There were some great points brought up by the panel of @ashmaurya, @skanwar, @leilaboujnane, and @davidcrow of StartupNorth etc.
My takeaways:
- What do people misunderstand about Lean?
- not a step-by-step guide -- it's a set of philosophies
- not "cheap" or "bootstrapping" -- process efficiency
- Potential mistakes:
- Relying on the wrong set of tactics for the stage they're at
- Over complication in systems (ie. continuous integration)
- Should be about changing behaviour -- getting out and talking to customers
- All about efficiency -- get the most for the least
- Key Metric: Money -- Are people paying you for your product?
- Key Question: How disappointed would you be if this product would be taken away tomorrow?
- 40%+ indicates not a fluke
- Key Points:
- Reduce assumptions
- Identify riskiest parts first and evaluate
- Don't afraid to be embarased
- Find the shortest route to get in front of customer and get feedback
- Lean applies to: unknown problems / unknown solutions
- Hypothesis test: pull the plug and see if anyone cares!
- When do you start charging? From day 1. ("free" is a customer acquisition tactic, not a business model)
- Starting out: Is this a problem worth solving?
- Make sure a hypothesis is falsifiable -- the scientific method
- "Life is too short to build products nobody cares about." -- Ash
- Adding features:
- Unused features are waste
- Creates technical debt
- Start with "no"
- How do you get feedback?
- Initial hypothesis: pain is so great that they want to be involved in the process
- Find your early adopters -- as visionary as you are (rare breed, hard to find)
- People are always open to telling you about their problems ("tell me about your pain")
- If you're not getting feedback, find out why -- not reachable? don't like forms, method of communication, type of question
- Key Resources:
This is a great summary, thanks Jason! So glad you liked the event!
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