The realization which the proponents of lean products and software have had is that there are many strategies which have proven incredibly effective in other do

The realization which the proponents of lean products and software have had is that there are many strategies which have proven incredibly effective in other domains and that they can also be used to make products, business models and ultimately organizations better, faster and cheaper. Simply put lean startups result from the combination of lean manufacturing principals and maneuver warfare (agility) principals combined and used in business. Which if you want to boil it down further could be thought of as using the scientific method as quickly and efficiently as possible to create organizations and products where teams have fully adopted a culture of continuos improvement. Lean is probably best known for its ability to enable Toyota to be the amazing manufacturing organization they have been (ignoring recent growth related fuckups). See the book Lean Thinking or the many Lean Software books to see the ways in which people have translated Lean concepts to software development. Of course if you want to really grok lean in the context of making products you should study http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-Generation/dp/1935401009 http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Product-Development-Flow-Ge... Agile principals as codified by the god father of agile strategic thinking, John Boyd would be the other crucial element to lean startups. He is famous for driving maneuver warfare doctrine into the US military establishment and codifying some of the most advanced strategies and concepts regarding the nature of competition, agility and strategy. If you have seen the OODA loop or heard the phrase operating inside the enemies decision cycle then you have seen his work in action. See the book Certain to Win by Chet Richards for a good primer on Boyds work. These concepts rigorously and intentionally applied to developing products, teams and companies are IMO what makes a startup lean. And of course if you are interested, you can also read Eric Ries or Steve Blanks blogs.