Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2015

In order to grow, startups need a much more focused, realistic and agile approach to goal setting that builds momentum and establishes a pattern of success. For startups, agility is a must. As Dan Dodge, developer advocate at Google once said, “At Google, a year is like a decade. How OKRs Can Help. Here’s how: 1.

Agile 100

Agile Startup Cofounder Metrics 100

ConversionXL

JUNE 13, 2017

Agile marketing may not be a phrase you hear often, but it’s becoming increasingly popular and important. Traditionally associated with development and product management, agile is a lightweight and, well, agile framework for software development and bringing features and products to market.

SCRUM 112

SCRUM Agile Marketing Development Team Review 112

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

AUGUST 12, 2021

Many have fine-tuned frameworks with a high level of sophistication. However, elaborate innovation frameworks slow things down. Leverage the innate agility. New ideas need to integrate product development with marketing and sales as well. A Practical Solution for Medium Sized Companies to Grow. That lowers risk.

Framework 71

Framework Agile Product Development Hiring 71

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!) Can you make a build in one step? Youd better.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

The site visits include stops at Square (the payments startup founded by Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey), WeWork Soma (an amazing co-working space) and Pivotal Labs (leaders in Lean and Agile consulting), along with one more super-interesting location we’ll announce shortly. If there’s a problem in production, developers need to own it.

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Continuous Deployment Norway Lean Analytics 162

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

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. You can learn about customer development, and quite a bit more, in Steves book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Expo SF (May.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

And when companies pursue sustaining innovations — like a product line extension or a new technology designed to serve an existing customer segment — this procedure makes complete sense. Safely because it is clear that the manager in question didnt do his homework. Expo SF (May.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

ConversionXL

JANUARY 24, 2017

With agile development cycles and uncertain monetization models, they live and die by data and experimentation. At the core is still the same balance of analysis and creativity – but you’ll get an advantage with experience in product development, marketing, and commercial strategy. “. ” Deeper Data Skills.

Conversion 48

Conversion Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Analytics 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

While the customer development framework of Four Steps is universally relevant, The Entrepreneur’s Guide updates its practices for modern startups. While the customer development framework of Four Steps is universally relevant, The Entrepreneur’s Guide updates its practices for modern startups. Expo SF (May.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

This simple three-part framework underlies almost all discussions about technical design today, and it was clearly on display in the recent debates over technical debt. When we work on a product in small increments, we accelerate feedback to each participant who works on the product. So, in that spirit: thanks, Mitch.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

OnlyOnce

AUGUST 12, 2013

A few years ago, people started talking a lot more about User Experience (UX) as a new crossover discipline between design and engineering, and our experience at Return Path has been that UX is an incredibly powerful tool in our arsenal to build great technical products via lean/agile methods.

Lean 94

Lean Agile B2B Metrics 94

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

With every insightful thing that Bala said, I kept thinking about how I could share his wealth of knowledge on product, engineering, data, and management with everyone. Question 1: How do you run experiments for product development in a two-sided marketplace? Want to learn more?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Metrics Demand Austin 133

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Tactics were discussed out of context, and there wasnt an overarching framework for figuring out what works for what kinds of companies, industries, and stages of growth. Tactics were discussed out of context, and there wasnt an overarching framework for figuring out what works for what kinds of companies, industries, and stages of growth.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

To succeed they realized this isn’t simply coming up with one new product. The company had hired a leading management consulting firm that helped them select 15 critical areas of change the Tsunami Initiative was tasked to work on. From where I sat, it seemed there was a lack of a common framework and process. .

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Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 389

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 14, 2014

As companies strive to stay agile and innovative, they’ve discovered that units of 8 to 12 people work best as the natural size of high-performance teams. This is the magic number for leadership teams, product teams, research teams, design teams, and more. Thinking Aloud managing teams teambuilding workplace culture'

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Agile Leadership Architecture Product Development 196

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 16, 2013

One good example is the way in which we''ve adjusted the length of different phases of our agile sprints. We don''t follow a set agile methodology, but rather follow a more home-grown, minimal version of various approaches. The new process let us manage the velocity of change in the codebase low, keeping the resistance manageable.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Software Engineering Agile 167

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

MAY 22, 2019

Companies are investing in innovation training, mostly learning frameworks like Lean, Agile, or Design Thinking. Nearly all that training is for dedicated innovation teams , or employees who are focused on new product development. And management of operations is all about control. And that’s a good thing.

Operations 54

Operations Employee Technical Review Agile 54

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. Lean Startups aren’t Cheap Startups « Steve Blank (tags: startup product-management strategy) [.]

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

SVPG

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

Several product development processes out there, especially those that claim to be designed for “the enterprise," are predicated on the mercenary model. For example, a few people have asked me about SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). More on this topic in upcoming articles. So how do you change?

Agile 60

Agile Engineer Framework Leadership 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. What can you do about it?

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. IMVU had a roughly two-month-long development cycle. At this meeting, we would present our goals for the cycle, all the raw results wed managed to collect, and our conclusions about what was next. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2018

Corporate Agility. Transparency correlates to agility (Does your CEO know how many tests you ran last month?). Managing a lot at once. Be agile, move at the speed of business, don’t hold up product development. Rachel Sweeney – Building an Optimization Framework driven by the Cloud and AI.

Retention 106

Retention Artificial Inteligence Channel Email 106

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

Managing these situations is hard for any company, but potentially lethal for a startup. I’ve lived through the over-architecture failure – where attempting to prevent all kinds of problems wound up delaying the company from putting out any product at all. In other words, a principled way to combine agility with stability.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

LIKED: Y startups fail, cont deployment vs waterfall vs agile, small batches & learn fr biz metrics #leanstartup As concise a summary as Ive ever seen. Q: Does the Lean Startup framework work efficiently within a company of 2-3 people (think small)?" Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Having had a number of years to try and answer this question at cocktail parties and social gatherings of all kinds, I thought Id try and expand on his framework a little, and then try and use these answers to help make suggestions for those who are trying to get people to buy virtual goods. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

In a few cases, they are clearly smart people in a bad situation, and Ive written about their pain in The product managers lament and The engineering managers lament. The last thing you need is a manager telling you how to do your job. But there *are* bad managers, and sometimes they cant be fixed.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Occam's Razor

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

I’ve contributed at the junior, senior, and mid-level, been a project manager, business analyst, manager, director, and … I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but an evangelist. My career spans customer service, engineering, finance, product development, marketing, sales, and corporate functions.

Saudi Arabia 166

Saudi Arabia Green Leadership Framework 166

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

The only efforts a new product team should be expending are those that lead to validated learning about customers. In the meantime, I hope some of you will find the lean startup a helpful framework. Also SJ's obsession with better taste (positively) contributes to the overall product development process. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

We didnt manage todo that yet. It is wise to make that distinction between a marketing launch and a product launch. I think it comes down to managing risk. You create an entire framework of understanding and action based on your product/idea that sets it in motion in a self-sustaining way. Its just impossible.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

We had all the tools in place but we didn’t actually practice agile development. No fancy tools needed here — it’s about the mentality, attention to detail, and the actions that foster agile development, not the tools & systems you set up in place to facilitate this. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

Seeing the whole Engagement loops are a powerful concept all by themselves, and they can help you to make improvements to your product or service in order to optimize the drivers of growth for your business. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? For example, lets say you have a viral ratio of 1.4. .

Viral 140

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2009

PHP can do what no other language or framework can (albeit django). The proliferation of high quality, best practices frameworks - such as CakePHP (rails for PHP), Zend Framework (my personal favorite), Simfony and Seagul just to name a few. and Rails as a web framework. Keep HTML HTML and Javascript Javascript.

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PHP Software Review Ruby San Francisco 166

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

A few days ago I open-sourced a framework for split-testing, A/B testing or continous optimization. Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down? Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 132