[Blog 02] Lean Startup for Social Impact

One of the most important suggestions from the readers of my first blog is that I should provide an outline of the book. This is a great suggestion and will be the subject of the current blog. I will be providing an annotated outline, i.e., an outline with explanation of the what and why.

Let’s recap the primary objective of the book:

To enable the readers to appreciate the nature and power of the Lean Startup methodlogy so that they will find ways to master it and apply it to creating ventures (companies, products or services) for social good.

Please note that I said ‘they will find ways to master it…’ which implies that the book itself might not be sufficient to allow them mastering the methodology. What the book could achieve at best is to inspire the reader that this methodology is critically important and useful in designing and launching new ventures. Below is the outline:

Foreword(s) – To be written by a number of people who have used the Lean Startup

approach with great results.

Introduction – Who should read this book and who should skip it

Part I The Lean Startup Methodology in Global Context

Chapter 1

What is Lean Startup? – Basic concepts and underlying principles

Chapter 2

The Significance of the Lean Startup Movement – Why it takes a few hundred years for a startup methodology to emerge?

Chapter 3

“Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything” – Insights from a Harvard Business Review article written by Stanford University professor Steve Blank

Chapter 4

A Stable and Unjust Equilibrium – Why the greatest beneficiary of the Lean Startup approach has been big businesses like GE, Google, and Facebook rather than startups for social purposes?

Chapter 5

How to Disrupt an Unjust Equilibrium – Strategies to enable social-purpose organizations to master the Lean Startup methodology

Part II Lean Startup in Action

Chapter 6

Learning by Doing – “I hear and I forget. I see and I believe. I do and I understand.”

Chapter 7

A ‘Reality Show’ Case Study: A joint venture by Education For Good and Dialogue in the Dark to develop a brand new Business – Inclusive Sport

Chapter 8

The Power of the Lean Canvas – A critical tool to ‘Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works’

Chapter 9

Get Out of the Building – The art and science of ‘Talking to Humans’

Chapter 10

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – A disciplined way to test out all critical assumptions

Chapter 11

Problem/Solution Fit and Product/Market Fit – What you must accomplish before talking to investors

Chapter 12

A Team Approach to Lean Startup – Why the whole team must master the Lean Startup methodology

Part III Putting It to Work

Chapter 13

Lean Startup for Social Ventures – Creating self-financing social enterprises

Chapter 14

Lean Startup for Non-profit Organzations – Making service innovations possible and scalable

Chapter 15

Lean Startup for B Corps – How established businesses can launch B Corps for social impact

Conclusion

A sense of urgency to leverage the Lean Startup methodology to create social impact

Your feedback is most welcome. Please send it to kakuitse@gmail.com

Co-authors: Karen Lee, Wander Meijer, Catus Lee as of March 24, 2017

Note: Co-authors are those who have contributed ideas and suggestions to my blogs. I am grateful to them for making demands on me so that the blogs and the final book will be more relevant and actionable to the readers. - KK