Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Product Development – Getting Funded as The Goal In a traditional product development model, entrepreneurs come up with an idea or concept, write a business plan and try to get funding to bring that idea to fruition.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

70% of Chinese Internet users are under 30. Internet penetration in Beijing is greater than 70% while it’s less than 25% in Yunnan, Jiangxi, Guizhou and other provinces. The slide below from the Zhen Fund shows the breadth of business coverage of each of the Chinese Internet incumbents. New Rules for China.

China 218

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 218

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

It took me 8 startups and 21 years to get it right, (and one can argue success was due to the Internet bubble rather then any brilliance.) No internet, no blogs, no books on startups, no entrepreneurship departments in universities, etc. It’s what my textbook on Customer Development describes. I was an idiot.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 195

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Our goal is to find out whether customers are interested in your product by offering to give (or even sell) it to them, and then failing to deliver on that promise. If youre worried about disappointing some potential customers - dont be. Measure conversion rates. What is customer development?

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

ConversionXL

JANUARY 31, 2014

We’ve organized everything to best simulate a visitor’s experience on a landing page from first click to final conversion. note: If you’re a startup, you’ll want to use customer development questions for your page to resonate with future traffic). Why You Should Focus On Clicks Before Conversions.

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Analytics Video Matching Conversion 134

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Additionally, some project communications may be misconstrued when you engage in internet-based communications. If your team doesn’t understand something, use online video chat or phone conversation to provide clarification. Be sure the scope of your project is clear and identify all your project requirements in detail.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Customer Development is all about gathering a list of what features customers want by talking to them, surveying them, or running “focus groups.” Gathering feature requests from customers is not what marketing should be doing in a startup. And it’s certainly not Customer Development.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 283

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development. Heres an excerpt: The Startups Rules of Speed - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Every startup that achieves success eventually faces a critical moment — whether to speed up or slow down.

Software Review 141

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

Id be honored to have you join the conversation. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For most of us, the phrase management science conjures up a decidedly non-entrepreneurial image, and for good reason. Read the rest at The Conversation - Harvard Business Review. Id be honored to have you join the conversation.

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San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

The Five Whys for Start-Ups - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Root cause analysis and preventive maintenance are concepts we expect to see in a factory setting. The Five Whys for Start-Ups - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Root cause analysis and preventive maintenance are concepts we expect to see in a factory setting.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

As the conversation began to get down to how much stock and salary we could offer van Dam, we left the barber to finish his work and went to a payphone to call our CEO to confirm the deal. We were painting a picture of hypertext on every desktop computer. The response from across the country? A few days later Gordon became a founder.

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North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 128

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Tell Me How to Find You But having benchmarks in hand that showed us as the winner did us no good unless all our potential customers could see them. Our first thought was to spread the news ourselves, perhaps in a press release or a “white paper,” (remember this was pre-Internet.)

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 125

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

When I first encountered customer development , it was considered pure lunacy by mainstream entrepreneurs and VCs. Unfortunately, the video of our sllconf conversation is not online (due to technical problems), but we have a physical tape backup which we are endeavoring to get online soon.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

The way forward requires getting everyone together in a room, and having a conversation about where were headed. My aspiration with the Lean Startup methodology has always been to provide such a framework, so that we have more intelligent conversations about what works and what doesnt for startups. Thats what this conference is for.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

I had the opportunity to pioneer this approach to funnel analysis at IMVU, where it became a core part of our customer development process. To promote this metrics discipline, we would present the full funnel to our board (and advisers) at the end of every development cycle. But where do those ideas come from in the first place?

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Im excited that well get more than the usual few minutes of Q&A, so come with a healthy appetite for conversation. If you or your company is interested in sponsoring someone with a scholarship to travel to the expo and contribute to the conversation, please leave a comment or let me know. You heard me right.

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Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Way back when the money was doled out, the team made a compelling pitch about the large market that was going to adopt their new innovative product or service. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Much of the writing on startups focuses on two elements: finding product-market fit scaling the company once #1 is accomplished For product-market fit, we have a lot of source material to work with from the last decade: Steve Blank’s leadership on Customer Development , and Eric Ries’ on the Lean Startup ?—?along Join the conversation!

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Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

The response so far has been nothing short of overwhelming, and I want to especially thank those of you who participated in the survey and customer validation exercise that helped shape this event. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? For now, Id like to ask a favor.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

(For more on how this plays into the process of scaling up, see the Customer Creation stage of the customer development model.) But in the meantime, by iterating on their product with customers, they have a chance to get there on their own. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

For example, say that your business model calls for a 4% conversion rate – as ours did initially at IMVU. After a few months of early beta at IMVU, we discovered that our actual conversion rate was about 0.4%. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

If you find yourself getting asked non-key questions, try to use your answers to steer the conversation back to the key questions. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

When it becomes possible to build products "live" with customers, the cycle time changes and design becomes a much more dynamic process. We still struggle to create Firm software that is defect-free, and it still requires customer insight (and maybe some customer development) to discover what will Delight.

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Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

I would say that in the last five or six years, it’s gone from a weird conversation to have to if you’re not having it, you’re not in the mainstream anymore. It’s a conversation. Steve : I’m going to remind everybody that no is just the beginning of a conversation for an entrepreneur ….

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Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 2, 2010

By all accounts, the conversation was a success. By all accounts, the conversation was a success. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? I certainly had a great time, and the early Twitter reactions seem positive. Of course, you can judge for yourself.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 149

www.ashmaurya.com

AUGUST 29, 2012

If you spend a few minutes searching the Internet for blogs and you click through to some high traffic ones, you ‘ll probably be given the chance to sign up for a newsletter. This is the mold for Internet marketing with the education pitch. It is very common for my insight into a market to improve as I do customer development.

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Email Customer Tennessee Software Review 52

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Use some customer development to find out. Split-testing is great for linear optimization; making our landing pages, conversion rates, and retention metrics incrementally better day-in day-out. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? What if its both of you?

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Darn good - I have struggled in relevant conversations with our in house move to scrum/agile. Are the engineers in the customer development team allowed to push quick and dirty "prototypes" to production? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

This event is free, and their conversation will be followed by a live Q&A for webcast attendees; register today to join them. Those conversations can often circle around the difficulties of entrepreneurship outside Silicon Valley. On weekends, he evangelizes Customer Development and runs a Lean LaunchPad class nationwide in Japan.

Silicon Valley 168

Silicon Valley Lean Puerto Rico Japan 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Given that most recruiting channels are pay-for-performance, its usually cheaper, too, because it has a lower conversion rate. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? If you want to expand your pool of available passive candidates, give a site like NotchUp a try.

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Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

At times, you may have to communicate what the company stands for before a customer is ready to listen to you talk about product messages. For example, to outflank a competitor who had faster products, Intel moved the conversation about microprocessors away from speed and technology to create a valued brand. Step 3: Media.

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Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 315

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

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Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 257

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2016

This doesn’t mean you ignore those customers who still want to interact with you through traditional 1-to-1 environments. By centralising all forms of communication you can give your employees access to 360 degree customer insights to allow them to proactively respond to customers quickly and efficiently.

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Customer Singapore Advisory Board Asia 100

Steve Blank

APRIL 22, 2009

And that he might want to think about aligning all his video and Internet products under that name. Now I mention this conversation not because the objection was dumb, but because objections like these happen all the time when you’re brainstorming. Customer Development.)

Silicon Valley 191

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 191

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 11, 2010

The Conversation - Harvard Business Review : Still, startups develop some kind of process — whether its disciplined, haphazard, bureaucratic or empowering — because building a great product depends on it. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? It’s a fascinating time to see content industries in action, because they are facing a constantly changing landscape and are really trying to keep up.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

To help turn the conversation specifically to non-tech companies—the topic of our webcast this week —we asked Alistair to answer a few questions. LSC: Tell us about the customer development you did for your book: Alistair: We''ve been thrilled at how Lean Analytics seemed to resonate with founders.

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Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167