Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development. Defective prototype code was as often thrown out (because customers didnt want it) as it was fixed (when customers did). Hence, cutting corners often paid huge dividends.

Software Review 141

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

In my experience, the majority of changes we made to products have no effect at all on customer behavior. Thats when this approach can pay huge dividends. The report is set up to show you what happened to customers who registered in that period (a so-called cohort analysis ). First of all, why split-test?

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Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 20, 2009

These changes pay increasing dividends, because each improvement now direclty frees up somebody in QA at the same time as reducing the total time of the certification step. Luckily, I now have the benefit of a forthcoming book, The Principles of Product Development Flow. Interesting post.

San Francisco 161

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Unfortunately, after months or even years of development, many companies discover that customers arent willing to buy their new wares. Thats why some entrepreneurs are trying another approach to product launches: marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

When customers are affected, try to have someone who experienced the customer problem first-hand, like the customer service rep who took the calls from angry customers. Labels: five whys root cause analysis , product development 15comments: Anonymoussaid. Otherwise, key details are likely to be missed.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

They have a product that has a moderate number of customers. Its well done, looks professional, and the customers that use it like it a lot. Still, theyre not really hitting it out of the park, because their product isnt growing new users as fast as theyd like, and they arent making any money from the current users.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79