A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 5, 2010

Now by all of the usual arguments for Lean, Agile, and minimimalism, I should have used boogers too: Boogers were already semi-standardized. User interfaces should follow the principle of "least surprise" — if people are used to a certain metaphor, icon, or behavior, you should honor that so people understand your product immediately.

Software Review 226

Software Review Metrics Lean Agile 226

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. I see a lot of early-stage entrepreneurs waste too much time chasing money rather than figuring this out first.

Lean 263

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 263

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2009

For those whove heard it, it contains a length discourse on the subject of agile software development and extreme programming, including its weaknesses when applied to startups. As Im pontificating about agile, I see the name Kent Beck in my peripheral vision. Conversion optimization is a form of kaizen.

Lean 140

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 140

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 14, 2014

As companies strive to stay agile and innovative, they’ve discovered that units of 8 to 12 people work best as the natural size of high-performance teams. This is the magic number for leadership teams, product teams, research teams, design teams, and more.

Agile 196

Agile Leadership Architecture Product Development 196

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2010

This is the first post that moves into making specific process recommendations for product development. Heres an excerpt: The Startups Rules of Speed - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Every startup that achieves success eventually faces a critical moment — whether to speed up or slow down. Expo SF (May.

Software Review 141

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 141

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

The conversation almost always turns to questions about where to find virtual assistants and how a startup can use one. Ideally, by the time I code it up, we'll have many customers using the platform which means I'll be working on a product I know is viable, and that's paying for the time I'm spending to automate it.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

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

JUNE 2, 2010

The Five Whys for Start-Ups - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review Root cause analysis and preventive maintenance are concepts we expect to see in a factory setting. And yet the key to startup speed is to maintain a disciplined approach to testing and evaluating new products, features, and ideas. Expo SF (May.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

This gets me into trouble, because it conjures up for some the idea that product development is simply a rote mechanical exercise of linear optimization. You just constantly test little micro-changes and follow a hill-climbing algorithm to build your product. But where do those ideas come from in the first place? Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

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. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

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. And then we would use that simple analytics system I mentioned to monitor the conversion rates of customers from each campaign. Thoughts on scientific product development Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you?

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

Unfortunately, the video of our sllconf conversation is not online (due to technical problems), but we have a physical tape backup which we are endeavoring to get online soon. Although many of the non-technical folks in the room didnt understand what was happening in the moment, plenty of hackers were on high alert. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

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

APRIL 7, 2010

At least, not in the traditional sense of trying to squeeze every tenth of a point out of a conversion metric or landing page. In fact, the curse of product development is that sometimes small things make a huge difference and sometimes huge things make no difference. For example, I’m a big believer in split-testing.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2021

These are the four stages of a product we’ll be focusing on. . However, on a more granular graph, the introduction phase would be preceded by a product development stage. This stage is used to determine the viability of your product and confirm when it should go to market. Researching your audience.

Product 142

Product Marketing Software Review Social Media 142

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

Brant and Patrick undertook a difficult challenge: to provide a generally accessible introduction to Customer Development, without diluting its impact or dumbing-down its principles. It is written in a conversational tone, doesnt take itself too seriously, and avoids extraneous fluff. I think theyve succeeded. I think theyve succeeded.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. The Customer is a Genius Then instead of talking about our products he segued the conversation into their products.

Technology 145

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 145

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Im excited that well get more than the usual few minutes of Q&A, so come with a healthy appetite for conversation. If you or your company is interested in sponsoring someone with a scholarship to travel to the expo and contribute to the conversation, please leave a comment or let me know. You heard me right. Expo SF (May.

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

The first, according to Dr. David Travis at UserFocus , was agile development : Dr. David Travis: “‘Development’ teams morphed into ‘design’ teams. Instead, they wanted conversation starters. Development teams couldn’t use marketing personas to make design decisions, so they decided personas weren’t that useful. (It

Software Review 115

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 115

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

He summarized that conversation well, so rather than re-tread that material, Ill quote it here: One thing that I was surprised to learn was that IMVU started out with continuous deployment. They were deploying to production with every commit before they had an automated build server or extensive automated test coverage in place.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review Lean 131

ConversionXL

MARCH 7, 2017

The first, according to Dr. David Travis at UserFocus , was agile development : Dr. David Travis: “‘Development’ teams morphed into ‘design’ teams. Instead, they wanted conversation starters. Development teams couldn’t use marketing personas to make design decisions, so they decided personas weren’t that useful. (It

Software Review 102

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 102

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2014

This process forced companies to release and launch products by model years, and market new and “improved” versions. In the last few years Agile and “Continuous Deployment” has replaced Waterfall and transformed how companies big and small build products. The Old Days – Waterfall Product Development.

Continuous Deployment 332

Continuous Deployment Customer Agile Cloud 332

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

If you find yourself getting asked non-key questions, try to use your answers to steer the conversation back to the key questions. Most important slide: about the founders In a pitch meeting, try to spend as much time as possible talking about the key questions for your pitch. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

The economics of these process trade-offs are discussed in the Principles of Product Development Flow.) Heres an excerpt: In a previous article, we called Toyota’s product development system the “second Toyota paradox.&# Labels: product development 5comments: new york web development company said.

Software Review 87

Software Review Design Software San Francisco 87

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. It’s a fascinating time to see content industries in action, because they are facing a constantly changing landscape and are really trying to keep up. Is that a lot?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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. Leave a comment or reply to someone else. Fostering that dialog is important.

Hockey Stick 105

Hockey Stick San Francisco Entrepreneur Lean 105

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

The way forward requires getting everyone together in a room, and having a conversation about where were headed. My aspiration with the Lean Startup methodology has always been to provide such a framework, so that we have more intelligent conversations about what works and what doesnt for startups. Thats what this conference is for.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

mashable.com

MAY 24, 2011

May 23, 2011 by Christina Warren 20 Share on Tumblr email share Share on Tumblr email share The Mobile App Trends Series is supported by Sourcebits , a leading product developer for mobile platforms. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iOS, Android, Mobile and Web platforms.

Mobile 90

Mobile Web Social Media Software Review 90

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

The site visits include stops at Square (the payments startup founded by Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey), WeWork Soma (an amazing co-working space) and Pivotal Labs (leaders in Lean and Agile consulting), along with one more super-interesting location we’ll announce shortly. If there’s a problem in production, developers need to own it.

Continuous Deployment 162

Continuous Deployment Norway Lean Analytics 162

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Given that most recruiting channels are pay-for-performance, its usually cheaper, too, because it has a lower conversion rate. Kent Beck keynote, "To Agility, and Beyond" Six streaming locations Interviews ► March (7) New conference website, speakers, agenda Two new scholarship programs for lean startups Speed up or slow down?

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

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%. That’s not too surprising, because our product was pretty bad in those days. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

When youve mastered that, consider adding operations, customer service, marketing, product management, business development - the idea is that when the team needs to get approval or support from another department, they already have an "insider" who can make it happen. Expo SF (May. Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets.

San Francisco 74

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Most importantly, if you know a high-quality entrepreneur who you think would add to the conversation, would you be willing to try and convince them to attend? We changed our model to B2B and adopted Agile around 2002. Would you be willing to link to the Master Class info page from your blog? Expo SF (May.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

Key attributes of an entrepreneur on a founding team are passion, determination, resilience, tenacity, agility and curiosity. They deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. If any of the answers are “Yes,” then hire them a bit later as an early employee. And what is critical is trust.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Each of those levers -- conversion rate, action/user, msgs/action, etc. -- are important when thinking about how and why users engage with your product. Its the roll-up into one all-encompassing number that guides your product decisions that Im skeptical about, but I see that thats not what youre interested in at all. .

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

The power of A/B testing is so under-exploited in product development, that Im trying new ways to explain its benefits. Split-testing is great for linear optimization; making our landing pages, conversion rates, and retention metrics incrementally better day-in day-out. . Expo SF (May.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

After the end of the day people gathered around the firepit for informal conversations. Understand whether the problem is immediately solvable, requires multiple minimum viable products to test several solutions, or needs more R&D. It was an amazing display of organizational esprit de corps.

Framework 401

Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 401