Lean Startups, Demystified
Today, I gave a presentation at the ALM Summit at Microsoft called Lean Startups, Demystified. The slides are below.
After the presentation, I was speaking with an audience member and realized that I could summarize the whole notion of Lean Startups in just a few words:
In the 2000′s we spent our time figuring out how to build better software with Agile, and now we’re trying to figure out how to build software that people actually want with Lean Startup principles.
Enjoy!
Thanks for the talk today. My question about not forgetting what you learn. My intent with that was to ask about a scenario like this:
You do an AB test and determine that B is better. You then ingrain that into the product, as you suggested. Some new employee comes along and wants to ask the same question.
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So how does the organization remember that they already tested for AB and the answer was B?
Maybe, the answer is, it could have changed so it is fine to test it again. But maybe not. The answer could also be, this is not a big deal in the grand schema of things. If you are iterating fast, the opportunity to forget what you tested increases.
One reason I bring up this point is that I hear from new employees all the time that we have all this “tribal knowledge”. Lean sounds like that will be amplified. Thoughts?
Tim
31 Jan 13 at 11:36 am
@Tim
I hear you…effectively, this model exacerbates an exiting problem for retaining and distributing tribal knowledge.
I’ve experienced this same problem myself. I’ve never really worked at solving it, but it sounds like a real problem that needs to be addressed.
I know there are lots of companies out there that try to do knowledge management. I’ve never studied that sphere, but I wonder if bloggers in that world have ideas about how to address this problem.
Thanks for bringing up a very good point!
scottporad
31 Jan 13 at 11:44 am