1. Lean Startup
Product Teams
Janice Fraser
April 2013

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3. TWEET!
@clevergirl
#LeanStartup
cc @LUXRCO
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4. June & Pete’
s
Wedding Cake
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5. Pete June
http://saptstrength.com/
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6. April
May
June
July
August
http://saptstrength.com/
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7. sedonaweddingcakes.com
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8. freebestpictures.blogspot.com
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9. thekitchn.com
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10. Zoe Clark, The Cake Parlour
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11. sedonaweddingcakes.com
Zoe Clark, The Cake Parlour
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12. LEAN
Startup
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13. LEAN
Startup
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14. Build
measure
learn!
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16. Lean Startup is NOT
Cheap Startup
Fast Startup
Shortcut Startup
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17. Lean Startup is...
An approach for building companies that are
creating new products and services in
situations of extreme uncertainty.
The approach advocates creating small
products that test the entrepreneur’s
assumptions, and using customer feedback to
evolve the product, thereby reducing waste.
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18. 1. List your assumptions.
2. Understand your customers.
3. Experiment efficiently.
4. Adjust direction based on evidence.
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19. Lean Startup advocates experiments & learning
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20. Go backward to go forward.
Learn Build
Measure
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21. Think of it like this...
TDD
Test-driven product management
A Lean Startup is a test-driven
COMPANY
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22. Victory is
measured in
learning.
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23. RISK = UNVALIDATED EFFORT
Plot the difference
MAKE
release
MAKE
release
MAKE release
THINK
TIME
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24. RISK = UNVALIDATED EFFORT
Lots of little wiggles
TIME
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25. Each wiggle is a learning cycle.
RISK = UNVALIDATED EFFORT
MEASURE
MAKE
BUILD release
BUILD
TIME
LEARN
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26. This will change
how you think
about your role,
your work, your
team, your process.
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28. Principles for Lean Startup Teams
1. Team first, then product.
2. PM + Dev + UX = 1 Product Team
3. Work out loud.
4. Make processes repeatable, then routine.
5. Don’t get stuck in your happy place.
6. Invest in clarifying the problem.
7. Drive toward goals and measure outcomes.
8. Ideas are cheap. Have a lot of them.
9. Decide quickly. Hold decisions lightly.
10. Don’t carry the past.
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29. Team first,
then product
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30. Team first,
then product
• Not just who’s on the team, but how
they work together (no ninjas, gurus,
rockstars!)
• Invest time in developing productive
relationships
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32. Chris Min
10 years as CEO, Wharton MBA,
Silicon Valley trained

33. Burning
social capital
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34. Team first,
then product
• Not just who’s on the team, but how
they work together (no ninjas, gurus,
rockstars!)
• Invest time in developing productive
relationships
• Continuous process improvement
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35. Why does this matter to
Lean Startups?
• Most of your decisions as a team, as
a company, will be wrong.
• Flexible teams can solve almost any
problem.
• A trusting team wastes little time on
pettiness, hurt feelings, arguments
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36. Lean Startup teams believe in...
(from Lean Manufacturing and Extreme Programming)
Simplicity
Courage
Trust
Process
Continuous Improvement
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37. The Influence of Agile
“The courage to speak truths,
pleasant or unpleasant, fosters
communication and trust.
“The courage to discard failing
solutions and seek new ones
encourages simplicity.
“The courage to seek real,
concrete answers creates
feedback.”
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38. If you get the
team right, you’ll
find your way to
the right product.
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39. Don’t carry the past.
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40. © LUXR.CO APRIL 2013

41. Tom Conrad
Grew Pandora from 10 people to IPO
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46. Pandora-Style Planning
• Whole company (up to 6 ppl), every 60 or 90 days.
• Ahead of the meeting, everyone submits requests to the CEO/
CTO, with the prompt “We would be stupid not to…”
• Submit each idea as a slide, with a headline and a few bullet
points to explain.
• 70-100 items. CEO/CTO de-duplicates and assigns a $-value that
represents the amount of effort
• “Dollars” are created in an amount that represents current
capaticy, divided equally among the 6 participants.
• Day-long working session to “shop” for the most important items.
• Chuck the unfunded. Group the fully funded, nearly funded,
radically under-funded.
• Discuss and bargain until you have a set of fully funded items.
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47. Yesterday...
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49. WHICH LEADS US TO
Icebox Zero
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50. Icebox Zero
• User stories go stale after 60 days.
• Rewrite as high-level objectives and put
those into the 60-day planning process.
• When the high-level objectives are
“funded”, rewrite the stories...better,
stronger, more relevant, based on
newest learning and metrics.
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51. Thank you!
happiness@luxr.co
#LeanStartup
cc @LUXRCO, @clevergirl
© LUXR.CO APRIL 2013