Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering. If youre trying to design an architecture to maximize agility, how can that work if some people are working in TDD and others not? But since I spent a long time in a hybrid CTO/VP Engineering role, I still have this nagging question. They might do anything !

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CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

If you want to do continuous deployment, youd better be able to certify that build too, which brings us to. Daily builds are giving way to true continuous integration, in which every checkin to the source control system is automatically run against the full battery of automated tests. Do you make daily builds?

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Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

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. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, March 25, 2010 Speed up or slow down? Are we going too fast?

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Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

I was an engineer on the engineering team. For one, the engineers consider the artists stupid; the artists consider the engineers arrogant. The artists on the team had called in the big guns, and VP-level folks were there to explain the importance of certain aspects of the visual design that threatened to be cut.

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Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 10, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Continuous deployment and continuous learning At long last, some of the actual implementers of the advanced systems we built at IMVU for rapid deployment and rapid response are starting to write about it. At IMVU it’s a core part of our culture to ship.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 123

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

We wanted an agile approach that would allow us to build our software architecture as we needed it, without downtime, but also without large amounts of up-front cost. Labels: agile , continuous deployment 1 comments: timothyfitz said. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean 94

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 16, 2009 Continuous deployment with downloads One of my goals in writing posts about topics like continuous deployment is the hope that people will take those ideas and apply them to new situations - and then share what they learn with the rest of us.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

We had endless arguments internally about what features it should include, how the avatars should look, and how much it should cost. Just load them all in and choose a low cost-per-click. Labels: customer development , search engine marketing 13comments: Jim Lindstrom said. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

It costs not just the time of the actual meeting, but the time getting there and back, and the time preparing for it beforehand and thinking about it afterward. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. A Fundraising Survival Guide [link] Raising money has a mysterious capacity to suck up all your attention.

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San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

The Lean Startup: a Disciplined Approach to Imagining, Designing, and Building New Products.: 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. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 29, 2013

Eric has talked often about recognizing a startup as an organization designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Not to mention $200,000 in staff time and hard costs. Generously, it might cost you $20,000. In other words, you could test ten book ideas for the cost of publishing one.

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Lean Technical Review Startup Software Review 165

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. I want to talk specifics, and when you come right down to it, most technology startups dont have a very interesting cost structure. The blog is fantastic as well.

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Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

If your practice is not designed to cope with uncertainty, it has no place in a startup - even if your startup is located in government or enterprise. ericries #leanstartup Another new idea in the section on continuous deployment and the cluster immune system. Nothing is more demoralizing to an engineering team.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Doesnt the communication overhead of a large team lead to chaos of overlapping experiments and continuously-deployed bugs?" "If If you just throw a minimum viable product out the door to see what sticks, wont that necessarily be ugly and badly designed? Is design important to lean startups? Is design important to lean startups?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

Lean startups have the ability to use this commodity stack to lower costs and, more importantly, reduce time to market. The biggest source of cost/time advantage that all lean companies have is avoiding building features that customers dont want. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

I think this idea is particularly appealing to those of us from an engineering background. If it costs $0.10 to acquire an early adopter, how much should it cost to acquire a mainstream customer? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Pivot, don't jump to a new vision Why Continuous Deployment?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

It cost us a few hundred thousand dollars to get our app up and running, but none of that was dollars spent on software licenses or professional services. I cant really imagine how much it cost our "grownup" counterparts at other dot-com startups to get their first app up and running. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Plus, we saw some of the intrinsic limitations of supporting such a large staff: slower cycle times, higher cost basis, and - most importantly - the ability to serve only a limited number of customer segments. That engine of creativity has led to a catalog of something like 2 million virtual goods authored by a hundred thousand developers.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Their product development team is hard at work on a next-generation product platform, which is designed to offer a new suite of products – but this effort is months behind schedule. And yet their numbers continue to grow, month after month. This is an incredible skill, one that most engineers overlook.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This is a self-published book, originally designed as a companion to Steves class at Berkeleys Haas school of business. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. Heres the catch.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

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. Continuously discover what customers want to buy before building or making follow-on investments in new features. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Lean 60

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. we dont talk enough about how it feels.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

As the costs of production fall, it’s getting easier and easier to send in a proposal or even a complete work. user-generated content) can increase liquidity and decrease distribution costs (notably talent search and evaluation), there are certain individuals whose opinions will count for more than the simple votes of the masses.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

The conference is still designed to help entrepreneurs learn from each other. Kent Beck of Facebook will give a talk and lead a discussion on how engineers in particular can simultaneously experiment and execute in companies that have enough success they now need to do both. Seriously leveling up tactics like A/B testing.

Lean 166

Lean Early Stage San Francisco Cofounder 166

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

I spent some time with his company before the conference and discussed ways to get started with continuous deployment , including my experience introducing it at IMVU. Moreover, approaching the problem from the direction that I had intuitively is a recipe for never reaching a point where continuous deployment is feasible.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2010

But," you are sure to ask, "how much will all this bundling cost me?" But," you are sure to ask, "how much will all this bundling cost me?" Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 153

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

If we showed the Toyota Production System to an Internet protocol engineer, it is likely that he would remark, "That is a tail-dropping FIFO queue. Product development deals in designs, which are fundamentally intangible. Second, what is the cost of these queues? That is what we started with on the Internet 30 years ago.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

The first page is so bad, not because it is badly designed, but because the features are wrong that you don’t need to go through the effort of building out the product. There is a lot to be said about the opportunity cost of perfection, iterative evolution and the difference between shipping a lemon and shipping a band aid.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

In particular, we would cover customer development, continuous deployment, minimum viable product, and actionable metrics. Because of the cost and intensity of this program, it is designed for startups with significant venture backing or who have reached profitability. The cost is equivalent to an entry-level FTE.

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Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 17, 2009

Last I heard from the venue, there are still some seats available; the ticket cost is only $25 if you register online. There are so many engineers with bright ideas, but dont know how to start. If you are an engineer with bright ideas, consider Lean Startup to build confidence while building your startup.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

In my presentation this morning, I emphasized three key areas: reducing the personal cost of failure for entrepreneurs, innovation-friendly legal reforms, and access to the digital means of production (slides from my White House presentation are available at the end of this post). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

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San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

This model has not translated well to the world of social networking, because customers of social networks engage sites in a different way than customers of search engines. These cost-per-install ads are a reasonable way to jumpstart traffic to a new app, which is what theyve been used for so far.

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San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

Here the key is for your free customers to get value from the site that is greater than the costs they perceive by the fact that youre selling access to them. When the goals not clear, I think you wind up with situations that are essentially value-destroying, where free users are actually driving up costs.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Then, the company spends no more than a few hundred dollars marketing the product through search engines and to the contacts in its sales database and LinkedIn. Development time is typically no more than two to three weeks, and it generally takes just a few orders to cover development costs. There is no way to know for sure.

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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

Or, if it really was prevented, what was the opportunity cost of choosing to prevent it ahead of time? And in most situations, there is significant cost involved in negotiating over the right estimates to plug in. In the past, we invested in brilliant architecture, code reuse, refactoring, modular design, etc.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Why do Citizens of Humanity jeans cost $200 , when physically similar pants can be had for one-tenth the price? Perceived value - This is the extra value a customer perceives as a result of good marketing, product design, product quality, or exception product/market fit. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102