Lean Analytics
by Alistair Croll · first published 2013
74% recommend26% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Helps startup founders and marketers choose which metrics to track at each stage, from retention to growth. Its One Metric That Matters idea helps structure thinking and prioritize; includes worked company examples.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Whether you're a startup founder trying to disrupt an industry or an intrapreneur trying to provoke change from within, your biggest challenge is creating a product people actually want. Lean analytics steers you in the right direction. This book shows you how to validate your initial idea, find the right customers, decide what to build, how to monetize your business, and how to spread the word."--Publisher description.
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I was in similar state a few of years back. Read these, and used them to a good extent. Lean analytics. (must read) Product-Led growth. (must read) 22 Laws of marketing (must) One million followers If you like scientific approach: Influence by Robert Cialdini Contagious (Jonah Berger) This resource is…
on “Ask HN: Suggest good books on bootstrapping a startup” ↗It sounds like you need data, and lots of it. Here's a good place to start: http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Analytics-Better-Startup-Faster/d...
on “Help! SAAS revenue dropping 50% month on month. 3rd month, numbers look scary.” ↗Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg Lean Analytics - Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz Serve to win - Novak Djokovic Honorable mention: Sell More Software - Patrick Mckenzie
on “Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2013?” ↗- The Mom Test - 4 Steps to the Epiphany - The Personal MBA (Josh Kaufman) - Lean Analytics - Good Strategy Bad Strategy
on “Ask HN: What books helped you in your entrepreneurship journey?” ↗…a poor memory, but that may not apply to you). (5) Read The Lean Startup. And expand out. Be careful since there’s a lot of garbage in the business genre. Others I can recommend: The Phoenix Project, Lean Analytics, the first part of The Startup Owner’s Manual (the latter two parts only if you ever get past the first stage of building a company). Even if you never choose to work on a startup, it’s the same kind…
on “Ask HN: If you could go back to study any CS-related field, what would it be?” ↗4 Steps to the Ephiphany - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0976470705 Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0982743602 Lean Analytics - http://leananalyticsbook.com The Lean Entrepreneur - http://leanentrepreneur.co Lean UX - http://www.jeffgothelf.com/blog/lean-ux/ The Lean Product Book - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449319955
on “Ask HN: Are there any other books like Running Lean?” ↗Read Lean Analytics, there is a good example of a company offering the exact same service, look at what they did.
on “Why we dropped our free plan” ↗…to user interaction, later (hopefully) some related to businessmodel assumptions. Depending on phase the focus tends to shift from retention to growth. Alistar and Ben made an awesome chart for their Lean Analytics book (recommended) http://i.imgur.com/0VBP68T.png These slides by me also might help: http://www.slideshare.net/andreasklinger/startup-metrics-a-l... hth
on “Be a startup Metric King” ↗Read Lean Analytics: http://leananalyticsbook.com/ It mentions the OMTM, One Metric That Matters. When you focus your effort to one number, things get much better.
on “The laws of shitty dashboards” ↗If you're planning to build a little SaaS, you may want to check out the book "Lean Analytics" It will help you structure and priorities the different activities when growing your SaaS. Note: I have no relation with the authors or publisher. It just happens to be one of the few BS-free business…
on “Ask HN: Best practices to kick start a new SaaS side project?” ↗I've done marketing for startups for many years. Growth Hacking (mentioned in previous comments) is a pretty decent framework. Also, if you had to read only one book, I'd recommend 'Lean Analytics'. It'll help you structure your thoughts and prioritise. (Note: I am not related to the authors or publishers) Other than that, take the businesses you like most, and check out their social pages, their…
on “Ask HN: How to learn sales and online marketing” ↗…http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1241325/ * https://www.useronboard.com * Either Rework or Getting Real by 37 Signals Execution/Business Models: --------------------------- 1. The Lean Startup: http://theleanstartup.com/book 2. Lean Analytics: http://leananalyticsbook.com/ 3. Business Model Generation: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/ People: ----------- * How to Win Friends and Influence People * The Hard Thing about Hard Things:…
on “Ask HN: What one learning resource has taught you the most about startups?” ↗…2: Figure out your preferred learning style, as that will determine your learning medium. 3: Master the basics – start by reading (or listening to) these 3 recipe books: Lean Startup, Traction, and Lean Analytics 4: Figure out what skills you need to acquire next that will be most helpful to your startup. 5: Acquire the knowledge (in your preferred learning style) 6: Collect examples of what works and absorb…
on “Transcript from Elena Krasnoperova’s Learning Hacks for Bootstrappers” ↗…enables you to translate that into upgrades/upsells. Mostly, increasing users via acq only works when you have strong retention and thats a product problem, not a marketing problem. I would suggest the Lean Analytics book to understand this in more detail and also this 6 part series from Social Capital. https://medium.com/swlh/diligence-at-social-capital-part-1-a...
on “Ask HN: Founders, how did you balance between increasing users and revenue?” ↗…Startup Owner's Manual is more polished and covers a wider range of business models. > - The Lean Startup An excellent recommendation. The other books in the series (especially IMO Running Lean and Lean Analytics) are also worth a look: https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/7509FE4F-9888-4384-ACBC-D...
on “Ask HN: Suggest good books on bootstrapping a startup” ↗