Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

I had really debated about whether there was any value in spending the time and money to fly to San Francisco when there was a perfectly serviceable simulcast going on in Cleveland. When I first encountered customer development , it was considered pure lunacy by mainstream entrepreneurs and VCs.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, February 20, 2009 Work in small batches Software should be designed, written, and deployed in small batches. The batch size is the unit at which work-products move between stages in a development process. For software, the easiest batch to see is code. This is easiest to see in deployment.

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review 161

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. After all, the worst kind of waste in software development is code to support a use case that never materializes. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean 94

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Although Catalyst folded with the dot-com crash, Ries continued his entrepreneurial career as a Senior Software Engineer at There.com, leading efforts in agile software development and user-generated content. I know many people who think that software works like magic, but to me it actually was magic.

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San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Expo San Francisco 2009 The current macroeconomic climate presents unparalleled opportunities for those that can thrive with constrained resources. 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.

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Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

It is becoming easier and cheaper for companies to bring products to market, leveraging free and open source software , cloud computing, open social data (Facebook, OpenSocial ), and open distribution (AdWords, SEO). Agile software development. Agile allows companies to build higher quality software faster.

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Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

Steveys Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile : "Google is an exceptionally disciplined company, from a software-engineering perspective. But its helpful to take a detailed look inside the highly agile process used by Google to ship software. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Of all the tactics I have advocated as part of the lean startup , none has provoked as many extreme reactions as continuous deployment , a process that allows companies to release software in minutes instead of days, weeks, or months. Another is used by marketing to refer to what customers see.

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Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I am convinced one of Joel Spolskys lasting contributions to the field of managing software teams will turn out to be the Joel Test , a checklist of 12 essential practices that you could use to rate the effectiveness of a software product development team. Please leave feedback!) Do programmers have quiet working conditions?

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

As a result, for a lot of these companies, Boulder is just a gateway to San Francisco. And do your customer development. More recently it's skewed to software & web. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Its inspired by the classic OODA Loop and is really just a simplified version of that concept, applied specifically to creating a software product development team. Were a software company, so what we do everyday is turn ideas into code. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 142

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 142

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

It became harder and harder to separate how the software is built from how the software is structured. If not, whos going to insist we switch to free and open source software? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

I thought Id share a little bit of that, too: I’ve been interested in different approaches to software development going back to 1987 when – in my first company Feld Technologies – my partner Dave Jilk and I started talking about “semi-custom software development&# (way ahead of its time).

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2008

So the product manager winds up actually having to use the software, by hand, updating the spec and helping create a new test plan. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Bring your questions.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Management Software Review Product 158

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 2, 2008 On deployment My favorite question to ask a software development team is "how do you do a release." How long does the software sit un-deployed? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? How fast do they iterate?

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

This case presents a further complication: desktop software. Without being able transparently modify the software in situ, is it still possible to deploy on a continuous basis? Continuous Deployment is a process by which software is released several times throughout the day – in minutes versus days, weeks, or months.

Continuous Deployment 151

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

Agile Vancouver : Lean Development for Lean Times On Tuesday April 21st, we are hosting an afternoon event on the application of Lean Principles to software development. This workshop brings together leading thinkers from Lean Production and Lean software. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

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Agile Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment 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.) Perhaps they’ll be able to hire someone especially skilled in the marketing skills needed to find this positioning. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 1, 2008 Test-Driven Development as andon cord You cannot control what you cannot see, and the hardest part of managing software projects is that the final product is so intangible. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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San Francisco Developer Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

So one of the first things we did was to hire an Oracle expert and get to work. It felt like software that grownups were supposed to use, and we didnt qualify. 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.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

They just assumed it was the way software companies worked. Unfortunately, threats work a lot better at incentivizing people to CYA than getting them to write quality software. When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer. Sound good? It didnt work.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Other companies accomplish this by hiring a large staff of content production experts - and get a very good result. 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.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Although Im not a developer, I am captivated by the lean and agile start-up model that you write about. I plan to apply these models to my own ventures, especially within new contexts separate from software and web development. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

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. It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Bring your questions.

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Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

MUDs made the essential truth about software into a powerful metaphor: that code is magic, giving those who wield it the ability to create new forms of value literally out of thin air. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Programming 143

Programming San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 143

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2009

My son is planning a software product that will take the mystery out of wikis and make the technology easier for consumers to use. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Retention cohort analysis. Funnel averages over time.

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San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

His post is ostensibly about how often to release new work (whether youre a blog writer, movie star, software team.) I’ve been in the software industry for a long time. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco 76

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 76

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. This shift allowed us to crank out working software quickly as a service. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. It was a disaster.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Let's consider cases: Can you have a piece of software with good product design and bad technical design? In that case, the user experience and system performance might be good, but the cost of future development would be high. Can you have a piece of software with bad product design and good technical design?

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 28, 2009

Or, phrased more hopefully, "I see how you can use continuous deployment to run an online consumer service, but how can it be used for B2B software?" That mission critical customers wont accept new releases on a continuous basis. That continuous deployment leads to lower quality software than software built in large batches.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Metrics 122

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

For example, we used to be baffled at IMVU by the significant minority of people who would download the software but never chat with anyone. This is a good sign for you! :) I subscribed because I was inspired by the O'Reilly video, and feel I want to go deeper into the customer development field. So why you?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 133

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and what. April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Bring your questions. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

That process involves rapid hypothesis testing, validated learning about customers , and a disciplined approach to product development. internet/consumer software companies. Truth: The Lean Startup methodology applies to all companies that face uncertainty about what customers will want.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, February 11, 2009 The free software hiring advantage This is one of those startup tips Im a little reluctant to share, because its been such a powerful source of competitive advantage in the companies Ive worked with. This approach gives you an edge in hiring.

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Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 15, 2010

And the fact that the effects of this IPO vanishing act are being felt first and foremost in the software business also makes sense to me. In fact, I believe that the software business is the canary in the coal mine: increasingly, all businesses are going to look more and more like software businesses.

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IPO San Francisco Lean Silicon Valley 166

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2010

Want to talk about applying the lessons beyond software, internet, and small companies? Want to talk about applying the lessons beyond software, internet, and small companies? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Lean 113

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 113

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Thats why some entrepreneurs are trying another approach to product launches: marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory. Consider the method used by TPGTEX Label Solutions, a Houston -based software company that specializes in bar codes and labels for manufacturers and chemical companies.

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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137