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. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Strategy - startups first encounter this when they have the beginnings of a product, and theyve achieved some amount of product/market fit. Growth - when you have existing customers, the pressure is on to grow your key metrics day-in day-out. And if you neglect maintenance, you may not have a business left at all. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. You can learn about customer development, and quite a bit more, in Steves book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Expo SF (May.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Question 1: How do you run experiments for product development in a two-sided marketplace? Bala: Without going into all the details of “ Controlled Experimentation ”, let’s start with the problem statement that we can’t run traditional A/B experiments in marketplace products. slow death).

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Metrics Demand Austin 133

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

AUGUST 26, 2009

Inspiring ideas: real-time biz metrics; safe continuous deployment; A/B split testing. Thank you @ericries for drastically altering my perception of agile startup Thank you all so much for your kind words. Really enjoyed your speech, but Boulder's startup community is definitely older than 5 years. Articulate, inspirational.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So let’s turn our attention from what may happen in the future to what is definitely happening in the present. Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. My blog has over 14000 subscribers, for example. Is that good?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Yet, I think this definition is too important to leave out. The power of A/B testing is so under-exploited in product development, that Im trying new ways to explain its benefits. Definitely like to see video of the full talk. So, heres a request: how can I make this punchier, clearer, or just generally better?

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

I would definitely be interested any scholarship opportunities that might be made available. We changed our model to B2B and adopted Agile around 2002. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. Sometimes an early negative result from an experiment is a harbinger of doom for that product, and means it should be abandoned. In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Now there was nothing wrong with their analysis: anyone who invents a technology as sophisticated as The Transformers is definitely going to make a lot of money. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

The agile software movement has made numerous contributions: continuous integration, which helps accelerate feedback about defects; story cards and kanban that reduce batch size; a daily stand-up that increases tempo. Continuous deployment is another such technique, one with a unique power to change development team dynamics for the better.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Before we look at ways to bootstrap a startup, let’s consider a comprehensive definition of what a startup is. Eric Ries, the founder of theleanstartup.com , states that the lean startup philosophy“provides a scientific approach to creating and managing startups and get the desired product to customers’ hands faster.”.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

My transition to Continuous Deployment Prior to adopting continuous deployment, I used to release software on a weekly schedule (come rain or shine) which I viewed as pretty agile, disciplined, and aggressive. Users will naturally ask for more stuff and your MVP by definition is minimal and needs more love. Just dont push it.

Continuous Deployment 151

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

So let’s begin with a definition of a startup that captures its essential nature, and tries to leave behind the specific associations of the most famous startups. A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is a tricky part of the definition, too.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe 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. Market Type also affects the market size as well as how you launch the product into the market.

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Everything else (including a lot of traditional "agile" or "lean" tactics) is waste. Basically, the definition of waste is different when you know less about your customer. My answer to the comment went like this: Efficiency is a by-product of removing waste. Labels: lean startup 3comments: Nivi said. I like the distinction.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 121

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

First, a definition: the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. We have to manage to learn something from our first product iteration. Definitely highlights the beauty of the web.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. It’s a particularly popular strategy in the world of product development and is used to quickly and quantitatively test a product or a product feature.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

Thats the essence of so many of the lean startup techniques Ive evangelized: customer development , the Ideas/Code/Data feedback loop , and the adaptation of agile development to the startup experience. Creating a company-wide feedback loop that incorporates both customer development and agile development is a challenge.

San Francisco 132

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2018

Corporate Agility. Transparency correlates to agility (Does your CEO know how many tests you ran last month?). Find agreement on a common definition. Understand growth accounting – new, resurrected vs churned = net growth (can also look at this at feature level, not only product). Culture of Innovation. Engagement.

Retention 106

Retention Artificial Inteligence Channel Email 106

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2009

This builds on a lot of great thinking that has come before, like the agile movements insistence that only the creation of working code counts as progress for a software development team. But lean startups cant afford to be satisfied with just that definition, because there are situations where working code is itself a form of waste.

San Francisco 98

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 98

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

By definition these 10,000 founders wouldnt be taking jobs from Americans: it could be part of the terms of the visa that they couldnt work for existing companies, only new ones theyd founded. Why vanity metrics are dangerous ► November (1) ► October (7) ▼ September (9) Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (and a request for.

San Francisco 150

San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

One of the sayings I hear from talented managers in product development is, “good enough never is.&# And, most importantly, it helps team members develop the courage to stand up for these values in stressful situations. No vanity metrics should be looked at. It works to undermine excuses for poor or shoddy work.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

The technical interview is at the heart of these challenges when building a product development team, and so I thought it deserved an entire post on its own. The six key attributes spell ABCDEF: Agility. When talking about their past experience, candidates with agility will know why they did what they did in a given situation.

San Francisco 146

San Francisco Lean Agile Java 146

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

It should go without saying that this post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply my observation of how companies using Customer Development positioned themselves to successfully raise money from venture investors. They will realize that you have built a startup that’s agile, resilient and customer-centric.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Or it might mean selling a few products on a site like eBay to see how well they perform before ordering in bulk from a wholesaler. What sets this approach apart from practices like using focus groups is that companies base product development decisions not just on what customers say they want but on how they vote with their wallets.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

The first, according to Dr. David Travis at UserFocus , was agile development : Dr. David Travis: “‘Development’ teams morphed into ‘design’ teams. To use the agile terminology, design teams wanted to get a ‘shared understanding’ of their users and they were suspicious of any attempt to set requirements in concrete.”.

Software Review 115

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 115

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

Given the time constraints, I organized my presentation around two simple ideas: STARTUP = EXPERIMENT FASTER STARTUPS = MORE EXPERIMENTS PER DOLLAR I tried to make clear my usual definition of a startup, one that has nothing to do with size of company or sector of the economy. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

San Francisco 92

San Francisco DC Washington Lean 92

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

But I will tell you not to have too little or too much, because those definitely ruin the food or product. That leads to a seemingly-obvious question: what is progress in software development? Heck, thats what it says right there in the agile manifesto. But, unfortunately, startups cant afford to adopt that standard.

Continuous Deployment 123

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Heres the working definition Ive started using: A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. In a future post, Ill attempt to unpack this definition in detail. 2009 05 01 How To Build A Lean Startup Step By Step View more presentations from Eric Ries.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Their old product prioritization meetings may have been a battle of opinions, but at least they understood what was going on. Now they first had to go through a ritual that involved complex math, reached no definite outcome, and then proceeded to have a battle of opinions anyway! To their surprise, the metrics didn’t move at all.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment 133

ConversionXL

MARCH 7, 2017

One of the best definitions I’ve found, which expounds a bit more, comes from Tony Zambito circa 2002 : Tony Zambito: Buyer personas are research-based archetypal (modeled) representations of who buyers are, what they are trying to accomplish, what goals drive their behavior, how they think, how they buy, and why they make buying decisions.

Software Review 102

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

I'll definitely try this out. Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? I've been copy pasting large chunks of my reference emails. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Startup Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

And speaking of Facebook, I definitely didnt think it was a good idea when I first heard about it. Definitely one of the best posts from you. All my products and ideas focus on early cash and a business model that works from the first day. . Instead, we should have thought of it as an indication of validated learning.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Also SJ's obsession with better taste (positively) contributes to the overall product development process. There are some good anecdotes about Chief Engineers in the Toyota Product Development Book. Maybe Steve Jobs just has a different definition of "viable"? Will start to pay attention.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Definitely interested in the perspective of the open-source contributor solicited with a job offer. Im definitely curious about your thoughts on how to present the company right. . Labels: hiring 4comments: deskin said. Excellent post all around. February 11, 2009 1:00 PM blake borgeson said. Thats some awesome advice. Expo SF (May.

Software Review 68

Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68