Learn to test, iterate, and pivot quickly to achieve product-market fit and grow your business with agility.
Most teams grind for growth, but the best ones systemise it. In this step, you’ll see why a structured approach always beats random tactics. You’ll follow Random Rick, Specialist Steve, and Solid Sarah to understand how a system-driven growth approach can double revenue without doubling workload.
Introduction
Eric Ries’s The Lean Startup introduces a systematic approach to innovation under conditions of uncertainty. Drawing from lean manufacturing principles and agile development, Ries provides entrepreneurs with tools to adapt, learn, and achieve sustainable growth. The book advocates continuous innovation through scientific experimentation, rapid prototyping, and iterative learning to optimise resources and reduce waste.
Ries argues that startups are not just products but institutions requiring unique management methods tailored for uncertainty. Entrepreneurs must adopt a scientific and disciplined approach to decision-making.
Startups exist to learn how to build sustainable businesses. This is achieved through validated learning, a measurable process of testing hypotheses and iterating based on data rather than intuition or assumptions.
At the core of the Lean Startup is the Build-Measure-Learn cycle:
Startups require new metrics to track progress, focusing on learning milestones instead of traditional business metrics. This helps entrepreneurs decide whether to persevere with their strategy or pivot.
The MVP is a simplified version of a product that allows entrepreneurs to test assumptions quickly and cheaply. It helps validate hypotheses about customer needs without committing significant resources.
Ries introduces the concept of the pivot, a strategic shift in the product or business model based on feedback. Startups must know when to persevere or pivot to avoid pursuing flawed strategies.
Frequent, small updates enable rapid iteration and minimise downtime, allowing startups to respond to customer feedback in near real-time.
The Lean Startup emphasises actionable metrics over vanity metrics. For example, instead of focusing on website traffic, startups should track user engagement or conversion rates to measure meaningful progress.
While tailored for startups, Ries’s principles apply to organisations of all sizes. For example, established corporations can adopt Lean Startup methods to foster innovation within departments or new product lines.
Ries illustrates Lean principles through real-world examples, such as Intuit's use of rapid experimentation to launch new products. Startups like Dropbox also demonstrate the power of MVPs to validate demand before scaling.
Ries concludes that entrepreneurial success is not about luck or innate talent but can be engineered through disciplined practices. The Lean Startup provides a framework to navigate uncertainty, achieve sustainable growth, and continuously innovate.
The Lean Startup is an essential guide for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and innovators aiming to create value while minimising waste in the journey toward building successful businesses.
If your marketing and sales teams are too busy firefighting — fixing tools, chasing data, and dealing with messy handovers — you’ll never have time to focus on real growth. The Growth Operations Programme fixes your operations first, so you can finally work on scaling up.
Solid Growth helps B2B service companies scale — not with random tactics, but with clear systems that align marketing and sales into one predictable growth engine. Built on 13 years of hands-on experience — helping teams move from firefighting to predictable, repeatable revenue growth.
15 years experience
1,500 marketers trained since 2015
Exited 6 companies
My name is Ewoud Uphof, a marketing strategist with 15 years of experience. I've been fascinated by growth since 2010, and I created this guide out of a passion for sharing what I've learned. These guides are a way for me to give back to the marketing community and are also linked to my video course, which covers these topics in even greater depth.
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Omnisend is an all-in-one marketing platform designed for e-commerce businesses. With powerful automation and seamless integrations, it helps businesses scale their email and SMS marketing efforts effortlessly.
Find and fix what’s slowing your team down. This free scan assesses your marketing, sales, and automation setup, giving you clear recommendations to improve efficiency and eliminate bottlenecks.
Free up a full day every week to focus on growth. We'll fix the systems, tools, and workflows holding your team back.
A proven system for B2B service teams to scale with clarity. Learn step-by-step how to build your growth engine and double revenue — without doubling the workload
Find and fix what’s slowing your team down. This free scan assesses your marketing, sales, and automation setup, giving you clear recommendations to improve efficiency and eliminate bottlenecks.
A structured, hands-on programme designed for teams that want to fix bottlenecks, systemise execution, and scale growth predictably.
Learn to test, iterate, and pivot quickly to achieve product-market fit and grow your business with agility.
Find and fix what’s slowing your team down. This free scan assesses your marketing, sales, and automation setup, giving you clear recommendations to improve efficiency and eliminate bottlenecks.
Free up a full day every week to focus on growth. We'll fix the systems, tools, and workflows holding your team back.