Ash Maurya

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• Should I listen to the hacker news/tech crunch crowd when my product isn't directly aimed at that type?

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    No… only listen to your prototypical customer… correction: prototypical early adopter.

• For Ruby and jQuery based development of a demo for a new consumer web idea, would you recommend hiring a developer and doing it in-house or working with an agile development shop like Pivotal Labs?

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    I always value in-house over outsourced provided you can find quality people. In any software project: “The only thing constant is change and speed is key”.

    When you outsource you inevitably put yourself on someone else’s schedule.

• What are the key considerations when developing a product? At what stage do u look for feedback and how?

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    You can and should start soliciting feedback even before you commit to building a product. The first goal is finding a problem(s) worth solving, then determining the fastest/smallest way to solve it.

    The best way to do both is through face-to-face customer interviews aka customer discovery. A lot has been written about this process by Steve Blank and I took a stab at outlining what worked for me on my blog and my book: Running Lean.

• While my company is in stealth mode, what is the best way to recruit your first group of "testers" to help you test your product?

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    I have a problem with stealth-mode. What are you hiding from?

• What are the most common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make?

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    1. Not sharing their idea openly.
    2. Falling in love with the solution versus the problem.
    3. Taking too long to learn from customers (release Version 1.0)

• In the first stages of consumer research and observation, what is your rule of thumb for when to commit to a MVP and a solution?

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    After you’ve had enough problem interviews that indicate you have a problem worth solving. This usually requires a solid understanding of the top 1-3 problems you are attempting to solve, along with the customers' pain level, and list of existing alternatives.

• What do you think about the "science" of LeanStartups (metrics, hypothesis, testing, "data") vs. a more artistic view? Feel the tension? Can one inform the other or is that part of the problem? Thinking of Steve's recent blog post: http://steveblank.com/2011/03/31/entrepreneurship-is-an-art-not-a-job/

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    I think there is definitely a duality between the art and science of entrepreneurship. Between vision and execution. You can’t have one without the other and yes they should feed into each other.

    From Steve’s post, while I agree that tools do not make artists, they can make better artists.

• What's the difference between vanity metrics and actionable metrics? Which ones should I be measuring?

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    An actionable metric is one that ties specific and repeatable actions to observed results.

    The opposite of actionable metrics are vanity metrics (like web hits or number of downloads) which only serve to document the current state of the product but offer no insight into how we got here or what to do next.

    You can get drowned with vanity metrics and should only be using a handful of 3-5 actionable macro metrics to identify what needs improving. It is okay to rely on more diagnostic sub-metrics to troubleshoot deeper from there.

• Do you have any advice on best practices and billing using a lean development model?

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    Sorry don’t quite understand the question.

• What single phase or concept empowers clients and business to adopt a Lean Model?

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    Life’s too short to build something nobody wants.