lean startup news issue 73, may 22 issue# 73 · the two decided that a lean approach, such as the...

Lean Startup News Issue 73, May 22nd, 2011

Issue# 73

Lean

Sta

rtup

New

s

Why Blokes? 2An interview with BlokesOnly founders to discusswhy they chose to launchtheir latest startup

Learning 3Discussion with BlokesOnly founders as to whatthey learnt along theirjourney

Outcomes 5Where Blokes Only istoday, and what the futureholds for this lean startup

A special inside look at the Launchof a Lean StartupThis month, we take an inside look at thelaunch of BlokesOnly.com.au

All lean startups begin with an idea. InMelbourne, Australia, Jay Jeong and ToddBurton (in conjunction with privateinvestors) began the launch ofblokesonly.com.au in April this year.

The website, aimed at harnessing thepurchasing power enabled through onlinecollaboration, is set to be launched thiscoming June.

We caught up with the two foundersrecently to discuss why they chose tolaunch the business, the challenges and

learning they experienced, as well as whatthe future holds for them.

This article will place particular emphasison the methodologies and developmentoptions they utilized in launching thecompany. Additionally, the knowledgeand insight gained by academic,practitioner and group research will bediscussed to determine how the pairsettled on how to launch their business.

A fundamental question answered by thisduo is whether offshore developmentteams can be utilized in creating a new

web based service while using the leanstartup methodology.

Throughout their journey, Jay and Toddhighlight that while offshore and lean canbe combined, what happens in the realworld can often be a long way fromsuccess stories outlined in academicjournals. Also, the pair discuss there are aspecific set of variables that must be inplace in order for a successfulcombination of the two.

Regardless, this piece outlines afascinating journey of discovery.


2

In a rapid changing, transformationalinternet environment of today, it seemsapparent that everyone is trying to get aslice of the pie. However, not all aresuccessful. We asked the founders ofBlokes Only to share their insight into whythis company was created.

A Need in The Market.Group purchasing sites are relatively newin terms of internet companies, andrecent success by Groupon and Scooponhighlight the interest by consumers inusing such services.

It was Jay Jeong, current founder andtechnical supervisor that saw anopportunity in the marketplace. Jay hadseveral years experience in managingoffshore teams, and he wanted to utilizethese teams to build a new web basedservice. However, the problem he facedwas the ability to provide a solution tosuch a need within a limited time-frameand budget.

Through collaboration with colleagues

and networks within the InformationTechnology (IT) industry, Jay assembled asmall team to attempt to solve thisproblem.

One of these members was Todd Burton,a consultant in the IT industry. The twocombined to examine how the concept ofBlokes Only could become a reality.

The two decided that a lean approach,such as the lean startup methodology,should be used to launch the company.Yet, the question remained can the leanstartup methodology be combined withoffshore teams?

Why the Lean Approach.Jay Jeong states that “the lean startupapproach just seemed to make sense. Itfocuses on minimizing resources, yetensures a quick entry into the marketplace and a high level of customer inputto ensure your products are trulysatisfying your customers needs”.

However, he makes it clear that the whole

team had much to learn. “We wanted touse offshore teams, but still get the classicadvantages of lean methods, such as agiledevelopment:. It was clear we had to dosome work before rushing into this”.

Why Blokes Only is Best.Blokes Only seeks to immerse itself withina specific market to ensure the needs of aparticular group are met. “While there areother group sites, we felt they were alltoo generic. We wanted to launch a sitethat tapped into the real needs of people,in this case, men, and link them withbusinesses in their local community” saysJay Jeong. The journey of Blokes Only is inthe next article.

Why Blokes?

“To me, it was all about providing aservice that people needed, andservicing that need quickly,efficiently and in-closecollaboration with the customer”

Jay JeongTechnical Specialist & Founder

Article by:Susan Royce

Blokes Only has amyriad of press

launches andpublicity,

including aninterview withFM 106.7 host

Michelle Walters(pictured)


3

Learning: The challenges of launchinga Lean Startup with Offshore TeamsArticle byStephen Jones& Tamara Wilson

Launching a lean startup is no easy business. JayJeong & Todd Burton engaged in numerousactivities to research if a lean startup can belaunched while using an offshore team. Frominitial research into methodologies, through topractitioner interviews and developmentroadblocks, the two gained a plethora of insightinto whether or not combining the two could bedone.

Jay Jeong had several years’ experience in managing offshoreteams, and it seemed like a natural idea to combine the two withhis latest idea. “We wanted to launch a company, and hadminimal resources. We knew that some type of agiledevelopment was going to be needed, but it was highly uncertainwhether or not we could combine the two”.

The journey began. Jay, with assistance from Todd Burton, beganexamining the lean startup methodology and its suitability foruse with offshore teams. The two conducted academic andpractitioner research, while also collaborating with colleagues to

reach a solution. The following outlines what each learnedthroughout this experience.

Initial Learning.A logical place to start was the examination of agilemethodologies. Todd Burton states “I really tried to get a graspof the different types of agile methodologies and their roles insoftware development. My initial thoughts were that there wasno single method that would cover the entire process, and wewould need to draw on aspects from the lean startup and agilemethodologies in order to get the right fit. Additionally, I didn’teven know if it would be possible to combine these with offshoreteams”.

Jay elaborates on this stating, “we had success with offshoredevelopment and we had teams in place, but agile was going tomean a rapid change to ‘business-as-usual’. I was skeptical if wecould make it work, but I was hoping we could”.

Initial research by the two revealed the typical benefits of using alean approach to launching a company; use less resources, savetime, shorten feedback cycles, get a high level of customer inputand change the product as you go. Sounds easy right?


4

(Continued)

Jay states “a lot of literature and peopleon the web were bragging about thebenefits of using agile and how simple itwas, yet no one could answer ourquestion on if we could combine agile andoffshore”.

After a while, the pair decided theyneeded to get some insight from those inindustry who are using agile, and ifpossible, seek to find a company who isusing lean and offshore together.

Insight from Practice.As Jay began work on technical scopingand product development, Todd sat downwith a senior agile coach for a publishingcompany that was utilizing leanmethodologies and offshore teams. “Thelevel of insight I gained from thisindividual was enormous. It gave us somegreat direction for the future and reallyforced us to challenge some of thepreconceived notions that we had”.

From this interview, Todd and Jayoutlined the key areas of knowledge theygained.

Why Use Agile over Traditional DevelopmentApproaches?

“A central interest was why we should useagile in the first place” states Jay. “I hadmany past successes using offshore andtraditional development methods, such aswaterfall, and I wanted to make surecombining the two made sense”.

The key reasons for using agile overtraditional methods were the focus onproducts and the ability to get instantfeedback and change course.

“The interview with the agile coachrevealed the idea that we should not viewthe launch of Blokes Only as a project, butas a product. For example, the website isa product and the purchasing feature is a

product within the site” states Todd. “Thisway of thinking is fantastic. It allows us toview the customer as needing a product,and allows us to assess whether or not aproduct is delivering stuff that a userneeds and values”.

Another important area the twouncovered was how agile would makesure the product was aligned withbusiness. “It seemed one of the real valuein using agile was the shortening offeedback times. In a traditionaldevelopment, feedback on products maytake months or even years” Jay discusses.“Through our learning from practitioners,one of the values was that agile providesalmost instant feedback betweenbusiness, IT and the customer. To us, thiswas very appealing”.

Also highlighted by the pair was the levelof transparency involved. “The agile coachsaid to me ‘the advantages (of agile) tome are transparency around quality andthe customer being able to choose thequality level they want to pay for’. Thisreally rung true for us; we wanted tolaunch a product quickly and know ifcustomers wanted it. We wanted all thatto be clear, and wanted the informationimmediately. To me it seemed like thiswas the direction we should head in, but Iwas still unsure how to manage theoffshore teams” states Todd.

Finally, it was reinforced that agile shouldbe used as it provides the ability to stophalf way through a product developmentand still obtain something of value; ratherthan waiting until the end to find out theproduct you released is not what thecustomer wanted. It’s all about being ableto change your plans and adapt quickly tothe outcomes of your product in themarketplace.

The Challenges of using OffshoreTeams withAgile?Several challenges were faced by the pairas they had to determine if offshore andagile could be combined. The followingoutlines the areas they decided to focustheir attention:

Culture Communication People Customers

“From our interview, it seemed thatcultural challenges were going to be anenormous challenge. A key point wediscovered was that there are manycultural issues to be considered” statesJay.

Todd and Jay discovered from the agilecoach that “you can lose the ability to failfast as people don’t want to admit thingsaren’t working…so you need to go (tooutsourcing country) at least once amonth…and have someone there for thefirst six months”. This posed a challengefor the team, as with a minimal budget,flying people to India seemed out of thequestion.

It seemed that communication was alsogoing to be an issue. Through poorinternet connections, different time zonesand a lack of face-to-face conversations (acornerstone of the lean methodology),the question was how can this be done.The agile coach states “you maintain two(project) boards, one in Google Docsand…one in real life...and there is no way(to run a team) without a physical board”.Yet there are still challenges, such asgathering meaningful reports and makingsure that objectives are clearlyunderstood.

Getting good teams was also a concern ofthe Blokes Only team. “We were warned


5

that you had to specify what people youwanted on your project, as a classic moveof these offshore teams is to put theirbest people on at the beginning and thengradually rolling them off the project. Wedidn’t want our successes walking out thedoor mid-development” Todd says.

Jay continued to state “another bigquestion was how do we get the customerinvolved and ensure that offshore teamsunderstand the value of the solution”. Theagile coach offered some insight here,stating interaction with customers has tobe “daily. They sit with the team and arepart of the team. I could not get bywithout them”.

“We had no idea how to achieve this, or ifwe could achieve that at all. To me, theseseemed like the traditional problems Iface with development teams, howeverwith agile, it seemed like these challengesnow needed to be overcome daily” Jaystated. “I was starting to get unsure if wecould successfully combine the two”.

You Need the Right Environment?

The pair also discovered through talkingwith those in practice that the rightculture is essential to using agile. “It keptbeing reiterated to us that in order foragile and offshore to work, we had tobuild a culture of innovation andautonomy around our processes. Wecould not tell people what to do, but weshould have some governance around theproduct side and what it will do. Apartfrom that, we were informed that youneed to be able to change course quicklyas you go, and you have to build multi-faceted teams that can unleash theircreativity and innovation on how tocomplete tasks. In theory, it soundedreally hard” Todd said.

When Todd asked the agile coach abouthow best to govern their launch, it was

Stated that “Governance is rules forfailure, it’s got nothing to say aboutsuccess. Governance gets to say who losesand who you can point the finger at andblame. That’s a pretty useless activity”.

While Todd and Jay agreed, there was stilluncertainty as to how best to manage theteams and create such an environment.Todd states, “we reached a point and itwas like, ‘wow’, there is so much toconsider, can we really do all this?”

Yet, the two persevered and continuedtheir learning. “It was recommended to usthat the development teams needed tohave complete carte blanche over theirmethodology in order to free them up andhave them bringing the maximum amountof creativity to the project” Jay states.“While this sounded good, I had initialreservations as to how this could be donewith an offshore team. I wasn’t about toassign a team a piece of work without anydirection and just hope they could get itright”.

“We learnt a lot from people in practice,but it seemed that the people we talkedto were using lean in organizations withsubstantial capital to overcome thechallenges of using offshore teams. Iwasn’t sure if it would be applicable to us”Todd informed us.

Insight from Collaboration.After insight from the industry, the pairbegan discussing their learning withcolleagues at the University ofMelbourne.

“By harnessing the power of the group,we were really able to expand ourunderstanding and were forced toconsider many other elements, such asbeing prepared for an acquisition, orlearning what exactly is innovation, aswell as whether or not social

entrepreneurialism had a place withinBlokes Only” Todd says. “Our colleaguesraised ideas around any several themes,and it really made us challenge our beliefsand what we could do”.

Jay agrees “the group insight wasenormously helpful. I was naturallyexcited about what we were embarkingon, but through discussions with thegroup, it became apparent we had a lot toconsider and achieving it all within ourallocated timeframe was going to bedifficult. It just really helped expand ourthinking”.

What They Learnt.

Through their amalgamation of theirlearning from academia, practice andcollaboration with colleagues, eachfounder agrees that much was learnt.Both Todd and Jay outline the importanceof launching Blokes Only and what it hasenabled them to learn.

Todd states, “To me, the most excitingthing was learning a new way of doingthings. I had some experience in largewaterfall type projects, and I knew thepains associated with them”

He continues, “Learning about leanmethodologies got me excited, as itseemed to really unleash a lot of creativityand unique ways of looking at problems.However, I think the fundamental learningpoint for myself was that there are manychallenges one must overcome, such ascommunication and getting the rightpeople, to make sure that your leanstartup truly stays lean”.

Also, Todd says, “I guess if I had to chalkup one thing as the most important I havelearnt over the past six weeks it’s thatagile and offshore can be combined, but ithas to be under the right conditions”.

(Continued)


6

(Continued)

Jay echoed Todd’s thoughts. “I knew agile,lean and offshore could be combined, butI was still unsure that it was right for ourenvironment. It was great hearing from anagile coach that the two could becombined, but I still had concerns. Forexample, they were not operating in atrue outsource/offshore environment.They were really using ‘captiveoutsourcing’, meaning they still had in-house development teams and theoffshore team was purely an extension oftheir development teams here inAustralia”

He elaborates, “This didn’t fit our businessmodel. We were not using in-house teamsand could not afford to fly over and spendtime grooming the offshore guys. Weneeded to hit the ground running and getsomething developed quick”

When asked for his key learningexperience, Jay replied, “I was alreadyaware of the cultural differences andsome of the challenges you face when youembark on offshore development. What Ididn’t realize was just how much we hadto consider. The books and articles I readmade agile sound like a simple solutionand the advantages of a lean approach tolaunch our business, such as costreduction and quicker times to market,were outlined as being easily and quicklyattainable. What I discovered is there is alarge gap between research and practice,and what happens on paper far frommimics what takes place in the real world.

Was It Worth It?Todd and Jay both learnt a lot aboutlaunching a business while using the leanstartup methodology, but were the resultsworth the pain.

“Absolutely” states Jay. “Although itseems that combining agile and offshore

is not appropriate for us at this time, I cansee their role and value in themarketplace”. Jay continues, stating that“it was worth generating theunderstanding of what othermethodologies we can apply to solveproblems and it forced us to think outsideof our normal comfort zone andexperiment with new ways of doingthings”.

Todd echoed such sentiments “I would doit all again. Sure I know that agile andoffshore can’t be used in this situation,but I can see where its role is, what itsappropriate and what hurdles you have tojump to get over the challenges it facesyou with”.

He continues to state “I think it has a realvalue and I am excited about becomingmore familiar with the methodology as Iuse it over time. For me, it is nice to takeparts from lean and agile and apply themto our business. To me, it is aboutunleashing that creativity”.

Where to Now?Jay and Todd are launching Blokes Onlynext month, and although they discernedthat agile and offshore could not becombined for this product release, theyare confident it may have a role in thefuture.

In order to learn about this role in thefuture, the following article outlines whatJay and Todd consider the fundamentalthings that must be in place for agile andoffshore to be able to work together.They admit it can be done, but a setnumber of things must be in place andadhered to on order for it to besuccessful.

From this list, they highlight why it wasnot the best choice for them in launchingtheir business.

Todd and Jay list their key learnings

Todd: You need the right people You can’t hold the reigns in

agile. You have to trustyour teams and give themfull autonomy

Creativity is king, and youneed to establish andfoster an environment thatsupports such

Jay Experienced offshore

development teams are amust.

Use of ProjectManagement Systems andscheduled meetings overSkype on a regular basishelps with communication.

Adaption of AgileMethodologies takes timeand effort.

“I think agile is exciting. It reallyforces you to think in differentways. It’s a great way to blur thelines of traditional thinking”

- Todd Burton


Jay Jeong and Todd Burton are proceeding withlaunching BlokesOnly.com.au, but agile and offshorewon’t be combined. Instead, they will still developoffshore, but will follow a traditional developmentpattern. So, we asked them, can offshore and agilebe combined? The answer was yes, but they outlined

a series of things that must be in place in order for itto be successful.The two also admit they have more to learn, and it isthrough launching the business that much of thislearning will be obtained.

The Future of BlokesOnly.com.auArticle by James Wilson

© Lean Startup News, 2011, All Rights Reserved

These two began with a vision ofcombining offshore and agile to launch abusiness following the lean startupmethodology. Whilst it seemedimpossible at first, the two uncoveredthat it is indeed possible, but only inparticular situations.

The two state that offshore and leanmethodologies can only be combined inthe following situations:

You are using captiveoutsourcing (i.e. you still managein-house development)

You have a substantial budget;you need to maintain a presencewith your offshore team, and youneed a nice budget to be sureyou can fly over whenever thereis an issue

You must have the right people;it is clear that agile isn’t for

everyone, and it demands a lotfrom people as you are askingthem to step outside a normally,narrowly defined role. You musthave people that are willing totake risks and be responsible forpart of a process; if you need juststatic coders, lean and agilearen’t for you

You need time; they spoke topeople where it has taken yearsfor agile to be a norm in theirorganization and way of doingthings. It is not something thatcan be changed overnight

You have to embrace change;agile and lean involve a lot ofchanges and rapid ones at that.You need a team that welcomeschanges and flexibility and notone that runs from it.

Despite learning much, Jay and Toddadmit there is still much to learn.

Todd states “I still need to discover moresuccess stories of agile. It was greatspeaking to the agile coach, but I am sureagile is being used differently in differentindustries. Also, I spoke with a company,it would be nice to hear from a trueentrepreneur that handled lean and agileteams successfully while also usingoffshore”.

Jay concludes by stating, “There is alwaysmore to learn in IT. What is a norm todaymay be a past time tomorrow, and whileit seems agile is growing in popularity, Iwould like to learn more about its truesuccess in industry. Also, I am interestedin learning more about how to holdoffshore teams accountable to agilemetrics, as that seems a real challenge”.

Much learnt and much to learn. Visit themat www.blokesonly.com.au

lean startup news issue 73, may 22 issue# 73 · the two decided that a lean approach, such as the...

Documents