ter Way to Build a Business: The Kniberg Approach
Henrik Kniberg created this image to capture “the essence of iterative and incremental development” in Lean and Agile product development.
The image applies just as easily to developing businesses as it does to individual products.
According to Kniberg, “Many projects fail badly because they do Big Bang delivery (build the thing until 100% done and deliver at the end).”
As an alternative, he recommends following a three-phase model he calls “Earliest Testable/Usable/Lovable.”
- Earliest Testable. This is the skateboard in the image. Learning is the main purpose of this phase. While it doesn’t solve the core problem completely, it at least allows for some functionality that people can do something with. The goal is to generate stakeholder feedback.
- Earliest Usable. The bicycle. It’s the first thing people will actually use on a semi-regular basis that allows them to accomplish the core goal (in this case, getting from “A” to “B”). This usability allows for more specific feedback and use case study that feeds the development process.
- Earliest Lovable. The motorcycle. Now we’ve actually got something that does the job and does it well, even if it’s only applicable to a small segment of the market. It’s missing things, some of them glaringly obvious, but it’s something at least some people would be willing to pay for.
While the approach might sound simple (and relatively obvious), it’s generally the exact opposite of how all of us have been conditioned to build our businesses.
For example, let’s say you and I wanted to launch an eCommerce business together. What’s the first step you’d take?
Assuming you hadn’t seen Kniberg’s image, chances are you’d start out by building the website. Immediately, we set ourselves up for a Big Bang delivery. There’s no way for us to test the product, market, messaging, USP, pricing, etc. until we have the entire website built.
And then…
We test all of our assumptions about literally everything that relates to the business in one fell swoop. And, if it doesn’t work perfectly from start to finish, it’s exceedingly difficult to figure out what exactly went wrong and where we need to iterate. And yet, this is how most people do it.
The “Earliest Testable” might be a feet-on-the-street approach where we literally peddle our wares by hand to our target market.
This is the least scalable, least sexy way of selling anything (and the opposite of eCommerce) but it allows us to test our assumptions and get feedback.
Once we’ve validated some level of product/market fit, the “Earliest Usable” might be using a marketplace like Etsy (or, God forbid, Amazon). This takes the pressure off of building massive infrastructure while we figure out how to grow and scale the supply chain and service elements.
Finally, “Earliest Lovable” could be our own digital storefront. Maybe it lacks the wizzbang mobile app or all of the planned accessories, but we have an actual brand that people can engage with and purchase from, sans marketplace assistance or intervention.
Obviously, that’s not the only way it could be done.
But this gives you an example of how to use the iterative approach of Agile development when it comes to building a business.
That said, there are a million different ways you could choose to take this.
I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments!