This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.

Five dollars bought us a hundred clicks—every day. From a marketing point of view this was not very significant, but for learning it was priceless. Every single day we were able to measure our product’s performance with a brand new set of customers.

Build-Measure-Learn. The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes

No amount of design can anticipate the many complexities of bringing a product to life in the real world.

Despite being committed to a significant vision, he had done his best to launch early and iterate. Thus, he was facing a pivot or persevere moment just eight months into the life of his company. The more money, time, and creative energy that has been sunk into an idea, the harder it is to pivot.

Those early conversations did not delve into the product features of a proposed solution; that attempt would have been foolish.

Alternatively, a startup might prefer to build separate MVPs that are aimed at getting feedback on one assumption at a time. Before building the prototype, the company might perform a smoke test with its marketing materials. This is an old direct marketing technique in which customers are given the opportunity to preorder a product that has not yet

Minimum viable products range in complexity from extremely simple smoke tests (little more than an advertisement) to actual early prototypes complete with problems and missing features.

Other entrepreneurs can fall victim to analysis paralysis, endlessly refining their plans. In this case, talking to customers, reading research reports, and whiteboard strategizing are all equally unhelpful. The problem with most entrepreneurs’ plans is generally not that they don’t follow sound strategic principles but that the facts upon which