| Title | : | The Leaders Guide |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 8881458671234 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 367 |
| Publication | : | Published January 1, 2016 |
The Leaders Guide Reviews
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It is hard to position this book in the larger set of lean startup books out there. It is almost as if there are two books in one.
I have read at least a dozen lean startup books. After reading the "canon", (
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses,
Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works and/or
The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company), it is very interesting to delve into more targeted volumes, based on your specific interest.
I found
Lean Customer Development: Build Products Your Customers Need and
Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster both remarkable.
So, back to The Leader's guide.
The first 2/3 expands on the initial Lean Startup book with real life teachings. It's a little like the three bears: not enough if it's your first discovery of lean startup, a little redundant if you are knowledgeable and just right to refresh your understanding part way through a project.
The last third could be a great book on its own: how to develop entrepreneurial management in your established company (or startup). It reads as a coach handbook, with theory, practical advice, coach-oriented advice, misconceptions, ... If I could get my dream job of fostering innovation in a large company, it would be my go-to manual!
If the shift of focus from startups to established companies piques your interest, I recommend
Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale which targets software companies.
Of course, there is the issue that the book is not for sale. There will only ever be the 10'000 copies for the Kickstarter participants. If you are not one of the happy few, you will have to be creative. If you live near Geneva, Switzerland, I can loan you my copy ;-) -
I enjoyed the book and like that it focuses on the practical side. They even have guests speak about their experience. Very cool. But after reading „The Lean Startup“ this book felt very repetitive with marginal new insights for me. Maybe that is just because I‘m not reading it to actually apply it.
I would recommend it for everyone who wants to actually implement The Lean Startup principles. -
Eric Ries is infamous in the technology field as the author of Lean Startup, where he captured the principles and methodology for structured innovation. Now, in The Leader's Guide, he provides a practical guide to actually executing that methodology and backs it up with lots of real life examples from his consulting work including an extensive case study with General Electric woven through the book.
Although Ries advises you to use this book as a reference manual for implementing entrepreneurial practices at your company (and thus, not read the book linearly) I still did so and got quite a bit out of it. Ries emphasizes that, just as entrepreneurial behavior is not restricted only to startups, the inverse is also true: just because you are a startup, it doesn't mean you're actually being entrepreneurial (particularly as you scale). I've definitely seen this in my own work. Ries's book is inspirational for those of us seeking to make cultural change no matter the size of our companies. -
I think Lean Startup is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it. Lean Startup concept is misunderstand in a similar way like Scrum is (read the original Scrum book by Jeff Sutherland to understand what I mean).
I was thinking for several days what to make of this book.
*Read "The Lean Startup" to boast that you have read the original classic and you don't mind slightly outdated IT jargon (book was written in 2011).
*Read "The Startup Way" if you want to get an updated version that got rid of some of the outdated information while also adding some less relevant topics at least from my standpoint.
*Read "The Leader's Guide" if you want a shorter reference either as an intro or reminder.
Just reading all three consecutively doesn't make much sense because most of the information is overlapping. -
The author couldn’t break away from the perils of Lean Startup success. This book might be, ideas well formed and organized but it lacked the passion and personal touch of that book. Nothing beats that feeling you get with Lean Startup like the author is actually living the experience where right or wrong turn may mean resetting and going back to the entry level job with nothing to show for the years of trying except “learning”. With this book, there is no sense of that - the author is merely going from one conference to another and speaking on stage. So that academical aspect might be even better, but no spark, no passion, it is not a page turner, it is a manual. And that makes all the difference. If you are looking for inspiration, read the first book.
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(ฟังฉบับ audiobook จาก Audible)
ฟังเพลินๆ สนุกดี แต่ใครที่อ่านเรื่อง Lean Startup จากผู้เขียนคนเดียวกันมาแล้วจะพบว่าไม่มีอะไรใหม่ แต่การเชื้อเชิญให้ผู้ประกอบการมาร่วมแชร์ประสบการณ์ตรงที่นำหลักคิดของเขาไปประยุกต์ใช้ รวมถึงความท้าทายทั้งหลายที่เจอก็นับเป็น "ส่วนเสริม" ที่น่าสนใจดี ทั้งเล่มสรุปข้อคิดจาก Eric Ries ผู้ประกอบการและที่ปรึกษา startup ชื่อดัง ประเด็นสำคัญของเขาคือ ทุกบริษัททุกขนาดที่อยากคิดค้นนวัตกรรมอย่างต่อเนื่องจำเป็นจะต้องพร้อม "เปลี่ยนแปลงองค์กร" อย่างต่อเนื่องเช่นกัน (เขาใช้คำว่า continuous transformation) ผู้ประกอบการจะต้องคิดแบบนักวิทยาศาสตร์ให้เป็น นั่นคือ ตั้งสมมุติฐานและหาวิธีทดสอบสมมุติฐานตลอดเวลา เพราะการทำธุรกิจเต็มไปด้วยความไม่แน่นอน ดังนั้นจึงต้องออกแบบกระบวนการที่อยู่กับความไม่แน่นอนได้ ทดสอบผลิตภัณฑ์และกระบวนการต่างๆ ตั้งแต่เนิ่นๆ ให้ได้เร็วที่สุด -
This is basically "Lean Startups for Corporate Startups". As a mostly-startup person who has worked with some large organizations, it does seem like a good approach to innovation in large organizations, but there's the inherent problem that innovation in large organizations is very difficult and basically hellish for everyone involved, even when it goes well. This book outlines what might be the best method to do something which is basically unpleasant (but profitable), and does provide some good answers to standard objections within the enterprise. If you're a startup person reading this, you'll probably be reminded why you stay in startups.
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I liked this book, even tho I know it was not written for me or anyone that is familiar with “4 steps to epiphany” or “Lean Startup” or “Management 3.0” and have been working in the field for years. But this book works almost like a pep talk and a manual for entrepreneurs inside organizations trying to create change in their processes and teams.
The audible version was especially pleasant to read, it felt like a podcast with interviews etc.
Good read! -
Nothing new or different from The Lean Startup. I think both books however take too long to make pretty basic points which then just get repeated over and over to seemingly make the books longer. I do like the philosophy for start ups, I just don't think there needs to be half as many words as there are to explain it.
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Common sense mixed with modern buzzwords and pithy anecdotes.
The first part looks at product development, and how ideas from lean startups can be applied even within larger organisations.
The rest is mostly a mishmash of anecdotes and ex-post-facto rationalisations. -
As usual, Eric writes and gives advice that is actionable and insightful. I am a small business owner with a background in lean six sigma and I thoroughly enjoy every moment of his books. Concise, detailed and able to be implemented.
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Quick and easy read. How to implement Lean Start Up principles in enterprises from small to large as well as government agencies. Of most interest to me was how to nurture innovation (new ideas, concepts, approaches, applications) across disciplines within an organization.
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Really enjoyed the book listening again to Eric Ries reiterating ideas about the lean start-up and more specifically how to apply them to real-life large corporations. It is indeed a great book, especially for those in leadership roles guiding a large team.
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This little book is highly practical and immediately applicable. It describes the concepts of the Lean startup, tailored to be implemented in large, established organisations. It should be highly valuable for any leader, formal or not.
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Great to have a book dedicated to the adoption of the Lean Startup. I've read what feels like dozens of books on LS but always found the guidance on adoption and implementation to be lacking... no more
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two thirds book, one third podcast, some nuggest of wisdom from the guru.
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The case studies in the second half of the audiobook are surprisingly interesting - both as good examples of the contents of the book but also as evidence of drift and confirmation bias.
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In the VUCA world we find ourselves in, if you are not able to run like a startup, or to disrupt yourself, your days are numbered.
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While a bit formulaic, it had meaningful stories that exemplified how the formula worked in these real-world applications. I found it to be applicable to my products and projects.
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I would give 5 stars if we had robust examples on when those techniques failed.
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Great addition to lean startup - more tangible how to. Kind of gets too corporate focused vs startup at the end or it would have spoke more to me.
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Reminder and how-to on Lean Startup. Nice format with interviews at the end of each chapter.
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Practical approach to the lean methodology.
Repetitive if you read also his book on lean start ups. -
Summary:
Eric Ries writes good books with the similar thread of the lean startup message layered through them. I struggle with the start up method and you can see more information and my thoughts on it in my reviews of
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses and
The Startup Way: Making Entrepreneurship a Fundamental Discipline of Every Enterprise. I understand its necessity and power, but haven't really found myself in a position to practice or implement it yet so it remains a kind of intangible theory for now.
The Leader's Guide expands on this thread and delves into how leaders may create and manage innovative businesses that encourage entrepreneurship. A lot of its messages resonated with me and I learnt a lot, particularly from the case studies and interviews with other leaders.
I would recommend this book to anyone who leads.
The main message I took from this book is that teams lead and leaders learn.
Some notable points:
- Identify the problem or opportunity, identify the leap of faith assumptions, create a series of experiments to test those assumptions, translate the results into learning metrics, apply these learning metrics to decide whether to stay the course or pivot.
- Changing strategies is not failure, it's a natural part of the process.
- What can you remove from this so that you can launch tomorrow?
- To create the perfect product, you need to share its imperfection early and often.
- If you can make a decision and then return, you should do it as quickly as possible and come back if needed. If you can't return, then deeper thought is required.
- There's a happy medium between full disclosure and total secrecy.
- An entrepreneur's most valuable currency is their time.
- A team should include three people. One to make the thing, one to sell the thing and one wild card (some with deep expertise usually).
