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Workshop: Lean Analytics with Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz
Workshop: Lean Analytics with Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz by Eric Ries
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Workshop: Lean Analytics with Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz
By sarahm on Sep 13, 2012 06:29 am
Thispost was co-written by Eric Ries and Sarah Milstein, co-hosts of The Lean StartupConference.
If you’ve been following along at home, wehope you’ve noticed that this year The Lean Startup Conference will be a two-dayaffair, with top-quality workshops on December 4. Gold and Platinum Passes get you into the workshops, and we’ve conducted a series of shortinterviews with the workshop leaders to give them a chance to share their insights with the broader community.
“Lean Analytics: Using Data to Build a Better Startup Faster” will be led by Alistair Croll, a serial entrepreneur andthe author of three books on web performance, analytics, and IT operations, andBen Yoskovitz, author of the Instigator Blog and VP Product at
.
The two are co-authors of the forthcoming
book.
Whataspect of Lean Startup methods most inspires you?
Alistair:
The one advantage of a disruptor is they have nothing to lose—no rules tofollow, no risks to consider—compared to the big, incumbent organizationsthey're trying to replace. So what I like is that it focuses on fast iterationand learning, which provides an asymmetric advantage to the underdog. It levelsthe playing field. Lean favors the entrepreneur who can ask the right question,rather than guess the best answer.
Ben:
For me, it's the idea that you can be diligent and disciplined in your approachto building a company (as opposed to wandering around aimlessly, hoping you'llhit the mark) without losing your big vision and the dreaming that you have todo as an entrepreneur. Lean startup isn't intended to "suck the life"out of entrepreneurship; quite the opposite--it helps guide you through theprocess, and provides the foundation for achieving bigger goals, more quickly.
Whatmakes it hard for companies to implement this process?
Alistair:
All entrepreneurs need some amount of reality distortion just to get out of bedin the morning. But that also means they lie to themselves, and they develop anemotional attachment to the things they're building. They're necessarily proudof them, committed to them. Yet creating a startup is fundamentally adestructive act: killing a particular feature; stopping a clever campaign thatisn't working; ignoring a market segment because it's too soon.
In many ways, Lean Startup isn't aboutbuilding a product—it's about building a tool to show you what product tobuild. Along with creating the product itself, entrepreneurs have to create theinstrumentation that makes the product a learning machine, and that requires alot of focus. It's a lot easier, and certainly feels more heroic, to "wingit." But a methodical, persistent approach is the better choice if youcare about building something people actually want.
Ben:
For starters, it's hard. Discipline of any kind is hard. Any of us that havetried to get into an exercise routine post Thanksgiving or Christmas holidayscan attest to that. It's also very early still--the ideas, concepts andprinciples of Lean Startup are still taking shape and being molded.Unfortunately, people look too quickly--like the next fad diet--for the perfectanswer. Of course there isn't a perfect answer, there isn't an absoluteformula. It just doesn't work that way.
Whatwill people take away from your workshop?
Alistair:
We'll share some basic business models that most startups will recognize, andlook at what's "normal" for those models, so entrepreneurs have abaseline against which to compare themselves. And we'll spend time talkingabout the many case studies—and cautionary tales—we've learned from companieswe've worked with and interviewed. Attendees will learn how to keep score, whento step on the gas, and when to rethink the fundamentals of their business.
Ben:
I hope they'll gain a new appreciation for metrics and how to wrestle them intosomething meaningful and valuable. Almost everyone understands that metrics areimportant, but we want to provide some narrowly focused ideas around how to usemetrics, and how to think about metrics in order to succeed. Ideas like The OneMetric That Matters or the Penny Machine go a long way to making analyticsapproachable, and giving people the confidence to jump into their own numbersand tease out the value.
Here’s video of Alistair in action at arecent Ignite show, talking about why tomorrow, serendipity will be for therich.
Here’s Ben speaking about his life as an engineer.
Here are two reasons to register today: 1)space for the workshops is limited; and 2) we have a block of early-bird ticketson sale right now. When this block sells out, the price goes up. Register nowfor a Gold orPlatinum Pass to attend the workshops.
