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 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

To move innovation faster, we now have 21 st century tools — Business Model Canvas , Customer Development , Agile Engineering – all adding up to a Lean Startup. The Lean Definition of the Three Horizons of Innovation. Fast forward to today. We can adapt these startup tools for use inside the corporation.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

I read a ton of existing literature and came up with a formal methodology for search I called Customer Development. Berkeley asked me to teach a class in Customer Development at Haas business school. Eric’s insight was that traditional product management and Waterfall development should be replaced by Agile Development.

Lean 286

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 286

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. You say it is “enabling customers to do something they never could before.&#

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

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 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

MAY 23, 2016

By the way, the engineering definition of serendipity is, that life is too unpredictable to pre-compute. The Lean LaunchPad class is now taught around the world – and VC’s expect entrepreneurs to talk about not just their technology but their customer development findings. Because none of it will happen as you expect.

Lean 221

Lean Technical Review Vietnam Engineer 221

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

This startup search process is the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Business Model Design meets Customer Development. the Lean Launchpad, the first hands-on class utilizing the entire business model/customer development / agile development stack.

Agile 250

Agile Business Model Customer Development Lean 250

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

I read a ton of existing literature and came up with a formal methodology for search I called Customer Development. Berkeley asked me to teach a class in Customer Development at Haas business school. Eric’s insight was that traditional product management and Waterfall development should be replaced by Agile Development.

Lean 178

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 178

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

And that narrow definition of entrepreneurship doesn’t count all of the managers inside established companies who are effectively engaged in the same process of building an internal startup (see What is a startup? for my more expansive definition). for my more expansive definition). What motivates all these entrepreneurs?

San Francisco 161

San Francisco Management Founder Lean 161

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax. Their product development team is hard at work on a next-generation product platform, which is designed to offer a new suite of products – but this effort is months behind schedule.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Your job as a founder is to quickly validate whether the model is correct by seeing if customers behave as your model predicts. Winston Churchill. A Business Model.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Just as a business incurs some debt to take advantage of a market opportunity developers may incur technical debt to hit an important deadline.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

We lack a consistent and clear definition of the job. When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. All I have to say it WOW!

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

For example, when we taught the value of getting out of the building and agile development, we had Eric Ries talk about the Lean Startup. I also teach a less intense introduction class for engineers called the Spirit of Entrepreneurship and the Customer Development Class at Berkeley which I’ll describe in a future post.)

Business Model 226

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

I know that this all seems obvious now with the movements started by Steven Blank ( Four Steps of Epiphany ) with the whole Customer Development processes / Lean Startup movements also popularized by people like Eric Ries. I used to always tell my development team, “you need to design a product that my dad could use.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

The law of large numbers (of customers) says you cant help but make at least some money - your valuation is determined by how well you monetize the tidal wave of growth. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Your comment about the Innovation/R&D phase that it's hard to predict has definitely proven true in my experience. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? What is customer development? And why do those problems seem to get worse as the company grows?

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

And do your customer development. Thank you @ericries for drastically altering my perception of agile startup Thank you all so much for your kind words. Really enjoyed your speech, but Boulder's startup community is definitely older than 5 years. Provide early seed capital, and be the ones to make those introductions.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Our Lean LaunchPad class teaches scientists and engineers that starting a company is another research project that can be solved by an iterative process of hypotheses testing and experimentation built around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. And I am definitely enjoying it.”.

Silicon Valley 242

Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development Business Model 242

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

That’s the definition of insanity. Business Model Design and Customer Development Stack. The alternative to the traditional product introduction process is the Business Model Design and Customer Development Stack. and being continually surprised when it didn’t. Startups Are Not Small Versions of Large Companies.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

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. I would definitely be interested any scholarship opportunities that might be made available. For now, Id like to ask a favor.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

More agile competitors are starting to eat into our business. I suggested the best place to start the conversation is with the 21 st century definition of a startup: A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. How can we restart our innovation culture?”. That’s now changed.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

As I evolved my thinking, I started to frame the problem this way: How can we devise a product development process that allows the business leaders to take responsibility for the outcome by making conscious trade-offs? When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

Recently, he was bitten by the lean startup bug and has started writing about his experiences attempting to apply lean startup and customer development principles. Managing weekly releases got a lot harder once I started doing customer development. The release process took at least half a day and sometimes the whole day.

Continuous Deployment 151

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2013

I was surprised how interested the faculty was in exploring whether the Capstone class could be modified to use the Customer Development process to get input from potential “customers” inside the Air Force. And how the engineering process could be turned Agile. Air Force Customer Development Lean LaunchPad'

Silicon Valley 255

Silicon Valley Colorado Lean Connecticut 255

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Now there was nothing wrong with their analysis: anyone who invents a technology as sophisticated as The Transformers is definitely going to make a lot of money. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? They even included a slide with The Transformers on it. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Yet, I think this definition is too important to leave out. Use some customer development to find out. Definitely like to see video of the full talk. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Ive been there: is it me or my cofounder thats crazy? Expo SF (May.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

The agile software movement has made numerous contributions: continuous integration, which helps accelerate feedback about defects; story cards and kanban that reduce batch size; a daily stand-up that increases tempo. Continuous deployment is another such technique, one with a unique power to change development team dynamics for the better.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2013

I was surprised how interested the faculty was in exploring whether the Capstone class could be modified to use the Customer Development process to get input from potential “customers” inside the Air Force. And how the engineering process could be turned Agile. Air Force Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Teaching'

Silicon Valley 151

Silicon Valley Colorado Lean Connecticut 151

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So let’s turn our attention from what may happen in the future to what is definitely happening in the present. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Here are a few of my observations from the trenches: Personal brands are displacing organizations brands. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? By reducing the decisions we have to make to a series of quantitative questions, we can avoid a lot of real-life messiness. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

So let’s begin with a definition of a startup that captures its essential nature, and tries to leave behind the specific associations of the most famous startups. Isn’t the word human redundant in this definition? And yet the newness of a startup’s product or service is also a key part of the definition.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2016

It is not surprising if you are feeling overwhelmed by this; you are definitely not alone. We are in the midst of great change and many businesses of all shapes and sizes are figuring out how they can implement the right social customer service strategy to meet the ever changing expectations of this increasingly powerful generation.

Customer 100

Customer Singapore Advisory Board Asia 100

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Everything else (including a lot of traditional "agile" or "lean" tactics) is waste. Basically, the definition of waste is different when you know less about your customer. By the standard of "customer value," most innovation-seeking experiments are waste. Labels: lean startup 3comments: Nivi said. I like the distinction.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 121

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. Eric Ries has a great article advocating for why it’s OK to Embrace Technical Debt.

Technical Review 47

Technical Review Design Las Vegas Product 47

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

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.

Customer 420

Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 420