Testing Business Ideas –  David Bland u. Alexander Osterwalder

Testing Business Ideas explains how systematically testing business ideas dramatically reduces the risk and increases the likelihood of success for any new venture or business project. It builds on the internationally popular Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas by integrating Assumptions Mapping and other powerful lean startup-style experiments.“

Einer der für mich wichtigsten Punkte aus „Testing Business Ideas“

Say ‘I don’t know’: Imagine feeling the pressure of leading an organization and always having the answers. There’s a good chance that you don’t have them. When building a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, acting like you have all the answers can be disastrous. Teams will quickly see through the veil once they learn how to run experiments and generate their own evidence. Worse yet, you’ll feel like you have undermined your position of leadership by being proven wrong. Instead, we strongly recommend that you practice saying these three words, “I don’t know,” when you are in a situation where you don’t know. It will help your teams begin to understand that you don’t have all the answers, nor should you. Follow it up with “How would you approach this” or “What do you think we should do?” Saying “I don’t know” will help you model the behavior the leaders you create will embrace.”

Zitate aus „Testing Business Ideas“, die mir gefallen haben

„It takes humility to realize that we don’t know everything, not to rest on our laurels, and to know that we must keep learning and observing. If we don’t, we can be sure some startup will be there to take our place.“ Cher Wang, Cofounder HTC

„The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” Phil Jackson, Former NBA Coach

„It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.“ Richard Feynman, American theoretical physicist

„Anyone who isn’t embarrassed by who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.“ Alain de Botton, Philosopher

“Have a bias toward action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.” Indira Gandhi

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw

“The problem happens when you don’t put that first note down. Just start.” Herbie Hancock, Jazz Musician, composer and actor

“Invention isn’t disruptive. Only customer adoption is disruptive.” Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

“The more success you’ve had in the past, the less critically you examine your own assumptions.” Vinod Khasia, Venture Capitalist

“A bad system will beat a good person every time.” W. Edwards Deming, Professor and author

Bonus-Punkte vergebe ich…

• für die wirklich einzigartige Experimentierbibliothek, die ich so noch in keinem Buch gesehen habe, mit detaillierten Experimenttypen. 27 Entdeckungs-Experimente (wie “Pretend to own”, “Buy a feature”, “Boomerang”, “Storyboard”…) und 15 Validierungs-Experimenten (wie “Pop-up Store”, Mock Sale”, Wizard of Oz”, Mash-Up”…). 
• für die Gestaltung des Buchs: frisches klares Design, cleane Graphiken und wenig Blabla.

Besorge dir „Testing Business Ideas“

• wenn du dich mit neuen Geschäftsideen, Geschäftsmodellen, Produkten oder Dienstleistungen beschäftigst.
• wenn du deine Ideen testen willst – um große Fehler zu vermeiden – du dir aber nicht 100% sicher bist, wo und wie du anfangen sollst.
• wenn du keine Theorie über die Notwendigkeit von Tests und schnellen Experimenten suchst, sondern ein echtes Arbeits-Handbuch, um die PS auf die Strasse zu bringen.

Interview mit den Autoren David Bland und Alexander Osterwalder

1) Was ist die große Idee hinter dem „Testing Business Ideas“?

We want to help people who have a big idea rapidly test it so they don’t waste time building something no one wants. We felt there was a need for a book that helped people identify risk and then design an experiment to test that risk.

2) Warum ist das wichtig für mich?

7 out of 10 new products fail to deliver on expectations. Testing Business Ideas aims to reverse that statistic by helping corporate innovators, startup entrepreneurs and solopreneurs make progress and address what’s keeping them up at night with their new business idea.

3) Was konkret soll ich machen?

Start generating evidence to see if you’re on the right track. Choose your riskiest assumption, design an experiment to test it, and go run it. Then turn your insights into action.