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The Lean Startup#leanstartupEric Ries (@ericries)http://StartupLessonsLearned.com
Most Startups Fail
Most Startups Fail
Most Startups Fail
Most Startups FailBut it doesn’t have to be that way. We can do better. This talk is about how.
What is a startup?A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Nothing to do with size of company, sector of the economy, or industry
The PivotWhat do successful startups have in common?They started out as digital cash for PDAs, but evolved into online payments for eBay. They started building BASIC interpreters, but evolved into the world's largest operating systems monopoly. They were shocked to discover their online games company was actually a photo-sharing site.Pivot: change directions but stay grounded in what we’ve learned. http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/06/pivot-dont-jump-to-new-vision.html
Speed Winsif we can reduce the time between major iterationswe can increase our odds of success
A Tale of Two Startups
Startup #1
Stealth Startup Circa 2001
All about the team
A good plan?Start a company with a compelling long-term vision. Raise plenty of capital.Hire the absolute best and the brightest.Hire an experienced management team with tons of startup experience.Focus on quality. Build a world-class technology platform.Build buzz in the press and blogosphere.
Achieving FailureCompany failed utterly, $40MM and five years of pain.Crippled by “shadow beliefs” that destroyed the effort of all those smart people.
Shadow Belief #1We know what customers want.
Shadow Belief #2We can accurately predict the future.
Shadow Belief #3Advancing the plan is progress.
A good plan?Start a company with a compelling long-term vision. Raise plenty of capital.Hire the absolute best and the brightest.Hire an experienced management team with tons of startup experience.Focus on quality. Build a world-class technology platform.Build buzz in the press and blogosphere.
Startup #2
IMVU 
IMVU 
New planShipped in six months – a horribly buggy beta productCharged from day oneShipped multiple times a day (by 2008, on average 50 times a day)No PR, no launchResults 2009: profitable, revenue > $20MM
Lean Startups Go FasterCommodity technology stack, highly leveraged (free/open source, user-generated content, SEM).Customer development – find out what customers want before you build it. Agile (lean) product development – but tuned to the startup condition.
Customer DevelopmentContinuous cycle of customer interaction
Rapid hypothesis testing about market, pricing, customers, …
Extreme low cost, low burn, tight focus
Measurable gates for investorshttp://bit.ly/FourSteps
Agile Product Development(A tale of two startups, revisited)Principles drawn from Lean Manufacturing and Toyota Production System
These examples are drawn from software startups, but increasingly:
All products require software
All companies are operating in a startup-like environment of extreme uncertaintyTraditional Product DevelopmentUnit of Progress: Advance to Next StageWaterfallRequirementsSpecificationDesignProblem: knownSolution: knownImplementationVerificationMaintenance
Agile Product DevelopmentUnit of Progress: A line of Working Code“Product Owner” or in-house customerProblem: knownSolution: unknown
Product Development at Lean StartupUnit of Progress: Validated Learning About Customers ($$$)Customer DevelopmentHypotheses,Experiments,InsightsProblem: unknownData,Feedback,InsightsSolution: unknown
Minimize TOTAL time through the loopIDEASLEARNBUILDDATACODEMEASURE
How to build a Lean StartupLet’s talk about some specifics. Continuous deploymentMinimum Viable ProductFive why’s
Continuous DeploymentIDEASLEARNBUILDLearn FasterCustomer DevelopmentFive WhysBuild FasterContinuous DeploymentSmall BatchesContinuous IntegrationRefactoringDATACODEMEASUREMeasure FasterSplit TestingActionable MetricsNet Promoter ScoreSEM
Continuous DeploymentDeploy new software quickly
At IMVU time from check-in to production = 20 minutes
Tell a good change from a bad change (quickly)
Revert a bad change quickly
And “shut down the line”
Work in small batches
At IMVU, a large batch = 3 days worth of work
Break large projects down into small batchesCluster Immune SystemWhat it looks like to ship one piece of code to production:Run tests locally (SimpleTest, Selenium)
Everyone has a complete sandbox
Continuous Integration Server (BuildBot)
All tests must pass or “shut down the line”
Automatic feedback if the team is going too fast
Incremental deploy

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2009 10 28 The Lean Startup In Paris

  • 1. The Lean Startup#leanstartupEric Ries (@ericries)http://StartupLessonsLearned.com
  • 5. Most Startups FailBut it doesn’t have to be that way. We can do better. This talk is about how.
  • 6. What is a startup?A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. Nothing to do with size of company, sector of the economy, or industry
  • 7. The PivotWhat do successful startups have in common?They started out as digital cash for PDAs, but evolved into online payments for eBay. They started building BASIC interpreters, but evolved into the world's largest operating systems monopoly. They were shocked to discover their online games company was actually a photo-sharing site.Pivot: change directions but stay grounded in what we’ve learned. http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2009/06/pivot-dont-jump-to-new-vision.html
  • 8. Speed Winsif we can reduce the time between major iterationswe can increase our odds of success
  • 9. A Tale of Two Startups
  • 13. A good plan?Start a company with a compelling long-term vision. Raise plenty of capital.Hire the absolute best and the brightest.Hire an experienced management team with tons of startup experience.Focus on quality. Build a world-class technology platform.Build buzz in the press and blogosphere.
  • 14. Achieving FailureCompany failed utterly, $40MM and five years of pain.Crippled by “shadow beliefs” that destroyed the effort of all those smart people.
  • 15. Shadow Belief #1We know what customers want.
  • 16. Shadow Belief #2We can accurately predict the future.
  • 17. Shadow Belief #3Advancing the plan is progress.
  • 18. A good plan?Start a company with a compelling long-term vision. Raise plenty of capital.Hire the absolute best and the brightest.Hire an experienced management team with tons of startup experience.Focus on quality. Build a world-class technology platform.Build buzz in the press and blogosphere.
  • 22. New planShipped in six months – a horribly buggy beta productCharged from day oneShipped multiple times a day (by 2008, on average 50 times a day)No PR, no launchResults 2009: profitable, revenue > $20MM
  • 23. Lean Startups Go FasterCommodity technology stack, highly leveraged (free/open source, user-generated content, SEM).Customer development – find out what customers want before you build it. Agile (lean) product development – but tuned to the startup condition.
  • 24. Customer DevelopmentContinuous cycle of customer interaction
  • 25. Rapid hypothesis testing about market, pricing, customers, …
  • 26. Extreme low cost, low burn, tight focus
  • 27. Measurable gates for investorshttp://bit.ly/FourSteps
  • 28. Agile Product Development(A tale of two startups, revisited)Principles drawn from Lean Manufacturing and Toyota Production System
  • 29. These examples are drawn from software startups, but increasingly:
  • 31. All companies are operating in a startup-like environment of extreme uncertaintyTraditional Product DevelopmentUnit of Progress: Advance to Next StageWaterfallRequirementsSpecificationDesignProblem: knownSolution: knownImplementationVerificationMaintenance
  • 32. Agile Product DevelopmentUnit of Progress: A line of Working Code“Product Owner” or in-house customerProblem: knownSolution: unknown
  • 33. Product Development at Lean StartupUnit of Progress: Validated Learning About Customers ($$$)Customer DevelopmentHypotheses,Experiments,InsightsProblem: unknownData,Feedback,InsightsSolution: unknown
  • 34. Minimize TOTAL time through the loopIDEASLEARNBUILDDATACODEMEASURE
  • 35. How to build a Lean StartupLet’s talk about some specifics. Continuous deploymentMinimum Viable ProductFive why’s
  • 36. Continuous DeploymentIDEASLEARNBUILDLearn FasterCustomer DevelopmentFive WhysBuild FasterContinuous DeploymentSmall BatchesContinuous IntegrationRefactoringDATACODEMEASUREMeasure FasterSplit TestingActionable MetricsNet Promoter ScoreSEM
  • 38. At IMVU time from check-in to production = 20 minutes
  • 39. Tell a good change from a bad change (quickly)
  • 40. Revert a bad change quickly
  • 41. And “shut down the line”
  • 42. Work in small batches
  • 43. At IMVU, a large batch = 3 days worth of work
  • 44. Break large projects down into small batchesCluster Immune SystemWhat it looks like to ship one piece of code to production:Run tests locally (SimpleTest, Selenium)
  • 45. Everyone has a complete sandbox
  • 47. All tests must pass or “shut down the line”
  • 48. Automatic feedback if the team is going too fast
  • 50. Monitor cluster and business metrics in real-time
  • 51. Reject changes that move metrics out-of-bounds
  • 52. Alerting & Predictive monitoring (Nagios)
  • 53. Monitor all metrics that stakeholders care about
  • 54. If any metric goes out-of-bounds, wake somebody up
  • 55. Use historical trends to predict acceptable boundsWhen customers see a failure:Fix the problem for customers
  • 56. Improve your defenses at each levelMinimum Viable ProductIDEASCode FasterLearn FasterBUILDLEARNContinuousDeploymentMinimum Viable ProductCODEDATAMeasure FasterMEASURERapid Split Tests
  • 57. Possible Approaches“Maximize chances of success”Build a great product with many features that increase the odds that customers will want itProblem: no feedback until the end, might be too late to adjust “Release early, release often”Get as much feedback as possible, as soon as possibleProblem: run around in circles, chasing what customers think they want
  • 58. Minimum Viable ProductThe minimum set of features needed to learn from earlyvangelists – visionary early adoptersAvoid building products that nobody wantsMaximize the learning per dollar spentGet the facts before it’s too lateProbably much more minimum than you think!
  • 59. Minimum Viable ProductVisionary customers can “fill in the gaps” on missing features, if the product solves a real problemAllows us to achieve a big vision in small increments without going in circlesRequires a commitment to iteration
  • 60. FearsFalse negative: “customers would have liked the full product, but the MVP sucks, so we abandoned the vision”Visionary complex: “but customers don’t know what they want!”Too busy to learn: “it would be faster to just build it right, all this measuring distracts from delighting customers”
  • 61. Five WhysIDEASCode FasterLearn FasterBUILDLEARNContinuousDeploymentFive Whys RootCause AnalysisCODEDATAMeasure FasterMEASURERapid Split Tests
  • 62. Five Whys Root Cause AnalysisA technique for continuous improvement of company process.
  • 63. Ask “why” five times when something unexpected happens.
  • 64. Make proportional investments in prevention at all five levels of the hierarchy.
  • 65. Behind every supposed technical problem is usually a human problem. Fix the cause, not just the symptom.There’s much more…IDEASCode FasterLearn FasterBUILDLEARNUnit TestsUsability TestsContinuous IntegrationIncremental DeploymentFree & Open-Source ComponentsCloud ComputingCluster Immune SystemJust-in-time ScalabilityRefactoringDeveloper SandboxMinimum Viable ProductSplit TestsCustomer InterviewsCustomer DevelopmentFive Whys Root Cause AnalysisCustomer Advisory BoardFalsifiable HypothesesProduct Owner AccountabilityCustomer ArchetypesCross-functional TeamsSemi-autonomous TeamsSmoke TestsCODEDATAMeasure FasterMEASURESplit TestsClear Product OwnerContinuous DeploymentUsability TestsReal-time MonitoringCustomer LiaisonFunnel AnalysisCohort AnalysisNet Promoter ScoreSearch Engine MarketingReal-Time AlertingPredictive Monitoring
  • 66. There’s much more…Startup Lessons Learned (season one 2008-2009)Every essay from the blog’s first yearBeta version available for the first time todayhttp://bit.ly/SLLbookbeta
  • 67. Get Started TodayYou are ready to do this, no matter who you arewhat job you havewhat stage of company you’re inGet started now, today.
  • 70. Getting in touch (#leanstartup)
  • 73. Startup Lessons Learned – in print
  • 76. Rapid Split TestsIDEASCode FasterLearn FasterBUILDLEARNContinuousDeploymentFive Whys RootCause AnalysisCODEDATAMeasure FasterMEASURERapid Split Tests
  • 77. Split-testing all the timeA/B testing is key to validating your hypothesesHas to be simple enough for everyone to use and understand itMake creating a split-test no more than one line of code:if( setup_experiment(...) == "control" ) { // do it the old way} else { // do it the new way}
  • 78. The AAA’s of MetricsActionableAccessibleAuditable
  • 79. Measure the MacroAlways look at cohort-based metrics over timeSplit-test the small, measure the large