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Workshop: Validate with Janice Fraser & Laura Klein
Workshop: Validate with Janice Fraser & Laura Klein by Eric Ries
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Workshop: Validate with Janice Fraser & Laura Klein
By sarahm on Sep 10, 2012 06:39 am
Thispost was co-written by Eric Ries and Sarah Milstein, co-hosts of The Lean StartupConference.
As we explained last week, we havestellar workshops scheduled for December 4--the second day of The Lean Startup Conference. Because the workshops require a bigger commitment (you need a Gold or Platinum Pass to attend), we wanted to give you more information about what youcan expect. Herewith, then, is the first in a series of interviews with ourworkshop presenters.
“Validate Your Learning Engines” will beled by Janice Fraser, Founder/CEO of LUXr, and Laura Klein, Director of Product& UX at One Jackson--both authors of forthcoming books on Lean UX. We asked them a few questions to help you get insidetheir heads. Here’s what they said:
Whataspect of Lean Startup methods most inspires you?
Janice:
Reframing ourgut instincts as “a hypothesis I'm working with right now.” It honors theinstincts that every entrepreneur has, but also gives us permission to be wrongand explore other possibilities.
Laura:
I love the fact that everything ismeasurable. Making everything a measurable hypothesis means that we can see theimpact that design and usability have on the bottom line of the business. Thisnot only helps the company and the users, but it helps us become betterdesigners, and it also justifies money spent on UX.
Whatmakes it hard for companies to implement this process?
Janice:
There is no process yet! Lean Startup isa way of thinking, and right now everyone has to sort of figure out a processon their own. I'm glad to be part of an active community that's figuring outhow to put Lean Startup into practice.
Laura:
The most frequent problem I've run intois the desire by engineers to have some criteria by which they can considersomething “done.” Nothing's ever “done” in Lean. We iterate and learn. I can'ttell you before you start work on a project what the exact acceptance criteriaare going to be, because everything depends on how the user reacts to thechanges. There's also, I think, still a fundamental misunderstanding of Lean insome circles. There's the belief that Lean means cheap or not well designed. Ifyou don't understand the methodology, you obviously can't implement itwell.
Whatwill people take away from your workshop?
Janice:
Laura and I are both SUPER PRACTICAL. Participantswill leave equipped with specific, concrete techniques for doing betterexperiments, getting more out of their time with customers, and measuring theright things more effectively.
Laura:
You're going to learn practical, hands-onmethods for validating hypotheses quickly and efficiently. You can't be leanunless you know how to validate and measure. We're going to give you specificdirections for how to do that. We're also going to show you some incrediblyhelpful design techniques that will let you respond to your user research andcreate a product that customers love.
To show you Janice and Laura in action,we’ve grabbed some past talks for you to check out. Here's
on Crushing theBoulder: User Experience and the Lean Startup. And here's
at Startup Lessons Learned 2010 called But What About Design? (Laura’s at farright.)
Here are two reasons to register today:1) space for the workshops is limited; and 2) we have a block of early-bird tickets on sale right now. When this block sells out, the price goes up.Register now for a Gold or Platinum Pass to attend the workshops.
