Top all-time · #331
Eric Ries
Personal blog · startuplessonslearned.comstartupsbusiness
Eric Ries writes Lessons Learned, a personal blog at startuplessonslearned.com about startups and business. Since 2009, 156 different Hacker News readers have linked it 227 times, most often “Minimum Viable Product: a guide”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-05-17, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 7 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite Eric Ries's blog as the source for the 'minimum viable product', 'pivot' and 'customer development' definitions. A few recommend it as worth reading.
- Recommended for · 7 comments
- Called 'fantastic', 'good' and 'very engaging'; one commenter says reading it changed how their company worked.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
by Eric Ries
Most-linked posts?
- Minimum Viable Product: a guide15 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2009-11-24
- What is customer development? Eric Ries10 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2009-11-02
- /9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2009-10-09
- Lessons Learned: Don't Launch6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-01-26
- Pivot, don't jump to a new vision6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-05-22
- Embrace Technical Debt (2009)4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-08-14
- How to conduct a Five Whys root cause analysis4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-04-21
- Root Cause Analysis4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-11-04
- Using AdWords to assess demand for your new online service, step-by-step4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2009-11-13
- What does a startup CTO do?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-05-22
What Hacker News says?
If you haven't already, check out the oft-referenced book "The Principles of Product Development Flow". Based on this comment you'd really like it. http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/07/principles-of-p...
Comment linking /2009/07/principles-of-product-development-flow.html
on “All my servers have an 8 GB empty file on disk”Submitted Winter is coming as a story · 295 points
HN discussionNormally I use the term "leap" for the latter. You're completely correct that the original meaning of the term was specific. Eric Ries originally wrote, "I want to introduce the concept of the pivot, the idea that successful startups change directions but stay grounded in what they've learned. They keep one foot in the past and place one foot in a new possible future. Over time, this pivoting may lead them far afiel…
Comment linking /2009/06/pivot-dont-jump-to-new-vision.html
on “How I Crashed and Burned in Y Combinator”Submitted Stop lying on stage as a story · 125 points
HN discussionThe first thing that comes to mind is, did you do any customer development? http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-custome... In your story, I didn't see anything about sales efforts beyond "signed up a couple of early customers." Perhaps that was the missing link. It seems you relied on PR tactics, rather than finding, choosing, and closing customer deals one by one.
Comment linking /2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html
on “After 4 years of self-funded coding marathons I feel "finished", care to talk?”Submitted Lessons Learned: The Lean Startup Book is here as a story · 122 points
HN discussionTesting pricing isn't usually a big part of interviews unless you are addressing an enterprise market. Also, Customer Development is larger in scope than pricing or interviews: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-custome...
Comment linking /2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html
on “Watch other people code”Submitted The Hacker Way as a story · 121 points
HN discussionUnfortunately MVP is one of those terms like "pivot" that got out of control. An MVP is "the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort." http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-... This is a great example of an MVP. If nobody signs up, he knows there is no demand for this pr…
Comment linking /2009/08/minimum-viable-product-guide.html
on “Watch other people code”Submitted “Out of the Crisis” Podcast as a story · 105 points
HN discussionWhen considering product development it may help to focus on an early adopter group [1]. Use that to grow and add more features. Having a group of early adopters (happy test subject) is crucial. "So, the minimum viable product is that product which has just those features (and no more) that allows you to ship a product that resonates with early adopters; some of whom will pay you money or give you feedback."[2] Whil…
Comment linking /2009/03/minimum-viable-product.html
on “Goodbye Basecamp, This Is The End”Submitted Andy Rachleff on 35 years in Silicon Valley, Wealthfront and telling stories as a story · 93 points
HN discussion1. Just wrote a little about this: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2015/04/getting-feedbac... 2. I know so many people like that. I'll tell you a funny story. Back in 2005 a certain VC wanted to invest in our company and said, "I'm a huge Steve Blank fan! Also, where's your Market Requirements Document?" I fear it may be an incurable condition. 3. Convince yourself, then show her the evidence. Most times "boss…
Comment linking /2015/04/getting-feedback-from-customers-when.html
on “I Am Eric Ries, Author of the Lean Startup. AMA”Submitted A new version of the Joel Test as a story · 54 points
HN discussionAren't these all vanity metrics? [1] Features are swell, and registered users are nice, in that it indicates somebody was at least curious. But how many of those 1,627,557 registered users are, say, active at least once a week for the last 3 months? What's the NPS of Mastodon users after 7, 30, and 90 days? I'd love to see them succeed. But I think it's dangerous for programmers to focus on building a thing rather t…
Comment linking /2009/12/why-vanity-metrics-are-dangerous.html
on “Mastodon’s 2 Year Anniversary”Submitted Lessons Learned: The power of small batches as a story · 49 points
HN discussionI wrote about this more than 10 years ago, I can’t believe it’s been so long: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/what-does-start...
Comment linking /2008/09/what-does-startup-cto-actually-do.html
on “Ask HN: Blogs about Being CTO/Head of/Lead Dev?”Submitted The cardinal sin of community management as a story · 44 points
HN discussionGoogle mentions sharding in a 2005 patent. https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2007011957A2 http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/01/sharding-for-st... notes the term in use within Google by 2003.
Comment linking /2009/01/sharding-for-startups.html?showComment=1231392480000
on “Database “sharding” came from Ultima Online? (2009)”Submitted Tell your Startup Visa story as a story · 41 points
HN discussionIn the presentation shown at http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/customer-develo... (specifically the last slide where he talks about the Five Why's system) it seems to me that the guru of Lean Startups is a advocate of automated test suites, and therefore a believer in TDD.
Comment linking /2008/09/customer-development-engineering.html
on “Ask HN: Is TDD/BDD hampering your startup's agility?”Submitted Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development as a story · 39 points
HN discussionA MVP, under the original definition[1], is a learning tool that helps you to learn the most about your hypothesis, with the least amount of waste.[2] Note that product under the MVP definition may not be a product under the most common use of the word.[3] [1] http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-... [2] http://www.w2lessons.com/2010/10/minimum-viable-product-diss... [3] http://www.ashmaurya.c…
Comment linking /2009/08/minimum-viable-product-guide.html
on “Show HN: The Honeybadger”Submitted A month is fifteen weekends as a story · 35 points
HN discussionA lot of people are saying "it depends" - I totally agree. Some products are built to spread virally, others need to acquire users/customers via advertisement. Eric Ries has some really interesting thoughts on this topic. Check out this blog post: http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/11/what-is-custome...
Comment linking /2008/11/what-is-customer-development.html
on “Ask HN: What is the best way to promote your startup?”Submitted Why Diversity Matters as a story · 35 points
HN discussionhttp://martinfowler.com/bliki/SmutOnRails.html http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2010/02/why-diversity-m... http://hoydenabouttown.com//20080723.2001/matthew-garrett-on... ...off the top of my head.
Comment linking /2010/02/why-diversity-matter-meritocracy.html
on “Anti-pattern theater: how to get women to quit”Submitted Lean Startup Resources as a story · 33 points
HN discussionGood to hear. Related: a good article by Eric Ries on how in many situations within a startup technical debt can be used effectively. http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/07/embrace-technic...
Comment linking /2009/07/embrace-technical-debt.html
on “How Facebook Ships Code”Submitted Solving the Pipeline Problem as a story · 32 points
HN discussion
