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. He wrote it in 2000, and as far as I know has never updated it.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

For example, I often cite a real example of a problem that has as its root cause a new employee who was not properly trained. I pick that example on purpose, for two reasons: 1) most of the companies I work with deal with this problem and yet 2) almost none of them have any kind of training program in place for new employees.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

One of the sayings I hear from talented managers in product development is, “good enough never is.&# And, most importantly, it helps team members develop the courage to stand up for these values in stressful situations. Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 27, 2010 Good enough never is (or is it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. Good luck, engineering manager. It was painful for a lot of people.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

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. Labels: product development 15comments: mukund said.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Customer development is a parallel process to product development, which means that you dont have to give up on your dream. Our goal in product development is to find the minimum feature set required to get early customers. This is a common mistake. That doesnt work (you can stop laughing now).

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

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 29, 2008

On the one hand, it gives you insight into what kind of employee the candidate might be. The technical interview is at the heart of these challenges when building a product development team, and so I thought it deserved an entire post on its own. Still, a startup product development team is a service organization.

San Francisco 146

San Francisco Lean Agile Java 146

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. I think Drucker said it best.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I used to give copies of Four Steps out to my employees, in the hopes that it would instantly indoctrinate them into the methodology of Customer Development. I used to give copies of Four Steps out to my employees, in the hopes that it would instantly indoctrinate them into the methodology of Customer Development.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

We eventually discovered (via five whys ) that we also had to get each new employee acculturated to a fearless way of thinking. Because this was such a big cultural change for most new employees, we didnt leave them to sink or swim on their own. For one, it required us to keep our developer sandbox setup procedure simple and automated.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Combining agile development with customer developm. The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post) For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

Agile 60

Agile Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Anyone who has worked in a real-world product development team can tell you how utopian that sounds. Every two months, the company would have a big end-of-milestone meeting, with our Board of Directors, Business Advisory Board, and all employees present. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers. With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Every startup has a chance to change the world, by bringing not just a new product, but an entirely new institution into existence. That institution will touch many people in its life: customers, investors, employees, and everyone they touch as well. Eventually, I came to summarize these themes with the phrase " the lean startup."

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 27, 2009

Customer Development : a disciplined approach to finding out if there is a market for your product before its too late. Customer Development Engineering : techniques for accelerating your product development. Combining agile development with customer developm. Work in small batches.

San Francisco 117

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 117

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

The same has been true of an unfortunate number of startups, they manage to generate a lot of hype, raise a lot of money, and sometimes make some of their investors, employees, or founders rich. Use some customer development to find out. They dont really create value. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Also SJ's obsession with better taste (positively) contributes to the overall product development process. There are some good anecdotes about Chief Engineers in the Toyota Product Development Book. The videos are Steve explaining the company's path forward to Next employees. Will start to pay attention.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Combining agile development with customer developm. The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post) For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Its different from selling a product, because it is not part of our regular business practice, is not something that relates to our core competence, and tends not to happen in a repeatable and scalable way.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Start Up Blog

JUNE 13, 2010

In the USA and Australia it’s more like $7000 a month. When we inject money into developing economies we are increasing the living standards not just for our employees, but for their economy in general. The average computer programmer earns around $1000 a month in India. Not really.

Offshore 69

Offshore India Brazil Russia 69

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Hes a new employee, and he was not properly trained in TDD So far, this isnt much different from the kind of analysis any competent operations team would conduct for a site outage. Instead, five whys kept leading to problems caused by an improperly trained new employee, and wed make a small adjustment. why did that code get written?

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Thats all helpful for recruiting, retaining, and ramping-up a new employee. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. You dont have to guess who their mentor will be.

Software Review 68

Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

It has to balance competing goals of establishing clear ownership, while avoiding talented employees getting stuck. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

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. Does this sound familiar?

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

Not to be outdone, the technologists on the team had also brought their big guns, and the meeting was packed with employees of every level – from VP’s all the way down to me. As the meeting progressed, the temperature kept rising. At first, I couldn’t even follow the recriminations back-and-forth.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

They spend so much of their time trying to convince everyone around them that their idea is great and the company is doing well: employees, investors, partners, friends, family, significant others - its a long list. Combining agile development with customer developm. How do they know they are making progress?

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

These are facets that are conspicuously missing from the lives of employees in most organizations I would speculate but with this agile/scrum type methodology these can be the "juice" that keeps the team engaged and productive. The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post) For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

San Francisco 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Combining agile development with customer developm. The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post) For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Over-communicate with employees, investors, customers. Ive also used the voluntary salary reduction tool - its particularly useful as a way to get passionate employees who dont have a lot of personal expenses to buy into the mission of the company at a deep level. Pay attention to where your cash is. Dont sugar coat.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Combining agile development with customer developm. The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post) For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

Whether youre a US citizen or an immigrant, entrepreneur or investor, founder or employee, theres something you can do. Whether youre a US citizen or an immigrant, entrepreneur or investor, founder or employee, theres something you can do. Soon, I promise. But in order for this idea to progress into legislation, we need your help.

San Francisco 118

San Francisco DC Startup Lean 118

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 23, 2009

Priority will be given to employees of companies participating in the fbFund REV program, but I am confident that there will be room for members of the general public who want to attend. I just got word that this is going to be happening this coming Thursday, June 25 in Palo Alto (in the former Facebook HQ).

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Are employees paying more attention to those reports than to the positive press coverage? Your employees probably read the same press you are trying to influence. Are employees paying more attention to those reports than to the positive press coverage? Your employees probably read the same press you are trying to influence.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It isnt until a customer actually clicks or calls to place an order that TPGTEXs developers will build the software. "We We do not develop a product until we get a paying customer," says Orit Pennington , who co-founded the six-employee company with her husband in 2002. Read the rest. Read the rest.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2009

There is a stark difference between both types of employees. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Someone gets good at Python because they enjoy the language. January 16, 2009 6:15 PM Bryansaid.

PHP 166

PHP Software Review Ruby San Francisco 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 23, 2009

Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Combining agile development with customer developm. The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post) For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much?

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Audio 167