I help out some startups and I get asked a lot can we combine Eric Reis Lean Startup with Running Lean from Ash Maurya, here my take on Lean Startup in a systemized way, with pretty pictures and workflows etc.

Find Monetizable Pain

From the book Nail It Then Scale It by Paul Ahlstrom & Nathan Furr I the following concept: Monetizable Pain. Does your idea solve a big customer pain – one so big that if they don’t resolve it they’ll die? If so, you have a Monetizable Pain. If there is significant pain, you can attract enough customers to build a large and successful business. No pain, no business.

“Customers don’t care about your solution. They care about their problems.” Dave McClure
, 500 Startups

How To Find Monetizable Pain by Problem Interviews

Take 10 interviews in batches with same questions, until majority says yes to “I tried to solved and failed” then do validation with 30 cold calls/interviews. Don’t forget to ask for referrals and if they want to see pilot/demo in x-weeks!

Source: Running Lean by Ash Maurya

Validate Pain by Solution Interviews

Take 10 interviews in batches with same questions, when rate problem 4 or 5 out of 5 you can show solution (mock-ups) and allow them to pay up front.

Sources: Nail It Then Scale It by Paul Ahlstrom & Nathan Furr, Running Lean by Ash Maurya

Fail By Doing Most Difficult First

Your product fails most likely on the first versions, it is better to fail in 1 week then 6 months. So start with the most difficult part of your plan (aka getting out of your comfort-zone). See also my old post on Chickenpreneurs.

Old Way (difficult last)

New Way (difficult first)   Benefit Fail Faster = Learn Faster

Source: The Dip & The Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Conclusion

Be honest in what you learn, how many people are actually interested in your product and design a roadmap with metrics on where you think the key moments are location where you ask yourself the question is 51% of my audience actually interested or am I fooling myself?