2010, Engineer, Hiring and Lean

Ardent War Story 5: The Best Marketers Are Engineers

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I would discover that there was a more effective alternative in building a marketing department than hiring traditional marketers with MBA’s. .&# I would discover that there was a more effective alternative in building a marketing department than hiring traditional marketers with MBA’s. Context here.)

Engineer

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board

Lessons Learned: Lean hiring tips

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, January 19, 2009 Lean hiring tips In preparing for the strategy series panel this week, I have been doing some thinking about costs. Fundamentally, lean startups do more with less, because they systematically find and eliminate waste that slows down value creation.

Lean

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 8, 2008 The lean startup Ive been thinking for some time about a term that could encapsulate trends that are changing the startup landscape. After some trial and error, Ive settled on the Lean Startup. I like the term because of two connotations: Lean in the sense of low-burn.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Customer Development Engineering

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. Its a nice complement on the product engineering side to his customer development methodology.

Customer Development

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer

Amazing lean startup resources

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Amazing lean startup resources A year ago, there was no lean startup movement. I continue to believe that the explosion of interest in the lean startup has very little to do with me. Rich also organized the first Lean Startup Meetup right here in San Francisco.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup

Lessons Learned: The engineering manager's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. This engineering manager is a smart guy, and very experienced.

Software Review

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

You should avoid spending your time here and instead focus on finding a way to generate revenue or to attract investors so that you can afford to hire someone. What sweat equity is not good for is for people who you don’t know at all.

Technical Cofounder

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity

The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) Product Development Diagram 1. release of the product.

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley

Lessons Learned: Principles of Lean Startups, presentation for.

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, November 4, 2008 Principles of Lean Startups, presentation for Maples Investments Image via Wikipedia Steve Blank and I had the opportunity to create a presentation about lean startups for Maples Investments. My path to lean startups began with Kent Beck and extreme programming.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment

Lean Startup fbFund slides and video

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 6, 2009 Lean Startup fbFund slides and video As a follow-up to my previous post on my talk for fbFund at Facebook , there was enough interest in watching video of the talk that I have finally uploaded it using Apples MobileMe. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May.

Lean

Lean Video San Francisco Continuous Deployment

No departments

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, June 17, 2010 No departments Big companies have departments. The team hired only the best and the brightest. I was an engineer on the engineering team. For one, the engineers consider the artists stupid; the artists consider the engineers arrogant.

Technical Review

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review

Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 30, 2009 Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder Im very excited to announce a pair of events that will kick off a very busy fall speaking tour. The event will include a talk from Eric on The Lean Startup over dinner, followed by moderated table discussion and then final Q&A with Eric.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC

Lessons Learned: About the author

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, October 4, 2008 About the author ( Update January, 2010: This post originally dates from October, 2008 back when I first started writing this blog. Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) Would love to get in touch.

San Francisco

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO

Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 3, 2009 Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up Last week I had a real blast meeting with the companies at the fbFund incubator at Palo Alto. The Lean Startup fbFund Edition View more documents from Eric Ries. Nothing is more demoralizing to an engineering team. Without further ado. Expo SF (May.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder

The lean startup @ Web 2.0 Expo (and a call for help)

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 9, 2009 The lean startup @ Web 2.0 Expo to explain the lean startup concept to a larger audience. The Lean Startup: a Disciplined Approach to Imagining, Designing, and Building New Products.: Hey Someone else who is extending the agile/lean approach beyond just developing software.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board

Join the Lean Startup discussion at Web 2.0 Expo for free

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Join the Lean Startup discussion at Web 2.0 Expo for free Im honored to announce that my Lean Startup session at the Web 2.0 Everyone else can register to come to both sessions for free, including the Lean Startup talk in the main conference. What does this mean for you?

Lean

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment

Austin: the Lean Startup tour continues

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Austin: the Lean Startup tour continues Next week I head to Austin, TX for my first visit ever. The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight.

Lean

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment

The Lean Startup at Agile Vancouver April 21st

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, March 25, 2009 The Lean Startup at Agile Vancouver April 21st A surprising number of respondents in the latest Lessons Learned survey hail from one of the flourishing startup hubs in Canada. This workshop brings together leading thinkers from Lean Production and Lean software. for Har.

Agile

Agile Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." Thats why eBay advertises on search engines, and Facebook doesnt. Beware the new hire who has "extensive experience" in startups or big companies - using a different growth driver.

San Francisco

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire

Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot (The following guest post is a new experiment for this blog. kaChing has been very active in the Lean Startup movement. kaChing has been very active in the Lean Startup movement.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC

Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering. But since I spent a long time in a hybrid CTO/VP Engineering role, I still have this nagging question. I want to add one last idea, even though I recognize it is controversial, bordering on the boundary between the CTO and VP Engineering. Heres my take.

CTO

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review

Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores.

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.) Their engineers hated us. Engineers as Salesmen I thought (and still do) that this sales guy walked on water.

Technology

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE

Why Continuous Deployment?

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Of all the tactics I have advocated as part of the lean startup , none has provoked as many extreme reactions as continuous deployment , a process that allows companies to release software in minutes instead of days, weeks, or months. One is used by engineers to refer to the process of getting code fully integrated into production.

Continuous Deployment

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean

The Lean Startup Workshop - now an O'Reilly Master Class

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. I have a lot of good news to report on this front. Labels: events 7comments: Mike 2.0said.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review

Ardent 1: Supercomputers Get Personal

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend. Our vision was that just as the PC was revolutionizing the business market, we were going to do the same for scientists and engineers.

North Carolina

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE

Lessons Learned: Work in small batches

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Its had tremendous impact in many areas: continuous deployment , just-in-time scalability , and even search engine marketing , to name a few. I owe it originally to lean manufacturing books like Lean Thinking and Toyota Production System. Every time an engineer checks in code, they are batching up a certain amount of work.

San Francisco

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review

The Lean Startup Tokyo edition

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, June 9, 2009 The Lean Startup Tokyo edition I had a blast speaking at Startonomics Tokyo , which was organized to foster ties between the startup cultures in Japan and Silicon Valley. Yet its one of those features thats only ever requested by investors and engineers - never by customers.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Japan Continuous Deployment

Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond"

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 4, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 4, 2010 Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Kent Beck will give the opening keynote at the Startup Lessons Learned conference on April 23. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, Expo SF (May.

Agile

Agile Software Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment

The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review)

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. Techniques from lean manufacturing can be part of a startups innovation culture. Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May.

Technical Review

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: A new version of the Joel Test (draft)

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

At IMVU , our engineering team accumulated thousands upon thousands of tests, and we had a build cluster (using BuildBot ) that ran them. Plus, as product development teams in lean startups become adept at learning-and-discovery (as opposed to just executing to spec), its clear that some bugs shouldnt be fixed. Completely necessary.

Software Review

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment

Speed up or slow down? (for Harvard Business Review)

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, March 25, 2010 Speed up or slow down? for Harvard Business Review) Over at Harvard Business Review, Ive been building up a series designed to introduce the Lean Startup methodology to a business-focused audience. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Expo SF (May. for Har.

Software Review

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: The product manager's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2008

The VP Engineering spends all of his time trying to make sure the programmers understand and implement the spec. Great to read posts about introducing lean approaches into more teams. Im currently introducing lean to my new team. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Frustration is mounting. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco

San Francisco Management Software Review Product

Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand for your new.

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Labels: customer development , search engine marketing 13comments: Jim Lindstrom said. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Expo SF (May.

Demand

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

Steveys Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile : "Google is an exceptionally disciplined company, from a software-engineering perspective. They work hard to keep their house in order at all times, and there are strict rules and guidelines in place that prevent engineers and teams from doing things their own way. Expo SF (May. for Har.

Agile

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment

SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent.

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

To do that we will create end-user demand and drive it into the sales channel, educate the channel and customers about why our products are superior, and help Engineering understand customer needs and desires. We hired union laborers to do that. Two paragraphs, Five bullets. It didn’t take more.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR

Embrace technical debt

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

The human tendency to moralize about debt affects engineers, too. I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Side-effects that reduce agility are the most damaging symptoms of technical debt.

Technical Review

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean

Lessons Learned: Combining agile development with customer development

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

In a startup, rather than think of ourselves as having a marketing department and an engineering department, I now believe its better to think of ourselves as focusing our energies on unknown problems and unknown solutions. Notice that the unit of progress changes as we move from waterfall to agile to the lean startup. Just a thought.

Agile

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco

Founder personalities and the “first-class man” theory of management

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 9, 2010 Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# theory of management At any given time, something like four percent of the US population is engaged in some form of new-company-creation. If you’re part of the Lean Startup movement, then you’re actually making it happen.

San Francisco

San Francisco Management Founder Lean

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. Expo SF (May. for Harvard Business Revie.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Just-In-Time Scalability

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. ► April (11) Video update on the Startup Visa Act Lean Enterprise Institute webinar, April 28 Four myths about the Lean Startup Sneak preview, KISSmetrics (and more) Sneak preview, Grockit The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0 Expo SF (May.

San Francisco

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean

Building a new startup hub

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

I did my best to capture video and audio; a YouTube playlist and Slideshare slidecast are below: Slides (with audio): 2009 08 19 The Lean Startup TechStars Edition View more presentations from Eric Ries. We also had the benefit of many lean practices that break out of the "time, quality, money - pick two" paradox. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development includes four powerful case studies/interviews with successful entrepreneurs who have taken iterative approaches to their respective startups that very much resemble the spirit of Lean Startups and Customer Development. I found these to be particularly interesting and worthwhile.

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer

Why vanity metrics are dangerous

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

If all the engineers work on the same thing at the same time, and all the marketers do the same, and QA, and ops, all the way down the line, then each department develops its own team-based private reality. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0,

Metrics

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0 Expo SF (May 3, 2010)

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 12, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, April 12, 2010 The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0 Expo SF (May 3, 2010) Im discovering the truth of the old saying, "when it rains, it pours." So I am particularly excited that the Lean Startup is a big part of this years Web 2.0 The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0

Lean

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment

Ardent War Story 5: The Best Marketers Are Engineers

Lessons Learned: Lean hiring tips

Trending Sources

Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Lessons Learned: Customer Development Engineering

Amazing lean startup resources

Lessons Learned: The engineering manager's lament

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers

The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Lessons Learned: Principles of Lean Startups, presentation for.

Lean Startup fbFund slides and video

No departments

Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder

Lessons Learned: About the author

Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up

The lean startup @ Web 2.0 Expo (and a call for help)

Join the Lean Startup discussion at Web 2.0 Expo for free

Austin: the Lean Startup tour continues

The Lean Startup at Agile Vancouver April 21st

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot

Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores.

Why Continuous Deployment?

The Lean Startup Workshop - now an O'Reilly Master Class

Ardent 1: Supercomputers Get Personal

Lessons Learned: Work in small batches

The Lean Startup Tokyo edition

Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond"

The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review)

Lessons Learned: A new version of the Joel Test (draft)

Speed up or slow down? (for Harvard Business Review)

Lessons Learned: The product manager's lament

Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand for your new.

Lessons Learned: Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile

SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent.

Embrace technical debt

Lessons Learned: Combining agile development with customer development

Founder personalities and the “first-class man” theory of management

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Lessons Learned: Just-In-Time Scalability

Building a new startup hub

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development

Why vanity metrics are dangerous

The Lean Startup Intensive at Web 2.0 Expo SF (May 3, 2010)

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