Vik Venkatraman
Vik Venkatraman, a serial entrepreneur and advisor to the C-suite of the Fortune 100, attempts to capture in simple words and simple steps, the mindset and methodology one can use to get simply and efficiently from a blank sheet of paper to a useful, potentially valuable product in market.
He previously published a book, Inspired (Wiley, 2010). Vik graduated with honors from Columbia University.
Mechanized is intended to be a handbook for innovators; a trusty reference rather than a novel. Though the book is paced with stories from the field, it is more a thinking guide to the new things in the world that don't yet exist, and how you can approach making them.
In rapid, easy-to-follow, sequentially executed methodology steps, get your next project through:
- Customer Exploration
- Customer Development
- Product Prototyping
- Solution Validation
- Sales Testing
- Vision Crafting
- Tying to Investment and more
If you read through the book cover-to-cover, you may not get the most value out of this. The book is intensely practical. It is meant to be really used, really put through its paces. It should be slowly filled with notes, outcomes from the exercises, dog-eared with reference.
Mechanized seeks to put framework and simplification around the often hazy and creative decisions that can bog down and slow down even the most well intentioned projects.
If you're stuck - grab this book. If you're confused - grab this book. If you're about to get started on a new product for the first time - grab this book.
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From the back cover:
"Mechanized takes the landscape of often abstract product development concepts popularized by tech startup thought leaders in recent years and makes them actionable with a repeatable process that will lead any innovator to true north with intuitive accountability checkpoints. Vik Venkatraman’s latest book is a masterwork in programmatic value creation!"
- Harlan Milkove, repeat startup founder, Managing Partner at Foundational, and creator of Traction Science
"The journey from idea to market is long, twisted, and uncertain. As an entrepreneur, you need all the help you can get. Mechanized is the perfect addition to your toolkit because it offers clear methodology for eliminating that uncertainty and getting the right product to market at the right time."
- David Kidder, Co-Founder + CEO, Bionic, Co-Author, New To Big & Startup Playbook, Angel Investor in 35 Startups
From the foreword:
"Mechanized is a book that I wish I had read over the course of my career. Though a lawyer by training, a look back over the years reveals that each of the several enterprises I ran provided a service orientation addressed to a careful understanding of the client base I was seeking to serve. Though sought out by other professionals for marketing advice or teaching for fourteen summers at Harvard’s Graduate School of design, I tried to convey the importance of the idea of “know your customer” as the entrée to the successful development of any business."
- Barry B. LePatner, Esq. is the founder of LePatner & Associates LLP