AGR3.001 (The Technology of Business) THE AGILEAN SERIES FOR STARTUPRAD.IO - WILLIAM EASTMAN

Introduction
We are going to take a novel approach to introducing 2 concepts you should have familiarity with: agile and lean. 

First we are not the founders of either concept or as integrated together as our series indicates - agilean.

Second this is not a theoretical conversation. These are tools we have used for decades, perhaps not to its full potential, but used just the same. Since we started building this startup (IBGR.Network) in front of you, we filled in the missing pieces and in the process raised our level of play.

I'll start at our beginning, the blending of two concepts used for years for product development.

taozen

The tao is to understand the essence of something; at its core what must this product or service accomplish?

The zen is once the essence or core is understood, what is the simplest and most robust solution; whether it is designing the development process or the final product / service.

It is the design philosophy of taozen that led to our conversion to agilean.

Objectives

• Agile = The Building of  Your What and embedding Speed & Momentum
• Lean = The Building of Your How and embedding Simplicity & Robustness

What You Need to Know
Applying Agile to Startups

• Focus on a Narrow Objective - agile allows for scope creep because you don't have all of the answers at the start, but you cannot let the objective expand - just the details;
• Act with Urgency - you don't have much time between concept and selling, get your business open in the least amount of time possible without comprising due diligence;
• Keep Everything Small - size of projects, number of people on a team, duration of a team, what you are trying to accomplish at each step.

Applying Lean to Startups

• Having a Process - create a product development process first;
• Working Smarter - the critical question is not "can this product/service be built at the required price point?", rather (1) "should it be built at all?" and (2) "can we build a sustainable business around it?";
• Develop the Minimal Product (Service) Possible - identify the customer problem that needs solving and then build the minimal product (service) possible, get it into customers hands and learn the upgrades from usage;
• Build>Measure>Learn - validate the minimal product/service or upgrade.