SXSW 2013 Sampler

No one can pinpoint where we exist on
the curve. Is change over or just beginning?
Are we at an infl ection point? Up or down?
Is the end nigh, or is the Age of Aquarius
approaching?
A broken clock is right twice a day.
How can we know when we are amid big
change? Listen to experts and incumbents. If
you hear a lot of this, then be forewarned—
“Th e times they are a-changin’ ”:
• “Don’t worry, it’s just the business cycle;
or, in other words, the next bus to pick us
up will be by in fi ve minutes.”
• “Will x be ubiquitous? Oh that’s ridiculous;
x is exactly what is already consuming
your market. ‘It’s just a normal cycle,
we’ll be back.’ ”
• “Piracy is killing us!”
Th e Lean Entrepreneur is about navigating
big change.
Whether what’s emerging is considered
the postindustrial age, an information society,
or an experience economy, Th e Lean
Entrepreneur aims to help you create
products people want, innovate with new
ventures, and disrupt markets. With big
change comes big opportunity. We’ll provide
you with grounded ways to market test
your ideas with the right market segment;
we’ll give you real, tangible examples of how
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successful entrepreneurs are doing so; and
we’ll get you started right now and get you
up to speed quickly.
We think of Th e Lean Entrepreneur as
a fi eld guide because it is designed to be
brought into the fi eld, whether that is your
offi ce, the local co-working space, your client’s
place of business, or the local coff ee
shop as you surf cyberspace, planning your
conquest. Whereas a traditional naturalist
fi eld guide helps outdoorsmen identify the
plants and animals of a certain geography, our
fi eld guide will help you identify concepts and
ideas in the geography of innovation. At fi rst
blush, some of these ideas may not appear to
be applicable to your business, but with an
open mind and a spirit of creativity, we will
demonstrate how these concepts can and will
radically reshape how you bring products to
market and, ultimately, to your business.
Th e Lean Entrepreneur is a book of synthesis,
of recombination, and, we hope, of
inspiration. It is a synthesis in that we will
show where several pre-existing ideas about
how to innovate, which initially appear to be
virtual islands strewn across a sea, actually
share connections and complement each
other. And if we have done this well, a larger,
more complete, and more comprehensive
map of the changes coming and how to
innovate now will have emerged for you.
As Henry Ford recombined existing
technologies from diff erent domains
(interchangeable parts, the assembly line,
the electric motor) into a wholly novel and
disruptive set of innovations resulting in
the manufacture and distribution of the
fi rst durable, mass-market automobile,
we hope to inspire vis-à-vis our interpretations
of several big ideas, which will result in
a new approach that scales well for disruptive
innovators and entrepreneurs, from
small, value-producing businesses to the
Fortune 500.
Th e product development methodologies
and innovation frameworks espoused by Th e
Lean Entrepreneur are heavily infl uenced by
truly big thinkers, such as Steve Blank and
Eric Ries, creators of Customer Development
and Th e Lean Startup, respectively. However,
other, rather similar, innovation methodologies
such as design thinking and discoverydriven
planning also exist.
All the aforementioned frameworks tend
to be driven by principle, rather than by a set
of cut-and-dried tactics, and are typifi ed by
iterative, customer-centric, data-informed
approaches resembling the scientifi c
method; and we, as natural-born bricoleurs,
happily borrow from ideas that we deem
appropriate as well as discard or ignore what
we deem unhelpful.