ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

This is a customer development problem. By the end of this article, you should have a better understanding of how to develop new products or tweak your existing offerings by working with existing or prospective customers to incorporate their feedback to create viable solutions to their problems, and clearly communicate their value.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 9, 2013

As our Lean LaunchPad for Life Sciences class winds down, a good number of the 26 teams are trying to figure out whether they should go forward to turn their class project into a business. It was a lifelong lesson that taught me to never start a business where you hate your customers. It never goes well. You just want them to go away.

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Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept for starting and growing successful companies: Lean Planning™. Before I dive too deeply into the Lean Planning methodology, it makes sense to talk about its history and where it comes from. Develop a forecast: Basic forecasts and budgets are critical; And tracking them is even more so.

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Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Will Price , October 11, 2010 Georgians Should Vote No - Force of Good: a blog by Lance Weatherby , October 28, 2010 Free Software for Managing a Lean Startup - Platforms and Networks , January 17, 2010 Purpose Driven Life - Journey of a Serial Entrepreneur , July 26, 2010 Two Decade-Defining Acquisitions?

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

Berkeley Haas Business School was courageous enough to give me a forum teach the Customer Development Methodology. Federal Telegraph and Lee Deforest in Palo Alto are the first major events in what would become Silicon Valley. After I retired, Jerry Engel , director of the Lester Center on Entrepreneurship , at U.C.

Silicon Valley 302

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Your “Customer Development Process&# has really resonated for me. We are currently in the process of validating our hypotheses about our product, customers, and markets. Your results may vary.

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Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 245

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. These processes reduce risk to an overall organization, but each layer of process reduces the ability to be agile and lean and – most importantly – responsive to new opportunities and threats.

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Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

If I did go to social events, all I would talk about was my new company. Or if you have kids, it will get asked when you’ve missed another one of their plays, soccer games or school events because you were too busy finishing that project or on yet another business trip. Convergent was a 6-day a week 12-hour day company.

Entrepreneur 295

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 295

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom. Customer Development says having a vision, faith and a set of hypotheses are a normal part of the startup experience. The mistake isn’t having a vision and taking risks.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 223

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 11, 2011

The Lean Startup Machine looks a lot like reality television for startups. I have written previously about how powerful the these events are as a teaching tool for Lean Startup principles. Great use of airbnb for their source of customer development won them 'Best #CustDev Award." Take a look. Make that never.

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New York City New York Lean SMS 161

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. Website Analysis.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He came up to Bill after the event and said, “clever idea, we should do that with you.&# He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards. Immediately thereafter Amazon became a large business. Think YouTube vs. the rest.

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Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. The size of the story grows directly proportional to the number of years removed from the event.) Our friends who run the state park surrounding our ranch will join all of us for Thanksgiving dinner.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 156

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

We shook hands with the customers, but instead of launching into a product pitch (or better, letting me launch into the pitch) he started asking how their families were. He even remembered the names of their wives and kids and some details about schools or events. (I what Market Type is your startup?

Technology 145

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 145

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The Ultimate Combination of Startup Business Development Methods - ArcticStartup , November 16, 2010 I've been a huge fan of Steven Blank's Customer Development methodology for a long time. To that point, I’d been talking about Lean Startup concepts only on a seldom-read blog and with people in my immediate network.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Early Stage Startup , Tips for Startups « The Curse of a New Building Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1 » 33 Responses William , on May 18, 2009 at 5:44 am Said: Heh.

Founder 312

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 312

Steve Blank

JANUARY 19, 2022

SAVE THE DATE for the 5th Lean Innovation Educators Summit on The Role of Educators and the University in Building Sustainable and Innovative Ecosystems February 3rd, 2022 from 1 to 4pm EST, 10 to 1pm PST Join me, Jerry Engel, Pete Newell, and Steve Weinstein as well as educators from universities around the world for this upcoming event.

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Lean Milwaukee San Francisco Wisconsin 375

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

Discovering that your worldview is wrong or mistaken can be a life-changing event. Dinner in a Strange Land When I was in my mid 20′s working at ESL, I was sent overseas to a customer site where the customers were our three-letter intelligence agencies. It’s part of growing up but can happen at any age.

Silicon Valley 215

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 215

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

In fact, this crisis was at the heart of Steve Blank ’s original impetus to develop customer development as an alternative set of milestones to use for startups.) One tweet read, “well, if HBS is investing in the lean startup we know it has jumped the shark.” I also frequently see the reverse.

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Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

The Next Web

JANUARY 27, 2013

Four books helped me out a lot over the last few years: Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank, Running Lean by Ash Maurya, The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris and Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. I couldn’t write a single line of code, and I didn’t have any clue how to start a business.

Netherlands 159

Netherlands Technical Review Software Review Cofounder 159

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. Class lectures were over last week, but most teams kept up the mad rush to talk to even more customers and further refine their products. The Lean LaunchPad was designed to fill that void. Syllabus is here. This is the End.

Lean 288

Lean Business Model Agile Customer Development 288

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Of course, they could be useful in creating liquidity events, but absent bubbly environment and disrupting marketplace what is the point? Of course there have been many VC-backed successes because when new markets rise someone is going to win and many companies take the money along the way.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 4, 2013

NEXT by Startup Weekend is a wonderful next step for entrepreneurs looking for feedback on their idea or early business, while heavily leveraging the Lean methodology. We learned how to take an idea and turn it into a company the right way using the Lean Startup process. NEXT can give aspiring entrepreneurs three major tools: 1.

Startup 131

Startup Vesting Cofounder Lean 131

Steve Blank

MARCH 14, 2012

Today, the second half of the Stanford Engineering Lean LaunchPad Class gave their final presentations. This team spoke face-to-face with 326 customers. As often happens, this team came into class convinced that their market research proved that their business was providing credit to underbanked customers. They taught us a lot.

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Lean Business Model China Customer Development 254

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. Finally, I’ll write about 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.

Customer Development 229

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 229

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

And even if you don’t win, participation in the event itself can open up your network and lead to possible future possibilities. Just my 2¢ Reply steveblank , on January 15, 2010 at 4:36 pm Said: Jacek, We’re going to have to “agree to disagree&# on this one.

Business Plan 160

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. The two watershed events for biotech startups were the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 and the Orphan Drug Act of 1983.

Lean 265

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 265

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Hacking for Diplomacy takes the Lean Startup methodology and applies it to problems sourced from the State Department. Teams are continuing their relentless interviewing of customers, or beneficiaries as we call them in this class. What we’re driving at is evidence-based, entrepreneurial solutions to big diplomatic challenges.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Hacking for Diplomacy takes the Lean Startup methodology and applies it to problems sourced from the State Department. Teams are continuing their relentless interviewing of customers, or beneficiaries as we call them in this class. What we’re driving at is evidence-based, entrepreneurial solutions to big diplomatic challenges.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

I’ve built my company using the Customer Development Model from Day One. I recently completed the Validation step (less the industry analyst presentations) and am ready to move on to Customer Creation. On your serious note, there’s an event tonight (Thursday 20 July) in Palo Alto sponsored by Startup2Startup.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

ConversionXL

JANUARY 24, 2014

It’s Not A Conversion Problem, It’s A Customer Development Problem. Think About Customer Experience, Not Just Conversion Optimization. ” His answer, “I’m a big fan of the lean startup methodology[.] How To Come Up With A Value Proposition In A Crowed Market. Face to face meetings.

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Developer Cofounder API New Jersey 104

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

I began formulating the key ideas around what became the Lean Startup – that startups and existing companies were distinctly different – companies execute business models while startups search for them. Let’s Teach Lean Via Experiential Learning. Lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering).

Lean 436

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 436

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. We want them to experience faulty assumptions not as a crisis , but as a learning event called a pivot —an opportunity to change the business model. Class 1 Jan 4 th Intro/Business Model/Customer Development.

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Wiki Lean Management Business Model 318

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Founder Dialogues : Eric Paley plays talk show host on this recurring fireside chat style event that has featured Boston’s BEST founders. MITX : Non-profit trade association hosting many events focused on digital marketing and internet business. Next major event? Bocoup Loft - Coworking and events. Future M on Oct 16.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

This startup search process is the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. When founders discover their assumptions are wrong, as they inevitably will, the result isn’t a crisis , it’s a learning event called a pivot — and an opportunity to update the business model. Lean Launchpad.

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Agile Business Model Customer Development Lean 256

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

If you’re not familiar with Startup Weekends , it’s a conference- and workshop-type event where a creative and highly motivated bunch of people get together for 54 hours to come up with great startup ideas. Startup Weekend Singapore is back!

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Singapore Colorado Startup Lean 162

Feld Thoughts

MAY 21, 2012

I judged Lean Startup Machine Boulder yesterday afternoon. I’m a huge Eric Ries / Lean Startup fan and believe that the methodology can be quickly taught. It’s not a coding / hacking weekend – it’s an applied process of the Lean Startup Methodology.

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