Lean Startup

We recently hosted a conversation between Jesse Thomas, Co-founder & CEO of Picky Bars, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about the impact of passion, patience and a focus on growth that led to consistent, year-over-year growth for the energy bar company. In the conversation, they discuss: - How Jesse struggled to find balance in his life while working for a VC-funded startup. - How a personal need from Jesse’s athletic training led to the creation of Picky Bars. - The benefits of self-funding and keeping expenses low. And much, much more… Jesse Thomas is the co-founder & CEO of Picky Bars, not to mention a professional triathlete and two-time ironman champion. Born and raised in Bend, Oregon, Thomas excelled in track and field while at Stanford University and later narrowly missed earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, largely due to an injury he suffered during steeplechase trials. After he shifted to cycling, Thomas ultimately put a stop to his athletic career when a fall while biking left him with a broken neck. Rather than give up, however, he shifted his focus to the startup world. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Christina Greenberg, Co-Founder of Edgility Consulting, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about how Christina recruited to build a diverse and inclusive organization and how you can do the same. In the conversation, they discuss: - The founding story of Edgility Consulting and why they decided to focus on helping youth-serving nonprofits and education organizations find, hire, and keep talent. - How they examined their own recruiting methods and what they could do to create an environment where all different kinds of people would want to work for them. - Specific plans and strategies you can implement to recruit for a diverse and inclusive staff. And much, much more… Christina Greenberg is an expert in pivoting outside her comfort zone. The co-founder of Edgility Consulting has branched out, business-wise, multiple times in service of a larger vision. In her case, that vision involves supporting a diverse and inclusive industry standard. Her Oakland-based firm helps youth-serving nonprofits and education organizations find, hire, and keep talent. Before co-founding Edgility, Greenberg worked in fundraising, policy, and nonprofit management. But she tapped into her true passion when she started recruiting in the education sector, “making that magical connection” to place someone where they’d have the most impact. She spent four years working for a program that mentored and trained aspiring principals for low income communities in the Bay Area. After taking a maternity break, Greenberg returned to the workforce as a consultant. She found enough clients needed her unique expertise in education to launch a business, Redwood Circle Consulting. Five and a half years in, it was time to expand. Greenberg and a business partner, Edgility co-founder Allison Wyatt, launched their firm from opposite coasts. They weren’t sure what the company’s full scope would look like from the start, says Greenberg, but they established guiding principles. They wanted to build upon their shared talents in the recruiting space. They wanted to focus on organizations for “underserved youth and families—low income families, families of color, and students that were struggling for one reason or another in the school systems that we have today.” And finally, they wanted a lean business with little overhead, zero drama, and high expectations for what they could accomplish. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

Hardware companies face particular challenges testing and iterating on their product ideas. It’s often cost-prohibitive to get an MVP in the hands of customers, and it can be seemingly impossible to ramp up production cycles. But you can push the boundaries of convention. Kevin Ellsworth, Product Manager at Cirris, explains how his team has built systems for consistent learning that have helped them release new products over a matter of months rather than years.

MVPs are great–unless you’re building them to test assumptions that aren’t really mission-critical. In this hands-on session, Laura Klein, author of UX for Lean Startups and head of product development for Hint Health, breaks down the kinds of assumptions you should look for and a process for developing hypotheses that reveal your true barriers to growth.

Top product managers must have great customer empathy–but too much of it can slow you down. On the one hand, you need empathy to understand your customers, so that you can build products that solve their problems. On the other hand, too much empathy can prevent you from releasing a product that doesn’t solve all of your customers’ needs at once. Lauren Gilchrist, Product Manager at Pivotal Labs, gives five tips for shipping less-than-perfect MVPs so that you can all learn from end users, fast.

What happens when your team uses Lean Startup methods, but other people in your organization don’t? Manuel Rosso, VP of Commerce at Scripps Networks Interactive, explains how his team taught coworkers to value experimentation over expertise.

When you’re building a new product, your own domain expertise can–surprisingly–prevent you from recognizing your potential customers’ needs. Margo Wright, founder of Yenko, shares the customer-development approach she’s used to overcome the blinders of her expertise.

What would happen if your organization funded every single new product idea from any employee, no questions asked? This past year, Adobe did exactly that. Mark Randall, Chief Strategist, VP of Creativity, shares surprising lessons and tangible results from Adobe’s new Kickbox process–including details about how experimentation has transformed good staff into great innovators.

When you’re tackling a hard problem, the solution rarely comes from what you do initially. Rather, it emerges from what you do continuously–provided you set up systems to learn as you go. Max Ventilla, founder at AltSchool, explains how his organization is staying very close to its customers as its key mechanism for scaling up a large network of independent schools.

Vox.com has been one of the most closely watched media launches of the year–and it took the team just nine weeks to develop the high-profile site. As its Senior Product Manager and Executive Editor, Melissa Bell has been responsible for leading a lot of Vox.com’s success. Sarah Milstein interviews Melissa to learn how the company has moved unusually quickly and how it continues to experiment on a scrutinzed site.

When you’re moving fast to build and grow a new company or project, you’re bound to make mistakes as well as unexpected discoveries. Mikkel Svane, CEO & founder of Zendesk and author of Startupland, shares real stories from the front lines of starting Zendesk that explore how you stay in touch with the human side of customers and your business as you scale.

What can any startup learn from mission-driven companies? From focus, to metrics, to impact, to team, the lessons are deeper than most of us expect. In this conversation, Mitch Kapor, of Kapor Capital, talks with Christie George, Executive Director of New Media Ventures, about building a profitable company that solves real-world problems.

The State Of The Lean Startup | Eric Ries by Lean Startup

Key Staff HD | Sarah Milstein & Eric Ries by Lean Startup

Opening Remarks: The Lean Startup Conference | Sarah Milstein & Eric Ries by Lean Startup

As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably found lawyers to be more a barrier to innovation than a boon. But by actively reframing their role, you can transform the legal function into an asset rather than a liability. Sean Butler, Senior Corporate Counsel at Cisco, explains how.

The build-measure-learn loop is often accompanied by the frustration-confusion-failure cycle. In other words, implementing Lean Startup methods is hard–particularly when your experiments invalidate a lot of your ideas. In this talk, Seppo Helava, founder at Nonsense Industry, teaches us how he’s led his team to overcome perfectionism and become more comfortable with grey areas and failure.

Mobile development presents particular challenges for experimentation. With competing operating systems and app stores to contend with, how can you move rapidly? Sheena Allen of Sheena Allen Apps walks us through the framework she used for launching–and learning from–six mobile apps on various platforms.

After doing customer development, you’ve learned that your target market absolutely loves your new product idea. But will they buy it? Steli Efti, founder at Close.io, explains how to get an answer without turning off your interviewees

Telefonica, a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider with operations in Europe, North America and South America, is one of the largest mobile network providers in the world. What happened when the employees wanted to experiment with a new handset idea? Susana Jurado and Mario Olano, Innovation Managers at the company, have a detailed and instructive story to tell.

The US federal government is the country’s largest employer and does not have a reputation for moving quickly. But Todd Park, who served from 2012 to 2014 as United States Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President and is now a technology advisor to the administration in Silicon Valley, is bringing an entrepreneurial approach to government and continues to make real change. He and key U.S. technology leaders describe their most challenging projects and share advice for experimenting in large organizations.

It’s one thing to decide that you’ll rigorously test product ideas, and it’s entirely another matter to actually kill something that isn’t clearly a dud. AppFolio faced this dilemma when deciding whether to launch a new product last year. Product Manager Ursula Shekefundeh takes us through the surprising–and hard–decisions her team made at the persevere/pivot/kill crossroads.

A lot of distributed companies use Lean Startup techniques for product development. But it’s challenging to successfully run customer development and cross-functional experiments with remote colleagues. William Donnell, lead design and UX specialist at Sodium Halogen, teaches creative techniques for very effective Lean Startup approaches on a virtual team.

When you interview customers, you don’t know what you don’t know–and you don’t know what questions you should be asking but aren’t. Zac Cohn, founder at Wonful, runs an exercise to teach you how to ask the right questions and uncover exactly what you need.

Create A Culture Of Experimentation | Manuel Rosso by Lean Startup

What Should You Really Measure? Featuring: Alistair Croll, Danielle Morrill, and Eric Ries Who It's For: Standalone startups; corporate innovators; non-profit, government and education leaders When you're developing a new product, or if you work in a mission-driven organization, measuring profit isn't usually an appropriate way to gauge success. Instead, you need innovation accounting or learning milestones to figure out whether your product is gaining traction. But what should you actually measure? In this advanced discussion, we'll debate the idea that there's just one metric that matters for any given kind of product. You'll come away with fresh ways to approach measurement.

Lean Startup 101 Featuring: Janice Fraser and Sarah Milstein Who It's For: Standalone startups; corporate innovators; non-profit, government and education leaders We'll explain the important concepts of Lean Startup, demystify the jargon and supply examples to help you understand what Lean Startup is good for and when you can use it. You'll come away with an understanding of the method and what frequently-used terms like MVP, pivot and innovation accounting are really about.

Lean Startup ideas are increasingly being applied by mission-driven and non-profit organizations. Leaders of these initiatives often find themselves at odds with funders, who use a traditional framework for assessing a project’s merits. Christie will look at funding innovations in the sector–some of which are likely to have implications for the for-profit world, too.

Matt is the founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress, which powers approximately 20% of the web’s biggest sites. His team experiments constantly, yet they nearly all work from home. How do they do it? Sarah Milstein will interview Matt.

Robin will tell not only the story of how the Zipcar began with Lean Startup techniques, she’ll also reveal the economic framework that will help you build the next Zipcar.

Wyatt is VP of Product at Shutterstock, a stock photo site that’s become one of the world’s biggest tow-sided markets. We first heard about Shutterstock’s approach to A/B testing from another advanced startup that was blown away by their techniques. When we talked to Wyatt to learn more, we understood the excitement and knew we had to bring the ideas to you.

Steven Hodas | When Lean Startup Arrives in a Trojan Horse--Innovation in Extreme Bureaucracy | The Lean Startup Conference 2013 Steven runs an procurement-innovation program in one of the world’s most notorious bureaucracies: the New York City Department of Education. In a fear-driven atmosphere, with lots of incentive to not be embarrassed, he’ll talk about the challenges he’s faced and progress he’s made testing new ideas.

It’s often tempting to test technical risk before you test market risk. After all, what if your product doesn’t actually work? Then again, what if you build it and nobody wants to buy it? Daina will talk about the stages she took her product through and how she learned a great deal about her market before writing a line of code.

Tool Talk: Trello | Anuj Adhiya by Lean Startup

Risk, Information, Time and Money Dan Milstein @danmil HUT 8 LABS Working in a startup environment, you’re constantly facing subtle, tricky choices: of all the things you could work on, which ones are worth your time? Which ones will actually move the business forward? How should you spend your next hour? Your next day? You and your team will make a thousand such decisions–the ultimate success or failure of your venture is largely determined by the sum total of those choices. Starting from these questions, Dan will explore the principles underlying the Lean Startup, helping you determine the best way to spend your time.

Making Remote Workers Feel like They’re in the Same Room Paul Hepworth USERTESTING When you have a central office, remote workers can wind up feeling uninformed, disempowered and disconnected. But they absolutely don’t have to have those experiences. Paul Hepworth, VP of Engineering at UserTesting, an 87-person company with more than a dozen remote workers, will talk about the very practical things you can do to ensure that remote team members can “see” into the office and are as connected and informed as co-located workers. In addition to interpersonal processes, he’ll also talk about cheap hardware setups that make a big difference.

The Three Modes of Collaboration–and What They Mean for Distributed Teams Teryn Rikert STEELCASE People on distributed teams often say, “Working remotely is great for heads-down tasks, but collaborating remotely–especially on creative work–is really hard.” You’ve probably said that yourself. So how can we improve distributed collaboration in virtual meetings? Teryn Rikert, a workplace strategist with Steelcase, will break down the different modes of collaboration, helping us understand the key behaviors, interactions and tools we can use to support them over distance.

A Conversation with Bob Sutton and Eric Ries Bob Sutton @work_matters STANFORD UNIVERSITY Eric Ries @ericries THE LEAN STARTUP Bob Sutton’s new book, Scaling Up Excellence, explores the challenge of building a growing organization. In this conversation with Eric Ries, we’ll look at the particular issues of scaling up on distributed teams and a range of principles that leaders can adapt for successful growth.

Build Culture, Establish Trust Cheryl Contee FISSION STRATEGY Cheryl Contee runs an established consulting firm and a new startup, both of which are fully distributed. She’ll touch on what’s different between the two and dive into processes her teams have refined over time to build culture and establish trust.

Where Cloud Infrastructure Meets Lean Startup, sponsored by Rackspace Join Eric Ries and Wayne Walls for a conversation about using cloud infrastructure to support Lean Startup practices. This discussion will help developers and executives learn how to turn cloud technologies into tangible returns with rapid experiments and other proven Lean Startup methods. This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference and sponsored by Rackspace.

Applying Lean Startup to Enterprise Product Development Practices, sponsored by Modus Create Join Eric Ries and Pat Sheridan for a conversation about how Lean Startup methodologies combine with Agile principles to get innovation off the whiteboard and into your product portfolio. This podcast addresses management issues, identities best practices for team structure and collaboration, and goes through real-world lessons. This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference and sponsored by Modus Create.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Alistair Croll, Ben Yoskovitz A key concept in Lean Startup is the Build-Measure-Learn loop. But what if you don’t know what to measure? All companies face challenges in determining useful metrics, but non-tech companies often have fewer benchmarks than their tech counterparts. In this free webcast, analytics experts Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz will discuss practical approaches to the this problem. Their conversation will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind. This webcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11 in San Francisco. Visit http://leanstartup.co/ for more information.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Eric Ries and Dan Milstein Brought to you by The Lean Startup Conference, this live webcast goes back to our roots with deep information for developers. Featuring a conversation about Lean Startup engineering with Eric Ries and Dan Milstein, one of our most popular speakers last year, the session also includes ample time for live Q&A with attendees.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Diane Tavenner (@summitps), Steven Hodas (@stevenhodas) and Sarah Milstein (@SarahM) Slow product cycles, massive bureaucracy, customers with conflicting interests–those are just a few of the challenges facing leaders in the education sector. And none of those conditions would seem to support Lean Startup principles. But sectors with the most entrenched systems often need innovation the most, and we’re impressed with the work Steven Hodas and Diane Tavenner have done to apply Lean Startup methods in New York and California schools, respectively. Join us for a webcast conversation about what’s worked and what hasn’t. Their conversation will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Eric Ries and John Shook Although people sometimes think the “lean” part of Lean Startup refers to bootstrapping a company, it actually refers to the lean production systems pioneered decades ago by Toyota. John Shook, CEO of the Lean Enterprise Institute–the MIT spinoff that resulted from the research that coined the term “lean”–will join Eric for a conversation on the origins of the idea, how it relates to Lean Startup practices today and how understanding the connection can make your company’s approach much more profitable. More than just a theoretical discussion, this webcast will include deep insights for advanced entrepreneurs. John and Eric’s conversation will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Eric Ries and Kent Beck (@KentBeck) Few people have as much insight as Kent Beck–a creator of Agile software development–into how product teams work, and how they can work better. In this webcast conversation, Kent and Eric Ries will talk about change: how to make your work more valuable as a product team leader or team member, and what succeeds and fails in getting people to adopt new ideas. This session is most directly relevant for engineering teams but will also have useful ideas for any product group. Kent and Eric’s conversation will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind. This webcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11 in San Francisco.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Eric Ries, Brant Cooper, and Patrick Vlaskovits Lean Startup techniques aren’t just for young companies. In fact, they’ve been profitably applied in established companies like Intuit, GE, and Toyota. But there are particular challenges in bringing Lean Startup to enterprise corporations, and they aren’t always obvious. In this webcast, Eric Ries, Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits – all of whom have worked closely with Fortune 500 companies – will discuss some of the most common mistakes and paths to success that established firms can take in implementing Lean Startup methods. Their conversation will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Kevin Dewalt, Justin Wilcox, and Takashi Tsutsumi Entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley – including those in other countries – face unique challenges in successfully applying Lean Startup techniques to their businesses. To help you address those challenges, international Lean Startup experts Kevin Dewalt, Takashi Tsutsumi and Justin Wilcox will come together for a candid conversation. Their discussion will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11, 2013 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. Speakers: Christie George, Akash Trivedi Lean Startup ideas are being applied more and more often in non-profits, B-corps and other mission-driven organizations. As the ideas have spread in this world, they’ve come to be known as Lean Impact, and best practices are emerging. In this webcast, Christie George of New Media Ventures and Akash Trivedi of Kiva.org will discuss key Lean Impact approaches. Their conversation will be followed by live Q&A with the webcast attendees, so come with your questions in mind.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11 in San Francisco. Visit leanstartup.co for more information. The 2013 Lean Startup Conference helps entrepreneurs learn from each other. Brimming with founder stories you’ve never heard, fresh case studies and in-depth expert advice you can use the day you get home, the conference delivers advanced lessons in entrepreneurship. This year’s event has key sessions for corporate entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, educators, government staff and growing startups—and it includes a slew of ways to meet other attendees relevant to you. The speakers in this podcast are Eric Ries of The Lean Startup and Elena Sereiviene of Esplori.

This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11 in San Francisco. Visit http://leanstartup.co for more information. The 2013 Lean Startup Conference helps entrepreneurs learn from each other. Brimming with founder stories you’ve never heard, fresh case studies and in-depth expert advice you can use the day you get home, the conference delivers advanced lessons in entrepreneurship. This year’s event has key sessions for corporate entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, educators, government staff and growing startups—and it includes a slew of ways to meet other attendees relevant to you. The speakers in this podcast are Eric Ries of The Lean Startup and Scott Butler of Blackbaud.

We recently hosted a conversation between Christopher Lochhead, bestselling author and #1 charting podcaster, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about why category design is so powerful, how to best wield it, and why entrepreneurs should naturally embody it. In the conversation, they discuss: - What is category design and who are some companies that have successfully implemented it. - How category design gets you out of the comparison trap. - What it takes as an entrepreneur and intrapreneur to implement category design. And much, much more… Christopher Lochhead values standing out over fitting in. He wants entrepreneurs to create markedly different products, not just better versions of old standbys. His #1 charting podcasts, "Follow Your Different" and "Lochhead on Marketing," and bestselling books Niche Down: How To Become Legendary By Being Different and Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets instruct entrepreneurs on developing and dominating new categories of products and services—and shifting consumer paradigms in the process. Lochhead eschews conventional marketing wisdom and evangelizes “category design,” which he calls “a secret art built on the thinking of legends.” Lean Startup Co. advisor Christopher Guest recently chatted with Lochhead to understand why category design is so powerful, how to best wield it, and why entrepreneurs should naturally embody it. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Ralph Morales III, Head of Innovation Practice at SmartOrg, and David Binetti, Innovation Consultant, about solutions for some of the trickier innovation puzzles facing intrapreneurs. This conversation was recorded during the 2019 Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco and we’re excited to make it available to you as a podcast. In the conversation, they discuss: - Testing a range of assumptions and knowing when to move from one to the next. - The importance of taking a lot of smaller bets to help you find and be ready for the big opportunity. - Scoring each risk with ignorance and value ratings to show executives the uncertain value. And much, much more… Ralph Morales III is a unicorn intrapreneur. He began his career in finance and ended up in innovation, a rare trajectory. More specifically, he worked at HP during what he calls the “sunshine moment for new business innovation,” moving from his role as financial marketing analyst to eventually becoming the Director of Innovation, where he was scouting and incubating innovations in virtual reality, IOT solutions, and industrial 3-D printing. He’s currently Head of Innovation Practice at SmartOrg, which helps drive corporate growth by connecting innovation and finance through strategic portfolio management. “I'm proof that people can change,” Morales says of his career path. “Part of it is just being a curious learner. My dad was always fixing things. He used to say, ‘Solve the puzzle.’ People come with problems. People who solve puzzles add value.” Morales and Innovation Consultant, David Binetti, discussed solutions for some of the trickier innovation puzzles facing intrapreneurs at the 2019 Lean Startup Conference. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Michael Barlow, Co-Founder & CEO at Fernish, Lucas Dickey, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Fernish, DeMarcus Williams, Director of Silicon Valley Bank Early Stage Practice, and Hisham Ibrahim, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, about six rookie mistakes that block growth in early stage startups. In the conversation, they discuss: - How to implement good hiring and retention practices to ensure you’re surrounding yourself with the right team. - The importance of maintaining a consistent company narrative. - Tips to avoid getting stuck in analysis paralysis. And much, much more… Fernish’s founders Lucas Dickey and Michael Barlow have prime backgrounds in product management, engineering, design, sales, and finance. Their collective resumes include time in the trenches at Amazon and J.P. Morgan. When it came to launching their subscription service for home furnishings, though, they often traded expertise for proof of concept. Dickey and Barlow are methodical about ensuring each course of action boosts growth, regardless of what their egos may be telling them. This attitude is working in their favor. In the two years since they founded Fernish, the company has grown to 35 employees and their customer base numbers in the thousands. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

This conversation between Alton McDowell, Co-head of Technology and Disruptive Commerce at J.P. Morgan, and Eric Ries took place at the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco. Eric and his team are known for creating a movement within the startup community and have helped companies make lasting impacts and experience sustainable growth. In this conversation, he talks with Alton about startup trends, lessons he’s learned along the way, and best practices entrepreneurs can follow. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between fiifi Founder & CEO, Theron McCollough, and Lean Startup Co. Advisor, Chris Guest, focused on Theron’s experiences working in the world of startups and his recent return to the role of an entrepreneur as he launches his new venture.  In Chris and Theron’s conversation, they discuss: - Given Theron’s background advising and investing in hundreds of startups, what insights has he taken with him as he re-enters the world of entrepreneurship? - And now that he is a player again, does he follow the advice he would have given when he was a coach? And much, much more… For more than a decade, Theron McCollough has been working in the world of startups. Fairly early on in his career — when he was working with Pivotal Software — he began to notice how Lean Startup techniques could help a business scale. And while he took note of the usefulness of testing, iterating, and failing, one of the biggest things he learned was the importance of asking customers what they think. The simple act of reaching out to the customer can be incredibly helpful and enlightening. “You would be amazed at what you find out,” Theron says. It’s one of the things that is easy to understand in theory, but Theron cautions, entrepreneurs have to put it into practice to see how it works. “Until you actually do it, you don’t understand what the struggles are,” he says, adding, “once you get in there, you realize how much information every single customer or potential customer can give you to save you from wasting time and energy.” As an added bonus, it’s also a great way to develop a customer base. If you adopt their feedback and apply it to your product or business, “they’re going to be a customer for life.” Because they’ll not only feel heard, but you’ll have created something that made their business (or life) better. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Ryan Caldbeck, Founder & CEO at CircleUp, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, focused on what it’s like as a CEO to take your company through a major pivot. This episode is part two of their conversation. In Chris and Ryan’s conversation they discuss: - How to create a culture that gives support to people that want to be vulnerable and authentic for the benefit of the company and for themselves. - The unique challenges CEO’s face and how they can build a support system for themselves. - How Ryan has utilized Lean Startup methodologies as an entrepreneur. And much, much more… Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Ryan Caldbeck, Founder & CEO at CircleUp, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about how to navigate through a major pivot. This episode is part one of the conversation with Ryan and part two is coming up next week. Even more exciting, Ryan is also speaking at the Lean Startup Conference this week in San Francisco. Tickets to the conference are still available at LeanStartup.co. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Sarah Paiji Yoo, Co-Founder & CEO at Blueland, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about how becoming a mom led Sarah to create a company that is reimagining how we consume household products to eliminate the need for wasteful plastic packaging. In Chris and Sarah’s conversation, they discuss: - How Sarah got the idea for Blueland and why she felt so compelled to solve the problem of wasteful plastic packaging. - How the team developed and tested their first product idea: toothpaste - How they took these initial learnings and pivoted to cleaning spray products. And much, much more… When serial entrepreneur Sarah Paiji Yoo became a new mom, she wasn’t looking to find her next business idea. She had made the conscious decision to step back from work to find a balance between being a new parent and being a businesswoman. But it was the very act of being a mom that gave her the idea for what would eventually become her company, Blueland. Sarah was horrified to discover how many microplastics are in the water she was using to mix formula for her baby — the very same water that we all drink. She discovered that all of the plastic we consume in society is ending up in our oceans and waterways where they’re broken down into microscopic microplastics that end up in our food and drinking water. So Sarah made the conscious decision to cut back on her own plastic consumption. But she quickly discovered that was easier said than done. Oftentimes, there aren't any items on the shelves that give consumers a choice to opt for something more eco-conscious. From ketchup bottles to toothpaste to detergent, it’s all single-use plastic packaging. But rather than getting discouraged, Sarah got an idea. She realized that she could go beyond having an impact on her personal consumption, by creating products that gave all consumers a more Earth-friendly alternative. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Chris Cochella, Executive Business Coach at Sequoia Group, and Adam Berk, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, about the value and application of mental models for extremely uncertain Lean Startup situations. In Chris and Adam’s conversation, they discuss: - What is a mental model and how can they help you? - What is first conclusion bias and how can it help and/or hurt you? - Three critical mental models that can help the Lean Startup entrepreneur subvert the first conclusion bias. And much, much more… Lean Startup methods are intended to reduce uncertainty in a highly uncertain environment. Warren Buffett likes to say, “I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars, I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” As entrepreneurs, we are looking to lower the height of the uncertainty hurdle while making decisions and moving forward. Another way to look at this approach is to create a situation where: heads, I win; tails, I don’t lose much. The Lean Startup approach is all about using all available tools to reduce the hurdle height and increase the likelihood of winning. It’s about stacking the odds in your favor. Lean Startup is a toolbox full of mental models to stop and interrupt the waste caused by simplistic, fast, and easy “first order thinking” like cognitive biases. Applying Lean Startup mental models helps to provide deliberate, valuable “second order thinking” to the entrepreneur and intrapreneur that will help reduce uncertainty. While many people are familiar with mental models, we will highlight the value and application of mental models for extremely uncertain Lean Startup situations. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Brock Blake, Founder & CEO of Lendio, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, focused on the decision to pivot one successful company into another that served a completely different niche of the market while embracing the importance of accountability. In Brock and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - How Brock got started in the world of entrepreneurship and decided which problem to focus on. - How a pivot from his first idea eventually led to Lendio. - The “be the CEO of your job” mentality and how this builds accountability for Lendio employees. And much, much more… Brock Blake stumbled into the world of entrepreneurship when he was still attending college at BYU. He was studying finance and won an entrepreneurship competition that awarded him $50,000 to start a business. The only problem was that he didn’t exactly know what he wanted to do, much less how to go about launching into the business world. Instead of diving in headfirst into the first idea or opportunity that presented itself, Brock decided to learn about the business of going into business. If he was going to be successful, he knew he needed to know how to be an entrepreneur. So he did his own market research and spoke to business owners in different areas of the market to know what it was like. In doing that research, he recognized a common thread between all the businesses: they needed capital. “I realized...that this was a big market, a big opportunity and a big pain that I thought we could solve.” Empowered with the idea of helping businesses get on their feet, Brock launched his first business, Funding Utah (which would evolve to be Funding Universe) — which helped connect entrepreneurs to venture capitalists and angel investors. But the reality is that only one or two percent of entrepreneurs have the type of company that can or will raise money through investors. Most businesses are main street businesses, like restaurants, retail shops, landscapers or construction companies that need small business loans. “It’s not great to have a business where [you’re turning away] 98% of your customers because they’re not going to raise money,” Brock says. So instead of staying focused on a small equity-seeking segment of the market, they decided to pivot and focus on the larger, loan-seeking 98%. And thus, Lendio — a company focused on helping small business owners get access to capital — was born. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Maryana Iskander, CEO at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, and Ann Mei Chang, Executive Director of Lean Impact at Lean Startup Co., focused on the pioneering work of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator in South Africa and their efforts to tackle the global youth unemployment crisis. In Maryana and Ann Mei’s conversation, they discuss: - How Harambee focused their efforts on solving problems for two customers - young people looking for a job and businesses needing to hire. - How they used data to guide their problem solving efforts and what some of the key learnings were. - Their efforts to scale their work to Rwanda and what the key challenges have been. And much, much more… South Africa has a big problem on its hands. Even though they make up less than 1% of the world’s population, they have one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. It’s a problem that’s compounded over time. Every year, nearly two-thirds of young people who enter the job market end up unemployed, resulting in a population of between six and nine million unemployed young people. It’s a problem not easily solved. It’s not just a matter of not having enough jobs or a lack of the right type of education — although, those are big problems. But even at the most basic level, there are barriers to entry that are just now being recognized. Things like not having the resources to properly look for a job or enough money to afford transportation to an interview are factors that haven’t traditionally been considered in the past. But when businesses began to recognize their difficulties in finding young people to fill open positions, they got together to try to find a solution. Their efforts led to the creation of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. Today, the award-winning non-profit uses data and innovation to bridge the gap between employers and unemployed young people as they work to solve the global youth unemployment crisis. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Claire Lee, Head of Early Stage at Silicon Valley Bank, Liz Curtis, CEO & Founder at Table + Teaspoon, and CJ Legare, Lean Startup Co. Chief of Staff, about the realities facing female entrepreneurs today. In Claire, Liz, and CJ’s conversation, they discuss: - Why Liz decided to start Table + Teaspoon, a “Rent the Runway, but for table settings.” - What Claire calls the “Single Digit Club” and what we can do to change it. - The importance that mentors have played in both Liz and Claire’s career. And much, much more… Liz Curtis didn’t always intend to be an entrepreneur, least of all in the world of entertaining. In fact, she was studying to become a lawyer when she started Table + Teaspoon — a blog that featured decorating ideas, entertaining tips and recipes. The blog was initially just a creative outlet for Liz as she pursued her career as a corporate litigator, but eventually, it became a much bigger idea that she launched into a business. In 2013, while she was still practicing law, Liz decided she wanted to build something “rather than tearing things apart,” the latter of which she felt she was doing as a lawyer. Liz pivoted on her career and started interviewing with startups to do something — anything — to hop aboard their rocket ship. But after verbally agreeing to join a startup about to launch their new app, she “realized that she’d rather build her own rocket ship.” So in 2013, she left law behind and started looking at what tech-enabled solutions were needed in the entertaining space, a huge market lacking any innovation and thus ripe for disruption. After getting her hands dirty and exploring a little bit of everything in the industry — catering, interior design, flowers, weddings — she landed on her current business model which she describes as “Rent the Runway, but for table settings.” The bootstrapped idea launched as a prototype in the Fall of 2016, went nationwide in 2017, and late last year she started raising her seed money, which, according to Liz, “is the hardest thing I’ve done in my life, including taking the California bar exam.” Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Bec Evans, Co-founder of Prolifiko and author of "How to Have a Happy Hustle", and Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, focused on the similarities between the world of writing and publishing and the world of startups. In Bec and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - The traditional, old-school practices of the publishing industry and why change is needed. - How Bec utilized a Lean Startup approach to writing her new book. - Current innovations happening in the publishing world and what the future of publishing looks like. And much, much more… There are few industries as steeped in traditional, old-school practices as publishing. Many of the major publishing houses have been around for tens (if not hundreds) of years and still haven’t really changed their business structures or publishing methods. But for Bec Evans, that just means there’s a lot of potential for things to become a bit more interesting. Bec has spent her entire career working in and around the world of writing and publishing. She was managing a writer’s retreat when she had an idea for an app that would help writers complete their writing projects. By digging into the idea, she became interested in Lean Startup techniques — specifically what it would be like to work in a fast, iterative way — and began working on the app Prolifiko, a productivity tool for writers that helps them start and finish their writing projects. But, she still needed to pay the rent, so Bec took a job working for a publisher. The company knew about her side hustle and got excited about the technology and the different things Bec was trying, so they created a new role for her in their company: Head of Innovation. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Julie Legault and Justin Pahara, Co-Founders of Amino Labs, and Hisham Ibrahim, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, focused on building a product designed to bring biotechnology — an area of science typically only accessible to experts in the field — to non-experts and beginners. In Julie, Justin, and Hisham’s conversation, they discuss: - How they discovered the problem with bringing biotechnology to beginners and how that led to the creation of Amino Labs. - The iterative process they used to build a product that served their customer’s need, not their want. - How they wrote a book about genetic engineering for beginners using an iterative process. And much, much more… When Julie Legault was a masters student at the MIT Media Lab, she was encouraged to try new things and to do things she wouldn’t normally do. So when Justin Pahara’s first startup, Synbiota, put on a workshop about a new technology called synthetic biology, Julie gave it a try. For her, it was a game changer. “I just discovered something amazing and I can make projects with this,” she remembers thinking. She and her fellow grad students got really interested in synthetic biology and all of its applications, so they tried to utilize their new knowledge in MIT’s biotech lab. But that’s where Julie recognized a big problem in the biotech space — there was a huge barrier to entry. If you weren’t an expert, it was very difficult to learn or gain any type of experience in it. Initially embarrassed by her inexperience, Julie turned the idea that there are no tools that allow beginners to get interested in biotechnology into her graduate thesis. She got overwhelmingly positive feedback, so she kept moving forward with the idea. Eventually, it led her to getting back in touch with Justin for his help and expertise in the area. Together, they founded Amino Labs, a company that builds hardware and provides experiences that makes bioengineering accessible to children and non-scientists. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Chris Cochella, Founder & Co-Owner at Brackitz, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, focused on how the desire to find better engineering toys for his son turned into an idea to create a toy to help promote STEAM learning in young children. In Chris and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - What problem drove Chris to start Brackitz. - The process Chris went through to test his early assumptions with his customers (teachers and students). - The importance of letting your curiosity fuel you. And much, much more… Like many new product beginnings, the idea behind Brackitz came out of a personal need. After he started a science program at his kids’ elementary school, Chris Cochella, founder and co-owner of Brackitz toys, realized that there wasn’t a lot of hands-on science or engineering tools available for young children. To Chris, this was a problem. Right now, the National Science Foundation says that the declining interest in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) is a national concern. As Chris was looking more into the issue, he discovered that spatial play and spatial reasoning is a very strong predictor of STEAM related things, including degree attainment and math skill development in children ages three to four. In a world where kids are increasingly on digital devices, how do we get them to willingly put those devices down and start playing more with their hands? Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Dante Vitagliano, Political Consultant at Pinnacle Campaign Strategies, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, focused on how Lean Startup can be used to run political campaigns. In Dante and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - The similarities between startups and running political campaigns. - The 3 major phases in the political process where using a Lean Startup approach can help campaigners. - How to do experimentation and learning inside a political campaign. And much, much more… When it comes to political campaigns, Dante Vitagliano wants to build a better business model. When he and his partners started Pinnacle Campaign Strategies, they set out to solve some of the problems they consistently saw happening in political campaigns. To Dante, applying the Lean Startup methodology to their campaign efforts made sense. “There are so many similarities between the startup landscape and what we as [...] campaign professionals face on the day-to-day,” he says. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Pete Oliver-Krueger, Agile, Lean, and Teal Managing Consultant; Jim Damato, Agile Specialist; and Heather McGough, Lean Startup Co. CEO & Co-Founder focused on how Lean Startup is applied in politics. In Pete, Jim, and Heather’s conversation, they discuss: - Why it’s so important to apply Lean Startup in the political arena and how it can be done. - The key lessons learned from Jim’s former startup, TruthinessCheck, which used crowdsourcing to do fact checking. - The future of innovation in politics. And much, much more… Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Jason VandeBoom, CEO and Founder of ActiveCampaign, and Hisham Ibrahim, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, focused on the importance of leaning into your customers and learning from them in order to grow your business. In Jason and Hisham’s conversation, they discuss: - The importance of letting customer feedback guide the product development - How to scale up while staying close to your customers - The key lessons learned as Jason looks back on the startup story of ActiveCampaign And much, much more… When Jason VandeBoom launched ActiveCampaign in 2003, he wasn’t trying to start a business or grow a company. He was just trying to make some money to pay for college. All of his customers were small businesses and they all started wanting the same thing: to communicate with their customers. At the time, the options for small businesses to implement something like this was somewhat limited. Instead of building one-off tools and products for each company, Jason decided to create a contact management package and sell that instead. “[I had] no idea of what that could be,” Jason says, “and then as someone bought it, I just glued onto them to learn as much as I could.” In fact, for a while, Jason says he didn’t even care about the revenue he was generating. Rather, “all I cared about was the interesting work and ensuring I was providing a ton of value.” His focus on listening to the customers helped him learn a lot about what customers needed and how to add to ActiveCampaign’s product catalogue. So much so that by the end of the first decade his company was up to eight products, all of which impacted a piece of the customer experience. “We learned a lot about each piece,” Jason says, “but the tool didn’t actually matter as much as moving data throughout their entire experience and making that feel like a unified experience.” Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted the first episode of a six-part webcast series we’re doing with Silicon Valley Bank. In episode one, Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, spoke with Theron McCollough, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s Early Stage Practice about the 2019 Startup Outlook US Report they just released. You can read the report here: https://bit.svb.com/2GzYO4e In Theron and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - The challenges that companies are facing in finding and hiring talent - The growing number of women in leadership positions - Why some startups are finding it easier to raise funds - The most promising new technology sectors And much, much more… In 2004, Theron McCollough joined a startup and never looked back. He has remained in the startup space ever since. Now, as the Managing Director of the Early Stage Practice at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), his main job is “just helping startups.” He gets to connect companies and people together and help make the introductions that specifically match with what startup founders are building. “It’s what makes me wake up every day,” Theron says, “and I’m excited to come to work.” In his role at Silicon Valley Bank, one of the things Theron gets to work on is the Startup Outlook Report they release every year. The 2019 report was just released, and Theron was able to share some insights about what the report says about the startup world right now. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Giovanni Rotondo, Film Composer & Editor In Chief at Film Scoring Tips, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, on how Lean Startup methodologies directly translates into working in the world of music and composition. In Giovanni and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - How Giovanni discovered The Lean Startup and began applying it to his work composing music scores - How he applied the MVP concept to a Minimum Viable Cue - How he uses A/B testing to submit work to directors And much, much more… As a film and television composer, Giovanni Rotondo is not in a line of work traditionally associated with startups or Lean Startup initiatives. That all began to change when he joined a startup in London called The Rattle. “[The Rattle] is [both] a career incubator for artists and a startup incubator for musical startups,” Giovanni explains. Initially, he joined as an artist, but Giovanni was intrigued and inspired by the startup culture and started having ideas of his own that applied to the world of music. He shared his idea with the co-owner and co-founder of The Rattle, Chris Howard. Chris suggested the book The Lean Startup to Giovanni. As he was reading it, Giovanni could feel the connection between the startup world and his occupation. “I really [dove] into my mind to see how to apply these concepts to my work,” Giovanni says, “and...I found quite a few ways.” Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation where Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, spoke with Aaron Levy, Founder and CEO of Raise The Bar about the need for better leaders, unlocking potential, and psychological safety in today's shifting marketplace. In Aaron and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - How leaders are made and not born, meaning good leadership is a trainable skill. - The iteration process Aaron went through to develop a product focused on leadership development. - Why an environment of emotional safety is so important and how to create this in your workplace. And much, much, more… Aaron Levy has always been intrigued by human behavior. Specifically why, when we [as humans] know better, why don’t we do better? “People don’t go from knowledge to action,” Aaron says, “and that’s always baffled me.” This observation and led Aaron to study the science of behavior change and how it applied to the world around him. In work and in life, he constantly observed and studied people, both leaders whom he had an opportunity to work with and his friends — that is to say, millennials — who were figuring out their career paths in their respective industries. The latter group led him to notice a curious trend; no matter how much money they were making or how cool their company or office culture was, his friends were all either thinking about leaving their jobs or had left already. After speaking with as many of these people as he could, Aaron got down to the “why?” of it all: that individuals aren’t achieving their best potential despite the fact that both they and their companies want them to excel and succeed. So even though there was an aligned vision between company and employer, there was a big gap, and it all came down to leadership. “The core point of leverage in any organization is your manager,” Aaron says, “and unfortunately most managers suck.” Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Jessica Korthuis, Founder and Chief Brand Strategist at SOHUIS, and Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, to discuss how you can incorporate lean into your marketing and brand strategy. In Jessica and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - What companies should do before making the decision to rebrand. - Tools and exercises that can help you execute a successful brand strategy. - How to validate the brand strategy you implemented actually worked. And much, much more… Jessica Korthuis started her first company with her husband after her corporate dream job was eliminated. She didn’t have a ton of experience helping entrepreneurs brand themselves but she had a lot of experience in marketing communications and a can-do spirit. “We built this super-crappy website and then poof, we just started our first agency,” Jessica said. The agency grew organically to include such clients as TED Women, Red Bull and Stanford University, but was completely bootstrapped. “It was this absolutely scrappy thing,” Jessica said. Through the local business ecosystem in Orlando, Florida she learned about Lean Startup, which is where she got involved in helping entrepreneurs brand themselves using Lean Startup tools. Jessica admitted that she was naive at that early stage of her business, but that was both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, she said, it helped not to know how much work was in front of them, but it was also scary. Her biggest takeaway from starting with so little knowledge is that sometimes the best thing to do is to, “Just start.” Once she was deeper into the process, Jessica saw the value in Lean Startup methods and began to use it, suggesting founders should learn who your early adopters are going to be and determine your minimum viable product (MVP) as early as possible, but “Don’t try to slay the dragon all at once,” she said. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member Elliot Susel, and Aviv Stern, Chief Data Officer at Social Point, a gaming company, to discuss using lean analytics in mobile game development. Don’t have time for the full webcast now? Catch the webcast highlights and tips from their conversation in our companion blog below. Aviv got started working for Fortune 100 companies in a corporate environment in data back when data analytics was called “business intelligence,” he said. No matter what you call it, Aviv said the goal of analytics is finding a way to use data to benefit a business. Aviv praised the Lean Startup method for being intrinsically data driven, a good selling point when you’re trying to convince founders or a small product team to invest in data analytics. “Each of the stages, like build, measure, learn, has integrated into it [a] data-intrinsic approach,” Aviv pointed out. Convincing product development teams to do A/B testing early on—in which you put out two versions of a product or service and see which version is better—can be a challenging battle, Aviv said, so Lean Startup is a great approach to take. Aviv came to Lean Startup after what he called a typical startup experience, “the failing kind” that was also educational. After bootstrapping a data science app for about a year that “we were sure was going to change the world” only to have it fail, it led Aviv to ask how they were developing solutions. “That’s how I found myself really shifting the approach I had…to be much more lean, really focusing very early on validating,” he said. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Kris Newcomer, Executive Director at The Firefly Sisterhood, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, on using Lean Startup methods to launch a successful non-profit as well as make positive changes outside of the business world. In Kris and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - How Kris found The Lean Startup book and then used it to launch The Firefly Sisterhood nonprofit. - How the methodology helped her move forward and make decisions despite not knowing all the information. - How they used “Pivot or Persevere” as they were building their organization. And much, much more… Kris Newcomer is the first to admit that she became the Executive Director of Firefly Sisterhood — a non-profit organization that connects women recently diagnosed with breast cancer with inspirational survivors — by being in the right place at the right time. The idea for the non-profit originally came from an internal competition at General Mills called “The Big Bold Idea.” Yoplait, a brand under General Mills, has always done work with breast cancer, so they pitched an idea called (at the time) “Big Sister, Bigger Sister” which won the contest. But after they got the money to actually begin to build the project, they realized that the idea was too big for them to do it justice internally. That’s when Kris got involved. “I was working for another non-profit and got a call...and [was] asked if I could talk about starting a non-profit.” Those talks eventually led to her being offered the role of founding executive director of the project. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted the third webcast episode of a mini-series we’re doing with Rhapsody Venture Partners on Lean Startup in the hard sciences where we spoke with Jason Whaley from Rhapsody and Chris Thoen, former CTO of Givaudan, the world’s largest flavor and fragrance company and former Managing Director of Open Innovation at Procter & Gamble. They spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member Hisham Ibrahim. In Hisham, Chris, and Jason’s conversation, they discuss: - How to bring the small startup mentality to big corporations - The importance of ambidexterity in leaders so they can maintain the right balance between managing the core business and continuing to innovate - The importance of open innovation in order for companies to grow in today's fast-paced marketplace And much, much more... Chris Thoen spent nearly the entirety of his 32-year career working in science and innovation, and he’s done so while deftly balancing between working for large corporations and small startups - often finding ways to work with both types of companies at the same time. When he was fresh out of college, Chris’ first job was at a small biotech startup in Belgium. It was not only a good transition from University life to professional life, but it was a great introduction to how young companies can really work. But after a few years, he wanted more of a challenge and the ability to continually innovate on new ideas, which led him to his next job at Procter & Gamble. “Essentially every six months you [were] on a new project,” Chris recalls, “You’re doing something different, they’re stretching you as a scientist, or potentially as a manager.” The fast-paced nature of the company suited Chris and he spent the next couple of decades of his career working on projects - big and small - for the company. One of the highlights of his career was working on what he describes as essentially a “startup within the corporation” called Clay Street. For 12 weeks, he and 11 other colleagues from different functions of the organization, worked exclusively on a single project. It’s something that Chris still thinks about fondly. “It was so empowering, so aspirational,” he says. From there Chris went on to lead Procter & Gamble’s Connect and Develop Program - or what he calls their “open innovation program” - where he worked to stretch targets and figure out how to go outside of their own company walls to make new things happen. Most recently, he was the leader of science and technology at Givaudan, the world’s leading flavor and fragrance house. While he was there, he became a founding partner of MassChallenge Switzerland, an accelerator that takes no equity and helps startups hone their business and prepare their pitches for investors. Because, according to Chris, it’s important for large companies to find ways to ensure they continue to re-innovate and reinvigorate themselves with new ideas. “We wanted to link with startup communities to get that stimulus...that boost of energy for our own management team to really see….how other people develop new ideas and novel propositions and how you could work together to bring those ideas to the market.” Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Mark Graban, Author, Professional Speaker, and Consultant, and Marilyn Gorman, Faculty Lead at Lean Startup Co., focused on the importance of metrics and how visualizing data can help foster better learning and more improvement for your organization. In Marilyn and Mark’s conversation, they discuss: - Why you shouldn’t react equally to every uptick or downturn in a business metric. - How to distinguish between signal and noise in metrics and respond accordingly, which includes not overreacting. - How to use “Process Behavior Charts” to make better management decisions. And much, much more... The Lean Startup Conference 2018 is sold out but you can still catch all the keynote talks with our free live stream (Nov 14-16). Sign up here: https://lsp.formstack.com/forms/livestream_registration_2018 For the past twenty years, Mark Graban, author of the book "Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More" and senior advisor to the software company KaiNexus, has been paying attention to how companies and startups use and react to metrics. “Everybody’s got goals and objectives and targets and the action or reaction — or maybe overreaction — that occurs every time there’s an up and down in metrics,” he says, “people feel like they’re taking action, but it might not always be the right action.” Mark believes that it’s important for companies of all sizes — from startups to big corporations — to take a step back and evaluate how they look at metrics. It can be easy for a company to look at the numbers and react to every uptick, downturn or minor change — something Mark likes to call the “noise” in a metric. But he thinks it’s important for companies and individuals to determine whether or not that noise is a meaningful signal or just a standard fluctuation around an average that doesn’t need to be addressed. But, Mark emphasizes, it doesn’t have to be complicated. A lot of companies use metrics to hyper-focus on growth, but what they should be using them for is better learning. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Lars Lofgren, Senior Director of Growth at I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., about implementing lean product development into your organization and how to choose the right value proposition. In Lars and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - How Lars moved the company from a rigid waterfall product development process to a more lean approach. - Why the most important part of the product development process is choosing the right value proposition. - How to choose the right value proposition through customer interviews, surveys, and AB testing. And much, much more… When Lars came on to I Will Teach You To Be Rich, the company was engaged in a waterfall approach to product development where they released a bunch of courses at once and hoped they’d make “a bunch of money,” he said. The process had some hits, but just as many misses, and he knew it was time to make some changes. As his role shifted from generating new leads to product development, he realized that it was important to drive new products to maintain the growth of the company but the process had to be significantly refined toward a lean approach. “I didn’t throw out the entire process,” he explained, “but I did throw out huge chunks of it. Now I’d say 80% of the cycle is completely different even than a year ago.” Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

Our Lean Startup Conference is just a few weeks away, and this week we were lucky enough to host a conversation with one of our keynote speakers, Noam Wasserman, author of the bestselling book The Founder’s Dilemmas, and the author of the new book Life Is a Startup. Noam spoke with Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, Elliot Susel, about the overlap in founder and life lessons and the importance of proactively tackling those issues in our business and personal lives. In Elliot and Noam’s conversation, they discuss: - Why focusing on people decisions is just as important as product. - Key business lessons we can learn from founders and how we can apply those same lessons to our personal lives. - The importance of doing research well. And much, much more… It was still early in his career when Noam Wasserman recognized the importance of focusing on the people around you. He was just starting out as an engineer when he noticed a pattern. “If we focused on anyone besides ourselves….it was the customers, and a key thing is we then neglected to think about the team we’re building with.” Around the same time, Noam came across an article about venture capitalists by Bill Solomon. In the article, Bill found that 65% of startups that failed did so not because of product issues, but because of people problems and tensions between founders. The importance of that statistic stuck with him. In his own experiences as a founder, Noam realized the significance of understanding the people part of the business. Because when it comes to startups, people are just as important as product. In his shift to academia, Noam continued the pursuit of understanding the key areas where founders make fateful decisions — including people decisions — and how they can make better decisions to increase their chances of success. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Sonali Shetty, Entrepreneur & Founder of Kova Digital and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., focused on innovation and why it’s so important to speak to your customers early and often. In Elliot and Sonali’s conversation, they discuss: - The three major types of innovation. - The importance of making it someone’s job in your company to work on innovation. - Why it’s important to speak to your customers early and often to learn about what they want and need. And much, much more… About ten years ago, Sonali Shetty recognized an approaching shift in the way companies could interact with their customers. Apple had just opened the app store, social media was on the rise, and Facebook had opened up their API to third party app developers. All of a sudden, companies could now directly communicate with their customers and client base. It was a new frontier. “I wanted to...educate [startups and corporations] on what this change meant for them and how they needed to prepare for it,” Shetty says. So Kova Digital was launched. At the time, they were a third-party app developer on Facebook. But the digital world took off quickly, and very soon the landscape evolved. Products weren’t just limited to apps, but mobile, web, and IoT came along, as well as algorithms and machine learning. But all this didn’t change Shetty’s focus, it just expanded the ways in which Kova Digital could help their customer base. Shetty likes using the Deng Xioping analogy of crossing a river by feeling the stones. Your goal of crossing the river remains your focus, but you’re feeling your way as you go, stepping on the stones that provide the most solid footing and make the most sense. “We always wanted to be a product innovation company, but we pivoted and modified in the best Lean Startup tradition in terms of what that means,” she says. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Matt Candler, Founder & CEO of 4.0 Schools, and Marilyn Gorman, Faculty Lead at Lean Startup Co., about how lean principles are being used in education. In Marilyn and Matt’s conversation, they discuss: - How early assumptions about what your customers want can hurt your credibility and waste time. - Why it’s important to know the problem you are trying to solve, and then having the courage to experiment in a small way. - The importance of building something for a customer segment rather than a one-size-fits all product for everyone. And much, much more... Seven years ago, 4.0 Schools founder and CEO Matt Candler set out to change the future of schooling. As a lifelong educator, he recognized that innovations in education were few and far between and that the people who were best able to come up with new, groundbreaking ways to reach and teach the students, parents, and members of our communities, were the educators themselves. So 4.0 Schools was created and launched in order to fund and guide educational entrepreneurs and help them launch new charter public schools in the south east. Unfortunately, their efforts didn’t churn out the changes in the system they were hoping to see. “Many of those schools when they first were created were not very different,” says Matt, “they were evolutionary or iterative at best.” But around the same time, a few of Matt’s colleagues asked if they could run an experiment on the side. They wanted to work with teachers in New Orleans (where 4.0 Schools is based) who weren’t ready to quit teaching or launch a new school, but still wanted to try something new. What Matt and his colleagues discovered was a gap between the people who have innovative ideas about the future of school and their ability to do anything about it. So in just the second year of their organization, 4.0 Schools completely changed focus from expensive, year-long fellowships for educational entrepreneurs, to helping craft pilot programs for educators who want to make a difference. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Mikael Cho, Co-Founder & CEO of Unsplash, and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., about how Unsplash put community at the center of their product. In Elliot and Mikael’s conversation, they discuss: - How starting with something small and high quality can lead to something much bigger. - How to encourage your community to participate in your product design. - Why it’s important to make “being useful” your first priority instead of making money. - The importance of trusting your intuition but also seeking feedback. - And much, much more... Co-Founder & CEO of the photo-sharing startup, Unsplash, Mikael Cho, spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Elliot Susel, about how a simple problem with photo access filled the needs of a community of photo lovers. The most successful startups often tap into an unfulfilled need that nobody has gotten around to filling. Unsplash did just that in the photography space. Mikael, who comes from the design industry, saw a problem that needed solving before he ever planned to start a company from the solution. When building the website for his design business, Crew, Mikael quickly realized that finding good photos that didn’t cost a lot of money was “a really crappy process.” He wanted a way to remove the licenses from photos so users could have access to high quality photos without paying a lot or jumping through hoops. The easiest solution was just to take them, themselves. They hired a photographer. Left with a bunch of unused photos after the shoot, Mikael wanted to use them to create a photo-finding experience that would be the opposite of his own bad one. “We made the ideal experience for someone who wanted to use photos, and we could use our own,” he said. With a $9 domain name for Unsplash and a Tumblr theme for $19, they threw up a simple website in three hours with one goal: to upload ten new photos every ten days for anyone who wanted to use them. From there they used public Dropbox links hooked up to a MailChimp newsletter and a Google Docs sign up form. Their website was so simple Mikael says they were actually embarrassed by it and didn’t plan to share it too widely. The only bit of advertising they did was to post a link to Unsplash on Hacker News, a site where they’d never had much success, so if it flopped, it would be no big deal. Instead, what followed, Mikael calls a “happy accident”: tens of thousands of people signed up on their Google Doc and began accessing the photos. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted the second episode on a mini-series we’re doing with Rhapsody Venture Partners on Lean Startup in the hard sciences where we spoke with Jason Whaley, General Partner at Rhapsody and Jeff Uhrig, CEO of Sirrus. Rhapsody is a venture capital firm that specializes in startups in the hard sciences, and Sirrus is a Cincinnati-based developer of novel chemicals that will reduce the time, energy requirements and environmental footprint of many manufacturing processes. They spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Hisham Ibrahim about how they were able to take smart steps to successfully build - and sell - Sirrus in just five years and how believing in themselves is an important part of the process. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Jensen and Elliot focused on taking the leap from a big company to launching a start-up and the differences between those two company cultures. In 2014, Jensen Harris had a conversation with Kieran Snyder about their mutual dissatisfaction with writing software. “Here we are, 40 years into the post typewriter era, and still, all the software [we have] to write [does] the same thing a typewriter did,” he says. So, sixteen years into his career at Microsoft, Jensen Harris decided it was time to set out and try something new: launch his own startup. “Although I loved much of what I was doing...I felt like it was time to make a change,” he says. So Jensen and Kieran decided to go for it. They quit their big corporate jobs and set out to raise seed money for Textio - augmented writing software that uncovers meaningful patterns in language to help you know how your words are going to work and guides you to stronger communication in your writing. “It’s the biggest advance in writing since the computer,” Jensen says. Now three and a half years into their venture, Textio co-founder and CTO Jensen Harris spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member Elliot Susel in a recent webcast about the differences between working for big companies and startups and taking chances to further your career. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Hisham, Aidan, and Carsten about how Lean Startup is applied in the hard sciences. This is part one of a new mini-series we’re doing with Rhapsody Venture Partners. Our first conversation focuses on the startup, Hazel Technologies. Carsten Boers is Managing Partner of Rhapsody Venture Partners, and Aidan Mouat is Co-Founder and CEO of Hazel Technologies. Their two companies meet at the intersection between science and entrepreneurship. Rhapsody is a venture capital firm that specializes in startups in the hard sciences, and Hazel Technologies makes products that improve the shelf life and quality of produce when stored. They spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Hisham Ibrahim about how they work together as “a well-oiled machine,” as Carsten puts it, and the lessons that have emerged from the process. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education/

Gone are the days when Lean Startup was used only by two guys in a garage. The methods have gone mainstream and are being practiced in industries across the globe. To date, our Lean Startup Co. Education Program Faculty have coached more than 30 teams from intelligence agencies including the NSA and NGA. In this webcast, hear from Erin Bugg of the NSA, their Lean Startup Co. coach Marilyn Gorman, and Co-Founder of Lean Startup Co., Heather McGough, who discuss the transformation of the Agency culture around the pillar of innovation. Topics include: getting stakeholder buy-in and challenges in facing bureaucracy, making decisions at speed underpinned by data, delivering value to customers, translating the method across disciplines, and more. Email us: education@leanstartup.CO Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup Follow Department of Defense @DeptofDefense Heather McGough can be reached on Twitter @UrbanitySF www.leanstartup.co/education

Lean Startup Week 2016 Highlights by Lean Startup

We all want to make product decisions backed by good data. But you can’t just A/B test your way to success: Whether you’re just incubating a new project and starting from zero, or you’re spinning wheels feeling mired in too much noise, learn how to leverage empathetic design to find and focus on needs your customers care about – and build exceptional products. Tom Nguyen, Principal at Adobe and co-creator of Adobe Spark, shares real-world examples and actionable best practices to help you apply constraints, powerful stories, and a growth mindset to align your team and spark success for your organization.

Michael Perry, founder of the innovative virtual employee Kit, grew his business from a small team housed in a 200-sq ft space (in the back of a law firm) to a company acquired by Shopify. He leads a dynamic presentation about what it’s been like on both sides of the table.

What happens when a small group of mavericks decide to launch an unauthorized version of Lean Startup inside a huge multinational firm like Cisco? Over 1,100 new organic-growth ideas, including a surprise Shark Tank-like ending. Presented by Steve Liguori, (Founder Liguori Innovation and former GE Exec Director of Global Innovation) with Alex Goryachev (Cisco Senior Director Innovation Strategy and Programs) and Oseas Ramirez Assad (Cisco Senior Manager, Business Development and Innovation Enablement.)

Future-thinking companies are operationalizing diversity of thought and redefining how they harness and retain talent. In this panel, guest speakers from Upwork, Code2040, and Andela debate and discuss the changing work environment with Lean Startup’s Melissa Moore, as well as what they’ve learned as they’ve built their organizations from the ground up. They’ll cover some of the key issues surrounding the future of the workplace, from hiring on-demand talent to providing an environment that allows employees to share their views, opinions, and authentic selves.

The decisions that we make in a given day are driven by numerous cognitive biases designed to save us time and energy. Often, these mental shortcuts serve us well, but occasionally, they lead us astray and drive us to make poor decisions — and this is particularly true about our health. Jawbone’s Kelvin Kwong will discuss the psychology behind decision making and how his team applies behavioral science research to build a product that changes how we move, sleep, and eat.

Lean Change CEO Michel Gelobter leads a panel discussion on what it means to run a non-profit organization or agency of social change with a Lean Startup foundation.

Charles Hudson is an entrepreneur who recently founded his own VC firm. He’ll provide real world perspective on what it means to source funding for your business. He’ll also talk about how his firm, which often invests in very early stage ideas, approaches working with startups.

Automation, innovative management practices, and real-time communication tools are creating new models for skilled work. Every professional relies on software to structure and assist their work, and as that software becomes more intelligent it will gradually play a larger role in day-to-day tasks. Eventually, AI-powered platforms will facilitate complex work (from taxes to lawsuits) as easily as Uber calls a cab. Roger Dickey, the founder and CEO of freelance developer platform Gigster, will discuss how marketplaces and intelligent software can combine to improve and accelerate professional work, while making it more fulfilling, more profitable, and more accessible.

Despite all the moaning and groaning about how difficult it is to bring about constructive change in large organizations, it can and does happen. We tell three true stories of such successful change, all of which were propelled, at least in part, in design thinking methods taught at the Stanford d.school. And none of which were instigated by top executives. The stories that we will tell, dissect, and discuss with the audience are about the San Francisco Opera, JetBlue Airways, and a social services agency called the Golden Gate Regional Center. Each of these interventions resulted in enduring changes that reduce hassles and enhance dignity and delight for employees and customers.

Over the last 10+ years we have seen a number of large enterprises experiencing (near) Kodak moment and struggling to drive growth as they navigate through long term disruption to their business. In this talk Sonja will share learnings from award winning innovation program at Pearson and will outline how principles and practices of Lean Product Lifecycle and active portfolio management can help companies navigate disruption, increase innovation and transform their portfolios and why mindset, leadership and cultural changes are key to success.

The attitude of the team that will work on a startup project is a critical first success factor, way before finding the product/market fit. Through a quick experiment and sharing an analysis of key startup activities, Philippe will demonstrate the value of some specific soft skills of any startup team.

When Salesforce set out to re-design our Core Products, we faced a daunting challenge. To move fast, a cross-functional team worked closely together to define, design, test, and iterate. We will talk about what this collaboration entailed, and lessons learned for design thinking & doing at enterprise scale. Guest speakers: Pratima Arora, Shawna Wolverton, and David Colby (Salesforce).