Disqus - Friends of scodtt

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:58:49 -0000

This comment is a test, it is only a test. What do you think?

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:59:43 -0000

This is another test, with Twitter intergration awesomeness. What do you think?

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:00:15 -0000

Hey twitterverse, please come test out my fancy new @disqus comment system. Pretty please?

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:07:08 -0000

I don't know - but please share if you figure it out :)

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:07:19 -0000

Thanks!!

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:07:49 -0000

It's one of the few changes I didn't think it made sense to split-test :)

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:08:26 -0000

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:08:56 -0000

Thanks, glad to hear it

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:51:05 -0000

You can reply by email?? Epic!

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:05:26 -0000

That is amazing. It looks like Disqus has about 10X more features than
you can find out about from their site. In need of some Whole Product
thinking, perhaps...

Anyway, love the email-to-comment gateway. It's genius.

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:06:05 -0000

That is amazing. It looks like Disqus has about 10X more features than
you can find out about from their site. In need of some Whole Product
thinking, perhaps...

Anyway, love the email-to-comment gateway. It's genius.

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:52:04 -0000

Thanks!

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:40:04 -0000

I'm currently traveling and have limited access to email through
September 28. I will do my best to respond when I return. If you have
something urgent, please contact tiffany@theleanstartup.com

Thanks, Eric

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:23:14 -0000

I'm currently traveling and have limited access to email through
September 28. I will do my best to respond when I return. If you have
something urgent, please contact tiffany@theleanstartup.com

Thanks, Eric

Re: Support the Startup Founders Visa with a tweet

Eric Ries — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:33:12 -0000

"What's to keep the people HERE once they come over here and establish their businesses? What incentive is there for them to hire American workers when outsourced workers can do the same but for cheaper?"

I think this profoundly misunderstands modern entrepeneurship. Most tech startups are completely local affairs. Why? Because a focus on cycle time and iteration requires high-bandwidth face-to-face communication. Outsourcing and offshoring happen somewhat in larger tech companies, but even then the net local job creation is much larger.

Re: Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (and a request for help)

Eric Ries — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:43:43 -0000

They should have come said hello. What's wrong with SurveyMonkey?

Re: The curse of prevention

Eric Ries — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:37:12 -0000

Glad to hear it - happy to connect: eric-at-theleanstartup-dot-com

2009/10/6 Disqus notifications-05MVEEKX0S-at... |disqus|
<...>:

Re: Support the Startup Founders Visa with a tweet

Eric Ries — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:51:30 -0000

Thanks!

2009/10/5 Disqus notifications-BBY73FBB9F-at... |disqus|
<...>:

Re: Testing the new Disqus comment system

Eric Ries — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:28:06 -0000

Nope right on time. Thanks!

Re: The curse of prevention

Eric Ries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:47:38 -0000

Don't get too focused on having everything be integrated. The real integration happens between your ears, when you make changes to the product and then try to make sense of all the feedback you get.

I can't make any real recommendations, because I don't know your business or product, but I can say that - in general - if you try to work in small batches, I think you'll have a better chance of figuring out which channels of feedback are really helpful.

Re: The curse of prevention

Eric Ries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:52:19 -0000

Thank you so much! I am, in fact, thinking about putting a book together. i don't have anything to announce yet, but I appreciate the kind words!

As for your question, there is no definite right answer. The reason this is confusing is because you actually want to do two things simultaneously:

1. develop a product for early adopters
2. find a huge mainstream market

These two impulses are at odds, and yet balancing them is part of the art of entrepreneurship. Build a product that makes your early adopters very happy - but always be asking yourself, how big is the mainstream iceberg of which these early adopters are just the tip? And, if you like the answer to that question, keep going.

If not, it's time to pivot.

Either way, though, don't just do whatever the early adopters tell you. You need to synthesize their feedback with your own unique vision of where you're headed. Use them as a reality check, but don't just do what they say.

Helpful?

Re: The curse of prevention

Eric Ries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:52:40 -0000

Too bad - I should have made it a split-test experiment :)

Re: The curse of prevention

Eric Ries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:01:19 -0000

Definitely. This is a big topic, and especially for iphone developers, it's frustrating. Lean techniques only work in dynamic systems - meaning systems where it's possible to change. So if you are working in a situation where the cycle time is absolutely, completely, and totally fixed - you can't really practice continuous improvement.

Yet we generally over-estimate the degree to which systems are fixed. For example, on the iPhone, I often council teams to try stuff like:

1. Move logic from the client to the server. Make the client ask the server what to do whenever possible, so you can iterate and change on the server side. This is a worse solution from a technical POV, but better overall.

2. Create an early-adopter community who takes more rapid updates via ad-hoc distribution (or unlocking)

3. Launch other products/prototypes under a completely different brand, just to see how customers react.

4. Send Apple a new update every day. I'm not sure what would happen if you built a rapid-iteration app update process, but you might get someone from Apple's approval department to call you - if only to get you to stop flooding their queue. That might be an opportunity to have a conversation?

Re: The curse of prevention

Eric Ries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:02:13 -0000

Yes, those guys are conducting an authorized experiment. Feel free to send them any feedback you have - I find some of that language strange, too :)

Re: Innovation inside the box

Eric Ries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:45:06 -0000

The most important thing is to keep iteration. The accuracy of any one
test is less important than the tempo of regular testing. If we
interpret a test the wrong way, subsequent tests will reveal our error
pretty quickly. (In fairness to the team, in this particular case, no
wording changes were included to control for that issue.)