Getting Real audiobook cover - The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application

Getting Real

The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

★ 4.4 / 5(47 ratings)
Start ListeningDownload App
Categories:
Entrepreneurship

If You're Curious About These Questions...

You should listen to this audiobook

Listen to Getting Real — Free Audiobook

Loading player...

Key Takeaways from Getting Real

Learning Tools

Reinforce what you learned from Getting Real

Mind Map

Getting Real
Product Strategy+
Team & Hiring+
Productivity & Workflow+
Launch & Marketing+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 10
What is the recommended strategy for dealing with competitors when starting a new business?
  • A. Copy their most successful features to guarantee market fit.
  • B. Underdo them by offering a simpler product with fewer features.
  • C. Seek external funding immediately to outspend their marketing budget.
  • D. Build a product with double the features to provide more value.
Question 2 of 10
According to the authors, who is the best demographic to target when building your first app?
  • A. The largest market segment with the most disposable income.
  • B. A demographic identified through extensive investor market research.
  • C. Yourself, because you already understand the problems that need solving.
  • D. Enterprise clients who can afford long-term software contracts.
Question 3 of 10
What is the 'rule of three' recommended for keeping a start-up lean and agile?
  • A. Limiting your initial product to exactly three features.
  • B. Starting with a developer, a designer, and a sweeper (mediator).
  • C. Securing funding from at least three different angel investors.
  • D. Having three separate departments for design, development, and marketing.
Question 4 of 10
How should early-stage entrepreneurs handle potential future problems, such as scaling servers for a million users?
  • A. Delay the launch until a comprehensive 24-month strategic plan is finalized.
  • B. Build the infrastructure for a million users before releasing the first version.
  • C. Hire a specialized scaling expert as the first team member.
  • D. Ignore them for now; wait until the product launches and gather market data first.
Question 5 of 10
What is the authors' view on meetings and departmental 'silos'?
  • A. Meetings are essential for cross-departmental communication and should be held daily.
  • B. Silos help experts focus, but meetings should be limited to one hour.
  • C. Limit meetings to 30 minutes and create integrated teams to avoid silos.
  • D. Departments should be strictly separated to prevent distraction-free zones from being interrupted.
Question 6 of 10
When it comes to hiring early employees, which type of candidate is considered most valuable?
  • A. A highly specialized expert who focuses strictly on one narrow task.
  • B. A grumpy but brilliant perfectionist who demands excellence.
  • C. An enthusiastic generalist who can handle multiple types of issues.
  • D. A corporate veteran who wants to implement rigid organizational structures.
Question 7 of 10
What is the authors' guiding motto regarding a product's features and its launch?
  • A. 'It is better to launch half a product than a half-assed product.'
  • B. 'If you aren't embarrassed by your first release, you launched too late.'
  • C. 'Give the customers exactly what they ask for, no matter how many features.'
  • D. 'Innovation lies in saying yes to every feature request.'
Question 8 of 10
Why do the authors recommend skipping customizable user preferences in your application?
  • A. Users usually prefer strict corporate interfaces over personalized ones.
  • B. Preferences require extensive external funding to develop properly.
  • C. They cause complications by requiring more code, testing, and design decisions.
  • D. Customization prevents the product from being able to scale to a million users.
Question 9 of 10
What is recommended as an effective, inexpensive way to promote a new product instead of traditional advertising?
  • A. Forcing users into long-term contracts to guarantee a marketing budget.
  • B. Using sneaky tactics to rake in more money for promotional campaigns.
  • C. Blogging about the product to reach the audience quickly and casually.
  • D. Hiring a large PR firm to write corporate jargon-filled press releases.
Question 10 of 10
How should small companies communicate with their customers?
  • A. By mimicking the jargon of large, successful corporations to appear legitimate.
  • B. By embracing their leanness and talking to customers in a personable, human way.
  • C. By establishing impenetrable walls between customer support and developers.
  • D. By requiring users to read a 24-month strategic plan before signing up.

Getting Real — Full Chapter Overview

Getting Real Summary & Overview

Getting Real (2011) offers a comprehensive breakdown of the challenges facing entrepreneurs in the market for web applications. These blinks are full of hard facts and solid advice about what to do and not to do when starting your new app business.  

Who Should Listen to Getting Real?

  • Developers, programmers and marketers
  • Entrepreneurs eager to develop a “big idea” app
  • Managers looking for optimal ways to organize teams

About the Author: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Jason Fried is a co-founder of 37signals, a web development company.

David Heinemeier Hansson is a partner at 37signals and the creator of the Ruby on Rails programming framework.

🎧
Listen in the AppOffline playback & background play
Get App