The document discusses the concept of product/market fit and how it is essential for startup success. It describes how startups must find a widespread set of customers that resonate with their product. It also discusses how the market can pull successful products out of startups in a great market with potential customers. The document then discusses how the Five Whys technique can be used to make incremental investments to evolve a startup's processes gradually by tying investments directly to preventing the most problematic symptoms and discovering the root causes of problems. An example is provided of how Five Whys was used to develop a member training system at SkyNet Stanford by addressing problems and making proportional investments at each level of the hierarchy.
Bundledarrows170 bit.ly/stanfordstartupscamp370
bit.ly/foundersguide415z
To identify the best amateur artisans savants, OAC built sophisticated technology to rate the skill of each market manager, using techniques employed by the most sophisticated evaluators of market managers.
Bundledarrows170 bit.ly/stanfordstartupscamp370
bit.ly/foundersguide415z
To identify the best amateur artisans savants, OAC built sophisticated technology to rate the skill of each market manager, using techniques employed by the most sophisticated evaluators of market managers.
Review of the book 'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries. Entrepreneurs can use these concepts in a variety of businesses both new and old. Great group conversation to explore how a variety of people can use the methodology.
Eric Ries sllconf keynote: state of the lean startup movementEric Ries
Presentation by Eric Ries to kick off the 2011 Startup Lessons Learned conference #sllconf. Livestream here: http://www.justin.tv/startuplessonslearned
For the uninitiated, the Lean Startup methodology is a practice for developing products and businesses based on 'validated learning', getting customer feedback quickly and often. The objective is to eliminate uncertainty in the product development process.
There is a disconnect between what brands want and agencies deliver. Download the FREE 40 page report Reconsidering the Advertising Industry and learn how agencies can bridge this gap (go to: http://tinyurl.com/55cs9o)
https://www.mappfia.com/
A minimum viable product (MVP) is something that has just about
enough features that satisfy your early customers and prove that
there's a demand for your product, giving you confirmation it's
actually worth building.
The Analytics Stack Guidebook (Holistics)Truong Bomi
Chapter 1: High-level Overview of an Analytics Setup
Chapter 2: Centralizing Data
Chapter 3: Data Modeling for Analytics
Chapter 4: Using Data
+++
Trích lời Huy - tác giả cuốn sách, co-founder & CTO của Holistics
+++
"Làm thế nào để thiết kế hệ thống BI stack phù hợp cho công ty mình?"
Có bao giờ bạn được công ty giao nhiệm vụ set up hệ thống BI/analytics stack cho công ty, rồi đến khi lên mạng google thì tá hoả vì mỗi bài viết, mỗi người bạn khác nhau lại khuyên bạn nên sử dụng một bộ công cụ/công nghệ khác nhau? ETL hay ELT, Hadoop hay BigQuery, Data Warehouse hay Data Lake, ...
Rồi bạn thắc mắc: Thiết kế một hệ thống analytics stack như thế nào là phù hợp với nhu cầu hiện tại của công ty mình? Làm thế nào để bắt đầu nhanh nhưng vẫn có thể scale được (mà không phải đập đi xây lại) khi nhu cầu dữ liệu tăng cao?
Thay vì chín người mười ý, bạn ước giá mà có 1 tấm bản đồ (map) có thể giúp bạn định vị được trong thế giới BI/analytics phức tạp này. Một tấm bản đồ cho bạn thấy các thành phần khác nhau của mỗi hệ thống BI là gì, lắp ráp nó lại như thế nào, và tradeoff giữa các cách tiếp cận khác nhau là sao.
Well, sau 2 tháng trời cực khổ thì team mình đã vẽ ra tấm bản đồ đó trong hình dạng một.. cuốn sách:
"The Analytics Setup Guidebook: How to build scalable analytics & BI stacks in modern cloud era."
Cuốn sách là một crash-course để bạn có thể trở thành một "part-time data architect", giúp bạn hiểu được rõ hơn về landscape analytics phức tạp hiện nay.
Sách giải thích high-level overview của một hệ thống analytics ntn, các thành phần tương tác với nhau ra sao, và đi sâu vào đủ chi tiết của những thành phần cũng như best practices cuả nó.
Cuốn sách được viết dành cho các bạn hơi technical được nhận nhiệm vụ phụ trách hệ thống analytics của công ty mình. Bạn có thể là một data analyst đang làm BI, software engineer được kêu qua hỗ trợ làm data engineering, hoặc đơn giản là 1 Product Manager đang thắc mắc sao quy trình data công ty mình chậm quá...
Cuốn sách cũng có những phần chia sẻ nâng cao như Data Modeling, BI evolution phù hợp với các bạn đã có kinh nghiệm làm BI lâu đời.
9 Indicators That Prove That Your Innovation Programme Will FailBoard of Innovation
On the basis of our experience with corporate clients, we collected 9 indicators that signal that something is going wrong + 13 clear actions to take!
https://www.boardofinnovation.com/blog/2017/05/29/9-indicators-that-prove-your-innovation-program-is-failing/
Review of the book 'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries. Entrepreneurs can use these concepts in a variety of businesses both new and old. Great group conversation to explore how a variety of people can use the methodology.
Eric Ries sllconf keynote: state of the lean startup movementEric Ries
Presentation by Eric Ries to kick off the 2011 Startup Lessons Learned conference #sllconf. Livestream here: http://www.justin.tv/startuplessonslearned
For the uninitiated, the Lean Startup methodology is a practice for developing products and businesses based on 'validated learning', getting customer feedback quickly and often. The objective is to eliminate uncertainty in the product development process.
There is a disconnect between what brands want and agencies deliver. Download the FREE 40 page report Reconsidering the Advertising Industry and learn how agencies can bridge this gap (go to: http://tinyurl.com/55cs9o)
https://www.mappfia.com/
A minimum viable product (MVP) is something that has just about
enough features that satisfy your early customers and prove that
there's a demand for your product, giving you confirmation it's
actually worth building.
The Analytics Stack Guidebook (Holistics)Truong Bomi
Chapter 1: High-level Overview of an Analytics Setup
Chapter 2: Centralizing Data
Chapter 3: Data Modeling for Analytics
Chapter 4: Using Data
+++
Trích lời Huy - tác giả cuốn sách, co-founder & CTO của Holistics
+++
"Làm thế nào để thiết kế hệ thống BI stack phù hợp cho công ty mình?"
Có bao giờ bạn được công ty giao nhiệm vụ set up hệ thống BI/analytics stack cho công ty, rồi đến khi lên mạng google thì tá hoả vì mỗi bài viết, mỗi người bạn khác nhau lại khuyên bạn nên sử dụng một bộ công cụ/công nghệ khác nhau? ETL hay ELT, Hadoop hay BigQuery, Data Warehouse hay Data Lake, ...
Rồi bạn thắc mắc: Thiết kế một hệ thống analytics stack như thế nào là phù hợp với nhu cầu hiện tại của công ty mình? Làm thế nào để bắt đầu nhanh nhưng vẫn có thể scale được (mà không phải đập đi xây lại) khi nhu cầu dữ liệu tăng cao?
Thay vì chín người mười ý, bạn ước giá mà có 1 tấm bản đồ (map) có thể giúp bạn định vị được trong thế giới BI/analytics phức tạp này. Một tấm bản đồ cho bạn thấy các thành phần khác nhau của mỗi hệ thống BI là gì, lắp ráp nó lại như thế nào, và tradeoff giữa các cách tiếp cận khác nhau là sao.
Well, sau 2 tháng trời cực khổ thì team mình đã vẽ ra tấm bản đồ đó trong hình dạng một.. cuốn sách:
"The Analytics Setup Guidebook: How to build scalable analytics & BI stacks in modern cloud era."
Cuốn sách là một crash-course để bạn có thể trở thành một "part-time data architect", giúp bạn hiểu được rõ hơn về landscape analytics phức tạp hiện nay.
Sách giải thích high-level overview của một hệ thống analytics ntn, các thành phần tương tác với nhau ra sao, và đi sâu vào đủ chi tiết của những thành phần cũng như best practices cuả nó.
Cuốn sách được viết dành cho các bạn hơi technical được nhận nhiệm vụ phụ trách hệ thống analytics của công ty mình. Bạn có thể là một data analyst đang làm BI, software engineer được kêu qua hỗ trợ làm data engineering, hoặc đơn giản là 1 Product Manager đang thắc mắc sao quy trình data công ty mình chậm quá...
Cuốn sách cũng có những phần chia sẻ nâng cao như Data Modeling, BI evolution phù hợp với các bạn đã có kinh nghiệm làm BI lâu đời.
9 Indicators That Prove That Your Innovation Programme Will FailBoard of Innovation
On the basis of our experience with corporate clients, we collected 9 indicators that signal that something is going wrong + 13 clear actions to take!
https://www.boardofinnovation.com/blog/2017/05/29/9-indicators-that-prove-your-innovation-program-is-failing/
Uitleg over het uploaden van foto's naar Wikimedia Commons voor deelnemers aan een fotodag over leerlooierijen in Rijen, Noord-Brabant. De fotodag vond plaats op zaterdag 23 april, de uitleg over het uploaden was op dinsdagavond 17 mei 2016.
De instructie richt zich vooral op het gebruik van Creative Commons licenties en het indelen van de foto's in de juiste categorieen
Deze fotodag en instructieavond werden georganiseerd in het kader van het project Wikipedia in de Openbare Bibliotheek
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Wikipedia_in_de_Openbare_Bibliotheek/Theek5
Deze presentatie is ook beschikbaar op Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Uitleg_fotos_uploaden_naar_Wikimedia_Commons-OBTheek5-Rijen_OJ_17052016.pdf
Marketing y rentabilidad en canales de distribucionAlejandro Roca
Distintos estudios anticipan una inquietante visión de hacia dónde va el sector hotelero en el año 2017: la oferta se sigue incrementando, plataformas como Airbnb siguen incrementado su posicionamiento en determinado segmento de mercado y la ocupación muestra ya signos de debilidad. La búsqueda de la rentabilidad, es ahora si cabe ante este panorama, mucho más importante.
The "Genesis: Idea Stage" ebook explains the phase where the journey starts for every startup: the idea stage. This eBook is the first part of the "Startup Master Class" series covering the idea, problem/solution fit, product/market fit and scaling stages.
Learn the key things a successful startup needseTailing India
Starting a business is hard. There are many reasons why small businesses fail, even if they have a great product or service and plenty of funding. According to a study by ShikharGhosh, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, as many as 95% of startup companies never see their projected returns on investment. So, what are the keys to startup success and how can you know if a startup is likely to succeed?
Chapter 7 MEASURE At the beginning, a startup is little more than .docxmccormicknadine86
Chapter 7 MEASURE
At the beginning, a startup is little more than a model on a piece of paper. The financials in the business plan include projections of how many customers the company expects to attract, how much it will spend, and how much revenue and profit that will lead to. It’s an ideal that’s usually far from where the startup is in its early days. A startup’s job is to (1) rigorously measure where it is right now, confronting the hard truths that assessment reveals, and then (2) devise experiments to learn how to move the real numbers closer to the ideal reflected in the business plan. Most products—even the ones that fail—do not have zero traction. Most products have some customers, some growth, and some positive results. One of the most dangerous outcomes for a startup is to bumble along in the land of the living dead. Employees and entrepreneurs tend to be optimistic by nature. We want to keep believing in our ideas even when the writing is on the wall. This is why the myth of perseverance is so dangerous. We all know stories of epic entrepreneurs who managed to pull out a victory when things seemed incredibly bleak. Unfortunately, we don’t hear stories about the countless nameless others who persevered too long, leading their companies to failure.
WHY SOMETHING AS SEEMINGLY DULL AS ACCOUNTING WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE People are accustomed to thinking of accounting as dry and boring, a necessary evil used primarily to prepare financial reports and survive audits, but that is because accounting is something that has become taken for granted. Historically, under the leadership of people such as Alfred Sloan at General Motors, accounting became an essential part of the method of exerting centralized control over far-flung divisions. Accounting allowed GM to set clear milestones for each of its divisions and then hold each manager accountable for his or her division’s success in reaching those goals. All modern corporations use some variation of that approach. Accounting is the key to their success. Unfortunately, standard accounting is not helpful in evaluating entrepreneurs. Startups are too unpredictable for forecasts and milestones to be accurate. I recently met with a phenomenal startup team. They are well financed, have significant customer traction, and are growing rapidly. Their product is a leader in an emerging category of enterprise software that uses consumer marketing techniques to sell into large companies. For example, they rely on employee-to-employee viral adoption rather than a traditional sales process, which might target the chief information officer or the head of information technology (IT). As a result, they have the opportunity to use cutting-edge experimental techniques as they constantly revise their product. During the meeting, I asked the team a simple question that I make a habit of asking startups whenever we meet: are you making your product better? They always say yes. Then I ask: how do you know? I invar ...
The biggest problems facing marketers today is how to drive business amidst the rapidly changing environment. This presentation details the effects of limitless media on consumers, their changes in their desires, and how to systematically build marketing programs to drive demand in the infinite media landscape.
Product-Startup-Founders-Rulebook-atc.pdfDarryl Jose
A quick guide for founders on the rules to follow when building a startup. Here are some mistakes you can avoid and be successful much faster.
The goal in mind for this rule book is to help startup founder learn some of the best practices and avoid costly mistake early on in their journey.
Design and production of a series of thought leadership ebooks for Agility Works. Content by ROMI consulting, design and development by BHD Creative Ltd
10 things founders should always remember. What started as a simple question became a year-long weekend project as I dug deep and pulled from past experiences, situations I've witnessed, and examples I've seen. I also referenced some of the best books I've read over the years that have helped shape how I operate and partner with founders. I built this "Top 10 Startup Tips for Founders" deck to capture some of my takeaways. It was much more difficult as I had so many other wandering thoughts that didn't get captured here, but I needed to start somewhere! After receiving much encouragement and support from my network, I'm sharing this current version openly with the startup community. Please take a look, and feel free to circulate to those you think can benefit from this.
The 8 Things Everyone Should Know About Startup FundingWilly Braun
Startup funding is not intuitive: you invest large amounts of money in companies that have proven very little, with a really high rate of failure.
At first glance, it is even total nonsense financially speaking: you put money in companies that have no profit AND don’t plan to pay dividends before *long* (hello Amazon) while not being liquid either (you can’t sell the stocks easily since they are not publicly listed).
So it is very normal that this topic raises questions. Our goal here is to share the underlying lessons and assumptions of VC when they look at a startup.
Sanjib Sahoo, CTO of tradeMONSTER, tells the the story of his startup rising to become Barron's #1 ranked trading platform by using effective leadership, fearless organization culture, recruiting the right people agile development and open source technology.
Similar to Bundledarrows200 http://bit.ly/skynetstanfordapi (20)
Bundledarrows180 bit.ly/stanfordstartupscamp307
bit.ly/teamcaptainsguild
bit.ly/foundersguid415z
The critical first question for any lean transformation is: which activities create value and which are a form of waste? Once we understand this distinction, we can begin using lean techniques to drive out waste and increase the efficiency of the value-creating activities. For these techniques to be used in OAC, they must be adapted to the unique circumstances of entrepreneurship.
Bundledarrows160 bit.ly/teamcaptainsguild
Only 5 percent of entrepreneurship is the big idea, the business model, the whiteboard strategizing, and the splitting up of the spoils.
The other 95 percent is the gritty work that is measured by innovation accounting: product prioritization decisions, deciding which customers to target or listen to, and having the courage to subject a grand vision to constant testing and feedback.
Bundledarrows150
bit.ly/teamcaptainsmanagmentcampsv
bit.ly/foundersguide415z
This is the kind of Storytelling that takes place at most startup board meetings.
Most Milestones are built the same way: hit a certain product milestone, maybe talk to a few customers, see if the numbers go up.
Unfortunately, this is not a good indicator of whether a startup is making progress.
How do we know that the changes we’ve made are related to the results were seeing?
More important, how do we know that we are drawing the right lessons from those changes?
To answer to these kinds of questions, OAC has a strong need for a new kind of accounting geared specifically to disruptive innovation.
That’s what innovation accounting is.
#table13sf
Before we move into the details of each phase, we need to understand who is going to be doing the work of Customer Development?
The Customer Development Team 100
bit.ly/oacpopupcalendar
bit.ly/foundersguide415z
bit.ly/ezculture415z
New Tax Regime User Guide Flexi Plan Revised (1).pptx
Bundledarrows200 http://bit.ly/skynetstanfordapi
1.
2. #sanfranciscofxr 24.74 cubic inches
From left: Arthur Davidson, Walter Davidson, William Harley and William Davidson.
Marc Andreessen, the legendary entrepreneur and investor and one of the fathers of
the World Wide Web, coined the term product/ Market fit to describe the moment
when a startup finally finds a widespread set of customers that resonate with its
product.
In a great market-a market with lots of real potential customers-the market pulls
products out of the startup. This is the story of search keyword advertising, internet
auctions, and TCP/IP routers. Conversely, in a terrible market, you can have the best
products in the world and an absolutely killer team, and it doesn’t matter-you’re going
to fail.
When you see a startup that has found a fit with a large market, it’s exhilarating. It
leaves no room for doubt. It is Ford’s Model T flying out of the factory as fast as it
could be made. Facebook sweeping college campuses practically overnight, or Lotus
taking the business world by storm, selling $54 million worth of Lotus 1-2-3 in its first
year of operation.
3.
4. 7.07 cubic inches
http://bit.ly/strawberryballersmtv
Since each engine of growth can be defined quantitatively, each has a unique
set of metrics that can be used to evaluate whether a startup is on the verge
of achieving products/ market fit. A startup with a viral coefficient of 0.9 or
more is on the verge of success. Even better, the metrics for engine of growth
work in tandem with the innovation accounting model discussed in C7 to give
direction to a startup’s product development efforts.
For example, if a startup is attempting to use the viral engine of growth, it can
focus its development efforts on things that might affect customer behavior-on
the viral Loop-and safely ignore those that do not. Such a startup does not
need to specialize in marketing, advertising, or sales function. Conversely, a
company using the paid engine needs to develop those marketing and sales
functions urgently.
5. Getting a startup’s engine of growth up and running is hard enough, but the
truth is that every engine of growth eventually runs out of gas. Every engine is
tied to a given set of customers and their related habits, preferences,
advertising channels, and interconnections. At some point, that set of
customers will be exhausted. This may take a long time or a short time,
depending on one’s industry and timing.
C6 emphasized the importance of building the minimum viable product in such
a way that it contains no additional features beyond what is required by early
adopters. Following that strategy successfully will unlock an engine of growth
that can reach that target audience. However, making the transition to
mainstream customers require tremendous additional work. Once we have a
product that is growing among early adopters, we could in theory stop work in
product development entirely. The product would continue to grow until it
reached the limits of that early market. Then growth would level off or even
stop completely. The challenge comes from the fact that this slowdown might
take months or even years to take place.
6.
7. Circa 1903
http://bit.ly/1800boroughz
(founded by William S. Harley, Arthur Davidson, Walter Davidson and William A.
Davidson)
Some unfortunate companies wind up following this strategy inadvertently. Because
they’re using vanity metrics and traditional accounting, they think they are making
progress when they see their numbers growing. They falsely believe they are making
their product better when in fact they are having no impact on customer behavior. The
growth is all coming from and engine of growth that is working-running efficiently to
bring in new customers-not from improvements driven by product development. Thus,
when the growth suddenly slows, it provokes a crisis.
This is the same problem that established companies experience. The past successes
were build on a finely tuned engine of growth. If that engine runs its course and growth
slows or stops, there can be a crisis if the company does not have new startups
incubating within its ranks that can provide new sources of growth.
8. Companies of any size can suffer from this perpetual affliction. They need to
manage a portfolio of activities, simultaneously tuning the engine of growth
and developing new sources of growth for when the engine inevitably runs its
course. How to do this is the subject of C12. However, before we can manage
that portfolio, we need an organizational structure, culture, and discipline that
can handle these rapid and often unexpected changes. We call this an
adaptive organization, and it is the subject of C11.
9.
10. The SkyNet Stanford training program involves organically out of a
methodical approach to evolving our own process. This process of
orientation is subject to constant experimentation and revision so that it
grows more effective-and less burdensome-overtime.
We call this building an adaptive organization, one that automatically adjust
its process and performance to current conditions.
So far SkyNet has emphasized the importance of speed. Startups are in a
life-or-death struggle to learn how to build a sustainable business before
they run out of resources and die. However, focusing on speed alone would
be destructive. To work, startups require build-in speed regulators that help
teams find their optimal place of work
11. We saw and example of speed regulation in C9 with the use of the andon
cord system such as continuous deployment. It is epitomized in the
paradoxical proverb, “Stop production so that production never has to stop.”
The key to the andon cord is that it brings work to a stop as soon as an
uncorrectable quality problem surfaces-which forces it to be investigated.
This is one of the most important discoveries of the lean manufacturing
movement: we cannot trade quality for time. If we’re causing (or missing)
quality problems now, the resulting defects will slow us down later. Defects
cause a lot of rework, low morale, and customer complaints, all of which
slow progress and eat away at valuable resources.
The higher-quality of the existing playbook is, the easier it will be for it to
evolve over time. By contrast, a low-quality playbook will be filled with
contradictory or ambiguous rules that cause confusion when anything is
changed.
12.
13. When we teach the lean SkyNet approach to members with an engineering
background, this is one of the hardest concept to grasp. On the one hand, the
logic of validated learning and the minimum viable product says that we should
get a product into members hands as soon as possible and that any extra work
we do beyond what is required to learn from members is waste. On the other
hand, the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop is a continuous process. We
don’t stop after one minimum viable product but use what we have learned to
work immediately on the next iteration.
Sephora, Short Cuts taken in product quality, design, or infrastructure today
may wind up slowing a company down tomorrow.
14. However, as our learning allows us to build products that members do want, we
face slowdowns. Having a low-quality product can inhibit learning when the
defects prevent members from experiencing (and giving feedback on) the
product’s benefits. In SkyNet’s case, as we offer the product to more
mainstream members, they will be much less forgiving than early adopters have
been. Similarly, the more features we add to the product, the harder it becomes
to add even more because of the risk that a new feature would interfere with an
existing feature. The same dynamics happen in a service business, since any
new rules may conflict with existing rules, and the more rules, the more
possibilities for conflict. SkyNet uses this techniques to achieve scale and
quality in a just-in-time fashion.
To accelerate, SkyNet needs a process that provides a natural feedback loop.
When we’re going too fast, we cause more problems. Adaptive processes force
us to slow down and invest in preventing the kinds of problems that are
currently wasting time. As those preventative efforts pay off, we naturally speed
up again.
15.
16. Let’s return to the question of having a training program for new members.
Without a program, new members will make mistakes while in their learning
curve that will require assistance and intervention from other team members,
slowing everyone down. How do we decide if the investment in training is
worth the benefit of speed to reduce interruptions?
Figuring this out from a top-down perspective is challenging, because it
requires estimating two completely unknown quantities: how much it will cost
to build an unknown program against an unknown benefit we might reap.
Even worse, the traditional way to make these kinds of decisions is decidedly
large-batch thinking. A company either has an elaborate training program or it
does not. Until they can justify the return on investment from building a full
program, most companies generally do nothing.
17. The alternative is to use a system called the Five Whys to make incremental
investments evolve a startup’s processes gradually. The core idea of Five
Whys is to tie investments directly to the prevention of the most problematic
symptoms. The system takes its name from the investigative method of
asking the question “Why?” five times to understand what has happened (the
root causes). If you ever had to answer a precocious child who wants to know
“Why is the sky blue?” and keeps asking “Why?” after each answer, you’re
familiar with it. This technique was developed as a systematic problem-solving
tool by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System. We have
adapted if for use in the lean SkyNet model with a few changes designed
specifically for SkyNet Stanford.
18.
19. At the root of every seemingly technical problem is a human problem. Five
Whys provides an opportunity to discover what that human problem
might be. Taiichi Ohno gives the following example:
When confronted with a problem, have you ever stopped and ask why five
times? It is difficult to do even though it sounds easy. For example,
suppose the machine stopped functioning:
1. Why did the machine stop? (There was an overload and the fuse blew.)
2. Why was there an overload? (The bearing was not sufficiently
lubricated.)
3. Why as it not lubricated sufficiently? (The lubrication pump was not
pumping sufficiently.)
4. Why was it not pumping sufficiently. (The shaft of the pump was worn
and rattling.)
5. Why was the shaft worn? (There was no strainer attached and metal
scraps fell in it.)
20. Repeating “why” five times, like this, can help uncover the root problem and
correct it. If this procedure were not carried through, one might simply
replace the fuse or the pump shaft. In that case, the problem would reoccur
within a few months. The Toyota production system has been built on the
practice and evolution of this scientific approach. By aksing and answering
“why five times, we can get to the real cause of the problem, which is often
hidden behind more obvious symptoms.
Note that even in Ohno’s relatively simple example the root cause moves
away from a technical fault (a blown fuse) and toward a human error
(someone forgot to attach a strainer). This is completely typical of most
problems that startups face no matter what industry they are in. Going back
to our service business example, most problems that are at first appear to
be individual mistakes can be traced back to problems in training or the
original playbook for how the service is to be delivered.
21.
22. Let us demonstrate how using Five Whys allowed us to build the member
training system that was mentioned earlier. Imagine that at SkyNet
Stanford we suddenly start receiving complaints from members about a
new version of the product that we have just released.
1. A new release disable a feature for members. Why?
Because that particular server failed.
2. Why did the server fail? Because an obscure subsystem was used in
the wrong way.
3. Why was it used in the wrong way? The engineer who used it didn’t
know how to use it properly.
4. Why didn’t he know? Because he was never trained.
5. Why wasn’t he trained? Because his manager doesn’t believe in
training new engineers because he and his team are “too busy.”
What began as a purely technical fault is revealed quickly to be a very
human managerial issue.
23.
24. Here’s how to use Five Whys analysis to build an adaptive organization:
constantly make a proportional investment at each of the five levels of the
hierarchy. In other words, the investments should be smaller when the
symptom is minor and larger when the symptom is more painful. We don’t
make large investments in prevention unless we’re coping with large
problems.
In the previous example, the answer is to fix the server, change the
subsystem to make it less error-prone, educate the engineer, and yes, have a
conversation with the engineer’s manager.
That’s why the proportional investment approach is so important. If the outage
is a minor glitch, it’s essential that we make only a minor investment in fixing
it. Let’s do the first hour of the eight-week plan. That may not sound like
much, but it’s a start. If the problem reoccurs, asking the Five Whys will
require that we continue to make progress on it. If the problem does not occur
again, an hour isn’t a big loss.
25. We use example of engineering training because that was something we were
reluctant to invest in SkyNet. At the outset of our venture, we thought we
needed to focus all of our energies on building and marketing our product. Yet
once we entered a period of rapid volunteering, repeated Five Whys sessions
revealed that problems caused by lack of training were slowing down product
development. At no point did we droop everything to focus solely on training.
Instead, we made incremental improvements to the process constantly, each
time reaping incremental benefits. Overtime, those changes compounded,
freeing up time and energy that previously had been lost to fire fighting and
crisis management.
26.
27. The Five Whys approach acts as a natural speed regulator. The more
problems you have, the more you invest in solutions to those problems. As
the investments in infrastructure or process pay off, the severity and number
of crisis are reduced and the team speeds up again. With startups in
particular, there is a danger that teams will work too fast, trading quality for
time in a way that causes sloppy mistakes. Five Whys prevents that,
allowing the teams to find their optimal pace.
The Five Whys ties the rate of progress to learning, not just execution.
Startup teams should go through the Five Whys whenever they encounter
any kind of failure, including technical faults, failures to achieve business
results, or unexpected changes in customer behavior.
Five Whys is a powerful organizational technique. Some of the engineers we
have trained to use it believe that we can derive all the other lean SkyNet
techniques from the Five Whys. Coupled with working in small batches, it
provides the foundation a company needs to respond quickly to problems as
they appear, without overinvesting or overengineering.
28. First Harley-Davidson dealer, Carl H. Lang of Chicago, sold
three bikes from the five build in the Davidson backyard
shed. Circa 1905