Customer Development, Hiring and Viral

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." Here, the key metrics are Acquisition and Referral, combined into the now-famous viral coefficient. If the coefficient is > 1.0 , you generally have a viral hit on your hands.

San Francisco

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire

Business ecology and the four customer currencies

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Each of these four currencies represents a way for a customer to “pay&# for services from a company. A great product enables customers, developers, partners, and even competitors to exchange their unique currencies in combinations that lead to financial success for the company that organizes them. As soon as possible!&#

Customer

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean

Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand for your new.

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

If you cant find any , maybe that means you havent figured out who your customer is yet. And if you dont know who your customer is, perhaps some customer development is in order? Labels: customer development , search engine marketing 13comments: Jim Lindstrom said. What is customer development?

Demand

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

That green button was part of a customer flow, a series of actions you want customers to complete for some business reason. If its part of a viral loop, its probably trying to get them to invite more friends (on average). Why did customers like your change so much that they didnt change their behavior one iota ?

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment

Twitter Link Roundup #170 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 15, 2013

Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. What to do when you hire someone better than yourself…. | ViralSearch: Identifying and Visualizing Viral Content – [link].

Social Media

Social Media Small Business Design Media

Why tech founders can’t hire in early salespeople

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

Spoiler: You can’t hire out sales because in the early days it’s about learning, not selling, and hired guns can’t bring back bad news. It’s as big of a deal as getting your viral loop working — it’s how you’re going to acquire customers at scale.

Hiring

Hiring Founder Viral Early Stage

Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

vs. sustainable: Compare this to the renewable strategies, like viral marketing, SEO, widgets, and ads, which can scale into 10s of millions of users but are primarily centered around tough, non-user centric work. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Audience

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean

Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Some products have relatively obvious monetization mechanisms, and the real risks are in customer adoption. Products can find sources of validation with impressive stats along a number of dimensions, such as high engagement, viral coefficient, or long-term retention. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

Customer

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick

How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

On Facebook, viral distribution has proved decisive. Those companies who have learned to build apps that optimize the viral loop dominate in every category where they compete. Not many customers ever browse the app directory or search for specific apps - they dont have to, they find out about apps by being invited by a friend.

Distribution

Distribution San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Twitter Link Roundup #152 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

Using mTurk to interview 100 customers (in 4 hours) | Customer Development Labs - [link]. A startup’s first hires: What to look for | Fortune - [link]. Using mTurk to interview 100 customers (in 4 hours) | Customer Development Labs - [link]. ” - [link]. Advertising Age - [link].

Social Media

Social Media Small Business Design Media

Lessons Learned: Continuous integration step-by-step

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 8, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

Software Review

Software Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

Episode 3: Smart Bear Live!

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. So I have a question for you, Jason.

Cofounder

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation

Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

And we cant hire new engineers any faster, because you cant be interviewing and debugging and fixing all at the same time! Even with the highest standards imaginable, theres no way to hire just genius hackers. Hire a CTO or VP Engineering. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Software Review

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Part-Time VPE

Engagement loops: beyond viral

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, December 16, 2008 Engagement loops: beyond viral Theres a great and growing corpus of writing about viral loops, the step-by-step optimizations you can use to encourage maximum growth of online products by having customers invite each other to join.

Viral

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

A Path to the Minimum Viable Product

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. Even if the first MVP isn’t a hit, you’ll be building the muscle needed for the company such as making key hires.

Product

Product Viral Channel San Francisco

Lessons Learned: The metrics and levers of engagement.

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

This is a common problem that results from viral-loop optimization. By copying the exact same registration flow as every other successful viral app, many viral apps completely lose their positioning. Customers cant even remember what apps theyve signed up for, and become entirely dependent on notifications to bring them back.

Metrics

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral

Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem)

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Or should you focus on user engagement or virality? For more on how to figure out which question applies in which context, see Business ecology and the four customer currencies.) (For more on how to figure out which question applies in which context, see Business ecology and the four customer currencies.)

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design

Assessing fit with the Wisdom of Crowds

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, December 30, 2008 Assessing fit with the Wisdom of Crowds When I wrote earlier about how to conduct a good technical interview , I had only a few things to say about how to assess if the candidate fits in with the team, including this: This responsibility falls squarely to the hiring manager.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

Lessons Learned: Don't launch

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Do some Customer Development instead. If the product needs to be tweaked just a little bit in order to convert users into customers, you want to figure that out before the launch. If the viral coefficient is 0.9, And if your product doesnt retain customers, whats the point of driving a bunch of them to use it?

San Francisco

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage

New Rules for the New Internet Bubble

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. Customer Development , Agile Engineering and the Lean methodology enforced a process of incremental and iterative development. Carpe Diem.

Internet

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile

Everything You Need To Know About Creating Killer Explainer Videos

ConversionXL

MARCH 28, 2014

Even though the video may contain some of these elements, an explainer video is NOT specifically: A Viral video. Also, always do qualitative research & conduct customer development interviews to help your script address as many pain points as possible. If you’re doing animation: hire a professional. A Tutorial.

Video

Video Software Review Cofounder Metrics

The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part three

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 6, 2008

For starters, theres whole volumes that need to be written about how to actually find and hire the people your startup needs. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? In short, how do you grow your team when its time to grow your company?

San Francisco

San Francisco SCRUM Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: Q&A with an actual reader

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Either way, you would have been better off focusing your split-test on high level metrics that measure how much customers like your product as a whole. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 44: Jacqueline Ros and Christina Stembel

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Then she went to work on the technology: I hired some contract engineers who used to work on the Life Alert product to build us a really dinky prototype that you could plug into the wall. We naively thought we would have a viral campaign, but it took us 4 months to create and cost us $25,000. Filed under: Customer Development.

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign

Common Growth Hacking Myths (and How Growth Actually Works)

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

” April, 2012 – Andrew Chen writes Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing , which goes viral (2.4K September, 2012 – Andrew Chen, who currently does growth at Uber , writes You don’t need a growth hacker , which encourages companies to really consider whether they have product-market fit before hiring a growth hacker.

Retention

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion

The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Software Company

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. Noah Parsons says, “Start collecting contact information for interested, prospective customers.

Software Review

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast

Lessons Learned: Three freemium strategies

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

At a high level, anything that drives virality should be free. To take your specific example about virality - why do we want to have more users sign up? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? January 28, 2009 1:54 AM startupcfo said.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 44: Jacqueline Ros and Christina Stembel

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Then she went to work on the technology: I hired some contract engineers who used to work on the Life Alert product to build us a really dinky prototype that you could plug into the wall. We naively thought we would have a viral campaign, but it took us 4 months to create and cost us $25,000. Filed under: Customer Development.

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Cofounder San Francisco Campaign

The Superbowl ad test

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Is the company growing because of an amazing viral loop paired with a strong engagement loop? Is the company growing because of an amazing viral loop paired with a strong engagement loop? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR

Lessons Learned: CPI > CPC

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 11, 2009

If you ask an expert in Facebook apps to come help build yours, youll usually hear the same advice: build your app for virality. Thats sensible advice; most people who have made a business on Facebook rely on the viral driver of growth. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Social Network Lean Continuous Deployment

Lessons Learned: The App Store after the gold rush

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 7, 2008

Acqusition competition is how new apps get new customers. On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. If your app has strong word-of-mouth or viral components, your retention drives new acquisition, and its not so important to have good placement in the store.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean SEM Retention

The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act

Occam's Razor

APRIL 8, 2013

If it's the number of invites sent, it's virality. That’s because they require you to have a deep understanding of your customers. In the Lean Startup world, this is called customer development. You're choosing only one metric because you want to optimize it. That metric is tied to a KPI. But they are.

Metrics

Metrics Analytics Lean Churn Rate

Innovation inside the box

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

When registration is too easy, customers can get confused about what they are registering for. This is similar to the problem that viral loop companies have with the engagement loop : by making it too easy to join, they actually give away the positioning that allows for longer-term engagement.)

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment

Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" => I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. "Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?" Only after that can they start thinking about hiring a developer. In my opinion, yes.

Developer

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder

Lessons Learned: Getting started with split-testing

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? ► August (2) SXSW Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium ► July (4) Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot Some IPO speculation Founder personalities and the “first-class man&# th.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

StartUpRoar

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Business ecology and the four customer currencies

Trending Sources

Lessons Learned: Using AdWords to assess demand for your new.

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Twitter Link Roundup #170 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

Why tech founders can’t hire in early salespeople

Andrew Chen: Growing renewable audiences

Lessons Learned: Validated learning about customers

How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone

Twitter Link Roundup #152 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

Lessons Learned: Continuous integration step-by-step

Episode 3: Smart Bear Live!

Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament

Engagement loops: beyond viral

A Path to the Minimum Viable Product

Lessons Learned: The metrics and levers of engagement.

Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem)

Assessing fit with the Wisdom of Crowds

Lessons Learned: Don't launch

New Rules for the New Internet Bubble

Everything You Need To Know About Creating Killer Explainer Videos

The four kinds of work, and how to get them done: part three

Lessons Learned: Q&A with an actual reader

Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 44: Jacqueline Ros and Christina Stembel

Common Growth Hacking Myths (and How Growth Actually Works)

The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Software Company

Lessons Learned: Three freemium strategies

Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 44: Jacqueline Ros and Christina Stembel

The Superbowl ad test

Lessons Learned: CPI > CPC

Lessons Learned: The App Store after the gold rush

The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act

Innovation inside the box

Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?

Lessons Learned: Getting started with split-testing

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