using lean startup to ace your job search
DESCRIPTION
Finding a new job is hard. Learn how to use Lean Startup techniques to improve your job search and land the perfect job.TRANSCRIPT
DEBBIE MADDENCEO, STRIDE
Using Lean Startup To Ace Your Job Search
About Me
2004 2014
2002
Fetch-a-Flick ???TireLabs
19971996 2001
Last Time I Looked for A Job, 15 years ago. Aghhh!!!
How Did You Feel?
Finding a New Job Is Hard
You Have Conflicting Feelings
You Need a Plan to Find THE Perfect Next Job
Use Lean Startup to Ace Your Job Search
1 32Fail Fast Pivot Know When To Go All
In
Fail Fast
What Is Lean Startup?
What This Talk is Not
A Lesson in Lean StartupRead:
Lean Startup
Shorten product development cycles
The new product you are trying to launch is you.
The cycle you are trying to shorten is your interview cycle.
Lean Startup
Validated learning
The validated learning you are going for is learning what you love to do.
Make More Pots
Lean Startup
Reduce risk, and reduce cost of failures by learning fast and failing fast.
Reduce risk of:Having no
paycheck for too long.
Taking a job that’s not a good fit.
Customer Development
Identify a market for your product
Identify a market for you.
Customer Development
Build features that solve a real need
Build a resume and online profile that solves a real need (aka. That there are jobs for)
Why Customer Development?
Rapid Feedback is the quickest way to learnFailing Fast minimizes your chance of…
__________________ Taking a job you will dislike Spending months applying for jobs that
you’ll never get interviews for Missing out on an opportunity you may
otherwise not have thought of (This is what happened to me)
Pivot
50,000 Coaches
“You should start an agile consulting company.”
50,000 Coaches
“Do something that's 90% familiar and 10% new.”
“I want to work for you.”
“I’d hire you for a software development project.”
“Start Cyrus 2.0”
Pivot #0
Feedback
Great support in the NYC Tech Community both from potential employees and potential clients.
I discovered my heart wasn’t in it.Loved Cyrus, yet wanted to do something
new.Pivot.
Feedback
“You have kids you need income.”
“You should get a job.”
“Use your network, you’ll have a job in a week.”
And so I did.
Pivot #1
I had a job, for exactly 3 days.
50,000 Coaches
“Why would you work for someone else when you can run your own business?”
Hmmm….
I do like running a small business. But what business should I start?
50,000 Coaches
“You should be exec coach for women”
Pivot #2
Executive Coach for Women CEOs
Pivot #2
Customer Development
Reached out to every woman exec I know.All 5 of them.
4.6 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO 10% of VCs are Women 3% of Tech Startups are founded by Women
(What??!!) Women-led startups have 12% higher revenues than
others. Atta girl!! (But I digress.)
50,000 Coaches
“You'd hate coaching.”
“You need to be part of a team.”
“Get a job. Use a headhunter.”
Pivot #3
ResumeJob Search
Executive Headhunters
Feedback
Sent my resume to 20 NYC exec search firms. Heard back from exactly zero of them.Awesome.
Exasperation Sets In
50,000 Coaches
“You need to meet VCs.”
What I Learned From Failing Fast and Pivoting
Getting a job is going to be giantly harder than I thought.
Starting a business is easier than I feared.
I am uncompromising in: I will only work with people that match my passion and integrity.
What Can You Learn from Failing Fast?
__________________Confirm or fail your hypotheses, your fears.Uncover new avenues you didn’t know were
feasible.
Pivot #4
Fractional CXO
Stride
50,000 Coaches
“I've been begging someone to do this for years”
Ahh haahhh!!!!
Next steps: Refine, and then Scale.
Know When To Go All In
Fake It Till You Make It
Put Your Best Foot Forward, Just Make Sure It’s One of YOUR Feet
Aka – Don’t lie, but do be your own best advocate
Refine
Tweak: Resume, Website, Interview Questions
Transition from pivoting to refining once you find your personal product/market fit.
***Don’t Scale too early.*****
Don’t Scale Early
Business make this mistake all the time – scale only when they haven’t found a product /market fit. Don’t blast your resume to everyone you know until
you have a sense you are ready to scale. Instead, send it to a few people, get feedback Don’t update your LinkedIn and Blast the update to
everyone. Instead update it and turn the Blast feed off
Scale
Tell everyone and their mother.Tell your mother.Tell my mother.ASK FOR HELP. (Customer Devlopment is not
over, always learn and reach out to people)
It’s Ok to go back to Pivot
Customer Development ExerciseLet’s Help Each Other
Me Acquire
Customers: CEOs of Companies with Complex Sales.
You Acquire
interviews? Acquire
customers? Acquire
connections?
Use Lean Startup to Ace Your Job Search
1 32Fail Fast Pivot Know When To Go All
In
