Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Like a financial debt, the technical debt incurs interest payments, which come in the form of the extra effort that we have to do in future development because of the quick and dirty design choice. We can choose to continue paying the interest, or we can pay down the principal by refactoring the quick and dirty design into the better design.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Turns out, there was aboslutely no demand whatsoever for that particular product. Oops - there went several precious weeks of development effort down the drain. And if you dont know who your customer is, perhaps some customer development is in order? Eric, Excellent article about an essential technique for startups.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and whats changed since then) My recent article on technical debt and its positive uses generated a fair bit of controversy. Yet a huge class of modern software projects are being developed in a very different context.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The goal is to have split-testing be a continuous part of our development process, so much so that it is considered a completely routine part of developing a new feature. I had the opportunity to pioneer this approach to funnel analysis at IMVU, where it became a core part of our customer development process.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

All of the incentives described in the article focus on making it easy and highly desirable to launch your product: [He] claimed that launching projects is the natural state that Googles internal ecosystem tends towards, and its because they pump so much energy into pointing people in that direction. What is customer development?

Agile 76

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

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

JANUARY 2, 2009

The core of the article is my first attempt to articulate the key metrics (in graph form) that I believe demonstrate customer value. You can read the article to find out why. You can read the article to find out why. Thank you for this excellent article. Thanks for the article. Retention cohort analysis.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2009

See Paul Grahams Why Nerds are Unpopular to learn more) Take a look at this article on a programming Q&A site: How old are you, and how old were you when you started coding? But its not very open, and not very programmable, unless you have an expensive Mac and an approved developer license. Expo (and a call for he.

Programming 143

Programming San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 143

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

So the product development team was busy creating lots of split-tests for lots of hypotheses. That’s causing the Product Owner and team to spend more time with each other reviewing the results of experiments, which is allowing them to learn and iterate much faster. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

What led you to become a subscriber, versus just reading an article and leaving like everybody else? (or, In order to convince me, Id to see another link to an article here somewhere that I enjoyed. Read some articles, liked what I saw. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 133

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

An excellent article and responses. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

All successful media companies had at their heart a series of editors, producers, and agents tasked with discovering and developing new talent. When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. Look at the stories of the current generation of aging superstars in any industry.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 20, 2010

Although the article is a bit me-centric, I think they did a good job capturing the fact that this is more than just the bloggers and writers, but represents a shift in thinking among entrepreneurs all over the world. The article includes comments from Kevin Dewalt and Drew Houston. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

Lean 153

Lean San Francisco Arlington Continuous Deployment 153

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 11, 2010

for Harvard Business Review) In the latest article for my series in HBR, I discuss the problem of how to figure out how much process startups should have. for Harvard Business Review) In the latest article for my series in HBR, I discuss the problem of how to figure out how much process startups should have.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Lean startups vs lean companies Venture Hacks has a great article today on lean startups. They quote extensively from two of our most important thinkers: Taiichi Ohno , creator of the Toyota Production System, and Kent Beck , creator of extreme programming. Go read it.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 121

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. Establish baseline metrics by building the minimum viable product — the minimum required to measure the response of early adopters.

Metrics 121

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

I spent some time with his company before the conference and discussed ways to get started with continuous deployment , including my experience introducing it at IMVU. They were deploying to production with every commit before they had an automated build server or extensive automated test coverage in place.

Continuous Deployment 131

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Unfortunately, after months or even years of development, many companies discover that customers arent willing to buy their new wares. Thats why some entrepreneurs are trying another approach to product launches: marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory. Read the rest.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Labels: customer development 3comments: Anonymoussaid. Thanks for the interesting article. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. If you have further thoughts, please leave them as a comment.

San Francisco 104

San Francisco DC Continuous Deployment Lean 104

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

Ive embedded the audio and slides below, but I recommend you c lick through to the Venture Hacks article if youre interested. Eric Check my articles for Start-Up Nation [link] Peace joseph.again February 24, 2009 11:04 PM Clement said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

It allows teams to diagnose sources of waste in their development process and continuously improve, reversing the usual trend of teams getting slower over time. These problems can be anything: development mistakes, site outages, marketing program failures, or even internal missed schedules. Great article as always, Eric.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

Andrew Chen recently did a great article on the economic model underlying freemium (it includes a detailed spreadsheet, too!). Your article disticly illustrates the models in which one can make free work. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Pretty good deal, right?

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. The hardest part of entrepreneurship is to develop the judgment to know when its time to change direction and when its time to stay the course. IMVU had a roughly two-month-long development cycle. Heres what it looked like.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 20, 2009

This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com. Read the rest of the article here. Related articles by Zemanta The Promise of the Lean Startup (gigaom.com) Labels: lean startup 11comments: Ravi said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? It is a truly fun place to work.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

Thats the essence of so many of the lean startup techniques Ive evangelized: customer development , the Ideas/Code/Data feedback loop , and the adaptation of agile development to the startup experience. Creating a company-wide feedback loop that incorporates both customer development and agile development is a challenge.

San Francisco 132

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Do some Customer Development instead. Since we hadnt shown him much in the way of progress recently, we actually brought in the article to show off. Hold yourself and your PR agency accountable for developing a high level of understanding of these questions ahead of time. Great article. Help you raise money. reject them?

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Related articles by Zemanta Continuous deployment in 5 easy steps (4cloudcomputing.blogspot.com) The Lean Startup workshop coming soon (startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com) The Lean Startup Talk From Web 2.0 The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Try About the author.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

These two principles combine to free up tremendous resources for raw R&D and innovation, because so few people are stuck working on "death march" internal projects or maintaining low-success released products. For one, capacity development. I really enjoyed this article, my first time reading any of your stuff.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 8, 2008 Continuous integration step-by-step Lets start with the basics: Martin Fowlers original article lays out the mechanics of how to set up a CI server and the essential rules to follow while doing it. I was taking a summer internship at a large English electronics company.

Software Review 136

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 136

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

You can even see the humiliating evidence of my smug incompetence in this absurd article from 1999.) The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Maybe, but the thought never even entered our minds. Try About the author.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Sometimes, a great hacker has the potential to grow into the CTO of a company, and in those cases all you need is an outside mentor who can work with them to develop those skills. At the end of the day, the product development team of a startup (large or small) is a service organization. As usual, a fantastic article.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The metrics and levers of engagement, presentation on Engagement Loops for Facebook Developer Garage SF Ill be presenting a talk at the Facebook Developer Garage SF Wednesday evening. Jesse - I dont think youre responding to what I am saying, or to the original article or slides.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Vivek Wadhwa and his team continue their excellent work investigating the true nature of entrepreneurship. Their recent article suggests that startups led by women are actually more successful, on average, than those led by men. Vivek Wadhwa and his team continue their excellent work investigating the true nature of entrepreneurship.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I started my last company with 100% off-shore resources because I could never have completed Customer Development at a reasonable cost of money or regulatory burden had I employed US Citizens. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Or take a recent TechCrunch article about a startup I wont name: “X billion messages sent since June 2009.&# These articles treat this as a huge number, and it is. It’s possible, but the article doesn’t say. Most of the article is about the features – new and old – of the product.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 4, 2009

It seems to be taken as a given in this article that youre going to be using relational databases. And, it will lead the developer to write badly normalized databases. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 151

San Francisco Architecture Startup Database 151