John Prendergast: Archive

Are You Shakin' the Trees this International...

“SOUMA YERGON, SOU NOU YERGON, [If we had known, if we only had known] WE ARE SHAKIN’ THE TREE” An amazing long form video of Peter Gabriel’s anthem for international women’s day. The main song starts at 7:30. I hope it moves you the way it always does for me. Enjoy!

Mar 8th

Ever Notice?

Ever notice that WTF is FTW backwards? #differentperspectives #entrepreneurship — John Prendergast (@johnprendergast) December 16, 2011

Dec 16th

I'm in a startup, now what?

I got a simple email question the other day. “Great to have met you last night. Have any advice for someone like me who just joined a startup?” My stream of consciousness response “Interesting question. Be a killer in your role. Find ways to do more. Ignore your title or specific role and help solve the company’s key challenges. The thing is, in a...

Oct 29th

Lean Startups 101 - The Manufacturing of...

This is the October intro to Lean Startups presentation to the Lean Startup Circle Boston. Lean startup: Innovation Manufacturing 101 View more presentations from john.prendergast

Oct 29th

Keys to Real Innovation from Steve Jobs -...

I loved this so much, I just had to share it. What I Learned From Steve Jobs Many people have explained what one can learn from Steve Jobs. But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I don’t want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.Experts...

Oct 9th

A Meeting with Young Entrepreneurs

I got a call from one of the mass challenge finalists a few weeks ago. They were planning a new Sushi restaurant concept and were hoping I could help. I think they got more than they bargained for. Here’s how they saw it: I couldn’t help but laugh. Not a “hahaha- you’re so witty!” laugh. It was a “hahaha- are you serious? I just spent the last year believing steadfastly in something,...

Aug 28th

The Kellogg School Gets Lean

Here is my presentation to the Kellogg Entrepreneurship Conference on Wednesday May 25. It was fun to be back in Evanston, see friends and see the incredible rise of entrepreneurship since I was there as a student. kellogg_lean_presentation.pdf Download this file

Jun 8th

F.U.D in Personal Finance - Don't Believe The Hype

Doesn’t it anger you that they try to frighten you into calling them? Rely on yourself or find a good personal advisor as your co-pilot. Either way, you’re in charge.

Feb 11th

What do we build now? A page from Blueleaf's Lean...

Progressive Fidelity Testing at BlueleafAs a follow up to my last post Letter to a Young entrepreneur I got a number of questions about what to do after building the first version of your product. If you’ve stripped out everything you could think of, how do you know what to add back? What should we build next? At Blueleaf, we have a process called progressive fidelity testing to try to...

Feb 9th

1 note

That post you were expecting is coming - images...

Feb 9th

What do we build now? A page from Blueleaf's Lean...

Progressive Fidelity Testing at BlueleafAs a follow up to my last post Letter to a Young entrepreneur I got a number of questions about what to do after building the first version of your product. If you’ve stripped out everything you could think of, how do you know what to add back? What should we build next? At Blueleaf, we have a process called progressive fidelity testing to try to...

Feb 9th

If you had Blueleaf, you'd know this already . . . →

Jan 23rd

3 tags

Letter to a young entrepreneur

I just got an email from someone looking for feedback on their product idea. The idea itself was as muddled as most early ideas but what caught my attention was the goals section. It read: Goals: 1 month- Finalize the concept and find a team 6 months: Develop a beta version 6 motnhs-1 year: Find companies to run tests with, improve program ...

Jan 21st

4 notes

“Yes, I realize that’s a contradiction, but it seems to capture the essence of...”

– Continuations: The Private IPO (via aaronwhite)

Jan 3rd

36 notes

Myth #27: UX design is about usability

uxmyths: Designing for the user experience has a lot more to it than making a product usable. Usability allows people to easily accomplish their goals. UX design covers more than that, it’s about giving people a delightful and meaningful experience. A good design is pleasurable, thoughtfully crafted, makes you happy, and gets you immersed. Think of games, they usually have these...

Nov 13th

19 notes

Jul 23rd

Nov 6th

15 notes