Lean Startup

We’re all familiar with the idea of remote, outsourced functions like customer service and web development. But a growing number of companies match workers around the globe with microtasks, allowing for a massively distributed workforce. With five million contributors from 208 countries, CrowdFlower is a leader in this area. Lukas Biewald, CEO, will share perspective on what it takes to work with millions of people you’ve never met.

Being part of a kickass team is one of the great benefits of distributed work. But it’s hard to keep track of things like what everyone else is working on and who’s out on vacation, let alone tackle how you can get more done together. In this talk, Patti Chan will share insights from Intridea, a 50-person, 5-year-old, 100% distributed company that uses a number of third-party apps–but has also built its own internal communications tools. She’ll explore: What’s best left to third-party products? How do you know you’ve hit a wall with third-party apps and need to build your own? How do you think about developing tools if you’re not a dev shop? How do you ensure internal buy-in for new tools?

Opening Remarks: Office Optional | Sarah Milstein by Lean Startup

When StudySoup implemented a mandatory, daily virtual standup meeting for its team of {number}, it saw a monumental shift in both the relationships between team members and their progress on projects. CEO Sieva Kozinsky will explain how the calls are structured, how long they last, who talks, the system for taking notes and how it’s transformed the company.

Peter Armstrong, founder of Dashcube, will show us a new communications tool.

When you have a central office, remote workers can wind up feeling uninformed, disempowered and disconnected. But they absolutely don’t have to have those experiences. Paul Hepworth, VP of Engineering at UserTesting, an 87-person company with more than a dozen remote workers, will talk about the very practical things you can do to ensure that remote team members can “see” into the office and are as connected and informed as co-located workers. In addition to interpersonal processes, he’ll also talk about cheap hardware setups that make a big difference.

People on distributed teams often say, “Working remotely is great for heads-down tasks, but collaborating remotely–especially on creative work–is really hard.” You’ve probably said that yourself. So how can we improve distributed collaboration in virtual meetings? Teryn Rikert, a workplace strategist with Steelcase, will break down the different modes of collaboration, helping us understand the key behaviors, interactions and tools we can use to support them over distance.

Is having a distributed workforce just a matter of letting people work wherever they like? It’s tempting to think so. In fact, once you let employees work remotely, the risks of legal employment, financial, and work-related misunderstandings amplify. Steven Yee, with more than 16 years of HR consulting and training experience, will talk about effective approaches and will provide examples of HR solutions redefined for virtual teams.

Post-it Notes and whiteboards are basic office collaboration tools, supporting useful, well-established processes for group brainstorming. But when you’re not physically next to the same wall, the effectiveness of these tools crumbles. William Donnell, Founder of Sodium Halogen, an experience-design consulting firm, often works with groups of up to eight and will share the techniques he’s developed for ensuring lively, engaged virtual brainstorming.

The Secrets of Successfully Working from Home Lynne d Johnson@lynneluvah LYNNEDJOHNSON.COM Elisa Batista @elisabatista MOMSRISING.ORG Raina Kumra @rainakumra JUGGERNAUT Keith Fahlgren @abdelazer SAFARI BOOKS ONLINE What happens when your “remote office” is a corner of your living room, and your colocated coworkers are a large mutt and a four-year-old human–or you have no colocated coworkers at all? This panel will explore approaches that make working from home actually work. From physical setups, to social arrangements, to personal productivity and more, this discussion will plumb topics that many of think about every day.

One of the top pieces of advice you can take when you’re trying to innovate more effectively is this: work in cross-functional teams. But most companies are structured in silos: design, development and product management work separately, with communication and collaboration relegated to weekly check-ins and designs and feature requirements thrown over the fence. Drew will talk about how to build cross-functional teams that actually function and can test ideas at market pace.

The key to running effective experiments is to first frame the experiment thoughfully. This takes time, but the investment pays off many-fold. Zach will guide you through the key steps of framing, which, when done properly, reward your brain–and your organization–with learning.

Getting Customer Feedback When Your Product Doesn't Live On The Web | Ari Gesher by Lean Startup

When Microsoft acquired Yammer last year, one of employees it gained was Cindy, an expert in applied Lean Startup techniques. Cindy will be joined Microsoft principal program manager Ethan Gur-esh to talk about how they’re transitioning teams into a Lean Startup mindset and away from the three-year planning waterfall cycles of the past.

A strong speaker last year, Navarrow returns with the origin story of his new initiative. He’ll talk about how using Lean Startup principles helped him understand how to engage new audiences and create more diverse teams within an organization.

With unmatched experience as entrepreneurs and investors, Marc and Chris have insights to share that are directly useful for almost any business trying to innovate. Eric Ries will interview Marc and Chris.

Closing Remarks: The Lean Startup Conference | Sarah Milstein & Eric Ries by Lean Startup

What’s the reality of building an audience for your product or company? Kathryn’s story of getting initial users when she needed feedback early on is instructive.

How to Build the Product When You're Not the User--and You Don't Even Know Anybody Who's the User Alexis is interested in solving big problems, which means building products for people who face daily challenges very different from hers. She’s taken unusual steps to explore untapped markets and understand the users in them, giving her excellent insight into customer development.

Palantir is a traditional software company in that it ships software that runs on its customers' networks. That makes it hard to get direct feedback on which features need iteration. Ari will talk about the strategies the company has taken, ranging from the automated to the person-to-person, to gather the valuable information that guides their product–and company–development.