Jason Fried, CEO and Co-founder of Basecamp KEY TAKEAWAY You need to protect ideas from your team. Give them room to grow before you crush them. They’re very easy to crush. However, most ideas are not great. Employees at Basecamp offer up ideas every six weeks, instead of...
KEY TAKEAWAY Basecamp works on six-week plans. They don’t have a vision map for a year or more in the future. Fried explained it this way: “I want to keep doing what I’m doing because I enjoy it today. Will I enjoy it in 10 years?...
Jason Fried, CEO and Co-founder of Basecamp KEY TAKEAWAY An idea is never fully formed until it is sold to a customer. You can’t really know if your idea is any good until you put a price on it, and someone buys it. Sales are often a confirmation...
Jason Fried, CEO and Co-founder of Basecamp KEY TAKEAWAY Big ideas come when you’re not doing work. Small ideas come from when you’re doing the work. Take advantage of those quiet moments in the shower or on a walk where big ideas spark. Then use time looking...
Ash Maurya, Founder at LEANSTACK KEY TAKEAWAY When talking with current or potential customers, ask about their experience with a certain task rather than just their opinion. For example, if you asked people a decade ago what they think about taxis, they would probably respond that taxi cabs...
Ash Maurya, Founder at LEANSTACK KEY TAKEAWAY Focusing on the problem isn’t as simple as asking your customer what their problems are. That is simply asking them to self-diagnose. That wouldn’t work at a doctor’s office, and it won’t work for your business. Instead, ask about what...
Ash Maurya, Founder at LEANSTACK KEY TAKEAWAY Use continuous innovation and qualitative validation to get feedback. By using metrics, Maurya can confirm the builds are actually working. LEANSTACK have a continuous conversation with a few customers. They talk about upcoming releases, showing screenshots and giving access to...
Ash Maurya, Founder at LEANSTACK KEY TAKEAWAY Every time we have an idea, we look for evidence of monetizable problems being solved. Otherwise, the business model stagnates and doesn’t grow. OUR TAKE Ideas for the next best feature, product -- or even company -- can come from so many...
Ash Maurya, Founder at LEANSTACK KEY TAKEAWAY Because customers have lots of choices, when you stop delivering what they want, they don’t give feedback and troubleshoot. They switch. There are a lot of large and older companies like Compaq and book retailer Borders that ignored shifts in...
Ash Maurya, Founder at LEANSTACK KEY TAKEAWAY The real question is not CAN we build it but SHOULD we do it. We all have limited resources. If you build something your customer is not interested in or you charge the wrong amount for it, your business plans...