Hi there -
Here is this week’s “1 principle, 2 strategies, and 3 actionable tactics” for running lean…
1 Universal Principle
“Don’t let the hockey-stick play you.”
What if I told you that most first-time founders are completely wrong about what makes a successful product launch?
You've spent months building your product. You've done customer interviews, assembled a waiting list, and built an impressive MVP. But now you're stuck deciding between an all-out public launch or running a private beta first.
Both approaches miss the mark.
Public launches overwhelm you with technical risks before validating customer value, while private betas (which often mean "free") delay testing critical market assumptions like pricing.
Instead, I've developed a 10X Product Launch strategy that has consistently accelerated my path to product-market fit while dramatically reducing my biggest risks.
Today, I’ll show you how it works.
2 Underlying Strategies at Play
I. Not all risks are created equal.
When launching a product, you're juggling three types of risks:
- Technical risk: Will the product actually work at scale?
- Customer risk: Will people get value from the product?
- Market risk: Will people pay for the product?
While engineers naturally fixate on technical risks, these aren't actually your biggest threat. Twitter's "fail whale" and OpenAI's ChatGPT waiting lists prove that technical scaling issues are "good problems to have" that can be solved with time and resources.
What you can't solve is building something nobody wants or nobody will pay for. That's why I prioritize customer risks first, market risks second, and technical risks third.
II. Deliberately follow the hockey stick curve.
All breakout products follow a hockey-stick trajectory—they start slow, then hit an inflection point before taking off exponentially. Most founders want to skip the flat portion and jump straight to rapid growth, which is why they do all-out public launches.
The market, however, has other plans. My insight was to devise a launch strategy that deliberately embraces this hockey stick curve rather than fighting it.
3 Actionable Tactics
I. Start with just 10 carefully selected customers.
Yes, just 10—not 100, not 1,000. But these aren't random customers. They should be hand-picked early adopters with above-average motivation and urgency.
Charge them from day one, but in exchange, offer a high-touch concierge onboarding experience where you:
- Meet with them regularly
- Help them integrate your solution
- Offer a generous results-based money-back guarantee
The logic: If you can't deliver value to 10 highly motivated, handpicked early adopters with concierge service, how will you deliver value to thousands when you're not there?
II. Expand in 10X increments (10 → 100 → 1,000).
Once you've validated that your product delivers value to your first ten customers, challenge yourself to grow 10X to a hundred customers.
This jump forces you to think non-linearly and adapt your:
- Customer acquisition strategy
- Support processes
- Onboarding experience (you likely can't offer the same high-touch service)
After reaching 100 customers successfully, aim for 1,000, then 10,000. The number of stages depends on your specific business model. For more on how, check out my traction roadmap tool here.
III. Identify and break constraints between stages.
Think of these stages as levels in a video game. The goal isn't to rush through them—it's to progress systematically until you hit resistance.
That resistance typically reveals a constraint in your business model. Identifying it helps you uncover your next obstacle or riskiest assumption. Breaking this constraint unlocks the next level in the game.
There's no time limit between stages. If you can deliver value to your first 10 customers in a day, you can immediately level up to stage 2. The key is to focus on the right actions at the right time and ignore the rest.
That's all for today. See you next week.
Ash
Author of Running Lean and creator of Lean Canvas
.
.
P.S.
Full 10X Product Launch Strategy video will be posted here next Tuesday.
.
.
P.P.S.
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
1 - Get my Just Start course: If you're new to this framework, you'll learn the key mindsets for building the next generation of products that matter.
2 - Take the 30-day Business Model Design Challenge: If you're an aspiring or early-stage founder looking to launch a new idea in 2025, join my next Business Model Design Challenge, where you'll learn how to design and stress-test your idea without wasting resources.
3 - Join LEANFoundry: Join 21k+ founders who use our tools, courses, and coaching resources to build and launch their products to paying customers. Works like a gym membership. Cancel anytime.
