Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2011

Re-architect and re-write” the product. He told the board that the only way to to deliver these changes is to re-write our product.&# No,” my friend replied, sadly shaking his head, “the rest of the board said it sounded like a good idea.”. The customers aren’t asking for new code. Who Wants to Work on The Old Product.

Part-Time VPE 325

Part-Time VPE Agile Engineer Startup 325

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. “Customer Development” to test the hypotheses outside the building and. We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum.

Intellectual Property 290

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 290

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

We taught them the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. This methodology forces rapid hypothesis testing and Customer Development by getting out of the building while building the product. And since the rest of the slides were about Customer Development, I taught those.

Incubator 310

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 310

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

But he left to work on what he told me he came to do - crack the innovation code of Silicon Valley and share it with the rest of the world. more likely to successfully scale with sales driven startups than with product centric startups. Founders overestimate the value of IP before product market fit by 255%. . ——-.

Technical Cofounder 335

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I set up an advisory board as a vehicle to get these industry experts engaged with the company and product. Velvet Painting Period - MFLOPS Poster Engineers as Marketers There was one other reason I was talent-spotting our advisors and potential customers.

Engineer 224

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 224

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer development, etc. It is the key to “customer development” that Steve Blank talks about. I’m going to save that for a future blog post.

PR 279

PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

They had this great architecture, and Apple had figured out to get movies into their own computers for a demo, but for the rest of us there was no physical device that allowed an average consumer to plug a video camera or VCR into and get video into a Mac. But here was a $499 product that could let everyone use video.)

Video 190

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 190

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. some came from our customer service, some were to improve performance / scalability from tech ops, some were bug fixes, etc.) and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. The rest is just fluff. 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.

Venture Capital 245

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 245

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

It wasn’t a lack of competence or skill in her job; it was just that as far as she was concerned, her job had no connection to the rest of marketing, our customers or our ultimate success as a company. “We So I asked the fatal question, “Has anyone ever looked at the customer registration cards? Ah, a leading question.

Silicon Valley 213

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 213

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Small startups act the same way, simply cloning each other’s products. Sea Turtles and VPN – the connections to the rest of the world. Perhaps products like WeChat , designed for an international market, might be the beginning of real innovation. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 328

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about price during customer development interviews. Price is as important as any other feature to determine product/market “fit.” ” How many times have you seen someone struggle with an inferior product because they cannot afford the better one? .”

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

As an early employee I worked all hours of the day, never hesitated to jump on a “ red-eye ” plane to see a customer at the drop of a hat, and did what was necessary to make the company a winner. A great vacation with my wife wasn’t going to make up for being AWOL from home the rest of the year. The Adventure of a Lifetime.

Entrepreneur 295

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 295

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Passionate – is the company/product/customers the most important thing in your life? However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Cofounder 230

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 230

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Was SuperMac attempting to introduce radically new products and create a new market ? Was the company attempting to be a low cost provider by introducing cheaper products to an existing market? Was the company attempting to introduce faster and better products to an existing market? No, not really.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 161

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Metrics – Mine is Bigger Than Yours The first thing SuperMac needed to do was to change how our potential color desktop publishing customers viewed our products versus our competitors’ products. Over the years marketers have found that using numbers to compare yourself to other products works well.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 128

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 24, 2022

One great thing about social media platforms is that they provide you with a way to interact directly with your potential customers. This interaction can be in the form of responding to comments and queries or simply providing updates about your product or service. Develop a Strong Online Presence.

Social Media 157

Social Media Startup Audience Web Development 157

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

If you can just be friendly enough and get your users to party with you, the rest is really easy. Instead of making a few dollars per sale and hoping for thousands of sales, you sell to only a few customers, and charge much higher rates. They’re deep into Customer Development ,” he said. There is a much better technique.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

If that’s you, by all means hire a VP of Sales with a great rolodex and call on established mainstream companies – and ignore the rest of this post. Look for some “ skunk works &# project where the product developers are actively seeking alternatives to their own engineering organization.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 146

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

The Times Square Strategy discussion I had with Eric Ries , was still top of mind, so instead of my standard Customer Development lecture , I offered my thoughts on: the origin of Customer Development, where we are today, and where does Customer Development go, and how you can help get it there.

Customer Development 229

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 229

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

The time to product and scale of investment is radically different than other startup markets.&# Intellectual Property At the next class I said, “You all ought to get out and start talking to customers on day one, and get early feedback on your idea. You’re a startup, just get your product out the door.” It has a vocabulary.

Vertical 159

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 159

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

It’s been thirty years, but every once an awhile I still wonder what happened to the rest of their lives. How much longer until they start compromising their products or service under other dubious exercises in logic. Also, his #1 advice for getting coverage on TechCrunch was to make a great product. Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 215

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 215

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Small startups act the same way, simply cloning each other’s products. Sea Turtles and VPN – the connections to the rest of the world. Perhaps products like WeChat , designed for an international market, might be the beginning of real innovation. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 220

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 220

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Next, you have to deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. And here’s where life gets really interesting, as the reality of product development and customer input collide, the facts change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant.

Founder 312

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 312

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. He blogs to 10,000 web entrepreneurs at Software by Rob and co-hosts the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us. m the f%*kin’ boss.”.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Up and Running

MARCH 21, 2018

Everybody and their mom uses the internet to discover new brands, influencers and ultimately to buy new products and services. If you want to compete with them, you’re going to have to develop a reputation and a strong web presence yourself. Even if you have cheaper pricing or a better product, branding can make or break your success.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Technical Review Hosting SEO 107

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

If you’re a technical startup founder, one of the painful lessons is that it’s not enough just to build a great product. You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

The disadvantage is that its methodology was based on the old waterfall model of product development and not the agile and lean methods that startups use today. It taught lean theory ( business model design , customer development and agile engineering) and practice. The Business Plan is Dead.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

The Next Web

JANUARY 27, 2013

Amazed at all the beautifully designed products that came out of only 76 hours. People who constantly whine about the great ideas they had, years and years before the rest, but “just never pursued them because it was the wrong time”. I was not very happy with my life, but didn’t really know why. These people taught me a great lesson.

Netherlands 159

Netherlands Technical Review Software Review Cofounder 159

ConversionXL

JANUARY 31, 2014

What are you using our product for? note: If you’re a startup, you’ll want to use customer development questions for your page to resonate with future traffic). Do your product shots meet the standards your target market has from their web browsing experience? How is your life better thanks to it?

Analytics 134

Analytics Video Matching Conversion 134

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.) Far too many venture-backed companies correctly conclude that the founders are being counter-productive during their high-growth phase.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

My two cents is that a business plan is the single place to collect your thinking about about your: business model, distribution channel, demand creation plan, financial assumptions, and customer and product development plan. Funny, but with their feedback, we changed several parts of the product.

Business Plan 160

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 4, 2013

As a recent graduate of the Computer Science department at CU Boulder, I’m really lucky to have found what I want to do for the rest of my life, even if it was only recently. We learned how to do customer development, conduct empathy interviews, and build a real MVP (not just an alpha version). Sign up here!

Startup 131

Startup Vesting Cofounder Lean 131

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. And the product that “talked to me&# , the loudest and most seductively, was the one that went home with me.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

andrewchenblog.com

MARCH 10, 2010

Coupled with A/B testing, customer development, and thinking through business problems in a scientific, hypothesis-driven way, you end up with a powerful cocktail of techniques to build a modern startup in the most iterative way possible. The interesting part is when you get a couple months into your product cycle.

Technical Review 47

Technical Review Design Las Vegas Product 47

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

Founders innately believe they understand a customers problem and just need to spend their time building a solution. To build products that people want and will really use, founders first need to validate the problem/need, then understand whether their solution solves that problem (i.e. finding product/market fit).

Customer 422

Customer Business Model Restful Video 422

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2016

To be honest I built the class out of frustration watching schools teach aspiring entrepreneurs that all they need to know is how to write a business plan or how to sit in an incubator building a product. by having the students get out of the classroom and talk to 10-15 customers a week and build a new Minimum Viable Product weekly.

Lean 120

Lean Incubator Business Model Channel 120