In Eric Ries’s book The Lean Startup, what three-step cycle guides continuous product development?

In Eric Ries’s book The Lean Startup, the three-step cycle guiding continuous product development is Build-Measure-Learn.

The cycle begins when a team builds a minimum viable product or another testable version of an idea. It then measures how real users respond, using evidence rather than assumptions. Finally, the team learns whether to continue, change direction or refine the product.

Ries popularized the framework in his 2011 book The Lean Startup. The method draws on ideas about validated learning, rapid experimentation and reducing waste in early-stage companies.

Build-Measure-Learn is sometimes confused with a conventional product-development sequence that ends at launch. In the lean approach, launch is not the finish line: it creates evidence for the next experiment and keeps the development loop moving.