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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

General Registration8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Light continental breakfast to be served in the Venetian Room. Open all day,  the Venetian Room will host beverages, snacks, a livestream lounge, and our handpicked exhibitors.

• Guided Meditation | 8:30am - 8:45am
  Stacy Conlon, The Zen Media Group, LLC, @TheZenGirl
  Room: Fountain

  It’s well known in the startup community that meditation can help improve your concentration, judgment and emotional clarity. Stacy Conlon, also known as “The Zen Girl” and founder and CEO of The Zen Media Group, leads a guided meditation to start your conference day with balance.

Early Morning Talks9:00 AM - 11:15 AM

• Data-Driven Done RightExperimentsMetricsReducing Risk
  Dan McKinley, Radico, @mcfunley
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  We all hear that we should make “data-driven” decisions in deciding what to test and how to measure results. But few of us have much experience actually doing that. With real and accessible examples, Dan McKinley walks us through the process–and the simple math–he developed to test, or scrap, new ideas at Etsy.
• Test Your Way to the Right AnswerCustomer DevelopmentExperiments
  Anita Newton, Mighty Green Solutions, Adknowledge, @anitabnewton
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  Brand-new startups begin with almost zero customer data–a risky position from which to build a new product. But when you have very little money, how can you acquire critical information quickly? Anita Newton advisor, investor, and marketer at Mighty Handle, reveals how her bootstrapped, non-technical startup did clever customer development online, and rapidly tested its way into the customer insights it needed to sell its consumer packaged goods to the largest retailer in the world.
• Overcome Your Own ExpertiseCustomer DevelopmentLean Impact
  Margo Wright, Yenko, @margowright
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  When you’re building a new product, your own domain expertise can–surprisingly–prevent you from recognizing your potential customers’ needs. Margo Wright, founder of Yenko, shares the customer-development approach she’s used to overcome the blinders of her expertise.
• Leadership, Uncertainty, and Self-DeceptionLeadershipReducing Risk
  Dan Milstein, Hut 8 Labs, @danmil
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  What’s the biggest challenge in getting a team of people to adopt Lean Startup methods? Dan Milstein, founder at Hut 8 Labs, suggests a somewhat surprising answer: it’s the tendency of leaders to fall prey to the deep, built-in human propensity for self-deception. We’re wired to lie to ourselves in certain situations–and, in startups, those situations crop up all the time. Tying together psychology research and his own (painful) experiences on both sides of the leader/team member divide, Dan looks at the dangers of self-deception and what you can do to overcome it.
• Giving Voice to Good IdeasEnterpriseExperimentsLeadership
  Hugh Molotsi , Intuit , @hughmolotsi
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  Every business leader knows that, in theory, good ideas can–and should–come from anywhere in your organization. But in reality, the voices of introverts and people far-removed from decision makers often go unheard. Hugh Molotsi, Vice President of the Intuit Labs Incubator and self-proclaimed introvert, talks about how Lean Startup methods at Intuit have helped surface game-changing ideas from quiet employees, front-line staff and unexpected corners of the organization.
• A Conversation with Ben Horowitz and Eric RiesLeadershipScaling
  Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz, @bhorowitz
  Eric Ries, The Lean Startup, @ericries
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  As a well-known startup veteran, investor and author, Ben Horowitz brings unusually deep insight to the hard questions that entrepreneurs face. Eric Ries interviews him and gives you a chance to ask questions, too.

Break11:15 AM - 11:50 AM

Join us in the Venetian Room to meet our sponsors, network with other attendees, and enjoy coffee service.

Late Morning Talks11:50 PM - 1:00 PM

• Bake in Cross-Functional CollaborationCross-functional TeamsLeadershipRemote Issues
  Cheryl Contee, Attentive.ly, YesWeCode, Fission Strategy

  Room: Grand Ballroom

  When you run a startup, it’s easy to assume that your small team necessarily works cross-functionally, because you all talk pretty often. But when you’re trying to move quickly, and lots of projects are run by just one person, you can inadvertently skip important collaboration across roles. Cheryl Contee, CEO at Fission Strategy and co-founder of Attentive.ly, talks about how her startups bake in cross-functional collaboration from the beginning, both to improve their products and to lay the groundwork for holistic product development as they grow.
• When Failure Is a SuccessExperimentsPivots
  Ursula Shekufendeh, AppFolio, Inc., @ursheku
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  It’s one thing to decide that you’ll rigorously test product ideas, and it’s entirely another matter to actually kill something that isn’t clearly a dud. AppFolio faced this dilemma when deciding whether to launch a new product last year. Product Manager Ursula Shekefundeh takes us through the surprising–and hard–decisions her team made at the persevere/pivot/kill crossroads.
• Getting Very Big by Being Very User DrivenCustomer DevelopmentLean ImpactScaling
  Max Ventilla, AltSchool, INC

  Room: Grand Ballroom

  When you’re tackling a hard problem, the solution rarely comes from what you do initially. Rather, it emerges from what you do continuously–provided you set up systems to learn as you go. Max Ventilla, founder at AltSchool, explains how his organization is staying very close to its customers as its key mechanism for scaling up a large network of independent schools.
• Getting Closer To Your Customers In StartuplandCustomer Development
  Mikkel Svane, Zendesk, @mikkelsvane
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  When you’re moving fast to build and grow a new company or project, you’re bound to make mistakes as well as unexpected discoveries. Mikkel Svane, CEO & founder of Zendesk and author of Startupland, shares real stories from the front lines of starting Zendesk that explore how you stay in touch with the human side of customers and your business as you scale.
• An Experiment on StageExperiments
  Bill Gross, Idealab, @Bill_Gross
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  As the founder and CEO of Idealab, Bill Gross has started more than 100 companies, with MVPs of all kinds. This afternoon, he’ll share his best advice for making them successful–and this morning, as an experiment within the conference, he’ll share a preview of that talk from the main stage.

Lunch1:00 PM - 2:10 PM

Concurrent Afternoon Talks 12:10 PM - 2:50 PM

• MVPs You Can Learn FromExperiments
  Bill Gross, Idealab, @Bill_Gross
  Room: Gold

  As the founder and CEO of Idealab, Bill Gross has started more than 100 companies over the last 20 years and has seen MVPs of all kinds deployed. He shares the best ones and best practices to help you make the most successful startup with the MVP methodology.
• Balance Compliance and ExperimentationEnterprise
  Joanne Molesky, ThoughtWorks, @jemolesky
  Room: Fountain

  In heavily regulated industries, compliance is non-negotiable, and for many product teams, governance can be a deterrent for launching experiments. Is it possible to balance innovation with compliance? Joanne Molesky, principal consultant at ThoughtWorks, answers this question with key lessons learned from her experience in the IT industry.
• Identify and Validate Your Riskiest AssumptionsExperimentsReducing Risk
  Laura Klein, Hint Health, @lauraklein
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  MVPs are great–unless you’re building them to test assumptions that aren’t really mission-critical. In this hands-on session, Laura Klein, author of UX for Lean Startups and head of product development for Hint Health, breaks down the kinds of assumptions you should look for and a process for developing hypotheses that reveal your true barriers to growth.
• Attendee-Led Conversation: Lean Startup, Hardware EditionHardware
  Elaine Chen, Founder, ConceptSpring, @chenelaine
  Room: Hunt
• Attendee-Led Conversation: Finding Early Customers and Building Trust to Run ExperimentsCustomer Development
  Kevin Dewalt, SoHelpful, @kevindewalt
  Room: California
• Attendee-Led Conversation: Using Digital Tools -- YouTube, Facebook, Google and More -- to Drive Early Sales and Validate MVPsCustomer DevelopmentExperiments
  Emmanuel Eleyae, COO, satinlinedcaps.com, @satinlinedcaps
  Room: Grand Ballroom Lounge

Break2:50 PM - 3:05 PM

Join us in the Venetian Room to meet our sponsors, network with other attendees, and enjoy coffee service.

Concurrent Afternoon Talks 23:05 PM - 3:45 PM

• Design Your Way to Product/Market FitProduct/Market Fit
  Christina Wodtke, Wodtke Consulting, @cwodtke
  Room: Fountain

  Finding product/market fit is the key to success for new ventures. But it’s often elusive, and understanding the needs and desires of your potential customers is harder than many of us expect. Christina Wodtke, of Wodtke Consulting, shares design techniques to help you glean meaningful insights about your target market.
• Constraints That Help You Build Valuable SoftwareReducing RiskTechnical
  Jocelyn Goldfein, Investor, Advisor, Entrepreneur, @jgoldfein
  Room: Crystal

  More than you know, your software’s business model and technology stack shape your appetite for risk, creativity and pace. Jocelyn Goldfein, former Engineering Director at Facebook, explains the constraints you face with various kinds of product DNA–and how you can embrace those constraints to build valuable software.
• The Diesel Engine MVPEnterpriseHardware
  Cory Nelson, General Electric, @CorwinNelson
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  When you have long product cycles or you’re building big physical things–or both–you typically face significant risk, as a lot can go wrong between drawing board and customers. In theory, Lean Startup methods help you reduce that risk. But it’s not always obvious how you can apply them. Cory Nelson, Sr. Executive Product Manager at GE Distributed Power, talks with Eric Ries about how GE has used Lean Startup methods to develop a new diesel engine more quickly and with less risk than it had for similar products in the past.
• Live, No-excuses Customer DevelopmentCustomer Development
  Cindy Alvarez , Microsoft, @cindyalvarez
  Room: Gold

  When you have an untested concept, it’s easy to come up with reasons to avoid customer development or ignore the qualitative feedback you’re getting. Cindy Alvarez, author of Lean Customer Development and head of product design and user research for Yammer (a Microsoft company), leads several entrepreneurs through a live problem-solving session, highlighting actionable approaches to customer development challenges.
• Attendee-Led Conversation: Attracting Early-stage Investors Who Will Accept Lean Startup Methods
  Jose-Luis "Jou" De Alba, Chairman and Co-Director, Atma SC and InnoHub Guadalajara Accelarator, @Jou_DeAlba
  Kriss Hammond, Managing Partner, EasyStreet Ventures

  Room: Hunt
• Attendee-Led Conversation: Embedding Lean Startup Ideas in a Local Startup Community
  Justin Souter, Managing Director, Souter Consulting Limited / Lean North East, @souterconsults
  Room: Grand Ballroom Lounge
• Attendee-Led Conversation: In Corporations, Integrating Innovation Projects Back into the MothershipEnterprise
  María Olano, Telefonica R&D, @mdomata
  Susana Jurado, Telefonica R&D, @sjapru
  Room: California

Break3:45 PM - 4:00 PM

Join us in the Venetian Room to meet our sponsors, network with other attendees, and enjoy coffee service.

Concurrent Afternoon Talks 34:00 PM - 4:20PM

• Create a Culture of ExperimentationEnterpriseExperimentsLeadership
  Manuel Rosso, Scripps Networks Interactive, @manuelrosso
  Room: Crystal

  What happens when your team uses Lean Startup methods, but other people in your organization don’t? Manuel Rosso, VP of Commerce at Scripps Networks Interactive, explains how his team taught coworkers to value experimentation over expertise.
• Mobile Experiments: Easier Than You ThinkExperimentsMobile
  Sheena Allen, Sheena Allen Apps, @whoisSheena
  Room: Fountain

  Mobile development presents particular challenges for experimentation. With competing operating systems and app stores to contend with, how can you move rapidly? Sheena Allen of Sheena Allen Apps walks us through the framework she used for launching–and learning from–six mobile apps on various platforms.
• How a 30-Year-Old Hardware Company Is Bringing Products to Market 3x FasterExperimentsHardware
  Kevin Ellsworth, Cirris Systems Corp

  Room: Grand Ballroom

  Hardware companies face particular challenges testing and iterating on their product ideas. It’s often cost-prohibitive to get an MVP in the hands of customers, and it can be seemingly impossible to ramp up production cycles. But you can push the boundaries of convention. Kevin Ellsworth, Product Manager at Cirris, explains how his team has built systems for consistent learning that have helped them release new products over a matter of months rather than years.
• Build a Culture that Outsmarts PerfectionismLeadership
  Seppo Helava, Nonsense Industry, @nonsenseind
  Room: Gold

  The build-measure-learn loop is often accompanied by the frustration-confusion-failure cycle. In other words, implementing Lean Startup methods is hard–particularly when your experiments invalidate a lot of your ideas. In this talk, Seppo Helava, founder at Nonsense Industry, teaches us how he’s led his team to overcome perfectionism and become more comfortable with grey areas and failure.

Break4:20 PM - 4:30 PM

Join us in the Venetian Room to meet our sponsors, network with other attendees, and enjoy coffee service.

Concurrent Afternoon Talks 44:30 PM - 4:50 PM

• Learn from Every A/B Test
  Hiten Shah , KISSmetrics , @hnshah
  Room: Gold

  Experimentation can generate important insights, but it can also bury you under an avalanche of irrelevant data. Hiten Shah, founder at KISSmetrics, shares key tips and plenty of real-world examples for structuring A/B tests to ensure that you derive useful data every single time you run them.
• Get Comfortable Shipping Imperfect ProductsExperimentsLeadership
  Lauren Gilchrist, Pivotal Labs, @lgilchrist
  Room: Grand Ballroom

  Top product managers must have great customer empathy–but too much of it can slow you down. On the one hand, you need empathy to understand your customers, so that you can build products that solve their problems. On the other hand, too much empathy can prevent you from releasing a product that doesn’t solve all of your customers’ needs at once. Lauren Gilchrist, Product Manager at Pivotal Labs, gives five tips for shipping less-than-perfect MVPs so that you can all learn from end users, fast.
• Use Lean Startup Techniques on a Remote TeamLeadershipRemote Issues
  William Donnell, SodiumHalogen, @sodiumhalogen
  Room: Fountain

  A lot of distributed companies use Lean Startup techniques for product development. But it’s challenging to successfully run customer development and cross-functional experiments with remote colleagues. William Donnell, lead design and UX specialist at Sodium Halogen, teaches creative techniques for very effective Lean Startup approaches on a virtual team.
• Integrate Customer Feedback Into Your ProductCustomer Development
  Greg Nelson, Hudl, @gregjnelson
  Room: Crystal

  Your team is committed to customer development and conducting user research, but how do you integrate the information you collect into your product development? Hudl Product Manager Greg Nelson explains how his company ensures that the entire, cross-functional product team understands and can act on customers’ needs.

Break4:50 PM - 5:05 PM

Join us in the Venetian Room to meet our sponsors, network with other attendees, and enjoy coffee service.

Closing Session5:05 PM - 5:50 PM

• Lessons from Experimentation at the Biggest Organization in the USGovernmentLeadership
  Todd Park, White House

  Room: Grand Ballroom

  The US federal government is the country’s largest employer and does not have a reputation for moving quickly. But Todd Park, who served from 2012 to 2014 as United States Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President and is now a technology advisor to the administration in Silicon Valley, is bringing an entrepreneurial approach to government and continues to make real change. He and key U.S. technology leaders describe their most challenging projects and share advice for experimenting in large organizations.

Office Hours at The Fairmont6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

For Platinum and Gold Passes only.

Group Dinners at Local Restaurants6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Evening Session8:30 PM - 10:00 PM

• Create Great Videos--the Lean Startup WayContent StrategyExperiments
  Bill Grundfest, Hollywood Content, @BillGrundfest
  Room: Crown Room

  Video provides a powerful way for businesses to attract customers. But with so much video and other content out there, how can your productions compete? Golden Globe Award winning writer-producer Bill Grundfest leads a fun, hands-on session teaching you to use Lean Startup methods as you create compelling business videos.