I know I am late to the game but I FINALLY ordered my copy of "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" by Steve Blank....can't wait to read it as it has been one of the single most frequently recommended read from folks. Not exactly an early adopter on this one but I'm hoping better late than never!
I'll post my thoughts as and after I get through it but for those who have I'd like to hear how it changed your perspective? What you did differently after reading? Do you recommend it to friends? Why or Why not?
Simultaneously the ugliest and most useful book I own. :)
ReplyDeleteIts what I always wished/hoped my marketing guys were doing when in fact they may have been more concerned with t-shirts and coffee mugs. :)
The anecdotes hit very close to home and the Customer Discovery model applies directly if you're doing enterprise software. It seems Eric Ries' LeanStartup approach (which incorporates CD) is a more webby extension of Steve Blanks initial work. There is a cool online course on LeanStartups: http://www.socrated.com/courses/4
Highly recommended. BTW - if you by it at cafepress you get a decent discount. I guess Steve is an investor - and it is self published so you get all those folksy grammatical and spelling errors. :)
For me it plugs an enormous hole in agile development where the product owner needs to magically know what the market needs for the dev team to build. I posted about that a little while back: http://wattf.com/wp/2009/03/16/customer-development-the-missing-piece/
I'd love to get your thoughts on it when you get the book.
Oh, one more useful resource if you haven't seen it is the LeanStartupCircle:
http://groups.google.com/group/lean-startup-circle
Cheers,
Jim