The Four Steps to the Epiphany Author: Visit Amazon's Steve Blank Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0989200507 | Format: EPUB
The Four Steps to the Epiphany Description
Review
... a book that all technology entrepreneurs will actually want to read. Blank peppers his narrative with many concrete, realworld examples.; --
TechComm The Technology Journal of Technology Commercialization Aug-Sept 2005 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Steve Blank is an entrepreneur, business strategist, and retired marketing executive in Silicon Valley. He began his career 32 years ago and has been at the heart of emerging technology industries ever since. He has been involved in numerous startups and established companies, in operational roles running the gamut from CEO to VP of marketing. The breath of his experience makes him a sought-after board member, advisor and speaker. Steve’s successes include E.piphany, an enterprise software company started in his living room; two semiconductor companies (Zilog and MIPS Computers), a workstation company (Convergent Technologies), a supercomputer firm (Ardent), a computer peripheral supplier (SuperMac), a military intelligence systems supplier (ESL) and a video game company (Rocket Science Games). These startups resulted in five IPO’s, and three very deep craters. Steve currently <P> Many of the principles presented in the book were used and fine-tuned in the creation of these companies and in Steve’s many years as a high-level advisor and company board member for companies both living and dead. Steve currently teaches entrepreneurship and customer development at Stanford University School of Engineering and at U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business. In the classroom, his ideas, methodologies, and principles on customer development are presented and proofed each day in dialogues and analyses with the best business students as well as some of the most accomplished executives in the country. <P>Steve is an ardent conservationist and a board member of Audubon and Audubon California.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Hardcover: 370 pages
- Publisher: K&S Ranch; 2nd edition (July 17, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0989200507
- ISBN-13: 978-0989200509
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
This book is required reading at our company - even for the engineers. Following its methodology, we were able to uncover flaws in our product and business plan and correct them before they became costly. Rapid iteration, customer feedback, testing our assumptions - these are all part of our company culture, thanks in no small part to this book. Essential reading for anyone starting something new.
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Above is what I wrote about this book two years ago. Here's what I wrote on my blog, after having more time to think about it:
What is customer development?
When we build products, we use a methodology. For software, we have many - you can enjoy a nice long list on Wikipedia. But too often when it's time to think about customers, marketing, positioning, or PR, we delegate it to "marketroids" or "suits." Many of us are not accustomed to thinking about markets or customers in a disciplined way. We know some products succeed and others fail, but the reasons are complex and the unpredictable. We're easily convinced by the argument that all we need to do is "build it and they will come." And when they don't come, well, we just try, try, again.
What's wrong with this picture?
Steve Blank has devoted many years now to trying to answer that question, with a theory he calls Customer Development. This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development.
You can learn about customer development, and quite a bit more, in Steve's book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. I highly recommend this book for all entrepreneurs, in startups as well as in big companies. Here's the catch.
I really liked this book (a lot), and I debated whether to give it a 3 or a 4, but ultimately decided to go with 3 because it has some major problems.
First, the things I liked about the book are that it is based on tried-and-true methods from Steve Blank and many of the companies that he's coached, so the fundamentals seem solid. I really like the worksheets in the back of the book as well, so I don't have to go and reread entire chapters to remember what to include in my documents, or what I should be focusing on when talking to customers.
However; the problems with this book are numerous. I've ordered them from most to least important (IMHO):
- The book is heavily geared towards Enterprise and B2B products. There is some mention of consumer products, but it is inconsistent and insufficient coverage in my opinion. There should have been significantly more coverage on the differences of each step as it applies to a B2B vs. B2C product.
- The book largely assumes you have a team of people who already have a business plan written and have been funded. This is quite a bit to filter through if you're bootstrapping a web startup with two guys working out of a coffee shop part time.
- It is way too pricey for the quality (39.99 when I bought it)
- It was NOT PROOFREAD WELL. There are so many typos and grammatical errors in the beginning of the book, that I almost tossed it aside. It seems to get a bit better after the first few chapters.
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