22. Stop Overthinking and Start Building Your Clinic: Using The Lean Startup

You can't "committee-approve" your way into a clinic launch. But if you're coming from corporate medicine, that's exactly what your brain wants to do: over-plan, over-perfect, and overthink every detail until nothing ships.

Enter the Lean Startup approach. It started in Silicon Valley, but it works just as well for physicians building a clinic.

In this post, I break down five core Lean Startup principles (from Eric Ries) and show you how to use them to get your practice out of your head and into the real world. 

What Is the Lean Startup?

The Lean Startup is a framework Eric Ries developed for fast-growing tech companies. But even though you're not trying to get acquired by Google, the principles still apply.

Why? Because the healthcare marketplace is just as dynamic and unpredictable as tech. Patient needs are evolving, insurance models are shifting, and technology is changing how people access care.

You can't manage a startup clinic the way hospitals managed themselves in the 1950s. You need a different approach.

Principle 1: Entrepreneurship Is About Management

Leadership sets the vision, but management builds the systems to execute it.

The Lean Startup focuses on management because great ideas die without the right systems to test them, measure them, and make them real.

When I work with clients leaving corporate medicine, they often bring a "preserve the status quo" mindset with rigid protocols and slow-moving systems.

But that mindset will kill your startup.

Instead, you need:

• Constant experimentation over rigid planning
• Data-driven decisions over opinions
• Small tests over large upfront investments

A charismatic founder with an inspiring vision is great. But without a management system to test assumptions and make tough decisions, your startup will fail.

Principle 2: Validated Learning

Your job is to test and validate what patients actually want and what they're willing to pay for.

All learning needs to come from data and real patient behavior, not from your assumptions.

The Pricing Example

Most physicians assume their value proposition is about keeping prices low because that's what they learned in corporate medicine.

But when we dig into what value they're actually providing, it becomes clear that price is rarely the main factor. Patients want access, they want time with their doctor, and they want personalized care.

Once my clients pick a price, we validate it with the market and see if people sign up. Often, they start lower than optimal just to get comfortable, then raise prices once they feel confident.

That's validated learning in action.

Principle 3: Build, Measure, Learn

This is the heart of the Lean Startup method: an iterative process designed to help you innovate and experiment quickly.

Here's how it works:

1. Build something simple (not your dream version)
2. Measure how it performs in the real world
3. Learn from the data and decide what to do next

After each cycle, you use what you learned to either shorten your timeline, decrease expenses, or increase revenue.

In the first few months with my clients, we constantly discuss their first patients. How long does onboarding take? What's the admin burden? How's communication working?

These conversations help us use the build-measure-learn loop to improve the patient experience.

You can also use this loop to build new revenue streams. Something like an online course will need multiple iterations before it performs well.

Principle 4: Pick the Right Metrics

Traditional management loves certain metrics. 

Patient volume. RVUs. Social media likes and comments…

But what I really care about is this: What's the yield for all that effort?

If you're posting on Instagram or TikTok, how many posts does it take before a patient walks through your door?

Your conversion rate is your real metric (not likes).

You can get directional feedback by asking new patients "How did you hear about me?" and paying attention when existing patients mention your videos.

I have a client whose patients now regularly tell her they've seen her videos and want her to keep going. That's her target market giving direct feedback.

Remember: High engagement doesn't always translate to revenue. You need metrics that track whether your clinic is becoming sustainable.

Principle 5: Pivot or Persevere

Periodically, step back and analyze all your data.

Then decide: Do I pivot (change direction) or persevere (keep improving on the current path)?

Persevere doesn't mean "keep doing the same thing." It means iterating and continuing to improve while heading in the same direction.

I had a client who started with a fee-per-visit model to save patients money. But she noticed patients would delay coming in because they didn't want to pay, and small problems would snowball into big ones. 

So she pivoted to 100% membership—testing proved her initial assumption wrong, and membership worked better for everyone.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

The Lean Startup method works like the scientific method you learned in school: make a hypothesis, test it, gather data, and draw conclusions. Instead of writing a massive business plan based on assumptions, you're running small experiments to see what actually works. Here are the four steps:

Step 1: Articulate Your Assumptions as Hypotheses

Don't write a long business plan that's out of date by the time you finish it.

State your assumptions as testable hypotheses:

• Who are your target patients?
• What problem do they have?
• What value are you offering?
• How will you grow?

Step 2: Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Build the bare-minimum version that lets you test whether your idea works. Skip the bells and whistles, you just need something functional enough to gather real feedback.

This could be a simple landing page to test interest, a video explaining your offering, or a new service you roll out to your first patients.

Step 3: Measure What Really Matters

Gather real-world data:

• Are people visiting your website?
• Are they signing up?
• Are they willing to pay?
• What feedback are they giving?

Step 4: Learn and Decide

Look at the whole picture:

• What was your hypothesis?
• What MVP did you build?
• What data did you gather?
• Do you want to persevere or pivot?

If you pivot, create a new hypothesis. Adjust your pricing or target patient profile and then test again until you see the results you want.

Why This Approach Works

After working with physicians for over a decade, I've seen the Lean Startup approach transform how my clients build practices. Here's why:

• It keeps you focused. You always know what you're testing and why.
• It reduces waste. You're not spending months building something nobody wants.
• It helps you launch with clarity. Your first version won't be perfect, but you tell patients things will evolve. And here's the beautiful part: patients love joining that journey with you.
• It keeps you customer-focused. With constant feedback loops, the most profitable path forward becomes clear fast.
• It encourages action. Many physicians struggle with perfectionism. The Lean Startup approach encourages you to drop the perfectionism and get moving.

Once I've gone through this cycle a couple times with a client, something magical happens: it just starts to click.

They start implementing this thinking on their own. They talk about doing small tests, then iterating for bigger tests later.

That's when I know they've absorbed the entrepreneurial mindset. They understand the value of momentum, feedback, and dropping attachment to perfection.

When you're willing to do those things, so much becomes possible.

Ready to Launch?

The Lean Startup approach is one of the frameworks I teach in my 90-Day Clinic Launch Blueprint: a practical, week-by-week roadmap for physicians ready to leave corporate medicine and launch their own practice.

You'll get video lessons, templates, an action workbook, and monthly Q&A calls with me. It's designed to work alongside your full-time job, so you can build your foundation before you make the leap.

Learn more about the Blueprint here!

If you'd prefer one-on-one attention, reach out and schedule a meet and greet at www.amandasabicer.com. I'd be happy to show you how I work with clients and help you decide if I'd be a good fit to help you build the business of your dreams.