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Startup Lessons Learned
Mark Menard shares key startup lessons at Barcamp Albany, emphasizing the difficulty of integration and the importance of understanding technical limits. He advises against grand openings and recommends an iterative rollout approach, along with prioritizing transparency and early deployment. Additionally, Menard stresses the need for clear documentation and suggests using a content management system for managing content efficiently.
Startup Lessons Learned
- 1. Startup Lessons Learned MarkMenard Barcamp Albany March 31, 2012 (c) elycefeliz from Flickr
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- 6. Startup are notfor Leaning the Basics 6
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- 8. Grand Openings Don’tWork 8
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- 10. Work Stories from Beginningto End 10
- 11. (c) Al_HikesAZ fromFlickr 11
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- 13. (c) Gerry Kirkfrom Flickr 13
- 14. There Can beOnly One! 14
- 15. (c) Mashall Astor- Food Fetishist from Flickr 15
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- 17. (c) Muffet fromFlickr 17
- 18. Deploy Early andOften 18
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- 22. No API StoriesUnless the Product is an API 22
- 23. (c) Julie70 fromFlickr 23
- 24. Use a ContentManagement System for CONTENT 24
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- 26. I’m Mark Menard @mark_menard We Build Web & Mobile Apps We Build Community We Build Startups http://www.enablelabs.com/ 26
Editor's Notes
- #2 \n
- #3 \n
- #4 Everyone underestimates the complexity.\n APIs change all the time.\n The Internet sucks at reliability.\n Exception handling is awkward at best.\n Business people don’t get it.\n
- #5 \n
- #6 Conventions make things cheaper.\n Breaking conventions is expensive.\n Pick and choose carefully.\n
- #7 \n
- #8 Don’t try to learn to program on your startup.\nDon’t try to learn graphic design on your startup.\nDon’t try to learn to be a lawyer on your startup.\nBuild a team with experienced practitioners. \nGetting up to speed is hard and is REALLY expensive.\n\nYour most valuable asset is time.\n\nUnderstand your costs. Education is expensive in time and lost opportunity.\n
- #9 \n
- #10 They don’t allow you to learn.\n\nStart small and iterate.\n\nYou don’t know what you’re doing yet.\n
- #11 \n
- #12 The only thing that matters is what the client sees. \n\nIf the customer can’t see it then it’s not done.\n\nTell story about multi-tier apps and RIA’s.\n
- #13 \n
- #14 Right now you know the least you will ever know about your product, market, customers, etc.\n\nIterations allow you to learn and course correct.\n
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- #16 There MUST be a product owner.\n\nOne person who has complete and total authority to answer questions about how the product is going to work.\n\nWhat’s a camel?\n\nA horse designed by a committee.\n
- #17 \n
- #18 If you aren’t willing to share with someone you don’t trust them. So, don’t work with them.\n\nBusiness moves too fast and dependencies develop to quickly to work with people you don’t trust.\n\n\n
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- #20 You do not want to be figuring this stuff out when you’re trying to roll out your product under the gun.\n
- #21 \n
- #22 Do not depend on email, spreadsheets, or other non-shared documents.\n\nTools must be:\n\n* Shared\n* versioned\n* Support workflow\n\nCollaboration is paramount.\n\nEveryone must use the same tools! Figure out a set and agree on them.\n
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- #24 If your app is an integrated front end and back end system. Until the front end is integrated with the backend it’s not done.\n\nHaving API stories and disconnecting the integration work allows people to cherry-pick the easy stuff and leave the hard work for later.\n
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- #26 Do not try to manage content in your source repository.\n
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