Testing Business Ideas: A Field Guide for Rapid Experimentation (The Strategyzer Series)

Great condition

Got an idea and unsure how to get a better understanding of its viability, feasibility, desirability? This book delivers on how best to approach your (and possibly your team or company's) learning journey!The book is divided into 4 sections: Design, Test, Experiments, and Mindset. The first two sections are about setting yourself up for success before you get an experiment underway (e.g. team design, identifying your hypothesis). The Experiments section helps you pick the right experiment (out of 44) by asking questions around level of uncertainty and urgency along with some rules of thumb. The book closes with Mindset and shares with the reader many pitfalls that can be encountered (and how to avoid them) as well as the role of leadership along the journey.Be sure to check out the Precoil website where the primary author, David Bland, has supplementary resources, videos, etc. along with workshop offerings to further develop your knowledge and skills. As of the time of this review, conducting workshops remotely is essentially a requirement and David has already proven to be highly skilled in promoting personal and group engagement in this delivery format.Last note: the other books in the Strategyzer series (Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design, and The Invincible Company) are a complementary wealth of guidance.

As expected Bland & Osterwalder did an excellent job explaining their Testing Framework, identify who could benefit from it and where each set of questions applies to previous Business Model Canvas framework. They divide testing ideas into three main categories: Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability. These are not arbitrary classifications and should be the concern of every entrepreneur, architect and business executive. What I haven't seen is coverage outside the core BMC elements. Those of you that have read Business Model Generation rather than the summaries many people give will note that the external forces that a business model operates within are significantly important and have influences on the core model. My assumption is the hypothesis behind the Testing Framework is to discover those interactions with those external factors. I'm not sure however, unless focused to do so the framework will not yield such situational awareness. Like SAFe Agile it may have to grow to be a more comprehensive Enterprise Class tool. From just this snapshot I'd would rate it an Amazon 5 Star. The gaps I see may be more scope decisions that Strategyzer made keeping the context on rapid testing around the internal factors of the business model. However, the topic of testing business ideas is well represented here in a practical manner.

David Bland takes the reader through 44 real case studies on how to test your business idea before you spend too much time, money, or energy on it... save yourself possibly a lot of grief by reading this book before developing your business.These real-life tests work whether your business is a product, a service, is web-based, or Brick & Mortar. And the same goes for whether you are a sole proprietor, a small business owner, or part of a large business...Bland has got you covered.(And if you really want to get your game on, get a copy of Steven Blank's "The Startup Owner's Manual" as well...!)

It is a small oddly-shaped book filled with simple useful explanations for the basic concepts necessary to test business ideas. It does not go too much in-depth on the topic, so it is a good start and also a good reminder of the concepts.

The notion of "experiments" gives rise to an interesting phenomenon in the world of innovation and entrepreneurship. Because our assumptions about the future are so ironclad and 'obvious,' most founders, innovators, and leaders think of experiments as a luxury, something to be done when we have more time. What they fail to grasp is that *every* initiative is an experiment, consciously or not.The beauty of this work is that David and Alex provide a broad set of methods for *consciously* experimenting in order to dramatically reduce risk and elevate odds of success. This is one of those works that represents decades of accumulated knowledge, immediately applicable and valuable.This is not only a beautifully rendered book, but a resource that will be dog-eared over time for anyone aspiring to build viable, profitable products and businesses.

The reasoning Bland and Osterwalder give for testing the business idea’s are genius. The models are easy to follow and made it simple to create a visual business canvas that anyone can understand. This not only helped me organize my new startup but helped me realize where I could strengthen my other two companies. I spent 3 months staring at notes to start a multi-level complicated company. The day I received his book and watched a couple of YouTube video’s - was the day I organized everything. The only complication of reading this book was all the new ideas it gave me. I could go on but thank you for this guide.

I like how the book breaks down the process for new ideas based on the scientific method:1. Brainstorm all the hypotheses related to your new business idea2. Map them onto a 2x2 matrix to prioritize them (the axes are: Importance and Evidence)3. Systematically test the important hypothesis one at a time. Section 3 lists dozens of possible tests to choose fromI work in the digital innovation department for a big company. This book has helped provide a framework to organize all our new ideas that might become projects, and systematically test them in smart ways that make sense.