Running Lean

way of doing things that challenges their familiar old way. I label this resistance to adopting the new way as FRICTION in

Operating under conditions of extreme uncertainty is the reason often cited for this low rate of success, and also why the journey prior to product/market fit is often described as aimless wandering

Viral growth requires the referral rate to be above 100%, and unless your product has inherently viral behavior (sharing with others) built in as a byproduct of usage (e.g., Facebook), this is incredibly rare. From my experience, a sustainable referral rate of 15–25% is good, 40% is great, and around 70% is excellent.

All business models have customers, and so it follows that traction metrics need to be customer-centric.

Problems can pop up anywhere in the customer journey, but look back over your Customer Forces Canvases and identify the area of primary struggle. This generally comes from: Dissatisfaction (i.e., a job not done well enough) Friction during usage of the chosen solution Friction during selection of a solution

Here’s a much better version: Writing a blog post will drive >100 sign-ups. Now you have a way of running this experiment and clearly measuring whether it passes or fails. Remember that this 100 sign-ups number isn’t simply pulled out of thin air—it needs to be derived from your traction roadmap and customer factory model. The

You need a way to break your MSC goal into shorter-term milestones. These intermediate milestones will help you visualize your journey as more manageable stages and chart a stage-based rollout plan.

As the risks in a business model are constantly shifting, he establishes a regular 90-day cycle in order to maintain a sense of urgency and keep his team externally accountable.

they care about traction