Inspired by the lean manufacturing revolution (and excellent books like Lean Thinking), I started with a first fundamental question: in a startup, what activities are value-creating and which are waste? Usually, new projects are measured and held accountable to milestones and deadlines. When a project is on track, on time, and on budget, our intuition is that it is being well managed. This intuition is dead wrong.
From Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? by Eric Ries