How a Lean Mindset Enables Breaking Free from Features Nobody Needs

Stop focusing on features. Start driving value.

How a lean mindset can help you break free from creating waste. An insightful conversation with Ash Maurya, whom I tremendously respect and was honored to receive a foreword to my book, Untraping Product Teams.

Before we jump into the chat with Ash, let me tell you one important thing.

In a special collaboration with Pearson, the book publisher, we’ve extended our offering of a 35% voucher until the 30th of June. You can benefit from this offer here by using the code PEREIRA. Shall we rock the product world together?

Now, going back to this episode.

A few weeks ago, I had an extraordinary with Ash, the pioneering mind behind Lean Canvas and author of influential books like "Running Lean" and "Scaling Lean." We talked about the power of lean and how that can help product teams create valuable products faster.

Here are 7 Key Takeaways from this inspiring conversation:

1. Lean Misconceptions

Lean isn't about being cheap but about the speed of learning and making informed decisions quickly.

Contrary to what many think, lean isn't about cutting everything; it's about wisely using time to avoid waste. For example, invest strongly to test your riskiest assumptions before building a product.

2. Customer Conversations

Talk to the right customers and understand their true needs versus wants. Potential customers may tell you what your product is missing so they will buy it, while current customers will tell you how your product helps them.

Move away from hypothetical conversations to real stories.

3. Feature Overload

More features do not equal more value. On the contrary, overloading your product with unnecessary features may confuse users and reduce value creation.

Less is more.

4. Jobs to Be Done

Focus on the jobs customers truly care about rather than just delivering features. Strive to understand what customers aim to achieve instead of building solutions they ask you.

5. Minimizing Waste

It's not about accelerating transforming ideas into features. It's about testing ideas fast enough to pivot to what works in reality.

70-80% of your ideas won't work as you imagined.

6. Outcome-Driven Development

Encourage teams to balance the value created and the effort invested. Until teams can measure the outcome created, they will fall prey to creating features customers don't need.

7. Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Product teams need to embrace a mindset of continual learning and readiness to pivot. Striving to implement ideas will inevitably lead to waste.

The key is to keep a learning mindset, be open to listening to signs, and have the courage to pivot when you learn you're wrong, which is just a matter of time.

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Watch the video on Youtube.

Stay bold, stay innovative!

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Have a lovely day,

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