When you hear that some product is built in a Lean way (hey there startups!), you most often expect that it doesn’t work. So we mistake it for the Lazy.
Actually, what lean really is: maximizing value and minimizing waste. It is inspired by the Toyota production system. It works similarly to a Just-in-time compiler, which compiles code only when needed. Hmm, that actually sounds like a lazy person.
In general, we can think of a good system that defers work for the latest point in time (maybe they use WorkManager from Android 😄). But what does it mean to be Lean at the beginning of a new product or process?
I wanted to start this blog in a lean way (because I didn’t have too much time). I picked Hugo because it says it is the fastest way to your page. Hugo is only a framework so you need a nice template for what you want. I picked this one because of a simplicity and a nice background (it turns out the background in the template preview had two colors only to indicate that it supports both dark and light themes 😄). Then I struggled to get the contact form up and running. A couple of hours of trial and error to make it work.
Was this lean? - No. I have definitely used some resources excessively (time).
Could I do this for a lesser time have I picked some other framework or even another Hugo template that supports everything I needed out of the box? - Most probably.
So did I start lean? - No.
How could I start lean?
A better approach would be to research more and to be more specific about what I want. So I should certainly invest more time in planning. But my thinking process doesn’t work like that. I often know that I want something only when I see it. And with all the research, I might have come up with the same answer, so that additional time spent in planning wouldn’t bring greater value (which is a lean essence).
It turns out I must have wasted some resources on the way to here, so it wouldn’t be lean either way. The only lean way I see is to do the same thing over and over again knowing every step of the way. Startups are not doing that, so a startup can’t be lean. MVPs should not be lean (with a bunch of displayed but disabled functionality). MVP should demonstrate the core value. And because that one core thing is hard to isolate, we typically bloat it and call it a lean product.
Let the takeaway be: Build smart rather than much. But build it anyway.
Welcome to my BLOG!
Taken from Medium.