Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1464597
15 The powerful approach of learning and adjusting through feedback goes far beyond just A/B user interface testing. New product ideas, for example, can be tested by creating a "minimum viable product," the smallest and simplest version of the product the company can use to gather information on whether the product will be successful or what needs to be changed to make it so. Marketing strategies, promotions, technology alternatives—all of these can be tested through trial and measurement to reduce uncertainty. And the key to doing so is gathering data and making it available for analysis. The technique of using minimum viable products and fast feedback is described in Eric Ries' book The Lean Startup. 10 According to Ries, at any given moment, a startup holds two hypotheses: a value hypothesis, about how their proposed product will create value for customers, and a growth hypothesis, about how the company will be able to grow its market—that is, get customers to use the product. The minimum viable product is the smallest product that will give the startup information to confirm or refute these hypotheses, at which point it can make changes and re-test them with the market. This set of practices does not just apply to startups or to new product development. It has become central to the way organizations, including large enterprises, achieve business agility by changing course based on their learnings. If an enterprise is thinking of developing a new IT system for use by its own employees, it presumably has a hypothesis about how that IT system will deliver the business outcomes that are proposed in its business case. That hypothesis should be tested, and changes should be made based on what the data shows. As a result, agile practice requires data: To learn and adapt, the enterprise has to collect data on the impact of its new initiatives and use it to inform those initiatives. Agility further requires that the enterprise sense changes in its business environment, so it can respond appropriately to maximize its business outcomes. A data-driven enterprise not only brings agility to its data but also uses data to support its agility. 10 Ries, Eric, The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (New York: Crown Business, 2011).