Lean Startup
Design MVPs, validated learning experiments, and pivot-or-persevere decisions using...
Install
npx skills add wondelai/skills --skill lean-startup -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- wondelai/skills2.6k
- Category
- Design
- Updated
- 2mo ago
- License
- MIT
- Context cost
- Mediumabout 3,000 tokens
- Runs scripts
- No, instructions only
What it does
Design MVPs, validated learning experiments, and pivot-or-persevere decisions using Build-Measure-Learn. Use when the user mentions "MVP scope", "validated learning", "pivot or persevere", "vanity metrics", "test assumptions", "innovation accounting", "build-measure-learn", "minimum viable experiment", "should we pivot", "test a business idea cheaply", or "build the smallest version first". Also trigger when deciding what to include in a first version, measuring startup progress, or evaluating whether to change direction on a product bet. Covers innovation accounting and actionable metrics. For 5-day prototype testing, see design-sprint. For customer motivation analysis, see jobs-to-be-done.
Lean Startup Methodology
A systematic approach to building startups and launching new products that shortens development cycles and rapidly discovers whether a business model is viable.
Core Principle
Entrepreneurship is a form of management. Success doesn't require a perfect plan or brilliant insight, it requires a systematic process for testing assumptions, learning from customers, and iterating rapidly. Most startups fail not because they couldn't build what they planned, but because they built the wrong thing: treat every plan as a set of hypotheses to falsify, and spend effort to eliminate waste and accelerate validated learning, not to execute a fixed roadmap.
Scoring
Goal: 10/10. Score a plan, experiment, or metric set by the five Quick Diagnostic rows, 1 point each when the answer is yes, 2 points when it is also backed by evidence on the Validation Ladder (Level 3+):
- 9-10: every leap-of-faith assumption named and ranked by risk, the riskiest tested by a real MVP, actionable metrics defined, and explicit pivot criteria set before building.
- 5-6: a hypothesis and some MVP exist, but metrics are vanity or pivot criteria are undefined, decisions can't be made from the data.
- ≤3: waterfall thinking, building the full product first, asking customers what they want, or scaling before product/market fit.
State the current score and the lowest-scoring diagnostic row to fix next.
The Build-Measure-Learn Loop
The fundamental cycle: IDEAS → BUILD (product) → MEASURE (data) → LEARN (knowledge) → back to IDEAS.
Critical insight: Plan the loop backward:
- What do we want to learn? (hypothesis to test)
- How will we know if we learned it? (metrics)
- What's the minimum we can build? (MVP)
Goal: Minimize total time through the loop.
