lean-startup
Lean Startup
Overview
A startup is a temporary organization searching for a repeatable, scalable business model under extreme uncertainty (Steve Blank). Most early-stage failures are from building something no one wanted because the demand assumption was never tested.
Eric Ries (2011): name the riskiest assumption, build the smallest test (MVP), measure real behavior, decide to pivot or persevere — the Build–Measure–Learn loop, run as fast as possible.
Compose: first-principles to find what the model truly depends on; probabilistic-thinking to calibrate experiments; inversion before each Build phase; business-model-canvas to surface the riskiest assumption blocks.
When to Use
Apply when: high uncertainty + limited capital; a team is about to build before testing demand; a pivot-or-persevere decision is on the table; you're building an AI feature on a foundation-model API and worried "the next model release will commoditize us" / "are we just a GPT wrapper?"; no clear answer to "what is the load-bearing assumption and how would we know if it's wrong?"
When NOT to use: known business model in known conditions (execution, not search); decision is not business-model-level; cannot ethically run a test with real customers; using "lean" as a schedule excuse to ship buggy software.