validated learning

is a method used by startups to demonstrate progress within the business context of extreme uncertainty by using small-batch empirical data from real customers to quickly identify plans that lead nowhere, and to quickly nip them in the bud.

In the Lean Startup model, we are rehabilitating learning with a concept I call validated learning. Validated learning is not after-the-fact rationalization or a good story designed to hide failure. It is a rigorous method for demonstrating progress when one is embedded in the soil of extreme uncertainty in which startups grow. Validated learning is the process of demonstrating empirically that a team has discovered valuable truths about a startup's present and future business prospects. It is more concrete, more accurate, and faster than market forecasting or classical business planning. It is the principal antidote to the lethal problem of achieving failure: successfully executing a plan that leads nowhere.

is leaning not just how to make stuff, but learning how to build a sustainable business through experimentation, learning and iteration.

Validated learning. Startups exist not just to make stuff, make money, or even serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business. This learning can be validated scientifically by running frequent experiments that allow entrepreneurs to test each element of their vision.

is the process of taking everything a startup does: Every product, feature, marketing campaign as an experiment run through the rigor of the scientific method (i.e. Prediction followed by empirical testing followed by revision).

In other words, we need the scientific method. In the Lean Startup model, every product, every feature, every marketing campaign everything a startup does is understood to be an experiment designed to achieve validated learning. This experimental approach works across industries and sectors, as we'll experimental approach works across industries and sectors, as we'll see in Chapter 4.

validated learning, n.All

validated learning