Lean Product Development in Early Stage Startups

Software startups are more popular than ever and growing in numbers. They operate under conditions of extreme uncertainty and face plenty of challenges, underlined by their high failure rate. Using Design Science Research, these challenges were investigated. A literature study showed that in recent years, several authors have suggested ways to increase the odds of succeeding as a startup, such as customer focused development, fact based decision making, pivoting and agile/lean thinking. Interviews with industry professionals showed that few used these Lean Startup practices: many found them difficult to implement in practice. In response, we developed the Early Stage Software Startup Development Model (ESSSDM) for managing early stage software startups by applying Lean Startup principles. The model is novel in that it supports managing a portfolio of product ideas and provides clear criteria for when to move forward with product ideas, when to abandon product ideas as well as recommends what concrete techniques that can be used and when, in order to achieve this. The process was instantiated and evaluated on a startup project in an incubator setting.