Fast Prototyping Customer Development Mock Ups 2014

1. Variation of product attributes (especially
functions)
-Subtraction: Remove a key element
-Multiplication: Copy a key element
-Division: Dividing a products into components
-Task unification: assign new task to existing element
-Attribute dependency change: create new dependencies or
break old ones up

2. Thermos
Idea from
class

3. The BEST way to
communicate?

5. Can we subsract more?

6. Prototypes and
Customer-
Development
temiz@kth.se

7. Back ground
• B.S Electronics and Communication Engineering
• Master in ICT entrepreneurship ,
• SSES Alumni
• Previously Java,.Net Developer
• PhD Candidate at Indek KTH
• Now business developer, entrepreneur,

8. This presentation
• Not about a specific business idea
• About business processes
• About prototypes
• It is pretty long
• Feel free to fall asleep, interrupt or leave
• I hope you know all this already.
• If not, I really think it can give you a lot

9. Startup process

10. Development process

11. Waterfall is drying
• Agile Agile Agile Agile Agile
• Scrum
• XP extreme programming
• Kanban
• Continous Integration/Deployment
• Developers hate Waterfall like mad!

12. What is Agile?
Why Agile?
• It works when
requirements change
• And requirements change

13. Add agile to process
What is wrong with this
picture?

14. Everything except agile
• Old style startup model must DIE!
• I will dance on it’s grave!
• Because it sucks!
• Because where is the customer?
• Because things change!
• Market risk! Need to adapt!

15. Lets get serious
• A lot of startups fails
• It affects your relationships
• It absorbs your life
• It can make old friends be enemies
• It is your life. Don’t let business coaches or
experts run your life.
• It is not fun to fail. It is also your coworkers
and familys problem. Lets avoid that, then
running a startup can be fun and meaningful.

16. Why should I listen to you?
• Do not listen me!
IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO
QUESTION ALL ASSUMPTIONS. MINE,
YOURS, EXPERTS.

17. Are you a God?
• I can predict what my customers want
• I can predict a 5-year financial plan
• I can predict what customers will like
• I can manage this process
• I know the risks, the opportunities
• I will never give up

18. Are you a mortal
• I have a hunch about what customers want
• I think it can make money
• I will measure and discuss with customers
• Lets use the scientific method. Measure!
• Test assumptions, test on users, be scientific.
• If I find problems, I can change things.
Why not use the scientific process to develop business
ideas? A business idea is a set of testable hypotheses.

19. Some are actually
Gods?
• Twitter
• Google
• mystery company

20. Twttr has married Short Code Messaging, SMS with a
way to create social groups. By sending a text
message to a short code (for TWTTR) you can send
your location information, your mood information or
whatever and share it with people who are on your
social-mob! Best part – no installation necessary!
NOTE: They have done a PIVOT. Changed
idea, but not completely.
Rhetoric question: What use was the prediction about the
SMS market they probably had in the business plan?

21. "Wave has not seen the user adoption we would
have liked," Senior Vice President Urs Holzle said
in the blog post. "We don't plan to continue
developing Wave as a standalone product, but
we will maintain the site, at least through the end
of the year, and extend the technology for use in
other Google projects.
NOTE: They are doing a PIVOT,
reusing the technology in a new way.

22. Mystery company
When we think of design, we think of this company
Rhetoric question:
Was their core value
firmly set in their
original business plan?

23. Don’t burn your business plan
• Just don’t make a new one
• Thinking through the business is good
• But I think you can think through your business in
faster and better ways.
• Do a powerpoint instead (Guy Kawasaki).
• Business Model Canvas – another presentation
• KEY POINT: CHANGE is the norm.
• KEY POINT: You have a vague idea what
CUSTOMERS will want.

24. Customer Development
• One line summary: Test your assumptions
• Get out of the building
• Formulate hypotheses and test them
• Do Minimum Viable Products (MVP:s)
• Pivot. Change aspects of business as you go
The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful
Strategies for Products that Win
Steven Gary Blank

25. MVP
• Minimum set of features that is enough to
satisfy some set of customers (usually early
adopters)
Slice- which part of it/ how to rotate it?

26. Pivoting
• Changing important part of business model
• - can be simple: chancing pricing
• -can be complex: target customer, user
needs change, feature set changes, new
distribution channel

27. • Disclaimer: I did not actually read the
Four Steps to the Epiphany when I
prepared presentation.
• However, I have read the “cheat sheet”
• And I have read blogs and so on...
• I simply started with the “prototype” book.
Then, I bought the “Full” book.

28. Lean Startup
• Eric Ries. He has failed, he has succeeded.
• Lean Startup = Customer Development + Agile
http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/
Search for Eric Ries on YouTube! Great 1h talk!

29. Cust Dev + Prototypes
• Consumer Development = business prototypes
• Lean startup = Cust dev + Agile
• Lean startup is great. But requires that you have IT-guys
in team
• My idea = Cust Dev + Prototypes
• Might work better when you don’t have an IT-team
or do not want to waste your resources!
• Complements agile

30. Some kinds of prototypes
• Mockups/line drawings. Show ideas.
• Paper prototypes. Test interaction on users.
• Landingpages. Great way to test business idea!
• Working prototype. Testable IT that works as
a specification.

31. Mockup
• Line drawing to show how system looks
• Computer aided, such as Balsamiq Mockups
• Or use pen and paper
• Get your ideas down!

32. Paper-prototypes
• Users try system, talk out loud
• Test interaction

33. Test: Landingpage
• You find discover a new electric-engine that can be
installed in old cars. By concentrating on a few
Swedish bestsellers such as Volvo V70 and Saab9-5,
you think you can make a business out of this.
• Make a single webpage explaining the idea.
• It has two buttons “Pre-order for V70”, and “Pre-order
Saab9-5”.
• Buy Ad-words for “electric car“ showing ads
“Adapt Saab9-5 to electric power”

34. Landingpage
• Measure how many visit the landing-page
• Measure how many click the “Pre-order” buttons
(and get their contact details)
• Just explain to viewers politely you have not
started yet but will get back to them.
• Before committing to anything, you can verify if
people are interested and if they are on the way to
actually buy for the price you show.
• Do A/B tests of messages, see what works.

35. Results: Landingpage
• Sorry, thousands view the page but no one buys.
• You have just saved a lot of trouble.
• But, you discover a lot of visitors from a blog from
old Rolls-Royce enthusiasts.
• PIVOT: A lot of people wants to cruise with old
classics and want to be eco-friendly and these cars
really suck gas. And they can afford the conversion.
Your market is now high-margin and European,
maybe global.

36. Working prototypes
• Looks / behaves like a real program
• But the aim is to make it fast to explain
• A prototype explains better than a specification
• A prototype can be used to test on users

37. Working prototypes

38. Prototype vs Agile
• Agile = building gradually. Quality.
• Prototype = max shortcuts
• No database needed, no security/scalability
• Free to use a completely other language/tools.
• Optimize shortcuts, quality is secondary
• The anti-thesis of what programmers usually do.
Few take pride in doing shit.

39. Why prototypes?
• Demo, try, get feedback, think through
• Show to customers
• Show to investors
• A much better specification. Same cost?
• Can be combined with Agile
• Makes outsourcing possible
• Make mistakes early

40. Mock Up: Twitter

41. Mock Up: Guess

42. Mock Up: Guess

43. Mock Up: Evernote

44. Prototype Example

45. Now, may I ask some
questions?
• Was it too ugly? drawings, videos etc.
• Too long?
• Easy or difficult to follow?
• Anything to remove/add?
• Other comments?

46. This presentation is
also a prototype
• Try message/slides. Get feedback !!!
• MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• The slides can be given to graphic designers
• Even outsourced
• Would you give a specification to designers?
1. Picture of trad biz process
2. Picture of waterfall

47. Second slide. Waterfall.

48. • Thank to CEO ColoredCoins Henrik Hjelte
• Twitter: @hankhero

49. Thank you!
• Serdar Temiz
• temiz@kth.se