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.

Lean 263

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 263

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 4, 2024

Investment in Growth: Allocate funds strategically to areas that promote growth, such as marketing, product development, and talent acquisition. Agility: Foster a culture of agility where your team is encouraged to adapt quickly to changes. Positive cash flow is essential for business expansion.

Technical Review 146

Technical Review Agile Audience Employee 146

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. Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back.

Technology 145

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 145

bhargreaves.com

MARCH 7, 2010

Most disturbingly, I’ve occasionally found myself agreeing with an entrepreneur’s decision to hire a development shop to build their product. The reasons why I am not a big fan of development shops are too numerous to go into here. You probably aren’t the best person to hire and manage a developer.

Hiring 40

Hiring Technical Review Agile Software Review 40

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Call it facts for hire. It would be a bit like the hired gun in the old west, but more suited for today’s times. Today, brands are hiring social media specialists for customer support, crowdsourced product development, promotions and even leads generation. Hiring The Right Candidate. You got it.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2018

Amazon has hired more people for their Alexa division than Google has for the entire company – it’s not hunch, this is going to be the focus. Corporate Agility. Transparency correlates to agility (Does your CEO know how many tests you ran last month?). Hire & fire – tools to do a job. Use data enrichment.

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Retention Artificial Inteligence Channel Email 106

Venture Chronicles

AUGUST 2, 2013

I have covered a couple of topics in this series, the first being hiring the best people and the second organizing for success based on the attributes of the people you are hiring. engineers paired would jump from frontend to backend erratically at each sprint iteration.

Product 62

Product CTO Hire Architecture Startup 62

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

Past Product: Lackluster Marketing Causes Growth Stalls, Too. These pitfalls are not limited to product development. Beyond patching data gaps about product use and customer behavior, the team should also ask if it has the requisite analysis skills to make the most of the data at hand. Swimming with Sharks.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 26, 2022

Prezi hired the former director of product from Pixar to build a more cinematic video meeting experience. Think of the agility that comes with CAI, etc. Companies will also be able to simplify product. development and educate customers about their services in the best way possible. Photo Credit: Kevin Burke.

Software Review 127

Software Review Technical Review Entrepreneur Artificial Inteligence 127

Occam's Razor

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

My career spans customer service, engineering, finance, product development, marketing, sales, and corporate functions. Nothing seems to be going your way from a product/hiring/deadlines? The web demands immense agility and flexibility within every company. Too many meetings at work? Email inbox constantly stuffed?

Saudi Arabia 167

Saudi Arabia Green Leadership Web 167

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

If any of the answers are “Yes,” then hire them a bit later as an early employee. 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.

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Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. For example, some startup sales execs believe hiring the core sales team is a key objective. Here’s what the product development diagram looks like from a sales perspective.

Customer Development 229

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 229

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

To succeed they realized this isn’t simply coming up with one new product. The company had hired a leading management consulting firm that helped them select 15 critical areas of change the Tsunami Initiative was tasked to work on. It meant pivoting an entire company – and its culture.

Framework 401

Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 401

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Now the company is in crisis mode because the rest of the organization (product development, marketing, etc.) Each block in the business model canvas maps to hypotheses in the Customer Discovery and Validation steps of Customer Development. The half-life of the first VP of sales of a startup is ~18 months.).

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Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 252

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

MAY 22, 2019

Companies are investing in innovation training, mostly learning frameworks like Lean, Agile, or Design Thinking. Nearly all that training is for dedicated innovation teams , or employees who are focused on new product development. Many employees, hired to do operations, don’t feel that innovation is part of their job.

Operations 54

Operations Employee Technical Review Agile 54

Steve Blank

JANUARY 10, 2011

The VP of an operating division had run into trouble in product development; the product was late and getting later. The revenue plan had the new product baked into the numbers and it was clear that this division General Manager was going to crater his forecast (happens all the time, nothing new here.) Lie to My Face.

Forecast 271

Forecast Agile Founder Revenue 271

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 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

femgineer.com

JULY 18, 2010

If you’re a founder who is still trying to grasp the product roadmap and create a company vision its probably not a good time to hire an engineer. We engineers know that need to be agile in a startup and be able to scrap code and rebuild, but want we don’t want is to have a founder who manic or aimless.

Engineer 41

Engineer Software Review Startup Technical Review 41

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 8, 2019

That’s why, though you should of course hire a professional financial adviser and accountant , new BI software is a better day-to-day solution and helps you fend off problems before they arise. Stay Agile. Predictive analytics, though, positions you ahead of the agile curve.

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Small Business Agile Analytics Finance 153

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. Another great way to test your idea is to create a minimum viable product, or MVP. This is the simplest version of your product minus the frills and frosting. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Market Type also affects the market size as well as how you launch the product into the market.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 222

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 245

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 245

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

As part of their book campaign, Brant and Patrick have teamed up with General Assembly to offer 4 free online video classes, including: Lean UX Research Techniques - Rapid Prototyping - How to Hire Developers - Growth Hacking Every book pre-order get access to all of these classes - and quite a bit more. It's a big tent.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur San Francisco Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 16, 2009 Combining agile development with customer development Today I read an excellent blog post that I just had to share. Jim Murphy is a long-time agile practitioner in startups. But startups sometimes have trouble applying agile successfully.

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Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

It’s bad for their reputation, it’s bad for their brand, and they’re also going to make mistakes if they don’t have the right people at the table being listened to when they make marketing decisions, product development decisions. I hire based on resume or experience. It’s the meritocracy argument.

Hiring 55

Hiring Community Audience Bandwidth 55

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program. Every product marketer thought they should help define the product feature set, etc. In an early stage startup, instead of sales being up front, the point departments are likely to be product development and customer development.

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 133

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 20, 2008 The engineering managers lament I was inspired to write The product managers lament while meeting with a startup struggling to figure out what had gone wrong with their product development process. Even worse, agile wasnt really helping me ship higher quality software.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 29, 2008 The ABCDEFs of conducting a technical interview I am incredibly proud of the people I have hired over the course of my career. This second objective plays no small part in allowing you to hire the best. Hiring decisions are among the most difficult, and the most critical.

San Francisco 146

San Francisco Lean Agile Java 146

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. Startups especially can benefit by using technical debt to experiment, invest in process, and increase their product development leverage.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

AUGUST 12, 2021

Leverage the innate agility. Real expertise is expensive and many second stage companies get sticker shock when faced with hiring expertise. New ideas need to integrate product development with marketing and sales as well. Hire a Fractional Chief Innovation Officer, It’s the 80/20 Solution. Here’s why.

Framework 71

Framework Agile Product Development Hiring 71

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

A virtual assistant (VA) is a remote worker hired to complete tasks you should not be doing as the founder of a startup. 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. Full-time VAs.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, January 19, 2009 Lean hiring tips In preparing for the strategy series panel this week, I have been doing some thinking about costs. And all of that cost was caused by one activity: hiring. Hiring is no different from any other company process. Sounds a little abstract, though, doesnt it?

Lean 140

Lean Hiring San Francisco Continuous Deployment 140

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

One of the sayings I hear from talented managers in product development is, “good enough never is.&# And, most importantly, it helps team members develop the courage to stand up for these values in stressful situations. Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 27, 2010 Good enough never is (or is it?) Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

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 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I am convinced one of Joel Spolskys lasting contributions to the field of managing software teams will turn out to be the Joel Test , a checklist of 12 essential practices that you could use to rate the effectiveness of a software product development team. Joel said it: "Top notch development teams dont torture their programmers."

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

After all, if you already have an all-male startup, you’re already at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring the very women that could fix that imbalance. And yet, when I suggest this practice to hiring managers and recruiters alike, they rarely do it. Beyond hiring, our actual work process matters, too.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167