3.7 The Pivot

A pivot is when you change your strategy based on what you’ve learned. In Lean Startup thinking, a pivot means making a significant change to one or more parts of your business model. It might be a new customer segment, a different feature set, a change in pricing, or even a shift to an entirely different problem. The key is this: if an experiment shows the core idea isn’t working, you change your approach rather than blindly persisting.

Steve Blank explains that at the start you have a series of hypotheses; when one is proven wrong, you should “simply change the hypothesis.”. For example, Instagram famously pivoted. Its founders launched an app called Burbn with many features, but noticed users only cared about photo-sharing. They pivoted by stripping everything except the camera and filters, creating Instagram. Similarly, Slack’s founders shifted from a failed game project to a chat tool when they realized teams needed better communication. In practice, pivoting means making a 90-degree turn on some part of your model: change your target audience, rework your value proposition, alter how you charge, etc. Steve Blank defines it as “a substantive change to one or more of the nine business model canvas components”.

Pivoting is not failure – it’s a sign you’re learning. If a test strongly suggests your current plan won’t lead to a viable business, a pivot is the Lean way to re-find the path to PMF.