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A local university has invited me to give a presentation about Lean Media to graduate students later this year. Here’s the draft version. It outlines what Lean Media is and how creators/producers/founders can use it. I’ve incorporated lots of examples, including one related to the Lean Media Project Planner described last week. Leave your feedback in the comments below:[slideshareRead more

Last month I introduced the Lean Media Project Planner for new media ventures. It’s a one-page tool for creators/producers/entrepreneurs to plan the development of new ventures using the core tenets of the lean media framework. Today, I am sharing some examples that illustrate how it works. I am starting with Led Zeppelin I (a lean media example thatRead more

I recently received feedback about various lean media concepts from faculty at the Media Ventures program at the Boston University College of Communication. Jodi Luber, who teaches media entrepreneurship at BU, had a great idea: A one-page template for producers/creators/entrepreneurs based on lean media concepts. Her class already uses the lean canvas one-pager to develop business modelsRead more

I recently received an interesting piece of Lean Media feedback from a friend. He is an engineer and former MIT Media Lab staffer who earlier in his career was a part of creative teams that made music, websites, and even an opera. He has also done a fair amount of reading and examination that relate to production issues, showingRead more

There is a newly released TED talk on ted.com titled “How to use data to make a hit TV show.” The speaker is Sebastian Wernicke, a data scientist (and former animator) who makes an interesting comparison about the rival political dramas House of Cards (Netflix) and Alpha House (Amazon). The video, which was shot lastRead more

Over New Year’s I shared some lean media concepts with a few old friends. One of them, who has worked in the music industry since the 1990s, immediately got it, and wanted to give some feedback and insights. He related a tale that went something like this: “About ten years ago I was friends with two people who livedRead more

(Here is another draft chapter from Lean Media 1.0. Please leave comments below) Lean media techniques are flexible enough to be used by everyone from one-man bands and startups to well-funded production teams at big studios. While there are lessons for folks who are working in the trenches, managers and corporate media executives will comeRead more

Let me illustrate the “fat launch” mindset with an example. In the mid-1990s, a Taiwanese broadcaster hired me to help produce a daily English-language television newscast. Why have an English TV show in a market that had more than 20 million Mandarin and Taiwanese speakers, but only a small population of foreigners residing in theRead more

Earlier we looked at a lean media example of a rock supergroup, Led Zeppelin. Today we will examine The Simpsons, the long-running Fox animated series. For a primer on lean media, check out the intro, the lean media framework, and its fat media counterpart. Production team: In the late 1980s, writer/director James L. Brooks wasRead more

I’ve described the lean media framework, and compared it with its fat media predecessor. Now, let’s look at an example: Led Zeppelin I, the first album by the British hard rock quartet. Production team: The band included guitarist Jimmy Page (who was the producer of the album), singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones, andRead more