Ries Quotes & Sayings

Innovation accounting — Eric Ries

Science and vision are not opposites or even at odds. They need each other. I sometimes hear other startup folks say something along the lines of: 'If entrepreneurship was a science, then anyone could do it.' I'd like to point out that even science is a science, and still very few people can do it, let alone do it well. — Eric Ries

Vanity metrics are the numbers you want to publish on TechCrunch to make your competitors feel bad. — Eric Ries

A writer who has never explored words, who has never searched, seeded, sieved, sifted through his knowledge and memory ... dictiona ries, thesaurus, poems, favorite paragraphs, to find the right word, is like someone owning a gold mine who has never mined it. — Rumer Godden

Customers don't know what they want. There's plenty of good psychology research that shows that people are not able to accurately predict how they would behave in the future. So asking them, 'Would you buy my product if it had these three features?' or 'How would you react if we changed our product this way?' is a waste of time. They don't know. — Eric Ries

We must avoid the caricature that science means formula or a lack of humanity in work. In fact, science is one of humanity's most creative pursuits. I believe that applying it to entrepreneurship will unlock a vast storehouse of human potential. — Eric Ries

engineers agree to adapt the product to the business's constantly changing requirements but are not responsible for the quality of those business decisions. — Eric Ries

Building a startup is an exercise in institution building; thus, it necessarily involves management. This — Eric Ries

There is much that public policy can do to support American entrepreneurs. Health insurance reform will make it easier for entrepreneurs to take a chance on a new business without putting their family's health at risk. Tort reform will make it easier to take prudent risks on new products in a number of sectors. — Eric Ries

If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns. — Al Ries

Dropbox needed to test its leap-of-faith question: if we can provide a superior customer experience, will people give our product a try? They believed - rightly, as it turned out - that file synchronization was a problem that most people didn't know they had. Once you experience the solution, you can't imagine how you ever lived without it. — Eric Ries

The reality is the Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Lean startups waste less money, because they use a disciplined approach to testing new products and ideas. — Eric Ries

It's the first company to build the mental position that has the upper hand, not the first company to make the product. IBM didn't invent the computer; Sperry Rand did. But IBM was the first to build the computer position in the prospect's mind. — Al Ries

Famous pivot stories are often failures but you don't need to fail before you pivot. All a pivot is is a change is strategy without a change in vision. Whenever entrepreneurs see a new way to achieve their vision - a way to be more successful - they have to remain nimble enough to take it. — Eric Ries

Here in Silicon Valley, I have taken part in hundreds of conversations trying to convince people to dive in and become entrepreneurs. All too often, innovators with good, safe, jobs are unwilling to put their family's access to health care at risk by walking away from company-backed medical insurance. — Eric Ries

In School of One, students have daily "playlists" of their learning tasks that are attuned to each student's learning needs, based on that student's readiness and learning style. For example, Julia is way ahead of grade level in math and learns best in small groups, so her playlist might include three or four videos matched to her aptitude level, a thirty-minute one-on-one tutoring session with her teacher, and a small group activity in which she works on a math puzzle with three peers at similar aptitude levels. There are assessments built into each activity so that data can be fed back to the teacher to choose appropriate tasks for the next playlist. — Eric Ries

The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position. — Al Ries

If we stopped wasting people's time, what would they do with it? — Eric Ries

Peter Drucker said, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."2 — Eric Ries

there is no bigger destroyer of creative potential than the misguided decision to persevere. — Eric Ries

When blame inevitably arises, the most senior people in the room should repeat this mantra: if a mistake happens, shame on us for making it so easy to make that mistake. — Eric Ries

it's human nature to assume that when we see a mistake, it's due to defects in someone else's department, knowledge, or character, — Eric Ries

At its heart, a startup is a catalyst that transforms ideas into products. — Eric Ries

Most companies are busy making their products worse, not better. Updating is almost always a disaster. — Eric Ries

The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built? This places us in an unusual historical moment: our future prosperity depends on the quality of our collective imaginations. — Eric Ries

This is an important rule: a good design is one that changes customer behavior for the better. — Eric Ries

Start-up success is not a consequence of good genes or being in the right place at the right time. Success can be engineered by following the right process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught. — Eric Ries

learn whether to pivot or persevere. — Eric Ries

we figure out what we need to learn and then work backwards to see what product will work as an experiment to get that learning. — Eric Ries

we think we can truly short-circuit the ramp by killing things that don't make sense fast and doubling down on the ones that do. — Eric Ries

Leadership requires creating conditions that enable employees to do the kinds of experimentation that entrepreneurship requires. — Eric Ries

Every startup has a chance to change the world, by bringing not just a new product, but an entirely new institution into existence. — Eric Ries

The goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build-the thing customers want and will pay for-as quickly as possible. In other words, the Lean Startup is a new way of looking at the development of innovative new products that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition, all at the same time. — Eric Ries

dot-com flameouts that erroneously believed that they could lose money on each customer but, as the old joke goes, make it up in volume. — Eric Ries

This is a classic case of "achieving failure" - successfully executing a flawed plan. — Eric Ries

The goal of every startup experiment is to discover how to build a sustainable business around that vision. — Eric Ries

Learning to see waste and systematically eliminate it has allowed lean companies such as Toyota to dominate entire industries. Lean thinking defines value as 'providing benefit to the customer'; anything else is waste. — Eric Ries

The Lean Startup works only if we are able to build an organization as adaptable and fast as the challenges it faces. This — Eric Ries

Startups don't starve; they drown." There — Eric Ries

What should a brand leader advertise?Brand leadership, of course. Leadership is the single most important motivating factor in consumer behavior. — Al Ries

The mind, as a defense against the volume of today's communications, screens and rejects much of the information offered it. In general, the mind accepts only that which matches prior knowledge or experience. — Al Ries

Entrepreneurs always pitch their idea as 'the X of Y', so this is going to be 'the Microsoft of food.' And yet disruptive innovations usually don't have that character. Most of the time, if something seems like a good idea, it probably isn't. — Eric Ries

Building the right product requires systematically and relentlessly testing that vision to discover which elements of it are brilliant, and which are crazy. — Eric Ries

As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek. — Eric Ries

The United States is locked in a new arms race for that most precious resource - the future entrepreneurs upon whom economic growth depends. Substantial research shows that immigrants play a key role in American job creation. — Eric Ries

We want to keep believing in our ideas even when the writing is on the wall. — Eric Ries

All innovation begins with vision. It's what happens next that is critical. — Eric Ries

...a long-term reputation is only at risk when companies engage in vocal launch activities such as PR and building hype. When a product fails to live up to those pronouncements, real long-term damage can happen to a corporate brand. But startups have the advantage of being obscure, having a pathetically small number of customers and not having much exposure. Rather than lamenting them, use these advantages to experiment under the radar and then do a public marketing launch once the product has proved itself with real customers. — Eric Ries

If you owe ten pounds to the Bank of England, you get thrown in jail, but if you owe a million pounds, they invite you to sit on the Board — Philippe Ries

This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn. — Eric Ries

Prove to yourself that your business, in micro-scale at least, creates value. If you believe it, you'll find it that much easier to convince potential investors, partners and employees, too. — Eric Ries

A pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision. — Eric Ries

Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, explains that the best way to get to Product Market Fit is by starting with a "minimum viable product" and improving it based on feedback - as opposed to what most of us do, which is to try to launch publicly with what we think is our final, perfected product. Today, — Ryan Holiday

Except in very narrow cases, where there's breakthrough science that needs patent production, worrying about competitors is a waste of time. If you can't out iterate someone who is trying to copy you, you're toast anyway. — Eric Ries

I can't say I'm not grateful to have journalists writing about me as a genius. But I know it's not true. I'm not confused. I understand that success comes through a lot of failure and a lot of very embarrassing failure. People want to create the next Facebook, but they are too afraid to create the next Facemash. — Eric Ries

Advertising is the way great brands get to be great brands. — Al Ries

When we're in the shower, when we're thinking about our idea - boy, does it sound brilliant. But the reality is that most of our ideas are actually terrible. — Eric Ries

The single most wasteful thing you can do in marketing is try to change a mind. — Al Ries

Most entrepreneurs don't need as many customers as they think. A lot of people think 10 is too few for a sample. But if all 10 refused a product, why is that not enough? If you want 100, 1,000 or a million customers, you first have to get 10. — Eric Ries

Some people are natural inventors who prefer to work without the pressure and expectations of the later business phases. Others are ambitious and see innovation as a path toward senior management. Still others are particularly skilled at the management of running an established business, outsourcing, and bolstering efficiencies and wringing out cost reductions. People should be allowed to find the kinds of jobs that suit them best. — Eric Ries

The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity. — Al Ries

Sonnet XII: There is a Meetinghouse across the wold

There is a Meetinghouse across the wold
Near shaded churchyard where pine breezes sigh;
Such sacred mem'ries gently here unfold
Of rustic folk whom 'neath the yew trees lie.
Engraved on stones now crum'ling in the earth,
Of souls asleep for o'er a hundred years,
Foretell unceasing cycles - Death and Birth
That yew tree nods and weeps her unseen tears.
But God shall guide us through the gloom of night
Victorious over grim reaper's blade,
As yet we grasp to see eternal light
Amidst life's fickle joys which here do fade.
Victims of Death by lusty scythe bannish'd
Triumphant wake to find nightmares vanish'd!

13 February, 2013 — Timothy Salter

Today, communication itself is the problem. We have become the world's first overcommunicated society. Each year we send more and receive less. — Al Ries

To get into the consumer's mind, you have to sacrifice. You have to reduce the essence of your brand to a single thought or attribute. An attribute that nobody else already owns in your category. — Al Ries

I believe for the first time in history, entrepreneurship is now a viable career. — Eric Ries

Positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. — Al Ries

Zero invites imagination, but small numbers invite questions about whether large numbers will ever materialize. — Eric Ries

At IMVU, the cost of customer acquisition through our five-dollar-a-day AdWords campaign was less than twenty-five cents. Our revenue from those same customers was more than a dollar. — Eric Ries

Sustainable growth is characterized by one simple rule: New customers come from the actions of past customers. — Eric Ries

We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want. — Eric Ries

By the time that product is ready to be distributed widely, it will already have established customers. — Eric Ries

A Start Up is an institution designed to thrive in the soil of extreme uncertainty — Eric Ries

Better to have bad news that's true than good news we made up — Eric Ries

The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospects mind. — Al Ries

What's your brand? If you can't answer that question about your own brand in two or three words, your brand's in trouble. — Al Ries

It was 1999, and we were building a way for college kids to create online profiles for the purpose of sharing ... with employers. Oops. I vividly remember the moment I realized my company was going to fail. My co-founder and I were at our wits' end. By 2001, the dot-com bubble had burst, and we had spent all our money. — Eric Ries

I bet the people who are in the auto industry right now have more than 10,000 good ideas about what might work and what we need to do is not come up with more good ideas. We need to go and test as many of those good ideas as possible. — Eric Ries

Innovation is a bottoms-up, decentralized, and unpredictable thing, but that doesn't mean it cannot be managed. — Eric Ries

Progress in manufacturing is measured by the production of high quality goods. The unit of progress for Lean Startups is validated learning-a rigorous method for demonstrating progress when one is embedded in the soil of extreme uncertainty. — Eric Ries

Customers don't care how much time something takes to build. They care only if it serves their needs. — Eric Ries

We would be thrilled to have you as a guest on our show, EntrepreneurOnFire, a top ranked Business, averaging over 1 million unique listens each month in over 145 countries. We understand you have a busy schedule, and that's why we've developed an efficient, 30-minute audio interview over Skype. We have an awesome lineup thus far, including Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Barbara Corcoran, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, Eric Ries, and Tim Ferriss... just to name a few. — John Lee Dumas

It doesn't matter if you call it a boom or a bubble. The startup business moves in cycles, and what goes up will eventually come down. — Eric Ries

When a really new product comes along, it's almost always a mistake to hang a well-known name on it. The reason is obvious. A well-known name got well-known because it stood for something. It occupies a position in the prospect's mind. A really well-known name sits on the top rung of a sharply defined ladder. The new product, if it's going to be successful, is going to require a new name. New ladder, new name. It's as simple as that. — Al Ries

You get a culture of entrepreneurship after you have successfully changed the accountability system so that people can use a better process. Process drives culture, not the other way around, so you can't just change the culture, you have to change the system. — Eric Ries

the first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men; and under systematic management the best man rises to the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before. — Eric Ries

We need to reengineer companies to focus on figuring out who the customer is, what's the market and what kind of product you should build. — Eric Ries

In a startup, both the problem and solution are unknown. — Eric Ries

In the industrial world we have the problem of having more productive capacity than we know what to do with. That's at the root of the unemployment crisis: we've got so productive at making things, we don't require people to be involved in making the basics of life any more. Or nearly as many people. — Eric Ries

The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation. — Al Ries

It's better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace. — Al Ries

1. Do consumers recognize that they have the problem you are trying to solve?
2. If there was a solution, would they buy it?
3. Would they buy it from us?
4. Can we build a solution for that problem? — Ries Eric

How much time and energy should companies invest in infrastructure and planning early on in anticipation of success? Spend too much and you waste precious time that could have been spent learning. Spend too little and you may fail to take advantage of early success and cede market leadership to a fast follower. — Eric Ries

Don't play semantic games with the prospect. Advertising is not a debate. It's a seduction. — Al Ries

If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. If you CAN'T then all the advertising, fancy packaging, sales promotion and public relations in the world won't help you achieve your objective. — Al Ries

Most phenomenal startup teams create businesses that ultimately fail. Why? They built something that nobody wanted. — Eric Ries

When I worked as a programmer, that meant eight straight hours of programming without interruption. That was a good day. In contrast, if I was interrupted with questions, process, or - heaven forbid - meetings, I felt bad. — Eric Ries

When it comes to meritocracy and diversity, the symbolic is real. And that means that simple actions that reduce bias, such as blind resume or application screening, are a double win: they reduce implicit bias and they help communicate our commitment to meritocracy. — Eric Ries

I actually believed if you work hard enough it was inevitable you'd succeed. Then I lived the 'Social Network' movie, but only the first half. The hardest part is the grueling work of constantly being wrong. — Eric Ries

The Lean Startup has evolved into a movement that is having a significant impact on how companies are built, funded and scaled. — Eric Ries

Start-ups make so many mistakes that the challenge to identify the root cause of a failure is tough. But believing in your own plan is probably the worst. — Eric Ries