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Why Companies and Government Do “Innovation Theater” Instead of Actual Innovation

Steve Blank

HR processes, legal processes, financial processes, acquisition and contracting processes, security processes, product development and management processes, and types of organizational forms etc. All of these are great strategies and tools that business schools build, and consulting firms help implement.

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Why Build, Measure, Learn – isn’t just throwing things against the wall to see if they work

Steve Blank

Waterfall Development. While it sounds simple , the Build Measure Learn approach to product development is a radical improvement over the traditional Waterfall model used throughout the 20 th century to build and ship products. Waterfall Development was all about execution of the requirements document.

Lean 120
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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

First Movers” didn’t understand customer problems or the product features that solved those problems (what we now call product-market fit). To be fair, in the 20 th century, there really wasn’t a model for how to build startups other than write plan, raise money, and execute – the bubble was this method, on steroids.

Lean 335
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Lead and Disrupt

Steve Blank

Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what comes next. Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? You think startups are hard? The short answer is no.

Incubator 402
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8 Reality Checks That Every Startup Founder Dreads

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting a business is a lot like starting a marriage. Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. Maybe he was the only guy around who could design the product you envisioned, but delivering a scalable, quality product is another story.

Founder 250
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The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Steve Blank

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. Product Development Diagram 1.

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8 Clues that Your Business Honeymoon May be Over

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting a business is a lot like starting a marriage. Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. Maybe he was the only guy around who could design the product you envisioned, but delivering a scalable, quality product is another story.