Steve Blank

JULY 22, 2013

A minimum viable product (MVP) is not always a smaller/cheaper version of your final product. Knowing this means farms can make better forecasts of how much their fields will produce, whether they should treat specific areas for pests, and put fertilizer and water only where it was needed. Lean is Not an Engineering Process.

Product 335

Product Customer Development Forecast Engineer 335

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 228

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 228

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Last May, I shared the news that long-time Lean Startup advocates Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits were working on a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur featuring illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. LitMotors approach to using Lean Startup to create a new vehicle category. That new book is about to hit bookstores everywhere.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur Agile San Francisco 167

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? And when do business planning and execution come into play?

Search 324

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Platform selection and technical design - if your business strategy is to create a low-burn, highly iterative lean startup, youd better be using foundational tools that make that easy rather than hard. But I think in a lean startup, the development methodology is too important to be considered "just management."

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Others emphasize how to build a product. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: 1) a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, etc. Therefore we developed a class to teach students how to think about all the parts of building a business, not just the product.

Wiki 316

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 316

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 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

It wasn’t pure research, but rather a culture of taking sufficient risks to get products to market through learning, discovery, iteration and execution. The class will be a version of the Lean LaunchPad class we developed in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program , (the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering).

Engineer 284

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 284

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Sometimes an early negative result from an experiment is a harbinger of doom for that product, and means it should be abandoned. Imagine a general manager that has read The Innovator’s Dilemma and related books, and is therefore trying hard to help her organization make a transition to a new product category via disruptive innovation.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

It’s the lean format of the business plan—the format that will allow you to adapt fastest as you progress through the startup phase. Your solution to the problem (your product or service). Your customer. The sales channels you will use to reach your target customers. The problem you are solving. The competition.

Curation 60

Curation Lean Software Review Finder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, October 30, 2008 John Doerrs 10 lean startup tips I just saw video of John Doerrs talk yesterday at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn&# roundtable event. Get 18 months or more of cash (runway) in the business against a conservative forecast. Use Google Apps.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept for starting and growing successful companies: Lean Planning™. Before I dive too deeply into the Lean Planning methodology, it makes sense to talk about its history and where it comes from. Determine your target market: You need to know and understand your customers.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Noah has been a key figure in the making of LivePlan, our own SaaS product. Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan realized that the traditional centralized management structures (like General Motors had in 1920) were poor fits for the management of GM’s already diverse product lines. The idea was to keep customers coming back to General Motors over time to upgrade to a better brand as they became wealthier. auto market with 60% of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 179

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2016

Their initial product was nice-to-have, but people didn’t want to pay for it, Jessica explained: Everything was going so well. Jessica ran things as lean as she could for the next few months while figuring out what to do. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 issue in 2015.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Customer Development 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

All my products and ideas focus on early cash and a business model that works from the first day. You made me remember that maybe, and just, MAYBE, the early days is not at there to earn money, but rather understand your user and improve your product. Ultimately your product must be useful. About spot trends. all about luck.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, November 13, 2008 Five Whys Taiichi Ohno was one of the inventors of the Toyota Production System. His book Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production is a fascinating read, even though its decidedly non-practical. Each five whys email is a teaching document. and so forth.

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

Take a look at the companies who have raised money (and are still going) after competing: [link] Preparing the pitch for a year is definitely excessive, but I don’t see the harm done in taking a few weeks of doing brutally honest market validation, surveys, financial forecasts etc.

Business Plan 156

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 156

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

You may have read my previous posts about the Lean LaunchPad class taught at Stanford , Berkeley, Columbia , Caltech and for the National Science Foundation. I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. Berkeley asked me to teach a class in Customer Development. Sign up here.

Lean 322

Lean Georgia Michigan Business Model 322

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Peter: Or all the business but not the development knowledge let’s say. Or you have a product in a patent but no [inaudible 00:04:36] bring you to market. We were doing Social bookmarking around health and wellness products. ” And I say, “Oh, what do your customers think?” Taste the product.

Incubator 60

Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

should have leaned on them a lot more, but I didn't, or at least not in the right ways. Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. We have the most features.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217