Notes From Mobile UX Camp 2011: Business of UX & Lean Startup Session

Wednesday, 09. 21. 2011  –  Category: All, Events, UX

Pat Sheridan from Modus led an engaging and thoughtful discussion at this past weekend’s Mobile UX Camp 2011 about starting your own UX business. Below are my notes.

  • Product Development or Consulting?
    • Need to be one company or the other
  • DC Lean startup meetup
  • Need to iterate your business model just like your creative
  • Product market alignment
  • Minimal viable product
  • Get your product in the hands of customers and get feedback as quickly as possible
  • Don’t discount your advantages
  • Tighten your belt
  • Don’t hire people at a pay rate where their salary only goes down
  • “Channel Partnership”
  • Advisory board > Modus holds all equity, not a Board of Directors
  • Focus on making $$$ right away
    • “You have the stink of Steve Jobs on you” = former Apple employees starting their own companies
    • Nora Roberts “you can fix everything except an empty page”
  • Partners (example Nathan and Dan of EightShapes)
    • complimentary skills
    • define responsibilities
    • Same values
  • Pat’s / Modus philosophy:
    • productize consulting
    • we are here to build your capability not to be here in perpetuity > not to be a staff hog
    • Frame the engagement (not open-ended)
      • active instead of passive
      • “you have to know when done is”
      • need to be able to
        • say no
        • fire clients
        • …but nicely so they will hire you again
        • (when faced with a client that tends to have non-productive meetings that veer off topic or where the client’s staff can’t agree or make decisions) “I’ve budgeted one hour for this conversation > you’re paying me so you might as well benefit from it”
    • start a consulting engagement with a training engagement
      • ex. Agile UX Bootcamp
      • when we leave your staff should feel a sense of ownership
  • 30% and 70% reference marks in project schedule
    • reality check
    • can abandon if it’s not working Created with WorkFlowy.com