If I had to describe the Lean Startup Methodology in less then 5 words, I would say “Ideas, Product, Learn, Repeat.” First, people have ideas and deploy a minimal product. You then learn from customers who use your product and repeat the same process, modifying your ideas and product(s) based on customer feedback.

Learning is the toughest step in this cycle, as it is the only state that requires external people to complete. Very early customer development and validation is also a state that doesn’t get much attention. Although that is starting to change (due to the Lean Startup movement), most material I have read focus on struggles with idea and product, then shift to funding and scaling. It’s a shame because the learning phase can often be the most frustrating, and without persistence, may create a lot of waste, or even critical mistakes. Take these two examples.

Just Keep Adding Features: Many entrepreneurs skip the learning phase completely if they become frustrated with the lack of initial customers, electing to implement new features from their backlog instead. This can be counterproductive, as one of the biggest forms of waste is creating features users do not want. A decade ago, I made this mistake with a blogging platform I created (before blogging was actually a term). I became impatient, and by the time users were on the platform, the usability of the platform had degraded due to the feature additions I made combined with the lack of validating the usability of those features when integrated.

Pivoting too Soon: The 2nd potential mistake is entrepreneurs giving up and moving on to the next idea. They repeat the “idea, product, learn” loop, as they believe they “learned” their product or idea was flawed and the best course is to start over with something else (Note that sometimes, this is true). Entrepreneurs are being told to “Fail Fast”, which I think is great advice, but if entrepreneurs can’t learn why the product failed, then they may need to keep going.

So, how do you enhance the learning stage when you’re trying to entice “earlyvangelists” in the crucial beginning weeks or months? It’s not easy. Here are a couple ideas to start the conversation.

Search Engine Marketing: SEM services, such as Google Adwords, could be a cost-effective way to get initial users to your website. Eric Ries has a great article on this approach, and I encourage you to read it, as there’s not much I can add. Note that Adwords has become significantly more complex then even a few years ago. Therefore, I advise that you spend a great deal of time optimizing your campaign. If you don’t, you may draw the conclusion that something is wrong with your service, when in reality, your ad campaign sucks.

Use Social Networks: It is so much easier to increase your reputation with the plethora of social websites. 10 years ago, there was very little. Blogs allowed non-technical entrepreneurs to increase their reputation and become their own brand. Now, websites like Twitter, Facebook, Hacker News, Quora, and Stack Overflow allow you to share your knowledge and insights with a larger audience. If people trust your insight and thoughts, users are more likely to try your services and products.

These ideas are more indirect methods to better achieve your goal of reaching initial customers. I purposefully stayed away from other, more talked-about ideas, such as A/B testing or customer interviews. No matter what you do, understand most methods take a significant amount of time to “get right”, and many times, it’s easier to go back and add a new feature. Don’t fall into that trap! 

I’m interested to hear your methods regarding this topic, as everyone benefits from new ideas, and no idea will work for every situation.

Like this post? I encourage you to visit TweetAfter.me and provide feedback.