When I first read The Lean Startup in 2017, I was working for a corporation that was as far away from being a startup as one can imagine. Nevertheless, the basic idea that Eric Ries presents—a relentless focus on validated learning coupled with a willingness to pivot when needed—made perfect sense in that environment as well. Since then I got to employ many more of his techniques in various other contexts and was rarely disappointed.

Be warned though: Ries’ approach demands a lot of honest humility about ones’ own ideas. But once we’ve got comfortable with the fact that we “just don’t know” how good they are until we thoroughly tested them in the market, the pathway to building significantly better products is wide open.