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Workshop: Lean Startup in the Enterprise with Giff Constable, Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
Workshop: Lean Startup in the Enterprise with Giff Constable, Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden by Eric Ries
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Workshop: Lean Startup in the Enterprise with Giff Constable, Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
By sarahm on Sep 20, 2012 11:41 am
Thispost was co-written by Eric Ries and Sarah Milstein, co-hosts of
On December 4at The Lean Startup Conference, three of New York's top UX designers will lead a workshop we're really excited about, Lean Startup in the Enterprise. We hope our Q&A here with two of them here today gives you a taste of their sensibility and what youcan expect from their session. Gold and PlatinumPasses get you into the workshops, and this one is particularly suited topeople who are implementing Lean Startup ideas is established companies.
Coincidentally, NewContext—the presenter of this year’s Lean Startup Conference--announced todaythat these designers, all of them founders of Proof, have joined their company. The crew comprises: Jeff Gothelf, author of the upcomingO'Reilly book Lean UX: Getting Out of theDeliverables Business; Josh Seiden, who was previously the program directorfor LUXr’sNew York City practice, was responsible for design at Liquidnet,and is a founder and past President of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA);and Giff Constable, who has built and marketed consumer applications, games, andenterprise software for many of the biggest companies in the world.
Joshand Jeff answered some questions for us this week:
Whataspect of lean startup methods most inspires you?
Josh:
I'm reallyinspired by the customer development angle of Lean Startup. As a designer, myfocus has always been on helping teams see value through the eyes of the user.It's exciting for me that the Lean Startup community shares this definition ofvalue.
Jeff:
The ability toget a realistic look at our proposed ideas much earlier than ever before. Also,the role of the customer in the process makes the focus of the effort about them—what works best to solve theirneeds—as opposed to what is best for those involved in the business.
Whatmakes it hard for companies to implement this process?
Josh:
So manycompanies measure employee productivity by measuring output. How many lines ofcode did you write? Did you deliver the specification on time? But theseoutputs do not create value. It takes a big shift in management culture toallow teams to pursue value directly—in other words, to measure teams based onthe outcomes of their work.
Jeff:
Lean teams needmany lines of support from their organizations but the most important one isthe freedom to experiment and fail. Without that, the entirebuild/measure/learn loop collapses into a sea of red tape and CYA activities.Teams need to know that it's safe for them to run experiments, learn from thoseand then run some more. This freedom is new to many managers who are used totraditional command-and-control styles of management. Lean teams cannot bemicromanaged.
Whatwill people take away from your workshop?
Josh:
We're reallyexcited by the potential of Lean Startup in the enterprise, and we know lots ofother folks share that enthusiasm. We'll be sharing case studies andtechniques, and we expect a lively discussion with others who are putting thesemethods into practice. This is going to be a very responsive session, so we'rehoping that folks come ready to ask questions and share lessons.
Jeff:
Attendees ofour workshop will hear case studies from the enterprise about how otherorganizations have tackled the challenges of implementing Lean Startup and whatthe outcomes were. In addition, we will open the floor to a conversation withour attendees to get a sense of where they're struggling, what's worked/failedfor them and sources for their inspiration. Attendees will take away a tacticallist of tools and techniques to start implementing these ideas in theirorganizations the next day.
Giff,Jeff and Josh are all popular speakers. These videos should give a sense ofwhy. Here’s Giff on “Excuses, Excuses, Excuses."Jeff on “Demystifying Design."Josh on “Replacing Requirements with Hypotheses."
Ifyou’re thinking about registering for The Lean Startup Conference, bear in mindthat we’re selling early-bird tickets in blocks. When this block sells out—as ofthis posting, the current block is nearly gone--the price goes up. Register nowfor a Gold orPlatinum Pass to attend the workshops!
