The lean startup process entails that an entrepreneur should utilize a systematic approach to business planning. The means of this systematic approach would be through the documentation of the customer discovery phase, and the documentation of the customer validation phase. The documentation tools would best be facilitated through various online office tools for an entrepreneur to utilize. I recommend a book titled Ideaflow by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn of Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. The authors had suggested for work teams to build an innovation pipeline, and a corkboard R&D would be a tool to facilitate an innovation pipeline. The authors admonished readers to build your own functional R&D lab right within your own space. Index cards, markers, and push pins placed right on a corkboard to facilitate ideation as a working experiment. The entrepreneur would be utilizing a user centered design approach. I discovered through my education that it would be beneficial to alternate between document format and digital template format. The documentation process acts a planning roadmap that facilitates business planning. It would be beneficial to be completely organized with clear details within each document. There are various documenting tools for an entrepreneur to utilize. A user story brief format, kanban mapping format, and kano diagram mapping. Also, storyboard mapping and affinity mapping are useful within the ideation phase of user centered design. More design tools that would be useful are user interview maps, empathy maps, and journey maps. The goal would be to form the business planning concepts that have been developed into a framing perspective, which acts as an idea funnel that gauge efficiency within the cycle of business planning.

Business Planning

Here are a couple of links I think should be useful. The links act as an impetus for subscribers to follow up and read. I have also added my PayPal link:

https://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/

https://leanstartup.co/about/team/eric-ries/

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/A7SZTEBHNKXFA

https://thegenius.blog/2025/11/18/customer-discovery-lean-startup-process/https://thegenius.blog/2025/11/30/customer-validation-entrepreneur-business-model-hypothesis/

Customer validation would be the iterative step within the validation phase. Validation would be defined as to recognize, establish, or illustrate the worthiness or legitimacy of, in this case, a business opportunity. The customer validation phase entails testing business model canvas hypotheses to determine the legitimacy of an economic opportunity. An entrepreneur would cycle through, in sequential order, validating each business model hypotheses (value proposition), customer relationship hypotheses, and customer segment hypotheses. Through a customer validation process, an entrepreneur validates each step. Once again in sequential order. An entrepreneur would be applying an iterative design cycle in each step of the validation phase. Test each business model canvas hypotheses in sequential order. The entrepreneur could deploy various tools to facilitate this process. Customer survey utilization, landing test page via the web and, finally, email referrals. The goal would be to search for a customer profile and test your business model hypotheses. Within the scope of a business opportunity. Here are a couple of links that should be useful. The links provide information on the creators of the lean startup methodology.

https://steveblank.com/books-for-startups/

https://leanstartup.co/about/team/eric-ries/

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https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/N7LCD5ABXKFCU

The four phases of the lean start up process would be customer discovery, customer validation, customer creation, and company building. Customer discovery is integral in understanding your audience’s needs. I discovered through my education that a pivot sequence or any changes to a customer’s profile within the customer validation phase would be an iterative change to a segment of the business model canvas. Also, a pivot or change to a business model hypothesis. A substantial change to a business model hypothesis would include economic changes within the business model canvas. For example, a price metric hypothesis within the validation phase would change in sequential order, strategically. A price metric pivot would be the initial change in sequential order. Customer discovery often precedes these changes. Here are a couple of links that should be helpful. The links detail the definition of entrepreneur and information on the business model canvas, both of which are important during the customer discovery stage.

.https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/entrepreneur.asp

https://creately.com/guides/business-model-canvas-explained/

Customer discovery is the detailed process of searching for a user profile. A user story with issues that require an economic remedy. An entrepreneur should search for an opportunity directly connected to a user’s issue. The customer discovery process would be a continuous process. Feedback is vital. Here are a couple of useful links I think should be beneficial. The links detail the definition of entrepreneurship and also, a guide to the lean startup methodology:

https://businessjargons.com/entrepreneurship.html

https://theleanstartup.com/principles