Eric Ries

Quotes are word for word from the source.

• Interpreting Feedback

  “When a customer tells you how they feel about your ideas, that doesn't tell you anything about your ideas. It tells you something about what that customer thinks and feels.”

  Our noteRies clarifies that feedback is data about the customer's perspective, not an objective truth about the product.

• The Founder's Job

  “Figuring out whether and how to incorporate that new information into your vision is your job”

  Our noteRies emphasizes that the entrepreneur is responsible for synthesizing feedback into the product vision.

• Inferring toolkits

  “Much better is to infer the right toolkit by searching for commonalities among actually-built experiences.”

  Our noteEric discusses the best way to build general design systems or toolkits.

• Focus on serialization

  “Prefer serializing work to doing it in parallel . When possible, try to have the whole team work on a one project at a time, rather than have many going simultaneously.”

  Our noteEric advises against multitasking at the team level to avoid work-in-progress buildup.

• Market as arbiter

  “Vision is important, but just as important is understanding that the market is the final arbiter, and what is not known will be a greater part of the success or failure than what is known.”

  Our noteAdvising early-stage startups on the balance between vision and market reality.

• Judging technical leadership

  “A good architect should be judged, not by the beauty of the diagram, but by the quality of the work that the team does using it.”

  Our noteTechnical leaders should focus on enabling their team rather than just their own output.

• Lean Startup Roots

  “The Lean Startup methodology has its roots in the tech sector, where companies need to iterate quickly in order to survive.”

  Our noteThe origins of the Lean Startup methodology in the technology sector.

• Opportunities in constraints

  “The current macroeconomic climate presents unparalleled opportunities for those that can thrive with constrained resources.”

  Our noteEric discusses how economic downturns favor startups that can operate efficiently.

• Lean Startup definition

  “The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight.”

  Our noteDefining the core pillars of the Lean Startup methodology.

• Launch day reviews

  “The first 24 hours are critical in establishing that all-important "average star rating" that tends to settle in.”

  Our noteEric was asking his readers to post honest Amazon reviews on the day his book launched.

• Experience over polish

  “What we care about is the business experience you have to share, not the speaking experience.”

  Our noteEric explains that the Lean Startup Conference values real-world case studies over professional speaking skills.

• Batch size spiral

  “Large batches lead to even larger batches: The damage done by large batches can become regenerative when a large batch project starts to acquire a life of its own.”

  Our noteRies quotes Reinertsen on the dangers of working in large increments.

• Leveraging free software

  “Especially for a startup, not taking maximum advantage of free software is crazy. The benefits are many and much-discussed, and so I'll mention only one in passing.”

  Our noteEric explains why startups must use open source software to gain development leverage.

• Natural feedback loops

  “A failing test provides a natural feedback mechanism, slowing the team down when going too fast.”

  Our noteUsing test failures as a signal to regulate development speed.

• Management context matters

  “As an entrepreneur, I often saw the best practices of general management fail startups. Applied out of context, they were dangerous.”

  Our noteThe author discusses why traditional management techniques often fail when applied to the unique environment of startups.

• Purposeful software testing

  “Don't write tests for scenarios just because you can. Write tests that support a specific business need.”

  Our noteEric Ries emphasizes that engineering efforts like testing should be driven by business value rather than technical capability.

• Product Over Marketing

  “Alas, even brilliant marketing adorned with a giant picture of me can't fix the wrong product.”

  Our noteEric reflects on how marketing cannot save a product that doesn't fit market needs.

• Launch week importance

  “Every sale makes a difference, even more so if it's from a local retailer, and the first week's sales can make or break a book's trajectory.”

  Our noteEric emphasizes how critical the initial launch period is for the long-term success of a product.

• Standardized governance trap

  “Over and over, I've seen founders succumb to the idea that their governance has to be the same as everyone else's in order to succeed - or even to get their company off the ground.”

  Our noteEric discusses why founders often copy standard corporate governance structures without questioning them.

• Better governance structures

  “There are many better ways to create governance structures than what's currently deemed acceptable by the lawyers who seem to crank out the same charter for every single company.”

  Our noteHe argues against the one-size-fits-all approach to legal charters in startups.

• Tools vs Process

  “It's a natural assumption that, in order to implement a new process, we need fancy new tools. This is generally false.”

  Our noteEric discusses why founders shouldn't rush to buy complex software for new workflows.

• Purpose of customer development

  “Customer development is emphatically not an excuse to slow down or change the plan every day. It's an attempt to minimize the risk of total failure by checking your theories against reality.”

  Our noteClarifying that customer development is a disciplined process, not a chaotic one.

• Supporting Global Communities

  “One of the most important things we do with The Lean Startup Conference is make a livestream of the plenary talks available for free to groups around the world, supporting entrepreneurship communities everywhere.”

  Our noteEric Ries explains the purpose of offering free conference livestreams to global groups.

• Progress over perfection

  “Outside the world of hypothetical examples, it's more important to make continual progress than to build the ultimate design.”

  Our noteEric explains why shipping is more important than perfect software architecture in early stages.

• Culture and Process

  “I hope at least some of that attention will be paid to the culture and process that made those results possible.”

  Our noteEric Ries comments on Facebook's S-1 filing and the importance of their internal culture.

• Honest Communication

  “You can't have an honest dialog if one party knows all the answers.”

  Our noteHe warns against technologists who simply decide for others instead of providing options.

• Refuting major hypotheses

  “The key is to be able to refute as many major hypotheses as you can. We're talking PayPal -sized variations.”

  Our noteEric defines what counts as a meaningful iteration for a startup.

• Value of user research

  “The answer that I used to give, which I think was not very helpful but was how I felt, was, "Quit and join someplace that actually understands what you do, because they're going to win in the end anyway.”

  Our noteLaura Klein discusses the frustration of working in companies that do not value user experience research.

• Online storefront visibility

  “Given most buyers are shopping online, we had to see how the covers would look in an online retailer's storefront.”

  Our noteThe team realized they needed to test the cover design in its actual digital environment.

• Impact of current choices

  “The choices we make now will have a huge effect on what the world looks like when we get through this period--and we will get through it.”

  Our noteDiscussing how leadership decisions during a pandemic shape the future society and economy.