Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. Product launch) In todays world, there is no reason you have to do these two things at the same time. Do your customers really read TechCrunch?

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

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 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem) Lean startups don’t optimize. Instead, we try to accelerate with respect to validated learning about customers. There are often counter-intuitive changes in customer behavior that depend on little details.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

Journalists, PR firms, investors, and the public at large love a scrappy come-from-behind story about two guys in a garage who figured out how to take down Goliath. Customer Development : a disciplined approach to finding out if there is a market for your product before its too late.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

Whats striking about these stories, if you get past the PR hype, are two very important themes: These prodigies were self-taught, and had a fundamental fascination with technology from a very young age. January 14, 2010 12:43 AM wesley chun said. January 14, 2010 12:43 AM wesley chun said. Wow, this sounds familiar.

Programming 143

Programming San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 143

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 22, 2010 Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Diversity is the canary in the coal mine for meritocracy. Engineers are offenders in this category too, but so is any gender-segregated activity, like an all-female PR or marketing team. Hint: it doesnt.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program. Every product marketer thought they should help define the product feature set, etc. In an early stage startup, instead of sales being up front, the point departments are likely to be product development and customer development.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 127

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 13, 2010 The Superbowl ad test I am a firm believer in the danger of vanity metrics , numbers that give the illusion of progress but often mask the true relationship between cause and effect. The PR firm helpfully left out that context.) The PR firm helpfully left out that context.)

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. It’s a particularly popular strategy in the world of product development and is used to quickly and quantitatively test a product or a product feature.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

In a startup, these channels of communication are critical to understand for advertising, launch and PR purposes. But beyond the obvious, its also important to know where customers go to get answers to pressing questions. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, February 8, 2010 Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Review) The next article in my series on entrepreneurship for Harvard Business Review is live today. This "success theater" is occasionally useful for PR or getting through a tough board meeting. Dont forget to leave a comment.

Metrics 121

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 17, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, April 17, 2010 Sneak preview, KISSmetrics (and more) Hear the CEO of KISSmetrics give a sneak preview of what hell be presenting at the Startup Lessons Learned conference on April 23 (were less than a week away!): The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 107

San Francisco Romania Cleveland South Africa 107

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 4, 2010 Stop lying on stage Entrepreneurs crave information about successful startups, and they should. The higher the vanity ratio, the more effective the PR. It helps companies with PR. And companies crave positive PR and control over their message – all for rational reasons.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Metrics PR 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I agree that listening and communicating is a key to success, but customer development can only do so much. Have you personally visited the Content Creator forums and read through the PR thread? When new changes roll out that aren't anticipated or expected - like the whole PR deal that became a PR mess - people PANIC.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

This is completely analogous to the situation elsewhere on the internet, where launching a new website, product, or service with PR is getting harder and harder. Customers and prospects are overwhelmed by the number of media and companies clamoring for their attention. Acqusition competition is how new apps get new customers.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

What happened when we got early press (circa 2004) in violation of our own no-PR rule. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco. Bring your questions.

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

So you decide to try to reposition around a different value proposition, one that more closely matches what your product is best at. You could try and drive home that positioning with an expensive PR campaign, superbowl ads, and whatnot. Sometimes you have to state the obvious, I guess :) April 28, 2010 2:45 AM JakeR said.

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Why do you think outsources have been happy to generate all this PR the past few years about people losing their jobs to India? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

We go to mixers, buy fancy offices, focus on PR, and try to one-up each other. Instead, lets focus on building companies that matter , on creating real value for customers, and learning. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? I think its wasteful.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

2010 – Sean Ellis, who currently runs Qualaroo , coins the term “growth hacking” in his article, Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup. PR and publicity drive attention…to drive sales. It is simply getting customers. Conducted Customer Development. Established product-market fit.

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Everything Seth said is absolutely spot on, except I’d encourage founders to make sure they do some customer development (even in the consumer space) in parallel to cranking out the first product. So frequently embarrassing failures are masked by spinning PR or fudging numbers to give the illusion of success.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84