UX for Lean Startups

Chapter 12. Go Faster!

In this chapter:

• Learn how cross-functional teams can move faster and react to user feedback better.

• Get tips on how to speed up your product development process without sacrificing quality.

Let’s face it, you’ve got only so much time. Don’t worry, this isn’t some irritatingly existential meditation on the meaning of death. I’m not a harbinger of doom shrieking a warning about the mortality of mankind (except for that one Christmas party that I think we’d all prefer to forget).

Companies have limited resources, and startups tend to be more limited than most. We have to make trade-offs constantly. Building one feature can mean sacrificing half a dozen other equally promising opportunities.

Don’t get me wrong. Making these decisions is really, really hard. These techniques will not make the decisions easy. They aren’t even guaranteed to make them right. But they will make them faster. And that’s almost as good.

The faster you can validate or invalidate hypotheses, the more things you can try before you run out of money. That can mean the difference between finding product market fit and finding a new job.

Here are some things you should be doing to make your UX faster. I’ve thrown in a few that don’t seem to have much to do with UX. Speeding up the entire process means more iterations, and, when done right, more iterations mean a better product.

Work as a Cross-Functional Team

One of the hallmarks of Lean UX is not working in a waterfall style, where each group works ...