Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

Second, this class – which is built on the idea of interviewing customers/beneficiaries and stakeholders in person – now had to do all their customer discovery via a computer screen. How on earth would customer interviews work via video? At first this seemed to be a fatal stake through the heart of the class.

Oakland 313

Oakland Asia Lean Video 313

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

I was having breakfast with Radhika, an ex-grad student of mine who wanted to share her Customer Discovery progress for her consumer hardware startup. Activities define the unique expertise your company needs to deliver the value proposition, customers, channels, customer relationships and/or revenue. (If Customer Development'

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

Analyzing a case in the classroom, removed from the realities of a new venture, adds little to an entrepreneur’s preparation for the chaos, uncertainty, and conflicting customer responses that all entrepreneurs face. The reality is that most business plans don’t survive first contact with customers.

Lean 436

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 436

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Aaron Dignan --who has described himself as "obsessed with organizational adaptivity" --is one of the speakers at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in Las Vegas , where he’ll be talking about How to Reinvent Your Organization. The growing consent is that profit is not the be all and end all, and a lot of that is coming from customers.

Lean 83

Lean Founder Las Vegas Startup 83

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Three to six months after first customer ship, if Sales starts missing its numbers, the board gets concerned.

Customer Development 232

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

With hindsight we should have had “proof of concepts” tested in a corporate center (think ‘pop-up incubator’) where they would do extensive Customer Discovery. Doing so meant they would have to take risks for IP acquisition and customer/market risks outside their experience or comfort zone.

Programming 270

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 270

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. They are gaining valuable customer data.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2014

In the last few years Agile and “Continuous Deployment” has replaced Waterfall and transformed how companies big and small build products. Agile is a tremendous advance in reducing time, money and wasted product development effort – and in having products better match customer needs. Waterfall – The Customer View.

Continuous Deployment 331

Continuous Deployment Customer Agile Cloud 331

Steve Blank

AUGUST 4, 2016

State Department and asks students to use Lean Methods to test their understanding of the problem and deliver rapid-fire innovative solutions to pressing diplomacy, development and foreign policy challenges. As they learn, they’ll iterate and pivot on these hypotheses through customer discovery and build minimal viable prototypes (MVPs).

Lean 165

Lean Government Agile Africa 165

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2010

I’ve been teaching Customer Development at U.C. Berkeley was brave enough to let me write and teach a class on a subject that no one had ever heard of – Customer Development. Customer Development was a process to quickly search for a profitable business model when customer needs (features, pricing, channel, etc.)

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Lean Developer Customer 242

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. benjaminjoffe : early adopters of buggy product are visionary customers, sometimes smarter than founders!

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Japan Continuous Deployment 60

Steve Blank

AUGUST 4, 2016

State Department and asks students to use Lean Methods to test their understanding of the problem and deliver rapid-fire innovative solutions to pressing diplomacy, development and foreign policy challenges. As they learn, they’ll iterate and pivot on these hypotheses through customer discovery and build minimal viable prototypes (MVPs).

Lean 120

Lean Government Agile Africa 120

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Recently AgileZen has topped the leaderboard for TwtPick.in’s survey on tools and services for a lean startup. And, if you are a software developer using Lean or Agile methodologies, take a look at Rally and AgileZen. AgileZen was one such company and the acquisition has been a successful one for everyone.

Founder 122

Founder Acquisition Software Developers Software Development 122

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2014

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a business model canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. Teaches you how to use Customer Development to test it.

Business Model 335

Business Model Design Customer Development Lean 335

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? And when do business planning and execution come into play?

Search 324

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

The eight teams spoke to over 820 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, warfighters, legal, security, customers, etc. Followed by an 8-minute slide presentation follow their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. All the presentations are worth a watch. Goals for the Hacking for Defense Class.

Oakland 278

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 278

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

This feedback is a nasty trap, and it’s just how this room full of otherwise rational adults wound up in a screaming match about rounded corners. Because the art team was considered an internal customer (and “friendly&# to boot), we didn’t waste a lot of time making the tools easy to use. It was painful to watch.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

Ann who had been my Teaching Assistant while she had finished her PhD at Stanford felt the same frustration about teaching entrepreneurs to assemble a business plan that we knew in the real world wouldn’t survive first contact with customers. Ideally we attempt to match the guests with the case or class session subject.

Business Model 235

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 235

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 9, 2021

Lean In To What Makes You, You. An Agile Business is Always a Good Business. ” Whether it’s temporary or a part of larger changes, a good business is an agile business. They’ll become your customers. The match between name and brand tone is crucial. Watch the match between name and brand tone.

eCommerce 176

eCommerce B2C Naming Agile 176

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. These companies would take our computers and put their name on them and resell them to their customers.

Technology 143

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 143

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

The latest “aha” moment for me when I was at Columbia University teaching an intensive 5-day version of the Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps class. The goal of the class is to expose students to the basics of the Lean Methodology – Business Model Design , Customer Development and Agile Engineering. Repeat for 5 days.

Lean 120

Lean Customer Development Business Model Agile 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 26, 2016

Join a select cross-disciplinary class that will put you hands-on with the masters of lean innovation to help bring rapid-fire innovative solutions to address threats to our national security. Targeting, assessments, technology, recipes, and tactics all flow at the speed of a Lean Startup. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, CIA, NSA.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Korea Agile Lean 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. When I asked him if he actually had personally left the building and talked to these potential customers, or even had gotten them on the phone, he sounded confused. Customer needs are non-deterministic.

Metrics 242

Metrics Customer Customer Development Lean 242

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

This makes sense in a company where your customers, channel and competition are known. But for startups, business plans fail to match the chaotic reality they encounter in the real world. Yet year after year, decade after decade, VC’s would watch as no startup business plan survived first contact with customers. XoomPark , BYU.

Business Model 267

Business Model Customer Development Utah Business Plan 267

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. More agile competitors are starting to eat into our business. What Drives Innovation?

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

You delight customers just like before. In a subscription business, maybe your attrition starts matching your acquisition, balancing like magic. In an eyeballs business, you just cant seem to acquire or activate that next step-up of customers. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. You listen and learn.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

OnlyOnce

AUGUST 12, 2013

Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business , by Harley Manning and Kelly Bodine from Forrester Research, was a good read that kept crossing back and forth between good on the subject at hand, and good business advice in general. “Customer Experience is a journey, not a project. .”

Lean 94

Lean Agile B2B Metrics 94

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. By 1961 its customers now included our intelligence agencies. The “customers’” contracts funded the company. The “customers” in Washington had never seen anything like it. There were no venture investors.

Silicon Valley 194

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 194

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

But what I wanted was an agile marketing team capable of operating independently without day-to-day direction. 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.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 269

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there? Can it scale?”

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 27, 2016

That means you’re better able to analyze and react to new data on customer behavior. Here are some of their approaches… Keep it Lean. But by keeping your process lean and reviewing your roadmap regularly, you at least open up the possibility of seeing these wins faster. So, we adjust our plans based on learnings.

Framework 48

Framework Warrant Conversion Agile 48

Up and Running

JUNE 23, 2015

She was initially drawn to Wirth’s passion for the cause of maternal health, but she also came to see that the two of them were well-matched for a business partnership because their skill sets were so complementary. They interview customers about their experiences; what worked, what didn’t, and what products they wish they had.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Sweat Equity Social Media Business Model 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, August 3, 2009 Minimum Viable Product: a guide One of the most important lean startup techniques is called the minimum viable product. Its power is matched only by the amount of confusion that it causes, because its actually quite hard to do. It certainly took me many years to make sense of it.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

In this model, your free users trade their time for the benefit of your paying customers. Both currencies are valuable, and free users can trade theirs to the paying customers, who are allowed to access benefits that would otherwise take a long time to achieve. Free trial. 8comments: Anonymoussaid.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2021

For this reason, it could be a good idea to get a minimum viable product (MVP) as early as possible to show how your product will work to investors and customers. Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready. And we charge money for it.” – Eric Ries, The Lean Startup. They also include a countdown clock.

Product 142

Product Marketing Software Review Social Media 142