Saint Sal - Latest Comments

Re: Time for a buzzword diet?

Salim Virani — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:03:13 -0000

Thanks for the reality check. Case studies, real examples, plain speak – for peaceful co-existence with buzzwords!

Re: Time for a buzzword diet?

Bart Verkoeijen — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 21:10:22 -0000

I've found buzzwords like Customer Development great for direction. It really helped our team to align and set targets during our Startup Weekend in November (thanks for coaching us!!).

Something I think might help, is to walk through a case study. By seeing how things are actually done instead of told, it's easier to distill the real meaning of a buzzword.

As a programmer, I live and breathe acronyms, and buzzwords are real problem. HTML5 anyone? But doing some minor programming tests, or reading through some examples quickly allows you to learn it's nothing more than the good old HTML we're used to, but with some specific new conventions, components and awareness.

Distillation is the new buzzword! ;-)

Re: Seriously, WTF?

Alan — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 09:07:42 -0000

Only males examples? Hmm. Seriously, WTF?

Re: I am Jack’s wasted opportunity

BDoorn — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:40:03 -0000

You're absolutely right Sal that working in our own cultural and economic context gives us a head start in developing ideas and realizing our ambitions. Understanding the context of developing economies requires considerably more hard core immersion before you can understand the opportunity space. I've learnt through my work with @nitibhan that uncertainty in time and in money is key to understanding business models that work in developing countries. "Sure solar lamps are really a solution and all, but juice for my kerosenelamp can be bought by the drop in case I'm strapped for cash".

I predict that we will increasingly look South for market innovation opportunity. Yes the world is converging, and yes we will need to seize the opportunity we have here and now to build business that could work there in the near future.
I've been looking into this issue of context and the "values gap" it creates a bit over the last year (see here: http://valuechaingeneration... In the next I'll will probably start building a solution. More to come!

Bart

Re: The History Of #LeanStartup (and how to make sense of it all)

Salim Virani — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:34:47 -0000

Absolutely - good point.

Lean Startup draws from many rich sources: Andreesen, Discovery-Driven Planning, Direct Marketing, the list goes on. There are also a ton of other contributors to it on the way which I missed for sake of brevity. (Sorry!)
The timeframe I covered here is more contemporary and I focused where I've seen the confluence of different approaches cause confusion or missteps for founders. A short history lesson with a practical goal.

Re: The History Of #LeanStartup (and how to make sense of it all)

kcorazo — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:28:10 -0000

Thanks for writing this! Context is really useful for many of us who are still glowing with the enthusiasm of finally discovering a more rational way to be an entrepreneur.

Re: The History Of #LeanStartup (and how to make sense of it all)

Kate — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:05:13 -0000

Hi, Sal. This is really helpful. I joined Janice and Jason as a co-founder of LUXr (full disclosure ;) and coming from the UX world, it took a while to get my head around all the different voices and concepts bubbling in the Lean Startup world. That was a year ago, and the amazing level of invention and interpretation and extensions continues to rise. If I'd read this last year it would have saved a lot of noise in my head, heh.

Seriously though, the rapid exploration is the sign of an engaged community, and conveners of the conversation are crucial to keeping us all learning from each other. Thank you for all your work in fostering it and making this community a wonderful place to be.

Yay, we're in a Lean Cambrian Explosion!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: The History Of #LeanStartup (and how to make sense of it all)

Tim Elfelt — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:40:10 -0000

Great writeup! I enjoyed reading some of the background of the Lean movement

Re: The History Of #LeanStartup (and how to make sense of it all)

Hashim Warren — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:54:44 -0000

Would you agree that Marc Andreessen's thinking about Product/Market Fit had an impact on the Lean Startup methodology?

Marc drew a line in the sand for startups, and gave lean a goal to reach. Once you cross Product/Market fit you can transition from Innovation Accounting to general accounting because you've now found a scalable business model.

See Marc's post archived here: http://web.archive.org/web/...

#LeanFreelancer

Re: The future of Lean Startup – 9 areas I’m watching for faster market traction

Laurence McCahill — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 09:23:44 -0000

Positive psychology (happiness, basically).

Happy teams make for better products and, ultimately, happier customers (and investors/shareholders). We've set up the Happy Startup School for this reason – to bring various disciplines (lean startup, customer experience, storytelling, happiness) under one roof.

Re: The question that almost always lifts conversion, or points to a pivot.

Salim Virani — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:53:42 -0000

Wow! That's some clever spy stuff. You guys should be on Homeland!

What are some of the questioning techniques you use to get more info? What advantages do you find over asking directly?

Re: The question that almost always lifts conversion, or points to a pivot.

johnnyforeigner — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 06:30:09 -0000

Hey Sal,

Good advice as always. We use a similar technique in user research when we're dealing with brand new interfaces or products that people have not seen before.

As a participant is getting ready to leave our office after the tests, we arrange for the "next participant" (who is in fact one of our researchers) to engage them in a conversation in the waiting room about what they have just seen.

We capture their understanding of the product and its uses, along with their impressions of its value. It's a great technique - invented by one of my ex-colleagues, Saravjit Rihal. We call it the watercooler test.

Re: How investors gauge your opportunity – beyond your business model.

Rory OConnor — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 06:22:16 -0000

Sal,

Great post, I must say I had forgotten somewhat about the back of the book where it outlines the environmental considerations. Obviously this is hugely important as it provides the context where the business model will operate. It has prompted me to take out the book again, after using the canvas for some time, your understanding deepens and elements you may have missed previously become more apparent.

Thanks for the prompt!

Re: When should branding become a concern for a startup?

Chris Coleridge — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:14:04 -0000

Hey Sal
As you say, thinking about surface can be distracting and wasteful, creating a brand should be about an 'essence'. Until the essence is clear, the brand won't be.

For me, the best way to think about a brand, especially for a startup, is 'what are people saying and thinking about us'. (This relates nicely to your recent excellent post about understanding how customers would describe your startup.) Thinking about it this way focuses the 'brand owner's' attention on several important points-- on how people will probably only understand or repeat the most highly salient points about your company, about how anything you say or try to convey about the brand is interpreted through the lens of WIIFM, about the need for consistency between your business model and your brand (as people won't believe brand messages that are not in harmony with your business model.)

In technical terms the receiver's point of view is the 'brand image' and the sender/marketer's take on the brand is the 'brand identity'. But in the world of getting traction through a tribe's enthusiasm rather than based on a bunch of one way messages somehow getting an audience's attention, spending much time thinking about the latter in isolation is just not efficient.

Best
Chris

Re: 6 quick checks to avoid wasting time on tough decisions.

Christopher Sutton — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:42:10 -0000

Nice round-up of the troublesome reasons we procrastinate what often aren't even big decisions in hindsight... "Spot your insecurity" and "Consider the cost of information" rang particularly true for me.

I've often found it useful to use this rule of thumb:
"If a choice just seems too difficult to make - there's probably no right answer. So just pick one!"

Re: 6 quick checks to avoid wasting time on tough decisions.

Salim Virani — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:15:27 -0000

Thanks Jordi - if you're stuck on pricing, Joel Gascoigne's recent post will likely be helpful too: http://joel.is/post/3016782...

Re: 6 quick checks to avoid wasting time on tough decisions.

Jordi Turró — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:18:17 -0000

Good article Salim! With my startup I'm a bit stuck with a couple of things (and one of them is indeed pricing...) so the timing was great. I'll try to apply your recommendations.

Re: 3 commonly missed benefits of Lean & Agile – moving as a team, understanding customers & informed strategic decisions

PM Hut — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:22:37 -0000

Hi Salim,

This is a good post on the benefits of Agile, and that's why I would like to republish it on PM Hut where many project managers will benefit from it.

Please either email me or contact me through the contact us form on the PM Hut website in case you're OK with this.

Re: How do Lean and Agile teams deliver working code faster? A technical explanation for non-techies.

Paul Williams — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:36:11 -0000

BDD ?

Re: How do Lean and Agile teams deliver working code faster? A technical explanation for non-techies.

Giles Farrow — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 04:07:50 -0000

Thanks Sal - a clear explanation for us less technical folks.

In the real world, does this require some upfront technical investment? assuming it does, when do you do that - after MVP? when you have product/market fit?

Re: Business model trigger questions – a way to spot viable options quickly

Tax Accountants london — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:12:06 -0000

Money is the basic need for starting any business . But if
you have less money with you can start the small business, or some online based
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from the business and can take it to the bigger level.

Re: The future of Lean Startup – 9 areas I’m watching for faster market traction

Eric Ries — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:22:11 -0000

Awesome list. Many of these works have inspired me directly. What we know today is only the tip of the iceberg. We have to keep learning and evolving.

Re: The future of Lean Startup – 9 areas I’m watching for faster market traction

Timo Mulder — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:42:09 -0000

Great post Salim. My experience with working with startup- and new product development teams is that a major factor of succes depends on how the team is organized. I've seen way too many teams that started with a brilliant idea/concept loosing focus and lacking productivity along the way. For instance, having clear communication agreements, making sure that everybody agrees and understands on the goals of the project and having clear milestones / time-boxes makes a group of people become a team. Scrum is a framework that brings the necessary structure and agility without making the team process too rigid. The setup of minimum process rules (e.g. 3 roles, 3 ceremonies and 3 tools) are lean in itself. And also important, validated learning is at the heart of scrum! My advice when I work with teams creating new products and services under extreme uncertainty is: use Scrum as your project management approach and combine it with Lean Startup principles and tools to radically increase your odds of succes.

Re: The future of Lean Startup – 9 areas I’m watching for faster market traction

Jabe Bloom — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:03:28 -0000

Complexity Theory

How should we approach uncertainty? What is the nature of non-deterministic systems? How do we move from non-deterministic to repeatable processes?

There is a growing body of knowledge from Complexity theory (and Cognitive Complexity) that can help entrepreneurs leverage uncertainty to their advantage and begin to actively choose what and when to innovate.

Re: What’s your learning bias?

Ian — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:24:19 -0000

Sal, that's some good deep stuff

Several of the examples ring painfully true for clients I've worked with. A disturbing number ring true for me too. Ermmmm....