Look Past Biases to Measure the Right Metrics

In 2012, social-impact consultant Ellynita Lamin launched a recovery program in a war-torn, economically depressed area of Indonesia. Early in the project, she realized that her own biases were preventing her from measuring progress accurately. She explains the steps she took to truly understand the community’s needs and focus on the right metrics.

Design Your Way to Product/Market Fit

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.

Lean Startup 101

If you’re new to Lean Startup, this lively introduction will help you get comfortable with the key terms and concepts. You’ll leave with a rich understanding to get the most out of the conference and, more important, to implement Lean Startup methods in your own organization.

The full-day session, run by Janice Fraser, author of The Lean Product Book and expert entrepreneurship trainer, will cover:

*Why Lean Startup methods exist
*When to use them
*The mechanics of learning from customers and testing ideas
*Terms like MVP, pivots, customer development, validated learning, product/market fit, innovation accounting and cross-functional teams

The day is packed hands-on activities to help you gain a deeper understanding of Lean Startup principles.

This session is relevant for people from all sectors and in all roles. It is equally useful for software engineers and non-technical businesspeople, as well as leaders from established companies and standalone startups.

Use Experimentation to Build a Thriving Community

Fostering an active local community is easier said than done. It’s hard to gain momentum, and people often say that they want something but then do the exact opposite. Anthony Fraiser, founder of The Phat Startup, teaches the experimentation process and metrics he used to build a vibrant entrepreneurship community in Newark, NJ, from scratch.

Use Lean Startup Techniques on a Remote Team

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.

Mobile Experiments: Easier Than You Think

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.

Balance Compliance and Experimentation

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.