Lean-agile approaches for Start-Ups

Today I’m going to write a bit about why the lean-agile approach matters for start-up projects.

https://www.sautitech.com/startups/orange-google-team-up-to-raise-start-ups-in-africa/

The term ‘lean Start-Up’ was coined in 2008 by the entrepreneur Eric Ries. The idea is based on the Toyota Lean Production System, which was developed by Toyota. Lean Start-Up describes the process, that prototypes are created by learning from customers’ needs and wants. This means, that a company constantly uses the feedback the customers give, to improve their products and invent new ones, that perfectly fit the customers need and wants to avoid producing a product no one wants (Switek and Drelichowski, 2018, p.23).

The agile approach means doing your project in small steps to minimise risks and respond to issues as soon as they occur. Moreover, by reassessing the product with every step, a better result can be ensured. Consequently, resources can be saved and the project can be delivered on time within the planned budget (Rouse, 2018).

So literally lean-agile approach means doing exactly what customers want in little baby steps to avoid spending too much money and wasting resources. This is quite important and useful for start-ups; as they usually don’t have many resources to implement their projects/products and throw them on the market. Furthermore, it allows start-up projects to be done step by step, tracked and supervised by the company.

In my opinion, this is a huge benefit for the Start-Up - I mean who doesn’t want to know exactly what customers want and what they think about the new idea?!

Do you want to produce a product/service no one wants to buy, only because you didn’t check the customers’ needs and wants before? I bet not.

Hence, I think that a lean-agile approach is not only important for a Start-up project; I think it is necessary to avoid the waste of resources, money and time for products no one will buy.

So it’s worth having a look at for start ups and established organisations alike.

Stay safe! Stay tuned!

Reference List:

Switek, S., Drelichowski, L. (2018) ‘A New Learning Method for Organizations?’, 89, pp.20-32. Studies & Proceedings of Polish Association for Knowledge Management, EBSCOhost [online]. (Accessed: 21.10.2019)

Rouse, M. (2018) ‘Agile Project Management’, Tech Target. Available at: https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/Agile-project-management (Accessed: 21.10.2019)

SautiTech Staff (2018): https://www.sautitech.com/startups/orange-google-team-up-to-raise-start-ups-in-africa/ (Accesed: 23.10.2019)