Experiments (what are MVPs?)

December 14, 2011

I recently gave a talk to LUXr New York about MVPs, or really about running experiments. Instead of using the term “MVP”, I find myself using the word experiment for a few different reasons: less jargon; a clearer connotation of lightweight, learning, and not necessarily tied to digital product, and a clearer signal that this [...]

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Business Assumptions Exercise

December 12, 2011

I recently updated my “startup assumptions” deck to the below version (link), and took the team involved with my current project through the exercise. It was a great way to get hypotheses on the table and see if people are on the same page. The next phase is prioritizing the assumptions and starting to run [...]

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Excuses, Excuses, Excuses (on customer development)

December 9, 2011

For our last Lean Ignite here in New York, I decided to have a little fun and rant about all the excuses I hear from teams as to why they are *not* doing customer development. Below is the 5-minute video for those who are interested (link). And yes, now I finally understand why people tell [...]

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Strategic UX vs Tactical UX

December 2, 2011
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There are strategic UX leaders, and then there are tactical UX implementers. To be a strategic leader, one needs to broaden thinking beyond design and usability, and start thinking holistically about critical business goals and risks. As the broader UX profession moves from being artifact-based to results-based, this is going to be critical. However, I [...]

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Failure Is…

November 29, 2011

Failure is not a catch phrase  Failure is measurable – you set a goal, and you fail to reach it Failure is a great teacher, if you are a good student Little failures mean you are innovating Big messy failures mean you are innovating poorly Failure does not equate giving up Failure does not equate [...]

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Tech early adopters vs YOUR early adopters

November 23, 2011
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I got my “Quora Weekly Digest” in my inbox tonight and saw this question: “What are the key differences between “Normals” (normal mainstream users) and tech early adopters?” There are some interesting answers (very consumer Internet focused) but I can’t help editorializing: As an entrepreneur, you shouldn’t care about “tech early adopters”. You need to [...]

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Learning to Think

November 22, 2011
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At breakfast, my 6 year old daughter wanted to draw a peacock, so I pulled up a picture from Google. Her goal was to draw, and like most children, she has no challenge being creatively expressive. The teaching lesson became one of how to see, not how to draw. A few minutes later, I glanced [...]

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What’s the difference between agile and lean UX?

November 17, 2011

On Quora, Jared Spool asked the question “What’s the difference between Agile Development & Lean UX?” There are a number of interesting responses. Here is mine: Agile dev and UX already focuses on rapid cycle times, constant collaboration, staying user-focused and continuous delivery of valuable software. Unfortunately too often, the definition of valuable gets muddied [...]

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What if I’m not solving a problem?

November 14, 2011
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A lot of customer development language revolves around ensuring that you are solving a real problem, and the right problem. But what if you aren’t solving a problem? Lean startup principles still apply to games and entertainment apps. You have the same things to validate: user experience and an understanding of your value, who your [...]

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Fred Wilson interviewed on Lean Startup

November 3, 2011
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In September, Fred Wilson was generous with his time and joined our NYC Lean Startup Meetup to discuss lean startup ideas and other related topics. The event was video-taped and you can browse through all the clips at the below link. The video editor broke up the interview into smaller chunks, which hopefully you find [...]

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