Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

I want to thank Techstars for putting this event together and giving me a chance to experience the scene, even if it lacks a name. Building on this, I’ve recently become fascinated with the notion of continuous deployment , a concept that has been popularized by Eric Ries and others. Read the rest. Try About the author.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Of the techniques he mentioned, I think four are fundamental and critical for any lean startup: TDD (or the even more politely named TATFT ) Continuous integration Automate your deployments Collect statistics The tools to help you do these things are getting better and better every day, but dont confuse tools with process.

Software Review 68

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Accept that many successful companies are going to want to be backed by big-name firms in other cities. Inspiring ideas: real-time biz metrics; safe continuous deployment; A/B split testing. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Then, create an encouraging environment for early-stage companies.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

I think Jim Murphys confusion comes where many peoples did, with the XP term "Customer", which was XPs name for the product management role. That naming issue aside, I think its probably good that Scrum and XP didnt really say much about how to manage products. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

Agile 111

Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

If she is, return the name of the hypothesis she was exposed to before. Return the name of the hypothesis chosen or assigned. From the point of view of the caller of the function, they just pass in the name of the experiment and its various hypotheses. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Much of what I have found effective is counter-intuitive, because it requires investing more effort in each hire - all in the name of efficiency. Particularly the Continuous Deployment and Split testing posts. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. The blog is fantastic as well. Keep them coming.

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

The book takes its name from Steves theory of the four stages of growth any startup goes through. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. Phases of product & company growth.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

We're starting our new business, fanminder.com, to help small merchants instantly communicate with their customers, and I'm increasingly hearing your name and reading your keen insights. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Pivot, don't jump to a new vision Why Continuous Deployment?

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned quite a few of these, including these most important ones: having engineers post on the forums in their own name when they make a change routinely split-testing new changes routinely conducting in-person usability tests and interviews Net Promoter Score Each of these techniques is fundamentally bottoms-up.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Now, in some situations, this over-selling would lead to a secondary problem, namely, that customers would realize they had been duped and refuse to re-subscribe. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. That leads to cashing many checks. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

To do that, we add specific speed regulators, like integrating source control with our continuous integration server or the more elaborate dance required for continuous deployment. So far, this is all an academic exercise in naming - but I think it has an important real-world effect. One last thought.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

But we were cutting corners in the development methodology as well as in the code, in the name of increased speed. a is name, b is address, and c is tax percentage. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software. Want to learn more about me?

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

If youre a startup investor, and you support the goals of the Startup Visa proposal, wed like you lend your name to our efforts. If youre a startup investor, and you support the goals of the Startup Visa proposal, wed like you lend your name to our efforts. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 118

San Francisco DC Startup Lean 118

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

MVP, despite the name, is not about creating minimal products. Alan mentions above what I believe is the critical learning element your team needs to gain insight into via the Minimum Viable Product, Compelling Product Offering or other named approach. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

The same is true of brand-name products in almost every category (and it can be measured ). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. February 19, 2009 5:23 PM Maryam Asif said.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

lets you post a description of a job without having to reveal the name of the company who is offering it, or the contact information of the hiring manager. Who wants that stuff posted on the internet? The actual exchange of information occurs in private, in email. That said, this is pretty different from an email.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Startup Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2009

As Im pontificating about agile, I see the name Kent Beck in my peripheral vision. Eric Names matter. By pulling in a web of associations, names help people quickly assess ideas. There is a dark side to naming. The naming question has been raised about the "lean" in Lean Startups. Eric Names matter.

Lean 140

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

A good example is Paypal realizing that their customers were gravitating to the email-payments part of their original solution, and ignoring the complex PDA-based cryptography solution. Pivotal Labs doesn't carry "Pivot" in its name by accident. I'm glad there's a 'name' for this part of the process Eric.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

Id been on the internet since I was playing MUDs as a kid, but by 1999 I felt Id already missed the boat. All the good domain names were taken, all the good ideas were being implemented. BusinessWeek named me one of the top young entrepreneurs in tech , based on my work at IMVU. If you're interested please send me an email.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

It moves at a rapid clip, each argument backed up with the relevant math and equations: marginal profit , Littles law , Markov processes , probability theory , you name it. Reinertsen weaves together ideas from lean manufacturing, maneuver warfare, queuing theory, and even the architecture of computer operating systems and the Internet.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

This is completely analogous to the situation elsewhere on the internet, where launching a new website, product, or service with PR is getting harder and harder. Do you have a way to notify them by SMS or email when something notable happens? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Its like knowing the future.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Retention SEM 68

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

Pay attention to whether people are comfortable “naming names&# in the meeting. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. There’s no easy fix to this problem.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

In fact, we know so much that we already know what they will care enough about (namely, the product’s quality – as opposed to, say, missing features). The second misunderstanding is a concern for what will happen if things turn out exactly as we originally predicted (namely, badly). I understand this fear.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Who doesnt want to see their name in print? Here was our experience at IMVU, which I have seen replicated at many other consumer internet startups. Now that were beginning our first marketing, the key partners we need have heard our name long enough to trust us. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

This attention is valuable to yet another set of people: namely, the traditional businesses (see above) who are using marketing to grow, and are looking to advertise to new prospects. Today, many of these businesses are suffering because the ecosystem no longer balances thanks to the Internet. Sorry about that.) As soon as possible!&#

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

All I see is a name, an icon, a price, the developers name, and a review star-rating. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. And what distinguishes a good app?

Distribution 74

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

We would pretty much bid on any phrase that was "[name of competitive product] chat" and variations like that. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ► 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. Want to learn more about me?

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

A few days ago, I received a great email from Warhammer Online. And yet, WoW never sends me emails. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Towards a new entrepreneurship ▼ 2009 (88) ► December (4) Continuous deployment for mission-critical applica. Want to learn more about me?

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

In talking with Mary Poppendieck about it, she said that the Chief Engineer role at 3M was called a "Product Champion" The name is less important than understanding the depth of competence that this person has, and what it takes to build it. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Try About the author.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 166

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Now, whenever I screen resumes, I ask the recruiter to black out any demographic information from the resume itself: name, age, gender, country of origin. Now, whenever I screen resumes, I ask the recruiter to black out any demographic information from the resume itself: name, age, gender, country of origin. “Who is this guy?&#

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Simply put, we upload all the tasks and assign a name to each task. As a lot of work seems to progress using email, Google Docs is a natural progression, while allowing our team to upload items and progression without meeting face to face or sending off a number of repetitive emails. While simple, it is easy to manage.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 68

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Ironically, meetings like this had given data and experimentation a bad name inside this company. Ironically, meetings like this had given data and experimentation a bad name inside this company. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. What a waste. And who can blame them? What a waste. And who can blame them?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 4, 2009

Imagine you want to store data about customers, each of whom has "last name" field in your database. The problem should be familiar to anyone who plays Scrabble: not all letter are equally likely to be used as the first letter of someones name. Give each entity a name. For example, consider this simple scheme.

San Francisco 151

San Francisco Architecture Startup Database 151

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

I’m sure other disciplines have their own names for it; even protozoans exhibit this behavior (its called taxis ). I’m sure other disciplines have their own names for it; even protozoans exhibit this behavior (its called taxis ). Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Want to learn more about me?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

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.&# Or take a recent TechCrunch article about a startup I wont name: “X billion messages sent since June 2009.&# Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n. Want to learn more about me?

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

Namely, that they agree to use it free of charge if we deliver it to them and it is capable of X, Y and Z. When they agreed to sign it, we quickly whipped it up while sitting in a coffee shop and emailed it off to them. They returned our cold intro email within 8 mins. They returned our cold intro email within 8 mins.

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

Many of these companies are started by entrepreneurs, and are now household names: Google, Yahoo, eBay and Intel. The cost of creating new companies is falling rapidly, and access to markets, distribution, and information is within the reach of anyone with an Internet connection. Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121