Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a mindset that is essential in customer discovery. It encourages you to look for what’s working in an potential customer’s organization and “work with the grain of the wood.” It enables you to build on demonstrated strengths and accomplishments in framing your solution to a critical business problem.
Appreciative Inquiry Mindset Essential to Customer Discovery Read More »
Question from an entrepreneur in the midst of customer discovery for a new product. Q: We are preparing to launch our first product in a few months. Next week there is a conference sponsored by a professional society that represents one of our potential target markets. We have already done about a dozen customer discovery
Customer Development Conversations With Busy Prospects Read More »
Lenny Greenberg, Founder and CTO of Assistyx, e-mailed me a long and thoughtful response to my “Learning from Netflix” post. In fact it was is good that I am publishing it with his permission. There are a lot of lessons we can learn from this: It was smart for Netflix to look at their streaming
Learning From Netflix: Lenny Greenberg’s Response Read More »
I am always interested in having a conversation with a prospect. If you are hoping to infer needs from seeing them press a menu button with an icon or one or two words on it I think that’s a poor substitute for a conversation. I know that people cannot always predict what they need or
Selling to a Business Requires Conversations that Build Trust Read More »
“Never mistake a clear view for a short distance.” Paul Saffo “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” Roy Amara Netflix increased prices by 60% for streaming media and DVD combinations and threatened to split their website into two halves–DVD and
Learning From Netflix’s 2011 Pricing Strategy Mistakes Read More »
Here are the slides from today’s “Working for Equity” panel at Silicon Valley Code Camp. It was a standing room only crowd of over 70 that made for a very interactive session with the panel.
Slides from “Working For Equity” Panel at SVCC 2011 Read More »
Marshal Field’s “Twelve Things to Remember” is a good list of qualities bootstrappers should cultivate within themselves.
Twelve Things to Remember by Marshall Field Read More »
If you are considering joining a startup or are in the process of building out your initial team I am moderating a panel at Silicon Valley Code Camp with three startup CEO’s offering lessons learned on their entrepreneurial experiences. The Working For Equity panel is Sunday October 9 at 10:45 am in Room 4306 and
Working For Equity Panel at SVCC 10:45am Sun-Oct-9 Read More »
Networking is good questions, listening, and helping others. Some rules of thumb for networking from Ford Harding’s Rainmaking (pages 44-59).
Ford Harding on Rules of Thumb for Networking Read More »
Hard to believe that 2011 is already three-quarters over. Slightly more actually. I need to take the time in the next week to recap our goals for 2011 and recalibrate what is still “in the feasible region.” If I am feeling more ambitious I will also sketch out a preliminary list of goals for 2012.
The Fourth Quarter of 2011 Read More »
I like Hacker News for early information and insights on technology. But I find the newly launched Real Clear Technology site useful to understand mainstream perception of the impact of technology innovation. It’s a branch off the Real Clear Politics site, my hope is that they build it out to match the same feature set.
Real Clear Technology Aggregates Mainstream Media on Technology Read More »
Three variations on the idea that “successful entrepreneurship is an ongoing self-improvement” project, program, or process.
Successful Entrepreneurship Is Ongoing Self-Improvement Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get them hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when these quotes for entrepreneurs are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–September 2011 Read More »
Refine and curate your thoughts by reworking the first draft of your answers in an email or in response to a question from a customer or an audience member at a talk.
Refine and Curate Your Thoughts as FAQs, Articles, and Talks Read More »
Here is a brief testimonial from Charles Minnich of Hyland Software after he attended our Great Demo workshop in September of 2010.
Charles Minnich of Hyland Software on “Great Demo!” Workshop Read More »
I will sometimes encounter an entrepreneur or team who is developing “a general purpose toolkit for X.” This may be at a Bootstrapper Breakfast or other networking event. They have often developed a core of a promising technology and see applications for it everywhere. Here is what I normally suggest: Write up a few examples
The Risk of General Purpose Toolkits as a First Product Read More »
The highly effective teams I have been a member of used a rapid prototyping approach to help bound uncertainties/risks in the project and delayed making decisions when more information would improve the situation, unless any further delay was effectively a decision. I think that a lot of individual productivity comes from problems avoided by a
Highly Effective Software Development Teams Read More »
At first we didn’t know what to call it, so we called it what happened. “Do you believe what happened?” “They think he died in what happened.” It was weeks before we called it 9/11. Sometimes tragedy takes time to find a name. Peggy Noonan in “We’ll Never Get Over It, Nor Should We“ I
Remembering What Happened Read More »
We have an outstanding panel lined up for next Wednesday’s Business Impact Book Club: Matt Cameron, CEO, WhoTo.com Jon Cline, Principal, Cirrus Path Brian K. Seitz, Managing Director, Intellectual Arbitrage Group We will discuss lessons learned applying Peter Cohan‘s methodology from his “Great Demo” book. If you are interested in improving your sales presentation you
Outstanding Panel for Wed-Sep-14 Book Club on “Great Demo” Read More »
You can follow @skmurphy to get them hot off the mojo wire or wait until the end of the month when these quotes for entrepreneurs are collected on the blog. Enter your E-mail if you would like new blog posts to your inbox.
Quotes For Entrepreneurs–August 2011 Read More »
