Cofounder, Metrics, Product Development and Wiki

Why vanity metrics are dangerous

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

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

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Product development leverage

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

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. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Its a key lean startup concept.

Product Development

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire

Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond"

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 4, 2010

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Agile

Agile Software Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment

Speed up or slow down? (for Harvard Business Review)

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? Labels: product development Speed up or slow down?

Software Review

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Amazing lean startup resources

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

The Lean Startup Wiki (hosted by long-time lean startup pbWorks) contains a number of resources, including links to case studies , meetups, tools , and people who have volunteered to help. Its a wiki, feel free to consume and enhance it. Its a wiki, feel free to consume and enhance it.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup

The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review)

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

And yet the key to startup speed is to maintain a disciplined approach to testing and evaluating new products, features, and ideas. As start-ups scale, this agility will be lost unless the founders maintain a consistent investment in that discipline. Techniques from lean manufacturing can be part of a startups innovation culture.

Technical Review

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: About the author

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. He is the co-author of several books including The Black Art of Java Game Programming (Waite Group Press, 1996). While an undergraduate at Yale Unviersity, he co-founded Catalyst Recruiting. October 13, 2008 6:47 PM Luke G said. Eric, love the blog.

San Francisco

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO

Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

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

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment

Paul Graham on fundraising

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Its to everyones advantage to let the world think the founders thought of everything. I say this as a founder: the contribution of founders is always overestimated. The danger here is that new founders, looking at existing founders, will think that theyre supermen that one couldnt possibly equal oneself.

San Francisco

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Just-In-Time Scalability

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean

Lessons Learned: Customer Development Engineering

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

In a startup, both the problem and solution are unknown, and the key to success is building an integrated team that includes product development in the feedback loop with customers. 2008 09 06 Eric Ries Haas Columbia Customer Development Engineering View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Customer Development

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer

Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Their product definition fluctuates wildly – one month, it’s a dessert topping, the next it’s a floor wax.

Customer

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Focus on the output metrics of that part of the product, and you make the problem a lot more clear. I had the opportunity to pioneer this approach to funnel analysis at IMVU, where it became a core part of our customer development process. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment

Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up

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. Ive been there: is it me or my cofounder thats crazy? Use some customer development to find out. Iterating at whiteboard !=

Lean

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder

Lessons Learned: Combining agile development with customer development

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Ever since that time, I have struggled to explain how the feedback loop in customer development should interface with the feedback loop in product development. Eric Ries Lean Startup Schematic View Of Agile Development And Customer Development View more presentations from Eric Ries.

Agile

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco

Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Software Review

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Ideas. Code. Data. Implement. Measure. Learn

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Its inspired by the classic OODA Loop and is really just a simplified version of that concept, applied specifically to creating a software product development team. There are three stages: We start with ideas about what our product could be. Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you?

San Francisco

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC

Lessons Learned: What is customer development?

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. Instead, we do everything possible to validate the founders belief.

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer

Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Audience

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean

Refactoring for TDD and interaction design

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 30, 2008

This basic pattern is useful in all aspects of product development. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Startup Lessons Learned - the Conference (April 23.

Software Review

Software Review San Francisco Design Continuous Deployment

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Harvard Business.

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Behind this analysis is a spreadsheet model, complete with detailed metrics for a set of customer behaviors that show just how valuable the new product will be. They are long-term bets on the development of a new line of business, a new technology platform, or the creation of a new market.

Hockey Stick

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean

Lean Startup fbFund slides and video

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2009

Its also frustrating how some founders see ANY form of struture/approach as limiting and go to the total reverse of waterfall by just doing what they were told by "their wifes friend" This is great and practical stuff.will make sure I pass it on and use in my discussions (giving credit to you!) April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Lean

Lean Video San Francisco Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: The product manager's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2008

But first I think we need to save the product manager from that special form of torture only a waterfall product development team can create. Labels: product development 8comments: Vincent van Wylick said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Management Software Review Product

The Principles of Product Development Flow

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, July 13, 2009 The Principles of Product Development Flow If youve ever wondered why agile or lean development techniques work, The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development by Donald G. Reinertsen is the book for you.

Product Development

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product

Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? (for Harvard Business.

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean

Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC

Lessons Learned on Mashable today

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. My son is planning a software product that will take the mystery out of wikis and make the technology easier for consumers to use. You can read the article to find out why.

San Francisco

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean

Lessons Learned: The four kinds of work, and how to get them done.

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Strategy - startups first encounter this when they have the beginnings of a product, and theyve achieved some amount of product/market fit. Growth - when you have existing customers, the pressure is on to grow your key metrics day-in day-out. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Review)

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. Once again, we revisit the topic of Actionable metrics and their nemesis: Vanity metrics. Remember "metrics are people, too."

Metrics

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" Labels: product development 15comments: mukund said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Thats an important job, for sure, and Ive been called upon to do it from time to time.

CTO

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review

How to listen to customers, and not just the loud people

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Most of the people building our product werent themselves target customers. So there was simply no substitute for seeing actual customers with the product, live. Today, when I talk to startup founders, the most common answer I get to the question "do you talk to your customers?"

San Francisco

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Agile

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

As all of you know, Steve Blank is the progenitor of Customer Development and author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany. I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer

The Lean Startup at Agile Vancouver April 21st

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Agile

Agile Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Principles of Lean Startups, presentation for.

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

Eric, Any thoughts on how forum feedback fits into customer development and agile product development? Youve probably addressed this in the past, but I continue to be blown away by how fast Blizzard reacts to noise in their forums and rapidly makes fixes to the product. =) November 4, 2008 10:58 PM IMVU said.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Work in small batches

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Luckily, I now have the benefit of a forthcoming book, The Principles of Product Development Flow. Labels: five whys root cause analysis , product development 11comments: Peter Severin said. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Interesting post.

San Francisco

San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment Development Team Review

Founder personalities and the “first-class man” theory of management

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, July 9, 2010 Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# theory of management At any given time, something like four percent of the US population is engaged in some form of new-company-creation. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Management Founder Lean

Datablindness

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 8, 2009 Datablindness Most of us are swimming in a sea of data about our products, companies, and teams. That’s because many of our reports feed us vanity metrics: numbers that make us look good but don’t really help make decisions. Too much of this data is non- actionable.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

On deployment

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC

Building a new startup hub

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Inspiring ideas: real-time biz metrics; safe continuous deployment; A/B split testing. ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. Articulate, inspirational. Bring your questions.

San Francisco

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean

Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

Andy Mathieson, a founder and managing member at Fairview Capital , was particularly supportive. Andy Mathieson, a founder and managing member at Fairview Capital , was particularly supportive. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? The response was surprisingly positive.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC

Lessons Learned: Test-Driven Development as andon cord

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

San Francisco

San Francisco Developer Continuous Deployment DC

The lean startup @ Web 2.0 Expo (and a call for help)

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? April 23, 2010 in San Francisco.

Lean

Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board

Why vanity metrics are dangerous

Lessons Learned: Product development leverage

Trending Sources

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond"

Speed up or slow down? (for Harvard Business Review)

Amazing lean startup resources

The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review)

Lessons Learned: About the author

Lessons Learned: The lean startup

Paul Graham on fundraising

Lessons Learned: Just-In-Time Scalability

Lessons Learned: Customer Development Engineering

Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Lean Startup fbFund wrap-up

Lessons Learned: Combining agile development with customer development

Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now

Lessons Learned: Ideas. Code. Data. Implement. Measure. Learn

Lessons Learned: What is customer development?

Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences

Refactoring for TDD and interaction design

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Harvard Business.

Lean Startup fbFund slides and video

Lessons Learned: The product manager's lament

The Principles of Product Development Flow

Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? (for Harvard Business.

Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder

Lessons Learned on Mashable today

Lessons Learned: The four kinds of work, and how to get them done.

Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Review)

Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

How to listen to customers, and not just the loud people

Lessons Learned: Stevey's Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development

The Lean Startup at Agile Vancouver April 21st

Lessons Learned: Principles of Lean Startups, presentation for.

Lessons Learned: Work in small batches

Founder personalities and the “first-class man” theory of management

Datablindness

On deployment

Building a new startup hub

Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot

Lessons Learned: Test-Driven Development as andon cord

The lean startup @ Web 2.0 Expo (and a call for help)

Stay Connected