Back in March of 2015, I launched a Kickstarter campaign with these words:
“Hi, my name is Eric Ries. I’m an entrepreneur and the author of The Lean Startup.
Since writing The Lean Startup, I’ve traveled around the world, helping companies of every size adopt the Lean Startup approach. In just five years, the Lean Startup movement has grown and transformed in ways I never could have imagined. I’ve worked with founders developing new apps, entrepreneurs at hypergrowth pre-IPO tech startups, and managers at the largest, slowest, most heavily-regulated and bureaucratic organizations in the world.
For all of the enthusiasm I’ve witnessed, though, I’ve seen a lot of people who immediately “got” it then struggle after experiencing the challenges that come when trying to build a new company or transform an existing one using this methodology. My work lately has revolved around helping people overcome those obstacles and set up systems, team structures and ways of working that support continuous innovation and sustainable growth.
And now, I want to share what I've learned with you.”
Almost before I knew what had happened, nearly 10,000 people backed the campaign, far exceeding the number I expected and the amount they would entrust me with to bring this project to life. That was when my work on what became The Leaders Guide began. Filled with stories from the trenches, tips, and tools for getting started and then scaling up innovation, it was available to Kickstarter backers only. It also ended up being the MVP for my next book, The Startup Way, which put many of the ideas and tools into greater context in a more narrative form.
But The Leaders Guide, which has a wholly practical approach to implementing Lean Startup, has continued to get passed around as more and more people have realized that innovation and starting small aren’t just for startups any more. It’s a manual for change, and change is the only thing we can be certain of in today’s world, no matter what the organization. It busts the many myths and misperceptions about why Lean Startup can’t work in large organizations, and answers questions about things like how to convince the reluctant among your colleagues, get executive leadership on board, test new products and processes, and make sure you’re building a system that will be sustainable, rather than a flashy new initiative that burns out quickly.
That’s why I’m so excited that as of today, you can buy the updated audio version of The Leaders Guide from Audible.
Like the original version, this new edition is filled with stories and tips and tools for leaders in large organizations to use as they start to introduce lean methodology to their colleagues. And by leaders, I really mean anyone, at any level, who wants to bring change in the service of making their company a more flexible, continuously innovative place to work. A lot of the material comes directly from the workshops and sessions I do with companies and will help you really dig into the process.
In addition, I've updated and streamlined the book based on all the learning I've done since it first came out. It covers topics from the basics of Lean Startup all the way through deep dives on MVPs and pivoting, customer discovery, how to use what I call Innovation Accounting to measure progress in the days before whatever you’re building can be looked at in terms of ROI, how to use Lean Startup to change the internal workings and culture of an organization that are hindering change, like HR and Legal, and finally, how to scale it all up throughout an entire company to create a cycle of continuous innovation through entrepreneurial management.
It also includes a new feature I’m particularly happy about: a fascinating series of conversations I had with change leaders at large companies talking about their experiences. There's one at the end of each chapter, and the topics range from the early days of testing these methods to what it's like to scale them up in a large company. Each of these leaders speaks extensively about his or her experiences using these methods at big companies, and offers pragmatic advice along the way. They include Dustin Moskovitz, CEO and founder of Asana; Chris Boeckerman, Director of Innovation at Procter & Gamble; Maxwell Salzburg, CEO and founder of BackerKit; Cindy Alvarez, Principal Product Manager Lead at Microsoft; Jeffrey C. Smith, CEO and co-founder of musical social network Smule; and Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO of Twilio; Janice Fraser, Chief Product Officer of Bionic; and David Binetti, creator of the Innovation Options valuation framework for accounting.
I'm so glad to be able to bring their voices--and many others--to you.
