Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? Steve Blank has devoted many years now to trying to answer that question, with a theory he calls Customer Development. You can learn about customer development, and quite a bit more, in Steves book The Four Steps to the Epiphany.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I believe it is the best introduction to Customer Development you can buy. As all of you know, Steve Blank is the progenitor of Customer Development and author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany. I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 7, 2008 Customer Development Engineering Yesterday, I had the opportunity to guest lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at the Berkeley-Columbia executive MBA program. Ive attempted to embed the relevant slides below. Talk about waste.

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

I feel like “conversion rate optimization” is in 2013 what “social media marketing” was in 2009. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. image source.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and whats changed since then) My recent article on technical debt and its positive uses generated a fair bit of controversy. The argument itself got me thinking a lot about design and its role in building products.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

YoungUpstarts

MAY 30, 2014

After all, Gmail wasn’t taken out of beta until 2009 — five years after it was originally released. Automated testing assesses the designed boundaries of your product. Beta testing highlights where potential gaps in technology may develop and gives you a chance to bridge these gaps before going public. Shorter development time.

Customer 231

Customer Development Team Review Cofounder Agile 231

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

We hired a PhD in computational fluid dynamics from Duke who had worked on helicopter design. Reply steveblank , on October 19, 2009 at 8:22 am Said: Quick fixed. Context here.) I would discover that there was a more effective alternative in building a marketing department than hiring traditional marketers with MBA’s.

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. Our competitor was executing on hypotheses we had developed 9 months ago, and their strategy remained static. See part one for the first time it happened.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Graduation day with classmate Joseph Helton (right), killed in action in Iraq in 2009. I returned to the Air Force Academy as an instructor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, intent on spreading the gospel of Customer Development and Lean. Ryan signed on to lead our test class. V-Model of Systems Engineering.

Lean 262

Lean Technical Review Acquisition Software Review 262

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

The conference was the second reminder in just over a month that I need to get out of the house more often and meet other developers and entrepreneurs. He spoke about risk (development, market, financial and execution), social media, how you must create content (most likely through a blog) to win in today’s “search&# economy.

Software Review 47

Software Review Software San Francisco RSS 47

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Customer Development ) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. Martin , on April 10, 2009 at 9:27 am Said: A post that would delight F.A. link] Reply craig sparer , on April 10, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: So true. In a startup it doesn’t matter if you’re 100% right 100% of the time.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Their engineering teams didn’t have the expertise using off-the-shelf microprocessors (back then “real” computer companies designed their own instruction sets and operating systems.) They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Software By Rob

JULY 24, 2009

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← The Future of the Web is Small, Academic Earth, Beatles Rock Band, Top Developer Blogs, et al. 95% of developers are comfortable, and probably excel at, being technicians. Every time.

Software Review 76

Software Review Software Developer Entrepreneur 76

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model. Reply YA , on June 14, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Interesting. The Adventure of a Lifetime. Thanks Steve!

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Its a key lean startup concept.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. (No 2009 – Back to The Future The bad news is that since the bubble most VC firms haven’t made a profit. So what’s left?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Present at the Creation It was early 1991 and Apple’s software development team was hard at work on QuickTime , the first multimedia framework for a computer. In less than a month they designed a low-cost video-capture board that plugged into the Mac and allowed you to connect a video camera and VCR. The software was idiot proof.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Embrace technical debt Financial debt plays an important and positive role in our economy under normal conditions. We can choose to continue paying the interest, or we can pay down the principal by refactoring the quick and dirty design into the better design.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, February 20, 2009 Work in small batches Software should be designed, written, and deployed in small batches. The batch size is the unit at which work-products move between stages in a development process. Similar results apply in product management, design, testing, and even operations.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 10, 2011

We previously looked at YourAM , a web-based application that automatically organize and manage business appointments in real time via the web and SMS, designed specially for small service-focused businesses that need to handle appointments for groups of people. TimeCenter is developed by Sweden-based Niclas Marie and Daniel Ellenson.

Sweden 150

Sweden SMS Management Web Development 150

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. Not surprising with a CEO with a PhD in Math, at ESL the engineers ran the company, pursuing bleeding-edge designs in antennas, receivers and microwaves – at times hand in hand with Stanford’s engineering department.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

The design was actually a negative drag on selling anything off a retail shelf. From grumbling skeptics, they all became packaging design converts. And for sure they were never going to win any design awards. We were on the bottom row – with an invisible box. We labeled this our “Black Hole of Packaging&# strategy.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 30, 2008 Refactoring for TDD and interaction design In TDD , we follow a rhythm of “test-code-refactor.&# This basic pattern is useful in all aspects of product development. The same process works in Interaction Design. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

Software Review 74

Software Review San Francisco Design Continuous Deployment 74

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 29, 2015

But, for small business, the price to create a mobile app is a major factor that makes it little bit typical to hire an expert mobile app developer. This article contains 10 DIY app development tools, enabling you to craft your own mobile app in a very short span of time and within a limited budget: 1. GoodBarber.

Mobile 100

Mobile HTML Application Development Widget 100

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) Unintended Lessons » 6 Responses Twitter Trackbacks for Let’s Fire Our Customers « Steve Blank [steveblank.com] on Topsy.com , on September 24, 2009 at 7:19 am Said: [.]

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. It’s what my textbook on Customer Development describes. I was an idiot. Berkeley and at Stanford.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 179

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. A few successful ones do all these things.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. Greetings from Crete, Greece Reply Jerry Ji , on April 10, 2009 at 11:09 am Said: Simply _THE BEST_ war story I’ve read in months. Reply How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks , on April 28, 2009 at 10:43 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 5, 2017

With the 2009 economic crash, entrepreneurs and startups flooded the market (for better or worse!). Bankruptcy is relatively common, especially post-2009, but recovering from it can require professional help. You can outsource anything from website design to HR, or you can become a freelancer or contractor yourself.

SEO 113

SEO Bankruptcy Technical Review Cloud 113

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

The Times Square Strategy discussion I had with Eric Ries , was still top of mind, so instead of my standard Customer Development lecture , I offered my thoughts on: the origin of Customer Development, where we are today, and where does Customer Development go, and how you can help get it there.

Customer Development 212

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 212

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

We talked about some simple design rules and I remember him thanking me for coming, saying we were the only chip company who cared enough to call on him (little did he know.) Long gone from Zilog I saw the picture of the original Macintosh design team. I thought nothing about the meeting until years later.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, October 5, 2008 The product managers lament Life is not easy when youre working in an old-fashioned waterfall development process, no matter what role you play. I met one recently that is working on a really innovative product, and the stories I heard from their development team made me want to cringe.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Management Software Review Product 158

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

When you put hard work and dedication into growing and developing your business, you reap the rewards of knowing that it was all due to your efforts. Thanks to Lena Gosik-Wolfe, Lena Designs Studio ! #9- By starting my own business, I have taken back control of my own life and designed my future.

Entrepreneur 141

Entrepreneur LLC Technical Review SEO 141

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. Reply gvb , on November 26, 2009 at 10:20 am Said: “Hopefully we won’t run into any wildlife bigger than us (other than our assortment of rattlesnakes, rabbits …).&#

Silicon Valley 137

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 137

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 1, 2008 Test-Driven Development as andon cord You cannot control what you cannot see, and the hardest part of managing software projects is that the final product is so intangible. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Developer Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. Your CTO might be a great architect, evangelist, interface designer or incredible debugger.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 15, 2009 Why Continuous Deployment? One large source of waste in development is “double-checking.&# For example, imagine a team operating in a traditional waterfall development system, without continuous deployment, test-driven development, or continuous integration.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167