:
No Problem in Your Business Model is a Problem
A manager at Toyota is delivering a quarterly update to an executive. He’s enthusiastic because all the metrics are trending up and to the right. They shipped on time — sales and customer satisfact...
The Art of the Demo
_Me: You seem to have identified a big-enough customer problem that you have a plausible solution to (feasible)… What’s keeping you from closing customers?_
The Counterintuitive Science of Closing B2B Sales
As all B2B sales meetings went online during the pandemic, [Matt Dixon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewxdixon/) and [Ted McKenna](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-mckenna/), authors of _The Jolt...
The Science of How Customers Buy Anything
A basic tenet of running lean is validating a product or feature ideally **without having to build it first**. This makes complete sense when you look at every product or feature as its own custome...
Unpacking the Innovator’s Gift
Over the last nine years, I’ve published two best-selling books: [Running Lean](https://runlean.ly/3e?ref=blog.leanstack.com) and [Scaling Lean](https://scalinglean.com/?ref=blog.leanstack.com). Bo...
When Do You Kickoff a (Customer) Problem Discovery Study?
As product development has become easier, the battle for attention has become harder.
3 Common Customer Interviewing Mistakes
At the early stages of a product, [before problem/solution fit](https://www.leanfoundry.com/topics/problem-solution-fit), customer interviews are the best (and fastest) way to learn from customers....
Extending the Job Story to a Customer Forces Story
Customer Forces Stories are a powerful way of summarizing customer conversations during your search for [problem/solution fit](https://www.leanfoundry.com/topics/problem-solution-fit).
Prospecting Recipes for Conducting Problem Discovery Interviews
How do you get customers to openly talk to you during problem discovery interviews if you’re “not allowed” to pitch your solution? This is the top question I get from founders on conducting cu...
The Backstory Behind Customer Forces Stories
Good customer / problem discovery is key to achieving [problem/solution fit](https://www.leanfoundry.com/topics/problem-solution-fit).