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Lessons Learned: Combining agile development with customer development

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 16, 2009 Combining agile development with customer development Today I read an excellent blog post that I just had to share. In most agile development systems, there is a notion of the "product backlog" a prioritized list of what software is most valuable to be developed next.

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Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Startup Lessons Learned

The application of agile development methodologies which dramatically reduce waste and unlock creativity in product development. See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process.

Lean 168
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The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part three

Startup Lessons Learned

When youve mastered that, consider adding operations, customer service, marketing, product management, business development - the idea is that when the team needs to get approval or support from another department, they already have an "insider" who can make it happen. At IMVU, we found 60 days was just about right.

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Lessons Learned: Built to learn

Startup Lessons Learned

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.

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You don't need as many tools as you think

Startup Lessons Learned

Heres something I can relate to: We used assembla for subversion, scrums, milestones, wikis, and for general organizational purposes. We had all the tools in place but we didn’t actually practice agile development. Scrum reports would come in once a month, nobody was actually responsible for anything.

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Lessons Learned: A new version of the Joel Test (draft)

Startup Lessons Learned

There are several ways to make progress evident - the Scrum team model is my current favorite. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? When its receding, we rescope. Do you have a spec? I think the new question needs to be "does the team have a clear objective?"

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Lessons Learned: The product manager's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

Eventually, I hope to get them on a full agile diet, with TDD, scrums, sprints, pair programming, and more. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.