
Unlikely Recommendations for Startups and Entrepreneurs - jonnym1ller
http://moz.com/rand/7-unlikely-recommendations-for-startups-entrepreneurs/
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thenomad
Very interesting article!

His point about MVPs is particularly interesting, IMO - but I'm not entirely
sure it's correct.

The point of an MVP is to identify an excellent product/market fit. One of the
ways you can tell if you've got one of those is if your crappy, half-finished
product still attracts users.

If you're refusing to test at MVP stage, you're in serious danger of applying
lipstick to a pig.

Of course, it's worth noting that Rand's company has the money to commit to
testing multiple "EVPs" \- but for bootstrappers, out of all the advice in
this article, I'm not convinced by that point.

(The "build an audience first" advice, by contrast, is proven to work pretty
well. Brian Clark at Copyblogger has referred to it as "MVA" \- Minimum Viable
Audience - strategy.)

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mesozoic
I think his tips are sort of a chain. So if you've done #1 then #2 about EVP
works. Since you already have a marketing channel built an exceptional product
will be able to grab hold and take off right away.

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tsmarsh
This could have been written by my ex-boss, who hired me as a 'lean
consultant', then proceeded to ignore everything I said, and do this instead.
We're about to find out which of us was right; I suspect she was.

But getting to an 'Exceptional Viable Product' was tough. Constantly moving
release deadlines. No idea who was 'right' in the team when it came to UX. No
idea if a feature was valuable or necessary so 'done' was a constantly moving
target. We ended up with a beautiful, if not bulky EVP (homerlearning.com).

~~~
rhizome
Well, the initialism "EVP" says it all: "exceptional" is not measurable, so
it's going to come down to the most powerful person asserting their sense of
when the VP becomes E.

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badclient
The problem with MVPs is that no one clearly know what they are and the folks
that came up with it or evangelize it are often full of shit. On one end, lean
is pitched being similar to the scientific method. But on the same note, when
someone raises the objection about how to get _statistically significant_
data, we are instructed to use our judgement. Well, that is not the scientific
method then!

Next, let's move on to the case studies related to lean. Most people who
credit lean _rarely_ treat their project as a carefully designed scientific
experiment. They do the common things like dry testing for demand, making
quick landing pages, talking to their market...a lot. And _yet_ , if you went
to the lean folks and said if these things equate to being lean, they would
say NO, lean is a lot more.

So what is lean? No one really knows. It's just that when it works out, people
are quick to give it credit. But no one wants to see the graveyard of start-
ups that give up their ideas everyday because according to their understanding
of the lean method, they did not achieve product/market fit. You know this is
bullshit because you can take a cursory look at the same product/market they
gave up on and see multiple start-ups doing well.

I say all this as a former cheerleader for lean that is mostly disappointed
with how poorly it is being taught and clarified.

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James_Duval
...I think that article about "1 Weird Tip" has perpetually ruined me.

I see the "X (Unusual|Unlikely|Weird|Bizarre)
(Tip(s)|Recommendation(s)|Trick(s)) for blah blah blah" format everywhere.

~~~
MayanAstronaut
And he works for a SEO company! This is a sales pitch to use his tools.

Unfortunately, the above tips will not work if you are bootstrapped too.

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dchuk
So if he didn't own an SEO company, would this post have been acceptable? Or
would you still have accused him of writing a thinly veiled product pitch?

And yes, this stuff would work for a bootstrapped startup. I have a
bootstrapped startup (a competitor to Moz actually) and I can vouch for the
points he's making.

~~~
rhizome
_So if he didn 't own an SEO company, would this post have been acceptable?_

I think the point is that if he wasn't an SEO maximizer, it would be worded
and/or titled differently, perhaps more outwardly usefully. In other words,
why does the number of tips or the likelihood that the reader is aware of them
matter in a headline? Linkbait, there is no other explanation.

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znowi
Damn, I thought it was a Mozilla article for a second and clicked. I quickly
realized my mistake - it's a former SEOmoz tricksters in different clothing :)

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timme
\- create linkbait articles with arbitrary number of items mentioned in the
title

\- throw in alternative version of "1 weird tip" wording for good measure

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catilac
Definitely don't agree on his point about MVPs. I waited too long and built an
"EVP" and found out I had no customers.

Beautiful product, no business.

There is a lot of time spent in between "quite small" and "decent" on that
graph.

~~~
James_Duval
Moz have a weird view of how to obtain success, because due to their fame
they're guaranteed to succeed every time they put up a post. Take any
_practical_ tips they give with a hefty helping of salt.

They are very good at the theory, it's just they don't live on the same planet
as everyone else.

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franzwong
Can anybody share experience on "Marketing First"?

