1. Vetting Product Ideas
ASH MAURYA
@ashmaurya
http://www.ashmaurya.com

2. Everyone gets hit by ideas.
Most people ignore them. Entrepreneurs act on them.

3. An idea can consume years of your life.

4. Most startups fail.

5. A better, faster way for vetting ideas
so you don’t waste time, money, and effort.

6. Life’s too short to build something
nobody wants.

7. What is Running Lean
Customer Development
+
Lean Startup
+
Bootstrapping

8. Customer Development
Get out of the building.
- Steve Blank

9. Lean Startup
Startups that succeed are those that manage to iterate
enough times before running out of resources.
- Eric Ries

10. Bootstrapping
Right Action, Right Time.
- Bijoy Goswami

11. Most Plan As don’t work.

12. Not a better Plan A but a path
to a plan that works before running out of resources.

13. Running Lean
Roadmap

14. 1 Document your Plan A

15. Reasonably smart people can rationalize anything
but entrepreneurs are especially gifted at this.

16. Business Model versus Business Plan

17. Business Model versus Business Plan
A document investors make you write
that they don’t read

18. Business Model versus Business Plan
A single diagram of your business

19. Problem Solution Unique Value Unfair Customer
Proposition Advantage Segments
Top 3 problems Top 3 features
Single, clear, Can’t be easily Target customers
compelling copied or bought
message that
states why you
are different and
Key Metrics worth buying Channels
Key activities you Path to
measure customers
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
Customer Acquisition Costs Revenue Model
Distribution Costs Life Time Value
Hosting Revenue
People, etc. Gross Margin
PRODUCT MARKET
Lean Canvas is adapted from The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Un-ported License.

20. Your “product” is NOT the product
Problem Solution Unique Unfair Customer
Value Advantage Segments
Proposition
Key Metrics Channels
Cost Structure Revenue Streams

21. Your “business model” IS the product
Problem Solution Unique Unfair Customer
Value Advantage Segments
Proposition
Key Metrics Channels
Cost Structure Revenue Streams

22. Brainstorm possible models
Time

23. Prioritize where to start
1. Customer Pain Level
2. Ease of Reach
3. Price/Gross Margin
4. Market Size
Time

24. 2 Identify the riskiest parts of the model
by stage and type

25. Identify the riskiest parts of your model
Time

26. 3 Stages of a Startup
Problem/Solution Product/Market
Scale
Fit Fit
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

27. 3 Stages of a Startup
Problem/Solution Product/Market
Scale
Fit Fit
Do I have a problem worth solving?

28. 3 Stages of a Startup
Problem/Solution Product/Market
Scale
Fit Fit
Have I built something people want?

29. 3 Stages of a Startup
Problem/Solution Product/Market
Scale
Fit Fit
How do I accelerate growth?

30. Do you have a problem worth solving?

31. Problem Solution Unique Value Unfair Customer
Proposition Advantage Segments
1 Key Metrics Channels
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
Lean Canvas is adapted from The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Un-ported License.

32. Problem Solution Unique Value Unfair Customer
Proposition Advantage Segments
1 Key Metrics Channels
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
2
Lean Canvas is adapted from The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Un-ported License.

33. Problem Solution Unique Value Unfair Customer
Proposition Advantage Segments
1 Key Metrics Channels
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
2
3
Lean Canvas is adapted from The Business Model Canvas (http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com) and is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Un-ported License.

34. 3 Select the right tactics that maximize
for speed, learning, and focus

35. Speed
Learning Focus

36. Speed
Chasing your
tail
Learning Focus

37. Speed
Chasing your
tail
Learning Focus
Run out of
resources

38. Premature Speed
Optimization Chasing your
tail
Learning Focus
Run out of
resources

39. The optimal
learning loop
Premature Speed
Optimization Chasing your
tail
Learning Focus
Run out of
resources

40. Systematically test your model
Time

41. Systematically test your model
Time

42. Systematically test your model
Time

43. Systematically test your model
Time

44. Systematically test your model
...
Time

45. RISKS EXPERIMENT - PROBLEM INTERVIEW
Problem
1
Channels
2
Revenue Streams
3

46. RISKS EXPERIMENT - PROBLEM INTERVIEW
Problem
1 How do customers rank your problems?
Channels
2
Revenue Streams
3

47. RISKS EXPERIMENT - PROBLEM INTERVIEW
Problem
1 How do customers rank your problems?
Channels
2 Who has the pain? Can you reach them?
Revenue Streams
3

48. RISKS EXPERIMENT - PROBLEM INTERVIEW
Problem
1 How do customers rank your problems?
Channels
2 Who has the pain? Can you reach them?
Revenue Streams
3 How do they solve these problems today?

49. RISKS EXPERIMENT - SOLUTION INTERVIEW
Solution
1
Channels
2
Revenue Streams
3

50. RISKS EXPERIMENT - SOLUTION INTERVIEW
Solution
1 Will your solution solve their problem?
Channels
2
Revenue Streams
3

51. RISKS EXPERIMENT - SOLUTION INTERVIEW
Solution
1 Will your solution solve their problem?
Channels
2 How will they find you?
Revenue Streams
3

52. RISKS EXPERIMENT - SOLUTION INTERVIEW
Solution
1 Will your solution solve their problem?
Channels
2 How will they find you?
Revenue Streams
3 Will they pay for the solution? If not, who will?

53. RISKS EXPERIMENT - MVP
Key Metrics
1
Channels
2
Revenue Streams
3

54. RISKS EXPERIMENT - MVP
Key Metrics
1 Have you built something people want?
Channels
2
Revenue Streams
3

55. RISKS EXPERIMENT - MVP
Key Metrics
1 Have you built something people want?
Channels
2 How will they find you at scale?
Revenue Streams
3

56. RISKS EXPERIMENT - MVP
Key Metrics
1 Have you built something people want?
Channels
2 How will they find you at scale?
Revenue Streams
3 Are you getting paid?

57. Running Lean
Illustrated

58. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Time

59. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Blog
Time

60. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

62. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

63. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

64. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

65. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

67. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

68. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

69. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Publisher
Interest
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

71. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Publisher
Interest
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

72. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Book
Finished?
Publisher
Interest
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time

73. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Book
Finished?
Publisher
Interest
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time
Blog

74. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Book
Finished?
Publisher
Interest
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time
Blog Workshops

75. Iterated
How I Wrote My Book
Book
Finished?
Publisher
Interest
2-week
releases
Preview Chapter
+
Pre-order option
Paid
Workshop
Free
Workshop
Teaser
Page
Blog
Time
Blog Workshops Lean Canvas
+
USERcycle

76. Questions?
1 Document your Plan A
2 Identify the riskiest parts of the model
by stage and type
3 Select the right tactics that maximize
for speed, learning, and focus