What are you scared of?

Finding yourself stood in front of Eric Ries can be somewhat daunting. You have the opportunity to ask a question to, arguably, the leading light in the field of Lean Startup. As soon as you start speaking, though, the guy stood behind you in the queue starts getting restless. So, you better make it a good one!

I was unable to attend the Business of Software in Boston last month so was excited to see that Eric was doing a whistle-stop talk last night at TechHub, London. After a, not too inconvenient, train and tube journey I found myself in a vibrant room packed with budding entrepreneurs. The 'formal' part of Eric's talk was mostly content that I'd already seen online, so no major surprises there. What always makes these events unique, though, is the interaction with the people that turn up. The Q and A hand-raising session was very busy but I did manage to talk with Eric afterwards. Here's what I asked him:

Imagine you're back at IMVU circa 2004, but this time you know what you know now. You've created a Minimum Viable Product for just one Instant Messaging network that's already getting good traction. Geoffrey Moore would have probably suggested that you capture your beachhead in that first IM. Would you agree with that or would your next move be to create an MVP for each IM?

As is often the case in this field there was no short, definitive answer! What follows is paraphrased.

Eric: "What are you scared of?"
Me: "Uh, nothing. I'm an entrepreneur creating a startup - by definition am I not fearless?"
Eric: "No. What's your biggest fear?"

Without any prepared answer for this one I said "Well, probably someone else copying us". Eric rocked back, head shaking "No." I got the impression that he hears this 'wrong answer' often.

The gist of Eric's response was that I needed to look at my assumptions. I'd assumed that because my product 'works' for one social network that it will automatically be greeted in the same manner on all the other networks. The way you reassess these assumptions is to do more measuring against hard targets e.g. I'm currently at 10, I think I can get to 20 by time t. If the increments are 10, 12, 14... you're probably gonna make it, but if they're 10, 11, 11.5... you might have a problem. Testing your worst fears early is key.

MBAs are seen as a hindrance in the startup world, but the remainder of Eric's lesson to me did seem to cross a chasm into this territory. The basics of the Lean Startup are pretty straight forward: iterate through 'the loop' as quickly as you can and learn what works. Simple. Once you get into the guts of it, by talking with Eric, it starts sounding a whole lot more complicated. If I wanted an MBA I would have studied for one. I like my vision of the startup as having less politics, less overheard and, by extension, less rigor; but, again, this is an assumption.

I am, however, extremely grateful for the way Eric makes you question all of your assumptions - sometimes to the point of your own existence!

So, what is my biggest fear? After some considerable thought I think it's that people won't like what I do. I fully agree with Eric's observation that the best way to utterly deject developers is to have them spend time and energy creating something only for it to never see the light of day. Lean helps us avoid wasting everyone's time and for that, alone, it is worth pursuing.

If Klingons Wrote Software

I like Star Trek. Not in a uniform-wearing, funny handshake, cross-to-the-other-side-of-the-street-to-avoid-me kind of way; but I like it and I do seem to be able to remember a lot of details from it. For instance: when Klingons go into battle they assume that they are already dead. If they survive it's a bonus and if they do actually die then, well, it was expected so no surprise. This is the way we should be developing software and it has a name - "Lean Startup".

I've written a lot of applications targeting all manner of media and platforms - but they all had the same sentiment: "If we only get this right, everyone will buy it". I now think this is wrong. What we should be thinking is "This is a pile of crap and no-one's gonna buy it".

"What?! You mean we should actual aim to fail?"

No.

What I mean is this: if you assume that your software is probably worthless then this changes the way you write it. Your job now becomes "I'm probably gonna fail, so how do I fail quickly?". Eric Ries talks about failing products not equating to failing companies.

So, your business plan becomes "I have a lot of ideas for products. One of them might succeed. How do I quickly discover which one that is without wasting time and money on those that no one is interested in?"

What does this mean in practice? Here's a small sample list:

1. Minimum Viable Product. Get it out there! It'll be crap, but do it and do it quickly.
2. Measure everything. How do you know which parts of your application people are interested in if you don't capture that information?
3. Smoke Tests. See how many people click on the fake 'Buy It Now' button. That tells you more than any theoretical pricing model or traditional market research.
4. Pivot. You might have the basis of a great idea. Don't be fixated on what you think it should do - listen to your users.

The Lean Startup movement has radically changed how I develop software and it's not just for startups. Any project, even in the enterprise, that has a level of uncertainty will fit this model.

For more information check out Eric Ries' blog.