How I do customer development interviews
Customer development interviews are one of my favorite things to do. I really like learning about people’s lives even though what I learn most often is that my ideas or my client’s ideas are wrong. My style is very casual and conversational. I deliberately avoid anything that might make them feel like they are a research subject […]
“MVP” a great and greatly confused concept
I’ve written before about how words have different meanings to people. One word that seems to be particularly tricky is “MVP.” There seems to be a disconnect between the lean community and the larger market. What the Lean Gurus Say Eric Reis, author of The Lean Startup, coined the term and explains it this way […]
The scrappy guide to customer development recruiting
If you want to build a product that people want, you need to talk and test with people, lots of people and on a regular basis. This is going to take a serious, ongoing recruiting effort. Sometimes you can buy your way out of this problem by using a vendor. But money and time are not […]
The Outsourced Innovation Colony
This was originally published on Product Development Success Medium and enterprise companies are working hard to stay competitive and avoid being overturned by startups that are more innovative and nimble. They are trying innovation labs, incubators, accelerators, and when all else fails, buying companies outright. One option for fueling innovation in large companies is the […]
Most popular posts of 2014
I started at 3Pillar Global January 2, 2014 created this site as a way for me to capture what I’ve learned and I’ve learned a lot. How teaching skiing makes me better at UX and product management Using tests to make prioritization easier Rules of prototyping engagement To crash, burn and rise again stronger My […]
What is Product-Market Fit and why should I care?
I try to avoid lean/startup jargon when I’m talking with customers so we don’t get confused with terms that are not used consistently. Confusion over “MVP” usually gives me a headache. But if a customer is familiar with lean, agile, design thinking, etc… I will use the jargon to show my knowledge of the concept while […]
Balancing Authority and Empathy
I live in the scary place between idea and execution. Where either really good things can happen or not so good things. Below the surface my clients are usually some mix of excited and scared. The come looking for guidance on the way forward and empathy for the stress of uncertainty. It’s a delicate balancing […]
My article about Prototyping on Sticky Minds
I’m happy to announce Sticky Minds published my article “Why Prototyping First Leads to Better End Products” this week. Posts on this blog inspired the article. We’ve learned a lot in working with clients and even the most mature product organizations get a lot of value out of prototyping. In the article I talk about […]
Scale is a problem you WANT to have
My friend Sean and I were talking about a company we both know and he told me, “scale is a problem they want to have.” He was so right. It’s really easy to get excited about an idea, plan your glorious future and only want to invest in building for scale. Scale is a problem you […]
You really should go to Lean Startup Machine
If you’ve ever thought about becoming an entrepreneur or you work in product you should definitely go to Lean Startup Machine. I had an amazing experience mentoring the teams and witnessing their evolution was amazing. Thank you to Peter, Kevin and Brian for all your hard work to put on the event The participants for your […]