Description

Book Synopsis
The missing manual on how to apply Lean Startup to build products that customers love The Lean Product Playbook is a practical guide to building products that customers love. Whether you work at a startup or a large, established company, we all know that building great products is hard. Most new products fail.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Products Fail and How Lean Changes the Game xvii

Part I Core Concepts

Chapter 1 Achieving Product-Market Fit with the Lean Product Process 3

What Is Product-Market Fit? 3

The Product-Market Fit Pyramid 4

Quicken: from #47 to #1 7

The Lean Product Process 8

Chapter 2 Problem Space versus Solution Space 13

The Space Pen 13

Problems Define Markets 15

The What and the How 16

Outside-In Product Development 16

Should You Listen to Customers? 17

A Tale of Two Apple Features 18

Using the Solution Space to Discover the Problem Space 20

Part II The Lean Product Process

Chapter 3 Determine Your Target Customer (Step 1) 25

Fishing for Customers 25

How to Segment Your Target Market 26

Users versus Buyers 28

Technology Adoption Life Cycle 29

Personas 30

Chapter 4 Identify Underserved Customer Needs (Step 2) 37

A Customer Need by Any Other Name 37

Customer Needs Example: TurboTax 38

Customer Discovery Interviews 40

Customer Benefit Ladders 41

Hierarchies of Needs 43

The Importance versus Satisfaction Framework 45

Related Frameworks 56

Visualizing Customer Value 58

The Kano Model 63

Putting the Frameworks to Use 66

Chapter 5 Define Your Value Proposition (Step 3) 67

Strategy Means Saying “No” 68

Value Propositions for Search Engines 68

Not So Cuil 71

Building Your Product Value Proposition 72

Skating to Where the Puck Will Be 75

The Flip Video Camera 75

Predicting the Future with Value Propositions 75

Chapter 6 Specify Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Feature Set (Step 4) 77

User Stories: Features with Benefits 78

Breaking Features Down 79

Smaller Batch Sizes Are Better 79

Scoping with Story Points 80

Using Return on Investment to Prioritize 80

Deciding on Your MVP Candidate 85

Chapter 7 Create Your MVP Prototype (Step 5) 89

What Is (and Isn’t) an MVP? 89

MVP Tests 90

The Matrix of MVP Tests 92

Qualitative Marketing MVP Tests 93

Quantitative Marketing MVP Tests 94

Qualitative Product MVP Tests 99

Quantitative Product MVP Tests 108

Chapter 8 Apply the Principles of Great UX Design 111

What Makes a Great UX? 111

The UX Design Iceberg 116

Conceptual Design 117

Information Architecture 120

Interaction Design 123

Visual Design 129

Design Principles 135

Copy Is Also Part of UX Design 140

The A-Team 140

UX Is in the Eye of the Beholder 141

Chapter 9 Test Your MVP with Customers (Step 6) 143

How Many Customers Should I Test With? 144

In-Person, Remote, and Unmoderated User Testing 145

How to Recruit Customers in Your Target Market 148

User Testing at Intuit 152

Ramen User Testing 153

How to Structure the User Test 155

How to Ask Good Questions 156

Ask Open versus Closed Questions 158

I Feel Your Pain 159

Wrapping Up the User Test 160

How to Capture and Synthesize User Feedback 161

Usability versus Product-Market Fit 163

Chapter 10 Iterate and Pivot to Improve Product-Market Fit 167

The Build-Measure-Learn Loop 167

The Hypothesize-Design-Test-Learn Loop 168

Iterative User Testing 170

Persevere or Pivot? 175

Chapter 11 An End-to-End Lean Product Case Study 181

MarketingReport.com 181

Step 1: Determine Your Target Customers 182

Step 2: Identify Underserved Needs 182

Step 3: Define Your Value Proposition 183

Step 4: Specify Your MVP Feature Set 185

Step 5: Create Your MVP Prototype 187

Step 6: Test Your MVP with Customers 188

Iterate and Pivot to Improve Product-Market Fit 193

Reflections 197

Part III Building and Optimizing Your Product

Chapter 12 Build Your Product Using Agile Development 201

Agile Development 201

Scrum 205

Kanban 211

Picking the Right Agile Methodology 216

Succeeding with Agile 218

Quality Assurance 222

Test-Driven Development 225

Continuous Integration 226

Continuous Deployment 227

Chapter 13 Measure Your Key Metrics 229

Analytics versus Other Learning Methods 229

Oprah versus Spock 231

User Interviews 231

Usability Testing 232

Surveys 232

Analytics and A/B Testing 235

Analytics Frameworks 236

Identify the Metric That Matters Most 240

Retention Rate 242

The Equation of Your Business 249

Achieving Profitability 255

Chapter 14 Use Analytics to Optimize Your Product and Business 259

The Lean Product Analytics Process 259

A Lean Product Analytics Case Study: Friendster 263

Optimization with A/B Testing 272

Chapter 15 Conclusion 277

Acknowledgments 283

References 285

Resources 287

Index 291

About the Author 309

The Lean Product Playbook

    Product form

    £23.80

    Includes FREE delivery

    RRP £28.00 – you save £4.20 (15%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Wed 10 Jun 2026.

    A Hardback by Dan Olsen

    3 in stock


      View other formats and editions of The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen

      Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc
      Publication Date: 10/07/2015
      ISBN13: 9781118960875, 978-1118960875
      ISBN10: 1118960874

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      The missing manual on how to apply Lean Startup to build products that customers love The Lean Product Playbook is a practical guide to building products that customers love. Whether you work at a startup or a large, established company, we all know that building great products is hard. Most new products fail.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction: Why Products Fail and How Lean Changes the Game xvii

      Part I Core Concepts

      Chapter 1 Achieving Product-Market Fit with the Lean Product Process 3

      What Is Product-Market Fit? 3

      The Product-Market Fit Pyramid 4

      Quicken: from #47 to #1 7

      The Lean Product Process 8

      Chapter 2 Problem Space versus Solution Space 13

      The Space Pen 13

      Problems Define Markets 15

      The What and the How 16

      Outside-In Product Development 16

      Should You Listen to Customers? 17

      A Tale of Two Apple Features 18

      Using the Solution Space to Discover the Problem Space 20

      Part II The Lean Product Process

      Chapter 3 Determine Your Target Customer (Step 1) 25

      Fishing for Customers 25

      How to Segment Your Target Market 26

      Users versus Buyers 28

      Technology Adoption Life Cycle 29

      Personas 30

      Chapter 4 Identify Underserved Customer Needs (Step 2) 37

      A Customer Need by Any Other Name 37

      Customer Needs Example: TurboTax 38

      Customer Discovery Interviews 40

      Customer Benefit Ladders 41

      Hierarchies of Needs 43

      The Importance versus Satisfaction Framework 45

      Related Frameworks 56

      Visualizing Customer Value 58

      The Kano Model 63

      Putting the Frameworks to Use 66

      Chapter 5 Define Your Value Proposition (Step 3) 67

      Strategy Means Saying “No” 68

      Value Propositions for Search Engines 68

      Not So Cuil 71

      Building Your Product Value Proposition 72

      Skating to Where the Puck Will Be 75

      The Flip Video Camera 75

      Predicting the Future with Value Propositions 75

      Chapter 6 Specify Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Feature Set (Step 4) 77

      User Stories: Features with Benefits 78

      Breaking Features Down 79

      Smaller Batch Sizes Are Better 79

      Scoping with Story Points 80

      Using Return on Investment to Prioritize 80

      Deciding on Your MVP Candidate 85

      Chapter 7 Create Your MVP Prototype (Step 5) 89

      What Is (and Isn’t) an MVP? 89

      MVP Tests 90

      The Matrix of MVP Tests 92

      Qualitative Marketing MVP Tests 93

      Quantitative Marketing MVP Tests 94

      Qualitative Product MVP Tests 99

      Quantitative Product MVP Tests 108

      Chapter 8 Apply the Principles of Great UX Design 111

      What Makes a Great UX? 111

      The UX Design Iceberg 116

      Conceptual Design 117

      Information Architecture 120

      Interaction Design 123

      Visual Design 129

      Design Principles 135

      Copy Is Also Part of UX Design 140

      The A-Team 140

      UX Is in the Eye of the Beholder 141

      Chapter 9 Test Your MVP with Customers (Step 6) 143

      How Many Customers Should I Test With? 144

      In-Person, Remote, and Unmoderated User Testing 145

      How to Recruit Customers in Your Target Market 148

      User Testing at Intuit 152

      Ramen User Testing 153

      How to Structure the User Test 155

      How to Ask Good Questions 156

      Ask Open versus Closed Questions 158

      I Feel Your Pain 159

      Wrapping Up the User Test 160

      How to Capture and Synthesize User Feedback 161

      Usability versus Product-Market Fit 163

      Chapter 10 Iterate and Pivot to Improve Product-Market Fit 167

      The Build-Measure-Learn Loop 167

      The Hypothesize-Design-Test-Learn Loop 168

      Iterative User Testing 170

      Persevere or Pivot? 175

      Chapter 11 An End-to-End Lean Product Case Study 181

      MarketingReport.com 181

      Step 1: Determine Your Target Customers 182

      Step 2: Identify Underserved Needs 182

      Step 3: Define Your Value Proposition 183

      Step 4: Specify Your MVP Feature Set 185

      Step 5: Create Your MVP Prototype 187

      Step 6: Test Your MVP with Customers 188

      Iterate and Pivot to Improve Product-Market Fit 193

      Reflections 197

      Part III Building and Optimizing Your Product

      Chapter 12 Build Your Product Using Agile Development 201

      Agile Development 201

      Scrum 205

      Kanban 211

      Picking the Right Agile Methodology 216

      Succeeding with Agile 218

      Quality Assurance 222

      Test-Driven Development 225

      Continuous Integration 226

      Continuous Deployment 227

      Chapter 13 Measure Your Key Metrics 229

      Analytics versus Other Learning Methods 229

      Oprah versus Spock 231

      User Interviews 231

      Usability Testing 232

      Surveys 232

      Analytics and A/B Testing 235

      Analytics Frameworks 236

      Identify the Metric That Matters Most 240

      Retention Rate 242

      The Equation of Your Business 249

      Achieving Profitability 255

      Chapter 14 Use Analytics to Optimize Your Product and Business 259

      The Lean Product Analytics Process 259

      A Lean Product Analytics Case Study: Friendster 263

      Optimization with A/B Testing 272

      Chapter 15 Conclusion 277

      Acknowledgments 283

      References 285

      Resources 287

      Index 291

      About the Author 309

      Recently viewed products

      © 2026 Book Curl

        • American Express
        • Apple Pay
        • Diners Club
        • Discover
        • Google Pay
        • Maestro
        • Mastercard
        • PayPal
        • Shop Pay
        • Union Pay
        • Visa

        Login

        Forgot your password?

        Don't have an account yet?
        Create account