HN Explorer

Ask HN: "Lean Startup" by Eric Ries vs. "Four Steps..." by Steven Blank?

4 points by abbasmehdi ↗ HN
Have any of you read both, Four Steps and Lean Startup?

I just ordered Lean Startup yesterday, and someone lent me their Four Steps last week. I was wondering if any of you guys have read them both and think that if I read Lean Startup, then reading Four Steps would be redundant?

Thanks!

4 comments

[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 24.2 ms ] thread
tamle
Hi Abbas -

I've found that Eric builds upon Steve's philosophy while combining it with the ideas found in "Business Model Generation" by Osterwalder.

In my opinion, the two books go hand in hand more than repeat one another.

Specifically, in "Lean Startup", Ries talks about Customer Development for a bit; whereas "Four Steps..." is mainly about customer development.

In short: both books are valuable

abbasmehdi
Thanks for the valuable insight!

Would I be correct in assuming I shall read Eric's first, and then use Steve's book for elaboration or reference on an as-needed basis?

tamle
Hmmm - I think you can read them in whatever order. Steve's book came out many moons before Eric's.

Eric's is a bit easier to digest though.

abbasmehdi
Your advice makes so much more sense now that I've read about 70 pages of each book. They are same yet different. Thanks again for your response.