Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

(for Harvard Business Review) Over at Harvard Business Review, Ive been building up a series designed to introduce the Lean Startup methodology to a business-focused audience. Read the rest of The Startups Rules of Speed - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

Software Review 141

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. Techniques from lean manufacturing can be part of a startups innovation culture. Speed up or slow down?

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

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. Unfortunately, its easy to lose track of positioning effects when optimizing for a single metric.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

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. Moreover, approaching the problem from the direction that I had intuitively is a recipe for never reaching a point where continuous deployment is feasible.

Continuous Deployment 131

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Most of the time, the experiments you run will have a zero percent conversion rate - meaning no customers were harmed during the making of this experiment. I would aim to get no more than 1o0 clicks per day - over the course of a week or two, youll get pretty good conversion data. Measure conversion rates. Expo SF (May.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, May 14, 2009 The Lean Startup Workshop - now an OReilly Master Class My rate of posting has been much lower lately, and this is mostly due to preparations for the upcoming Lean Startup Workshop on May 29. Thank you all for your continued support, and hope to see you at an event soon.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 22, 2009 Pivot, dont jump to a new vision In a lean startup , instead of being organized around traditional functional departments, we use a cross-functional problem team and solution team. Thats not the goal of a lean startup. Your writing is certainly not lean. It was painful.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 7, 2010

Id be honored to have you join the conversation. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For most of us, the phrase management science conjures up a decidedly non-entrepreneurial image, and for good reason. Read the rest at The Conversation - Harvard Business Review. Id be honored to have you join the conversation.

San Francisco 119

San Francisco Management Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. Thanks for writing this article.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

It is written in a conversational tone, doesnt take itself too seriously, and avoids extraneous fluff. Ill give them the last word: You are already skeptical of Customer Development and Lean Startups and the slew of emerging buzzwords and supple-to-the-point-of-meaningless terms. I think theyve succeeded. I think theyve succeeded.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Traveling the past year, I have heard loud and clear that its time for the Lean Startup movement to enter its next phase. The way forward requires getting everyone together in a room, and having a conversation about where were headed. Is design important to lean startups? I know one thing for sure: I dont have all the answers.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 15, 2010

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Way back when the money was doled out, the team made a compelling pitch about the large market that was going to adopt their new innovative product or service. They are on-schedule and on-budget, but their gross metrics are way off.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem) Lean startups don’t optimize. At least, not in the traditional sense of trying to squeeze every tenth of a point out of a conversion metric or landing page. That’s the local maximum.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

Expo Intensive rocked, the mainstream media has started writing about the Lean Startup, and - most of all - the movement continues to grow and evolve. I went to the conference thinking that I was well grounded in the basics of the Lean Startup approach and that attendance would hone the edges of that understanding.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Notice that the unit of progress changes as we move from waterfall to agile to the lean startup. Eric Ries Lean Startup Schematic View Of Agile Development And Customer Development View more presentations from Eric Ries. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Im pretty excited youve written this post, Eric.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

And then we would use that simple analytics system I mentioned to monitor the conversion rates of customers from each campaign. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

In a startup context, numbers like gross revenue are actually vanity metrics, not actionable metrics. For example, say that your business model calls for a 4% conversion rate – as ours did initially at IMVU. After a few months of early beta at IMVU, we discovered that our actual conversion rate was about 0.4%.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Ill exclude those non- lean startups who basically exist for the purpose of raising bigger and bigger sums of money. If you find yourself getting asked non-key questions, try to use your answers to steer the conversation back to the key questions. How does a lean start-up find the all-star team worthy of pitching? Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. In other words, they are facing conditions of extreme uncertainty, just like startups. Is that a lot?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Time-to-complete-a-sale is not a bad metric for validated learning at this stage. Whats the right set of materials, conversations, etc. Thank you for your simple, insightful explanation of why that is the wrong metric to use. And yet, their investors are frustrated.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Lean vs. debt In the world of physical goods, the leaner a supply chain is, the less debt is required to operate it. A similar relationship applies to technical debt.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

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 121

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 121

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

I thought we were having a successful conversation. Back to my conversation with the company I met recently. I would also suggest, and the engineers will almost certainly hate this suggestion, that the decision-maker asks for hard metrics to justify the refactoring effort in the first place. January 29, 2009 1:11 PM Paul W.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

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. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

Lean methods present a third option: to invest in our process so that our design gets more feedback sooner and is more adaptable to changes in purpose. SBCE feels like it should fit into the lean startup nicely, but I can't quite figure out how. August 8, 2009 6:08 AM Phil Winkler said. August 9, 2009 2:54 AM Eric said.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 28, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, March 28, 2010 Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Thanks to the generosity of sponsors, Im pleased to be able to announce two scholarship programs for upcoming lean startup events. Now the company is growing, profitable, and proving that lean startups can scale.

Lean 109

Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 109

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

Thats OK; like all lean transformations , you need to undertake this one in small steps. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. 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 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Beyond just those who will be hearing about the lean startup for the first time, Im expecting to shake a lot of hands and have a lot of interesting side conversations. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Expo SF (May. for Harvard Business Revie.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, April 2, 2010 Interviews Robert Scoble came by my office to learn about the Lean Startup and the Startup Lessons Learned Conference on April 23. By all accounts, the conversation was a success. Show, in which we discuss Lean Startups and the upcoming Lean Startup Intensive at the Web 2.0

San Francisco 149

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 149

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, October 30, 2008 John Doerrs 10 lean startup tips I just saw video of John Doerrs talk yesterday at VentureBeat’s “How to manage your start-up in the downturn&# roundtable event. What I find remarkable about this list is how many of them apply to lean startups in good times and in bad.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 13, 2010 The Superbowl ad test I am a firm believer in the danger of vanity metrics , numbers that give the illusion of progress but often mask the true relationship between cause and effect. Vanity metrics are generally bigger. Vanity metrics. The solution? Is that really news?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 23, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Join the lean startup discussion at Facebook on Thursday I recently agreed to join Facebook s fbFund incubator as a mentor. Part of that includes giving a presentation for the fbFund companies on the lean startup methodology. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

Lean 74

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 74

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2008

Youll need bundles, promotions, category and segment managers, and algorithms for upsell, cross-sell, and conversion optimization. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 11, 2010

Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable Beware of Vanity Metrics Im a little late on the cross-post, but hope youll enjoy it nonetheless. The Conversation - Harvard Business Review For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0. For Startups, How Much Process Is Too Much? -

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 120

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, May 1, 2009 Lean Startup webcast post-game Wow, what an incredible turnout for webcast this morning, right on the heels of a phenomenal crowd at startup2startup last night. Its been a great twelve hours for the lean startup! wogsland : Still not understanding the "lean" aspect. What a thrill.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 22, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, May 22, 2009 The Lean Startup at SIPA follow-up I had wonderful time presenting at SIPA last night , and was completely exhausted by the incredible post-speech response. 2009 05 21 The Lean Startup At SIPA View more OpenOffice presentations from Eric Ries. Your support means the world to me.

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 76

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

This is the same issue we see with vanity metrics : companies are giving the appearance of sharing information while actually engaging in spin or outright deception. This is also why I get so outraged when people treat Lean Startup like a religion. I think everyone who’s been around these events long enough knows this to be true.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Metrics PR 167