Chapeter 12: Innovate

Question 1

How does Eric Ries describe the product life cycle

Answer 1

New Product

Growth and scaling

Optimization, operational excellence, and fighting newcomers.

Legacy support and cutting cost

Question 2

What should you do instead of letting a team manage a product through its entire lifetime?

Answer 2

You should build different teams and keep people in the positions they are good at.
For example, have a team who is kicking ass in growth and scaling and then they pass the product on to the next team called optimization and they take it from there.

Question 3

What are the three Attributes of Succesful Startup Teams

Answer 3

Limited but secure resources - This forces the startup to only develop what is necessary (The MVP)

Independent decision-making authority - Let the team make their own decisions. This is much faster but make sure to safeguard that they can’t hurt the brand.

Incentive in success - Make that the team has a personal stake in the startup. This will motivate them. It doesn’t have to be financial, it can also be public recognition for example.

Question 4

How can we create Startup that won’t hurt the parent organization?

Answer 4

Create an innovative sandbox!

Question 5

What does an innovative Sandbox consist of?

Answer 5

That any team has the possibility to experiment but these are the rules:

Any team can A/B test of limited scope

One team must see the experiment through from beginning to end

The experiment is limited in calendar time

The experiment is evaluated on the same standard 5-10 metrics

The team must monitor metrics and customers’ reactions live. If something catastrophic happens, abort the experiment.