Steve Blank

OCTOBER 30, 2012

The class teaches founders how to dramatically reduce their failure rate through the combination of business model design, customer development and agile development using the Startup Owners Manual. More importantly, it makes no demands of you to stand and deliver your weekly customer development progress in front of your peers.

Startup 335

Startup Lean Incubator Business Model 335

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 11, 2022

In 10 years of venture investing I don’t think I’ve ever participated in a seed round which had less demand than supply. Founders seem to disproportionately come from engineering, product and sales/business unit career paths. You’re trying to build a software product, do customer development and find PMF.

Seed Stage 102

Seed Stage Cap Table Founder Marketing 102

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

For most companies to succeed, the goal is to deliver a quality product at a reasonable profit. In fact, there is likely a long line of suppliers that provide materials, processes, and services before a product is delivered. Suppliers also have machinery and technology issues to contend with as they create customized products.

Management 145

Management Forecast Los Angeles San Francisco 145

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

The “it” is a physical or web product they’ve often been locked-down, pounding away at, for many weeks. Why, then, are so many founders so reluctant to invest even 500 or 1,000 hours upfront to be sure that, when they’re done, the business they’re building will face genuine, substantial demand or enthusiasm. Dropbox is a great example.

Startup 333

Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 333

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

The Times Square Strategy discussion I had with Eric Ries , was still top of mind, so instead of my standard Customer Development lecture , I offered my thoughts on: the origin of Customer Development, where we are today, and where does Customer Development go, and how you can help get it there.

Customer Development 218

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 218

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. Repeat, learning whether to iterate, pivot or restart until you have something that customers love. Waterfall Development. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. The meaning of alpha test , beta test, and first customer ship are pretty obvious to most engineers. Here’s what the product development diagram looks like from a sales perspective.

Customer Development 221

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 221

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. “Customer Development” to test the hypotheses outside the building and. We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum.

Intellectual Property 286

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 286

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

The product is an amazing technical tour de force. But the product/market fit of this first iteration is a swing and a miss. launched a product in 1990 called PhotoCD. The moment I saw the product I knew every one of my professional graphics customers (ad agencies, freelancers, photo studios, etc.)

Search 270

Search Marketing Forecast Burn Rate 270

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? What the winners start with is the realization that in a world of continuous disruption, they have only a few years to develop new capabilities or be pushed over the brink. Is it that some CEOs are better than others? Are their people smarter?

Incubator 411

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 411

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development.

Customer Development 248

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 248

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. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter? End result?

Customer Development 205

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 205

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Value Proposition (their company’s product or service.) This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyers and sellers.) Demand generation?

Customer 238

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 238

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.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about price during customer development interviews. Price is as important as any other feature to determine product/market “fit.” ” How many times have you seen someone struggle with an inferior product because they cannot afford the better one? .”

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

To build products that people want and will really use, founders first need to validate the problem/need, then understand whether their solution solves that problem (i.e. finding product/market fit). The key principles of customer development are: There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside.

Customer 418

Customer Business Model Restful Video 418

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

The other departments in marketing gave the same answers; the product-marketing department said their job was to write data sheets. To do that we will create end-user demand and drive it into the sales channel, educate the channel and customers about why our products are superior, and help Engineering understand customer needs and desires.

Silicon Valley 266

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 266

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2024

Enthusiasm Versus Validation Finding product/market fit is the holy grail for startups. For me, it was a real rush when potential users in a large company loved our slideware and our minimum viable product (MVP). They were ecstatic about the time the product could save them and started pulling others into our demos.

Founder 347

Founder Engineer Sales Conversion 347

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. We didnt think wed able to compete with that.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2019

Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures: The Business Model Canvas – to write down all the hypotheses about a new business; Customer Development – a process for testing those hypotheses outside the building; Agile Engineering – to rapidly build minimal viable products to test product/market fit.

Lean 334

Lean Marketing Agile Customer Development 334

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 29, 2018

If you want to take your business to the next level, you should consider app development. Are you are a startup that needs to market your products and services ? Either way, custom software development is an effective way to build brand awareness and give your business a competitive edge. Better lines of communication.

Developer 107

Developer Offshore Software Developers Software Development 107

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2014

1:49: Use Customer Development to Test Your Hypotheses. 4:24: No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers. Module 2, Getting Out of the Building: Customer Development. 0:24: What is Customer Development? 1:09: How Do You Start the Customer Development Process?

Intellectual Property 330

Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development Acquisition 330

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last few years, there really hasn’t been a demand to innovate on top of the ecosystem that’s been built. Small startups act the same way, simply cloning each other’s products. Perhaps products like WeChat , designed for an international market, might be the beginning of real innovation. New Rules for China.

China 326

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 326

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. It took the idea of Customer Development and made it accessible to a whole new audience. The book is still in production, so I haven't seen the whole thing yet.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

These explosions in company size and scale created a demand for professional managers. Founders of startups (and new ventures inside existing companies) are searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. Lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering).

Lean 435

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 435

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Metrics – Mine is Bigger Than Yours The first thing SuperMac needed to do was to change how our potential color desktop publishing customers viewed our products versus our competitors’ products. Over the years marketers have found that using numbers to compare yourself to other products works well.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

For example, one of the critical business model hypotheses they could test locally is Product/Market fit – the connection between their Value Proposition (what product or service they were building) and the Customer Segment (who they were building it for.). while building their products in China. Trip 2 to the U.S.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2012

They can do this by expanding the buyer’s network of peers who can provide trustworthy information and advice based on their own experience with the product or service. A new firm, Zuberance, makes it easy and enjoyable for a company’s loyal customers to advocate for it on their social media platform of choice.

Social Media 164

Social Media Media Marketing Software Review 164

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 266

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 266

andrewchenblog.com

MARCH 10, 2010

Coupled with A/B testing, customer development, and thinking through business problems in a scientific, hypothesis-driven way, you end up with a powerful cocktail of techniques to build a modern startup in the most iterative way possible. The interesting part is when you get a couple months into your product cycle.

Technical Review 47

Technical Review Design Las Vegas Product 47

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Instead, buyers are checking out product and service information in their own way, often through the Internet, their social network, or just plain word-of-mouth or customer reviews. He was building a better enterprise software product, and to get the word out, he organized ‘City Tour’ events and neighborhood ‘street teams.’

Marketing 234

Marketing Software Review Technical Review Social Network 234

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last few years, there really hasn’t been a demand to innovate on top of the ecosystem that’s been built. Small startups act the same way, simply cloning each other’s products. Perhaps products like WeChat , designed for an international market, might be the beginning of real innovation. New Rules for China.

China 218

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 218

The Next Web

MARCH 11, 2014

Ryan Hoover is the co-creator of Product Hunt and EIR at Tradecraft. Visit his blog to read more about startups and product design. They created three products and killed them all before launching publicly. Their latest product is an odd one. Sometimes actual product usage is required for meaningful learning.

Silicon Valley 151

Silicon Valley Cofounder Stock Options Mobile 151

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2020

Christensen, writing for a corporate audience, explained that there were two classes of products – sustaining and disruptive. His message was that existing companies are great at sustaining technologies and products but were ignoring the threat of disruption. Reading The Innovator’s Dilemma was a revelation.

Lean 430

Lean Business Model Government Agile 430

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. And the product that “talked to me&# , the loudest and most seductively, was the one that went home with me.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2014

All teams struggle with finding product/market fit. Like all great Silicon Valley companies they started with a technology and guessed who the customers will be. Now they were figuring out how to create demand. They got their minimal viable product (a machine vision platform) up and running in the lab. Massive pivot.

Lean 277

Lean Silicon Valley Customer Development Incubator 277

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

If there was any doubt among the teams about the value of what they’re learning, Blinken put it to rest with a compelling overview of how so many of today’s complex global problems – from stopping Ebola to monitoring cease-fires and improving food security – demand innovative, tech-based solutions. In these final weeks, they have to dig deep.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120