May 27th : The Lean Start Up

I finished this book today.  It has lots of great concepts to help someone or a team on their journey to success.  One of the main things it's against is waste.  The waste of human resources working on the wrong things.  The question isn't "Can we make this?" but "Should we make this?"  Is this what the consumer wants?  Is this going to improve the world?  So on and so on.  

And though the focus is more on product and technological developments, the principles can obviously be applied to art.  But why let consumer's feedback worm it's way into art?  Isn't art supposed to be a vision that is 100% the way the artist intended it to be and the public just has to deal with it?  Traditionally, yeah.  But what if that artist puts 11 years into a work and then finds out it doesn't move anyone and everyone ignores the art?  Is it possible the art created is the art people didn't need or want?  Perhaps the art was irrelevant. 

Wouldn't it be great to find that out on week 2 of the project? That's where the Lean Start Up comes in.  It pushes teams and managers to close the feedback loop.  Here back from people sooner.  And with a lot of the art I have made, whether it be film or music, I do try to gauge how people feel about the concept prior to going for it 100%.  But I've never approached it through the lens of the Lean Startup.  And I think once it can be figured out how it applies to an artistic project and how it can be utilized, the milestones can be more rewarding than working on piece of art in solitude.  As awesome as solitude is, I prefer the collaborative approach when possible.  Art can get a bit boring without the fun of friends involves.  

Take for instance the story of Lady Liberty.  The Statue of Liberty.  This thing has the story of a Lean Startup and it's one of the most awesome pieces of art that still exists today.  The team, France and USA, were intent on making this thing, but had to do the equivalent of Kickstarters and traction testing to find out if this piece of art would be viable and what the market wanted.  They made terra cotta statues of Lady Liberty and put her image on bread packages or alcohol bottles to get America and France behind this concept.  And btw, it was copper, so it was kind of gold colored.  Over time, it became green. 

Point is, through a lean start up type model, the statue of liberty was created.  And I'm glad it did.  And everyone should learn of this story.  And my hands are tired. 

Dax, May 27th, 2015