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Embrace technical debt

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, July 29, 2009 Embrace technical debt Financial debt plays an important and positive role in our economy under normal conditions. Technical debt works the same way, and has the same perils. I won’t pretend that there aren’t teams that take on technical debt for bad reasons.

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Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

What does your Chief Technology Officer do all day? Often times, it seems like people are thinking its synonymous with "that guy who gets paid to sit in the corner and think technical deep thoughts" or "that guy who gets to swoop in a rearrange my project at the last minute on a whim." Ive tried hard not to live up (or down?)

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Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

As a last disclaimer, please consult the definition of the word hacker if youre not familiar with the controversies surrounding that term.) Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. When a startup encounters difficult technical problems, this is the guy you want solving them.

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Minimum Viable Product: a guide

Startup Lessons Learned

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. In a lot of cases, this requires a lot of energy invested in talking to customers or metrics and analytics. Thanks Eric.

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Lessons Learned: The engineering manager's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

Heres my diagnosis of his problem: He has some automated tests, but his team doesnt have a continuous integration server or practice TDD. And has the tension goes down, it will be easier to get the whole team (including the MBAs) to embrace TDD and other good practices as further refinements. I'm a die hard believer in TDD.

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The free software hiring advantage

Startup Lessons Learned

Heres the short version: hire people from the online communities that develop free software. Yes, you may be more familiar with the term open source, but lets give credit where credit is due , at least for today). Ignore the famous people who are busy giving lots of speeches about how technology X will change the world.

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Startup Resources

www.vccafe.com

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Every startup faces multiple choices and decisions when it comes to technology. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Girls in Tech. Ad Serving Technology. Analytics review â?? Seed Startups.