8. My CD experience
• Chem Lab – Adjacent Growth. Exit Value.
• IBM – New Approach. Old Problem.
• Startups – New Products. New Businesses.
• Technicolor – Big Bets. The Future.
9. Scientific Method
“hypothesis testing rules”
• Establish a testable hypothesis
• Get feedback as fast as possible
• Iterate, iterate, iterate
A laboratory approach…
10. Early Stage Objectives
• Exploratory discovery
• Concept Validation
• Get a check
• Benefits
– Test based and pivot-able – less waste
– P/M fit focused - prevent premature scaling
– Evangelist driven – time to market
12. In Context
• Enterprise
– Learn to say no. Learn to scope & budget. Learn
to steer toward scalable product.
• Consumer
– Listen for insight, not features. Look for positioning
opportunities.
• SMB
– Look for pain worth paying for – very tricky.
13. In Practice
• The Interview – listen & suspend bias/opinions
[Problem/Solution Fit]
• The Proto/Demo – tell a story & sell a little
[Define MVP]
• The MVP – test against & listen to your metrics
[P/M fit or Pivot]
14. Opening
• Nail the intro
– Plain/straight talk – it’s a Conversation
• e.g. don’t mention algorithms
– Analogous - ‘This for that’
• CRM for personal relationships
– Memorable - a fun one liner
• Helping you not get Yelp’d
21. Interview
[REDACTED] – Interview Outline
Quick Intro
• Who are we? Working on a startup backed by [redacted].
• What are we doing? We see is a big problem in the [x] space. We want to
solve it…
• Show gratitude. “we really appreciate your taking the time to talk to us about
this concept. We are really excited about involving you as much as you’d like
– we value your input greatly”.
Collect Data
• Who are you?
o Role
o Years in game
o Biggest projects
o Frequency of [problem/solution]
22. [REDACTED] – Interview Outline
Set Stage
• Lay out the problem. “We’ve talked to a lot of folks in the [x] industry – both
on the [a] side and the [b] side – and we keep hearing the same thing. It’s not
easy to [fill in the blank]”. So we are digging into this problem, with the aim of
building the solution – starting simple and small at first (90 days) but evolving
to what we think can be a bit of a game changer.
• We want to [fill in blank with solution statement]…
• Is this important to you?
o Is this a problem you want to see solved?
Explore Problem
• How big is this problem?
o Is it a top 3-5 challenge in your professional life?
• What are you doing today?
o What do you like?
o What do you hate?
o How does this process make you feel (angry, frustrated, at risk, etc)?
o What could be improved?
o What is new and exciting?
o What has changed in past few years that make things better/worse?
• What would you like to be doing? If you could wave a magic wand ; ) Get
creative on us ; ) Play back to make sure you heard them right.
Interview
23. [REDACTED] – Interview Outline
• Lets talk about some features we’ve been thinking about.
• Big Idea = [fill in w/ BAG]
• Feature Set 1
o A
o B
o C
• Feature Set 2
o A
o B
o C
• Feature Set 3
o A
o B
o C
• What would get you excited to use the product, use it regularly and encourage
others to join them there.
• Why wouldn’t they use it?
• Search for break throughs.
o What are you seeing in the broader technology space that excites you?
o What turns your heads?
o What impresses you?
o What could we be learning from?
o What makes this a must have tool?
Interview
24. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• What would get you excited to use the product, use it regularly and encourage
others to join them there.
• Why wouldn’t they use it?
• Search for break throughs.
o What are you seeing in the broader technology space that excites you?
o What turns your heads?
o What impresses you?
o What could we be learning from?
o What makes this a must have tool?
• How do they gauge the benefits of a solution like we are talking about?
o Do you see this as a big idea?
o Would this change the way you do your work?
o Would this help you advance your creative journey?
o Would this help you make more money?
o How much time would you spend to realize these benefits (e.g. 1 hr
building profile)?
o What is critical for you to use it and use it frequently (e.g. 1x/m)?
Interview
25. [REDACTED] – Interview Outline
Enlist Advocates
• Can they think of others we should talk to?
o Can you think of anyone else we should interview?
o Would you tell other people about this kind of platform?
o Can you think of 5 people you’d invite to the platform?
• Can we come back periodically? Define the touchpoints:
o Short survey to help quantify & prioritize all the cool things we can do.
o Clickable prototype session to give us feedback on initial direction.
o Signup and test actual MVP to provide feedback to shape product plan.
o Input into creative ways to spread the word – assuming they love it.
• Followup w/ thank you and next steps. Thank them for the time and
enthusiasm. Tell them what we are going to do for them (featured early on
the platform, founding members of user group/community and resume bullets).
Interview
26. Evangelists
• Follow up and manage a program
– Grandfather them in (stamp on their account)
– Special invitations to share w/ friends
– Featured contributor at launch.
27. How Many?
• Diminishing Return +10
– You are looking for patterns
– 25-100 is a healthy range
– It’s better with a prototype
28.
29. Prototyping
“many ways to skin a cat”
• Scrappy – Sketches/Screenshots
• Lean - Clickable
• Designery – Photoshop
just work with the tools you know…
30. Weapons
“Tools are everywhere”
• Photoshop, Illustrator, Keynotopia, etc
• Balsamiq, SimpleDiagrams, Powerpoint, etc
• Justinmind, Mockflow, InvisionApp, etc
• Interesting new tools - Easel.io, DivShot,
JetStrap, Pop (mobile)
You get better feedback…
31.
32. WTF MVP
“cliffs suck”
• Test your hypothesis
• Makes it consumable
• Can be killed off
Stop driving blind…
33. MVP Scope
Test Value Prop traffic/signups 60%
Deliver Utility or Fun engagement/wom 50%
Demonstrate Traction viral/cpa/etc 25%
Test your BS…
34. Invites
Public Waitlist
User Invites
Organic
Inbound
Create Account
Linked Accounts
Add Content
Add Favs
Create Content
Update Account
Comment
Like
Up Vote
Accept Invites
Attribution
Share Link(s)
Pro Features
Transactions
Test Growth Model
Acquisition Signup Usage Revenue
Invite Friends
Invite Family
Invite
Set Goals
Create Programs
Model & Measure
35. Choose Features
“a fine balancing act”
• Utility – drives usage
• Viral – drive Word of Mouth
• Monetization – makes money
• Risk – viability
• Wow - differentiation.
Be deliberate…
36. Feature Set
Activity Function Category Sub Category
ave trans
per user
trans
per
year
ave
trans
value ARPU
Checks Daily Agenda email summary usage email 3 x/wk 156
Reminds husband to pick up kids email, SMS and Social usage reminder 3x /wk 156
Creates GTD list Task list (internal) usage lists 1 x/wk 52
IM chats w/ friend re: dinner plans meebo.com usage communications 1x /wk 52
Creates grocery list Task list usage shopping 2x /m 24
Checks friends availability Check calendars usage schedule 2x /m 24
Updates Facebook Facebook WOM social 2 x/wk 104
Shares plans with her friends Facebook, twitter, etc WOM social 1 x/wk 52
Sends 'daily deal' to friend HUBnote (internal) WOM communications 1x /wk 52
Schedules lunch OpenTable rev dining 6x /yr 6 20 6
Plans holiday travel Kayak, etc rev travel 2x /yr 2 50 5
Gets movie tickets Fandango, MovieTickets.com rev entertainment 5x /yr 5 20 5
buys tickets to the concert ticketmaster.com rev entertainment 2x /yr 2 50 5
Buys brother a gift Amazon.com rev general 2x /yr 2 30 3
Orders flowers for mom FTD.com, 1800flowers rev gifts 3x /yr 3 20 3
Sends brother b-day card americangreetings, Hallmark rev gifts 5x /yr 5 1 0.25
Checks Weather weather.com, etc tbd conditions 3 x/wk 156
Checks Traffic Google Maps? tbd maps 3 x/wk 156
Checks news feeds tbd tbd news 3 x/wk 156
Total 27.25
* 5%
37. Force Feasibility
MfP MvP
Fit & Finish
Launch Milestone
Usage Monitoring
User Experience
Functional Build
Internal Milestone
Talk Test
Core Capabilities
38. CD Tools
Analytics
• MixPanel
• KISSmetrics
• RJ Metrics
Feedback
• UserVoice
• Survey.io
• Intercom.io
Hacks
• Features
• Content
• Beta/Exclusive Access
References
• 4 Steps to Epiphany
• Entrepreneurs Guide to
Customer Development
• Google…
39. Pivot
Increments
Incremental Evolution
Well defined build (but not over spec’d)
Customer feedback for tweaks (UI/UX, etc)
Customer input for future features (capabilities, etc)
Very team and customer driven
“Bet the Farm” Pivots
Intense sprint driven builds (constrained
‘existing’ feature set)
Customer feedback for monetization
Business model projections and testing
Very customer and market driven
Pivot?
40. Objective
Find a business model (not just eyeballs or signups)
Drive customer advocacy (not just uptake)
Reduce cycle time (both versions and pivots)
Company
Pivot
Product
Pivot
Pricing
Pivot
Pivots
41. Bonus
Team Product Market
Experience Differentiation Traction
made investors money before a clear focal feature registered active/users
worked on notable products/projects a clear unmet need REVENUE & ARPU (ave rev per user)
education from well known institutions a simple story Viral Factors (WOM, referals, etc)
Partnerships penned
Passion Experience Addressable
drive to win simple and intuitive UI how big is market
a love of the topic/domain easy to get started what are distribution channels
contagious enthusiasm trust building steps access to channel partners
Leadership Behavior Business Model
ability to inspire a team serve emerging consumer behavior how will you make money
ability to manage a small team serve current better (faster, easier,) is it highly scalable
ability to grow partnerships not trying to teach new behaviors how long are sales cycles, etc
ability to secure advisors/investors
42. Be Careful Out There
“Dogma is Dangerous”
“There are better ways to make a living”
“Create pain killers”
