Slides from talk at Lean Startup Brighton event 'Applying lean: Tips, techniques & stories' Nov 21st, 2012, The Skiff

1. 10 things wot I
learnt about
lean startup
It’s f*****g hard, that’s for sure!
Laurence McCahill, Spook Studio

2. First, a bit of
background

4. we
startups

6. Why go
Lean?

7. “Life’s too short to build something
nobody wants” Ash Maurya, Spark59

8. Waterfall = fail?
Chart by @lfittl

9. Agile/lean=wiggle it!
Chart by @lfittl

11. “At least 2/3 of our ideas are never going
to work. The other 1/3 will take 3/4
iterations to get right” Marty Cagan

12. Lean startup cycle

13. Lean UX cycle

14. Key principles of
lean

15. Test your
assumptions

16. Focus on
customer needs

17. Reduce cycle
times

18. More facts,
less intuition

19. Less documenting
more doing

20. Right action
right time

21. So, onto my
lean learnings…

22. 1
RFPs suck!
(requirements =
hypotheses)

23. “I don’t care how smart you are.
Every design solution you put out there
is a hypothesis.” Jeff Gothelf, Neo

24. 2
Egos and lean
don’t mix well

25. © rhonda_liberman

26. It’s not about
you anymore
© rhonda_liberman

27. 3
Context
changes
tactics

28. Startup prioritizer
What’s most important for your startup?
There’s a finite amount of resource available

29. 4
Balanced teams
make better
products

30. business
design technology

31. 6
Cust dev is hard
(& founders
should do it)

32. “Customers don’t care about your solution.
They care about their problems.”
Dave McClure, 500 Startups

33. 7
Bad news
gets worse the
longer you leave it

34. “How can I bounce my ideas off the
market cheaper and faster?”
Rob Fitzpatrick, Dex.io/FounderCentric

35. 8
Opinions = guesses
(& the founder
always wins)

36. "Success is not delivering a feature;
success is learning how to solve the
customer's problem.” Mark Cook, Kodak

37. 9
MVP
≠ minimum
viable pants

39. 9
1 metric
that matters beats
100 that don’t

40. “Vanity metrics make you feel good but
don’t offer clear guidance on what to do.”
Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

41. 10
It’s ain’t no
silver bullet
(nor cheap/fast!)

43. In summary:
How to get
it right…

44. 1
Rip up the spec
and host a
workshop

45. 2
Biz, design & tech
around the
same table

46. 3
1
Decide on
key priorities
from day 1

47. 4
Work with
people you like
(that trust you)

48. 5
Kill your ideas
before you
build them

49. 6
Talk with
customers
throughout

50. 7
Don’t guess, learn
(there are no answers in
the boardroom!)

51. 8
Make your MVP
minimum
awesome

52. 9
Find your
one metric
that matters

53. 10
Own the process
don’t let it
own you

54. Lean
© alykat
anyone?

55. There are tons of
tools out there…

57. But if you only
use one…

58. The lean canvas

59. Some further
reading

61. www.welovelean.com

62. Thanks!
Laurence McCahill
@welovelean