Decisions Posts

A few friends seem stuck in that luxurious rut: too many options. It inspired a section for Decision Hacks:

Our ability to spot opportunities is limited by our intentions, even when we’re trying to be scientific.

Why a lot of startup experiments mislead us into believing customers don’t care.

Seems we’re getting rusty with technique, instead letting ourselves get caught up in process and tools.

"Releasing your potential is a very dangerous idea. You should stay away from your potential. You'll mess it up."  - Dylan Moran Self-improvement is a dirty ...

Whether it’s negotiation, mediation or even international politics, we know it’s important to first seek to understand the other side. When launching a busin...

Exploration, pitching and concierge are 3 common experiment categories in the startup world.  Often these are incorrectly seen as steps, but they’re not. Thi...

At the early stage of CustDev - Customer Discovery - you’re seeking a commercial opportunity that shows strong market pull. This type of discovery happens mu...

Customer Development might be a process, but conversation is a skill.   Particularly, getting the information you want depends on your skill in controlling t...

Ever caught yourself spinning your wheels on a decision, letting it hold you back from progress? We see this all the time with startups since so many decisi...

When I told a table full of biologists about Lean Startup, one asked, “doesn’t that mean you’re taking the creativity out of entrepreneurship?” I replied, “...

The business benefits of Agile and Lean are often misunderstood.  I’ve seen this lead to painful attempts.

Lean Startup’s great strength is that it evolves – it shows its practitioners what really works and what doesn’t. This makes Leancamp work - Leancamp creates...

When it comes to business models, a lot of founders tend to copy blindly. It used to be SaaS and Freemium, now it’s marketplace and co-creation. Yet the busi...

tl’dr Improve the frequency & quality of strategic decisions using a lightweight recording system.

"If you already think you are a great singer and a well-happening front person, we have a problem. It means you will have the sort of ego that will render it...

Since the first Leancamp, it’s been clear it built community.  The problem has been that it is more expensive than a Barcamp, so the sponsorship model has be...

You don’t need numbers to understand many important dynamics in accounting.

Always choose the option that minimizes the total time through the feedback loop. – Eric Ries

tl;dr Split-testing doesn’t verify your numbers, it only verifies which option is better. If one of the options tested is a clear winner, you’ll know with sm...

While mentoring at Lean Startup Machine London, I covered one of the most fundamental concepts in Customer Development, the 5 characteristics on an Earlyvang...

via ow.ly When you think a customer group will have a specific problem that's painful enough that they're already looking for a solution, you can val...

I use FiveSecondTest.com to test landing pages before I build them. It shows a mockup of your page to random people for 5 seconds, then lets you ask them que...

</param></param></param></embed> There’s a dangerous myth about market positioning that can keep you from seeing true customer needs...

Cover via Amazon A product designer from LKIC’s Tycoon Bootcamp approached me for help determining the price for his new product, and getting it to market. ...