Remove Agile Remove DC Remove Finance Remove Metrics
article thumbnail

Why vanity metrics are dangerous

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why vanity metrics are dangerous In a previous post, I defined two kinds of metrics: vanity metrics and actionable metrics. In this post, Id like to talk about the perils of vanity metrics. My personal favorite vanity metrics is "hits."

Metrics 167
article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers

Startup Lessons Learned

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Go on an agile diet quickly. With a product development team that is not shipping, any agile methodology will surface major problems quickly. Time-to-complete-a-sale is not a bad metric for validated learning at this stage. And yet, their investors are frustrated.

Customer 167
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The engineering manager's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer. I explained it to people this way: agile lets you make the trade-offs visible to whole company, so that they can make informed choices. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Product development leverage

Startup Lessons Learned

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. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

article thumbnail

The Future of America’s Innovation Economy- Progress and Challenges at the USPTO

David Teten

Dickinson: 3 amendments likely to be offered: 1) Financing 2) Schumer, at request of financial services sector, is thinking of bringing an amendment to the floor re: business method patents. Dickinson: I don’t have a senator; I live in DC. Kappos: We added 5 new metrics with guide on how to use them on the site.

article thumbnail

What is a startup?

Startup Lessons Learned

This is why so many small businesses can be financed with simple bank loans; the level of risk and uncertainty is well enough understood that a reasonably intelligent loan officer can assess its prospects. Fundamentally, the lean startup is a methodology for coping with uncertainty and unknowns with agility, poise, and ruthless efficiency.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: Where did Silicon Valley come from?

Startup Lessons Learned

Among those: plentiful financing and nerds , a culture that celebrates both failure and success, and an ethos of openness and sharing. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Expo SF (May.