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 is about bringing the scientific …
Strategic UX vs Tactical UX
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 see the online UX community …
What’s the difference between agile and lean UX?
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 (or worse, is abdicated altogether …
What if I’m not solving a problem?
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 customers are (and when certain …
Fred Wilson interviewed on Lean Startup
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 easier to browse. In most …
Reflections from Lean Startup Machine 10/2011
I spent Saturday mentoring the latest Lean Startup Machine in NYC, and as always it was a great experience. I love how the weekend isn’t about hacking up a cool idea, but the much harder task of figuring out whether something is worth doing. The participants push themselves and their ideas, and there’s a strong vibe around learning and improving. …
Breaking out your core assumptions
On Saturday, I’ll be mentoring teams at Lean Startup Machine, so this morning I took advantage of the train ride into town to consider what I would love to see from each group. The below “fill in the blank” sentences (an embedded slideshare) are intended to force someone to concisely break out their core assumptions. It might even be an …
The hardest thing about user testing and 5 tips to help
There are two established New York tech companies who do a great job of getting close and staying close to their customers: Meetup and The Ladders. Andres Glusman (VP of Strategy, Meetup) and Jeff Gothelf (Dir of UX, The Ladders) established regular, lightweight usability sessions at their respective companies (that’s them above giving Lean Ignite talks — see bottom for …
10 Tips on Startup Mentoring
This post originally appeared on the Lean Startup Machine blog, with a few small changes. I wrote it with LSM’s bootcamp in mind, where in the course of a weekend multiple teams try to validate/invalidate as much as they possibly can around their startup idea (it is really something to watch). However, I like to think that these mentoring tips …
Free Your Mind
A core concept in “lean startup” is that validated learning needs to be your initial measure of progress, not deliverables of other kinds. However, I suspect that many people struggle to internalize this and fully put it to work. Learning doesn’t feel like traditional measures of success. It’s not a line up and to the right; it’s not a successfully …