Modern testing for modern stacks

The article on Lean Startup by Eric Ries was one of the first articles which Arun had recommended me when I joined at Qxf2. My thoughts had changed a lot after reading it. Here the author Michael speaks about some drawbacks with it. I agree with some of his comments which say it encourages features vs. whole products and also it may prematurely burn out our team, While I was not so sure how the author concludes that it may turn out to be hard products to love and It devalues architecture. Overall good things to know when we at Qxf2 Services value the concepts of Lean Startup.

Nice article by Michal Sharkey. He is co-founder and CEO of Bislr. And it's funny to know that, he started his first business to impress girls. I agree with almost all points mentioned in this article. To solve problems customer need the whole product, fractional products are not helpful. Lean startup model i.e. MVP model is not the best suit for R&D projects and this suit may burns team. As lean products may run out of features and functionality after 2 -3 week of use or may discontinue, So it's hard to love them. I agree 'Architecture' plays very important role in determining success or failure of the company. He explained it very well with the example of Evernote and Catch. I also link the alternative suggested by Michal Sharkey.

I disagree with few points in this article like The Lean Startup model encourages features vs. whole products - I don't think this is right. It's the companies choice in choosing not to build a 'whole' product but rather a 'feature'. It has nothing to do with lean model. Most start-ups don't begin with a full product. Not only startups lot of big companies don't do this either. If a feature solves a problem and creates value for the end user and adds value for the company then there's nothing wrong. For eg., Google started out as just functional search engine. They added on ads to that, additional things to search, and acquired or built other products like email and video. They didn't go big from day one, not necessary that you have to build entire product when you start. Similarly, Evernote didn't start out as large and fully-featured as it is now, it started relatively small and grew as people used it. Generally, start-ups are selective in spending their capital on, and at what time they roll it out. So defining metrics and proper business goals associated with that metrics help startups move in the right direction quickly. I agree that there will be hiccups and teams may feel loaded and sometimes they may feel they are directionless. Continuous innovation and customer feedback should help teams to be smart enough to make proper assumptions and decisions. Testing the right things that are most important. This is where your vision, and your values as a founder come into play. Many startup fail because they don't build what the customers really want. There is no point in spending months or years building a product which no body wants to use it.

The author thinks there are something wrong in the lean startup.And also he mentions that all the startup they try to rush to finish it and make it in the market.Everyone want to grow big and their product should be mainly focused on customer satisfaction. As an entrepreneur, they should know where to focus and how we can improve it.The product they are developing shouldn't run out of the features or functionality after few weeks of use. If we don't build the product with all the important features and with customer satisfaction then they don't move from our product to other.

It's a well-written article, Arun has followed lean startup model for Qxf2. I can remember/relate to what he's told about Qxf2's model too. As I didn't know the Lean-startup model, I went ahead and read the principles too. The Lean Startup model encourages features vs. whole products but the drawback could be incomplete products with just a handful of features. I agree that too much innovation will burn out our team. Meaningful tests are required. A great product is deep which doesn't run out of features is an important factor. A valued architecture is essential sometimes. Also, agree that you cant build a product just to sell to fetch high returns. -http://theleanstartup.com/principles

I was on the search for apps that would allow me to book shuttle court/football ground when i started at Qxf2. I found an app that does just that, but the app in its initial stage was buggy. I was very mad at how someone could come up with a product that doesn't work most time. This was when Arun introduced me to the lean model, where people start with something really small and build on it. Having read through this article I do not agree with a couple of the drawbacks mentioned in it. The Lean Startup model encourages features vs. whole products - The reason why lean startup model is preferred is to have an idea out to see how the response is and later build on it, it would not be lean if you wait for the whole product to be out. It devalues architecture - It is not often sensible to build products to scale well without knowing if the idea would be accepted by people. You could lose time trying to build a product that scales really well where someone could take away your first mover advantage.

'Lean startup' is a new term I have ever come across. In this article the author points out the downsides of lean startups. I do agree with a few of his thoughts. But looking at the positive side, lean startups have great advantages over giants. Lean startups can go after smaller opportunities. Large companies need to go after large market opportunities. They often canÆt justify going after what they see as small markets. That leaves a significant number of opportunities slipping through the cracks that you can pounce on. I also feel innovation is most effective in lean startups.

I feel lean startup model is the short cut of the Software Development Life Cycle that experiments based on proposed idea having limited evidences. It may or may not satisfy each and every need of the customer. It has also a drawback that if it will not get success then the chances of getting leak of an idea is more in this phase. It includes the validating learning which I feel, would make things more complicated. I feel we should have a entire knowledge about the things before going for it.