Your job as an innovator is to discover a product and model that works before you run out of time and money. 9 out of 10 new products fail. So fail faster, fail cheaper. So use Fast Innovation with Lean + UX + Agile to iterate and pivot your product and model to success. Join us for a half day workshop on January 20th, 2012 to experience what fast innovation can do for you.

Pathfinder Software’s Amy Willis (UX) Bernhard Kappe (Products Strategy) and Reid MacTavish (Agile Development) share their lessons learned in using lean+ux+agile to deliver software products that customers want and will pay for.

They’ll cover:

• Pragmatic Marketing and Lean Startup- which is right for you?
• Lean UX – Design as the differential gear between customer development and agile development
• How to run a successful inception
• It’s never too early for metrics and analytics
• Agile practices and pitfalls
• Continuous deployment and A/B testing
• Team composition and how to hire

If you’d like to join us, you can rsvp here: http://pathfinderleanux.eventbrite.com/

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Lean + UX + Agile.

Lean Startup, User Experience Design and Agile Development are all approaches to improve your odds of creating successful products. Are they mutually exclusive, or can you assemble them together to make a lean, mean product machine?

In November Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe, Amy Willis and Reid MacTavish gave a sold out talk at the Chicago Product Management Association to share their lessons learned in making products with Lean + UX + Agile methodology. We have produced a video of the event including the slides with a narrative voice over for your enjoyment. If you’d like to view the presentation on slideshare, you can do so here.

We’re extending this into a half day workshop on January 20th that goes into practical details on how to make lean startup work.

We will cover:

• Pragmatic Marketing and Lean Startup- which is right for you?
• Lean UX – Design as the differential gear between customer development and agile development
• How to run a successful inception
• It’s never too early for metrics and analytics
• Agile practices and pitfalls
• Continuous deployment and A/B testing
• Team composition and how to hire

If you’d like to join us, you can rsvp here: http://pathfinderleanux.eventbrite.com/

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How To Do Customer Interviews.

In November Pathfinder CEO Bernhard Kappe and Broker Savant’s Todd Wyder gave a talk on how to do problem and solution interviews at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle.

Too many entrepreneurs follow the “Field of Dreams” approach to product development. As entrepreneurs we hear a little voice in our head, and it says “if you build it, they will come”.

Maybe the voice is right. Maybe it is wrong. Either way interviewing your potential customers will give you significant insight into developing your product or service if you ask the right questions. The difference between asking questions, and asking the right questions is huge. Asking the right questions can make all the difference. You can build the the most innovative, technically sound product imaginable, but unless you validate that the product is something that consumers want all your effort is pointless.

Watch this video to avoid the critical mistakes that most first timers make, and get the most out of your interviews.

Customer interviews are a critical step in the lean startup methodology. Get them right, and you’re on the way to increasing the chances of your new ventures success. Get them wrong, and you’re likely to wander in the wilderness until you run out of time and money.

We’ve also put the presentation on Slideshare: How to Do Customer Interviews

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In September I did an interview with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle.

Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe Interviews Eric Ries on the Lean Startup.

Eric was in fine form – funny, engaging, with self deprecating humor, great stories and insights. If you’re involved in innnovation, either at a startup or a large organization, I think reading the book and watching the video will be great food for thought.

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photo credit: codepo8

RIM is putting the remaining stock of it’s BlackBerry Playbooks on clearance for $299. This is after HP engaged in a rummage sale of both it’s new and refurbished WebOS tablets. What are buyers running on the hacked devices? That’s right, Android.

That’s now two major players who have thrown up their hands rather than compete. For Microsoft it means a long uphill climb against two established competitors. Nokia won’t help MS much here, once Android squishes their existing phones out of the developing world marketplace.

So what will MS have to do to establish a toehold? One or both of two things:

1. Hope that their aspirationally dubbed phones really are "super" and have something that people really can’t live without. Teleportation?
2. Are able to run Android apps out of the box but offer some better functionality or experience than the Android devices.

Given that MS hasn’t set the world on fire with it’s previous mobile product development efforts (is anyone doing real customer research over there?), I wouldn’t hold my breath.

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Congratulations to SoapBox, the winner of the first annual Chicago Lean Startup Challenge, for an excellent presentation and execution of the lean startup ideals.  They’ve created a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, that gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension in real time.  Now students have the ability to ask questions digitally, without the embarrassment of raising their hand, and teachers have a tool to understand their students comprehension in real time.  Our fantastic sponsors provided $75,000 in cash and prizes to SoapBox  and our other finalists to continue their endeavors.

A Great Group of Finalists

A special thank to our finalists ScoutmeCoach, Farmfixe, Travel720, and all of this years participants. It was incredibly hard to pick a winner with the high level of competition.  The agility, ingenuity and persistence all of our finalists demonstrated on Thursday night was awe-inspiring.  These fantastic founders made great progress over the 3 months of the challenge, and we are eager to see how their companies continue to evolve. 

Making a Difference

We created theChicago Lean Start Up Challenge to teach Chicagoland founders how to practice the lean startup method in order to create a wave of lasting startups in the Chicagoland area. Based on the presentations by our finalists, the first season was an overwhelming success.  Our finalists showed not only a great depth of knowledge, but the value of developing a idea based on reality, not assumptions.  Each of our finalists developed their original idea based on actual feedback from their target customers, be they teachers, organic farmers, college coaches, travelers, students, or even strangers at the grocery store.  This feedback allowed each team to modify their original assumptions, and rapidly evolve their business model based on the reality of the market place.

Crain’s Chicago had a nice feature on the event last week as well, so it seems we’re making something of a wider impact.

The 2012 Lean Startup Challenge

In true lean startup fashion, we’re gathering lessons learned from this year’s competition and applying them to make next year’s contest even better.  If you want to keep up to date on next year’s contest, or are interested in applying, join the Lean Startup Challenge mailing list.

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In September of this year, Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe and Broker Savant’s Todd Wyder organized the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge. It’s the opposite of a business plan competition.   Instead of creating huge documents and proformas based on assumptions, contestants spend ten weeks making meaningful progress on their business based on real market feedback.

On October 1st, 146 startups answered the call, and entered “The Challenge”.  The teams have spent 10 weeks running experiments validating their business models and building their companies.

Out of this group, they’ve picked the four leanest, meanest startups to tell their story and pitch our judges for $75,000 in cash and prizes.

These are the finalists:

FarmFixe helps local foodies discover and buy the best local artisanal foods. In doing so, FarmFixe helps local food producers find new customers and develop impactful brands.

travel720 is focused on providing funding solutions to students and travelers who want to study/volunteer/work abroad.  We help the traveler earn their trip through through creating a budget & savings plan, then fundraise money through upcoming gift giving occasions (e.g. birthday, holiday, graduation) – turning gifts into educational experiences that are shared with family & friends!

SoapBox is a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, and gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension, in real time.

ScoutMeCoach connects college coaches with student athlete prospects so they can recruit while they sleep. Say goodbye to filling out lengthy profiles and say hello to a more timely and cost effective recruiting experience, in a few clicks.

Who will be crowned the Lean Startup Champion, and collect $75,000 in cash and prizes? 

Come to the finals on Thursday, December 15, and watch the four finalist pitch to a panel of judges and a select audience of 250 entrepreneurs and investors. Network with other entrepreneurs and investors over beer and wine, listen to 4 fantastic pitches, and ask the finalists your own questions while they are on the hot seat in real time via twitter.

The Sponsors

This competition would not have been possible without the help of our sponsors. In addition to Pathfinder, those sponsors include:

• The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship at Northwestern
• The Pritzker Group
• Stevens & Associates
• Lean Launch Lab
• Walker Sands Communications
• Braintree
• Code Academy
• KISSMetrics
• Unbounce
• Illinois Launch
• Joone Studios
• VentureSHOT
• TechNexus
• TechWeek
• Snap Engage
• Heroku
• Built In Chicago
• Technori
• Tech.li

About the Lean Startup Challenge

The Lean Startup Challenge is the opposite of a business plan competition.   Instead of creating huge documents and proformas based on assumptions, contestants spend ten weeks making meaningful progress on their business based on real market feedback.

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Interaction with today’s touch interfaces feels numb and yet it seems that device manufacturers are steadily adopting that design solution. I deeply empathize with Bret Victor’s description of “picture under the glass” effect in his article “A brief rant about the future of interaction design“.

I’d like to inquire about the motivs behind why did the “picture” end up “under the glass” and what is an alternative.

Enabling enabling

To start, I am curious to hear what do you do with your smartphone and tablet. Please tell me.

On my smartphone, I:

1. Look for driving directions
2. Send and read messages
3. Check my bank balance.

Yet my smartphone enables me to do so many more things. I find that to be a failure of design to a degree.

Let me put it in a user story:
As a smartphone user, I don’t want to be distracted by all the possibilities that I can use the smartphone for because it’s a waste of time.

With a knife, I cut. Having a knife in a drawer enables me to cut things in my kitchen. Nobody ever blames a knife for not being able to integrate with GitHub. It’s design is complete by the nature of its purpose.

I can use a knife as a door stoper, per say, but that is clearly not its purpose which we can conclude from its design.

Problem with “picture under the glass” design is that it is devoid of purpose – by design.

We are supposed to add the purpose by buying an app that fits our need. In order for a multitude of apps to work using the _same interface_, it needs to be very flexible. iPad design achieved this by making the interface entirely absent and therefore ulitmately maluble.

It seems to me that we spend so much time on the enabling part that we forget to do.

Out of the box

We are already enabled to do a lot of things. Like compute. Our brain is fantastic at computing. The span of movement we can perform is astaunding. We can talk, read and write! These are all amazing capabilities!

So we all have a lot of great things going for us out of the box. Before adding more capabilities to our list, we should ask the question “What am I doing with what I already have?”.

Infinite loop

If we don’t ask that question, we put ourselves in a infite loop of increasing our potential for when we _might_ need it. While it seems like a good idea, one can spend a lifetime of enabling and not _do_ anything.

This situation is humorously described by Joel Spolsky in the article “Why I hate frameworks“.

The Future

My vision of the future of interaction design is about making tools that allow us to _focus_ on the purpose of our action.

That action should not come through a compromise of having a plethora of options that I _might_ use. That action should be the razor’s edge of it purpose.

Would you rather eat your steak with a steak knife or a swiss knife?

In the future of interaction design, I see devices created with their purpose hard coded into them. I see software that doesn’t have configuration options. I see people having the balls to stand behind their design. And if it fails, throw it in the garbage, note lessons learned and make a new one.

Hard coding a purpose into an object requires determination that stems from the belief in its purpose which liberates us to create an _uncompromising_ design solution.

Otherwise we shoudn’t waste our time when we can go dancing instead.

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In September of this year, Todd Wyder and I organized the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge. It’s the opposite of a business plan competition.   Instead of creating huge documents and proformas based on assumptions, contestants spend ten weeks making meaningful progress on their business based on real market feedback.

On October 1st, 146 startups answered the call, and entered “The Challenge”.  After 8 weeks of accelerated experimentation we are down to 10 semi-finalists. After December 8th only the four finalists will remain.  

Who will be crowned the Lean Startup Champion, and collect $75,000 in cash and prizes? 

Come to the finals on Thursday, December 15, and watch the four finalist pitch to a panel of judges and a select audience of 250 entrepreneurs, and investors. Network with other entrepreneurs and investors over beer and wine, listen to 4 fantastic pitches, and ask the finalists your own questions while they are on the hot seat in real time via twitter.  

This event will sell out, so if you want to be a part of the biggest lean start up even of the year, sign up today.   

The Semi-Finalists

myTalentloops

A new site that’s going to revolutionize the way human capital and opportunities are introduced, matched and placed. Whether you are a talent candidate or a talent seeker you will gain a commitment while saving time and money.

ScoutMeCoach

Connects college coaches with student athlete prospects so they can recruit while they sleep.

Say goodbye to filling out lengthy profiles and say hello to a more timely and cost effective recruiting experience, in a few clicks.

travel720

We help get your trip started, then turn your travel experiences into a gift registry.

SideStax

Connects your book to the power of online media, while preserving your reading experience. Our ebooks expand on what you’re reading, let you browse without leaving the comfort of your book and provide an intuitive system for navigating enhanced ebooks.

Vreaze

Making it easy to promote your vacation rental through social media

SoapBox

Is a controlled digital space, designed to improve student engagement by breaking down the barriers students face when deciding whether or not to participate in class, and gives teachers a concrete assessment of student comprehension, in real time.

myeuphoria.me

Myeuphoria is a mission driven Social Events Search Engine that provides responsive and efficient methods to promote social events by using a combination of marketing techniques to make your social event better and more desirable for the consumer. Let party for a Cause!

Property Panda

Developed to give landlords of all sizes the ability to minimize the time spent on their investment property while still maintaining a strong level of control. Property Panda gives property owners the tools to process applications electronically and safely including credit and eviction checks.

farmfixe

Is redefining local food, members gain access to our inspired selections of artisanal food.  

RedRadius

The team at Red Radius is working hard to come up with a comprehensive, user friendly tool to help Medical Science Liaisons properly Identify and Establish relationships with key opinion leaders.

Who will win?  Join us on the 15th to find out.

Our Sponsors

We’re very grateful to our sponsors without who’s support we would not be able to put on the Chicago Lean Startup Challenge:

• The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship at Northwestern
• The Pritzker Group
• Pathfinder Software
• Stevens & Associates
• Lean Launch Lab
• Walker Sands Communications
• Braintree
• Code Academy
• KISSMetrics
• Unbounce
• Illinois Launch
• TechWeek
• Snap Engage
• Built In Chicago
• Technori
• Tech.li

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Last week I gave a talk at the Chicago Product Management Association together with Pathfinder Software’s Amy Willis and Reid MacTavish on the lessons we’ve learned in integrating Lean Startup, User Experience Design and Agile Development. Here are the slides from the talk – a video recording will follow soon.

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