2. TONIGHT…
AGENDA
‣ Introductions: who are we? At what stage in the idea process are we?
‣ Rapid review of Lean Methodology
‣ A lean case study
‣ What makes an entrepreneurial idea?
‣ Homework ☹
2
3. 3
• Makes money; or
• Creates other value for the entrepreneur
• Builds awareness/personal brand
• Proves/hones your skills
What’s a lean entrepreneurial idea?
4. • Coming up with a new way to achieve something as fast as possible, using as little
money and time as possible
• Using the resources you have available to you
• Not spending serious money until you’re sure you can earn it back
4
What’s lean entrepreneurial ideation
mean?
5. @BIGYAHU
5
About me
‣ Early Microsoft online product manager
‣ Early Yahoo! hire
‣ Co-founded HomeScreen, Bluepulse, Pollenizer, The
New Agency, FromLittleThings.co
‣ Invested in Startmate, Pollenizer, Blackbird VC,
ChromaSun, BugHerd, OtherLevels, Scriptrock
6. 6
About you
‣ Who are you?
‣ What have you done?
‣ What do you do now?
‣ Do you have an idea to develop?
‣Share it briefly with the class
‣We’ll return to it later
‣ or are you here to learn how to find one?
‣What do you hope to do with your
ideas?
7. 7
The value of ideas
‣ An idea is worth very little, what counts is developing
and executing on your idea
‣ BUT
‣ You can’t develop and execute if you have no idea
‣ …so ideas are important!
8. INTRODUCTION
8
Risk and sharing
‣ “The biggest risk… is not whether you can deliver it, but
whether anybody wants it” — Pollenizer
‣ http://friendda.org - hand outs
10. 1Trippything
10
People might need help
managing travel itineraries
• Take six months and $300k to build a web platform
• Believe focus group market research on revenue models
• Spend $250k on marketing and launch
• Spend $30k on 3mths ad sales team salaries
• Find everybody loves it but users don’t want to pay or
advertise
• Total potential spend $750k
11. 1Trippything
11
Lean ideation approach • 1 week to design a brand and an interface
mockup
• 1 day to setup A/B testing landing pages to test
benefits, features and price variations
• 2 hours to review landing page data
• 1 day to realise Trippything was a great idea at
the wrong time
• Total estimated spend: $1,500
13. 1
13
Think people might need help
managing travel itineraries
TRIPPYTHING
LEAN PROCESS
1. 1 week to design a brand and an interface mockup
2. 1 day to setup A/B testing landing pages to test benefits, features and
price variations
3. 2 hours to review landing page data
4. 1 day to realise Trippything was a great idea at the wrong time
5. Total estimated spend: $1,500
LEAN idea DEVELOPMENT
14. IT’S NOT ABOUT ONE IDEA
LEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS
The WD-40 story and Norm Larsen’s nuclear missiles
It’s about multiple ideas — “Ideases”
With ideases, each idea leverages what you’ve learned from your previous ideas
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15. EXERCISE: CREATIVE JUICES
15
Take one of the following products
Develop 10x one- sentence descriptions that will sell it
‣ Johnsons Baby Wipes
‣ Uber cars
‣ iPhone 5
‣ Australian Tax Office
‣ Path app for iOS/Android
‣ A golden retriever puppy
16. Where do ideas come from?
– Seth Godin
16
Listening to a lecture
17. Where do ideas come from?
– Seth Godin
17
Reading a book
(but not watching TV)
18. Where do ideas come from?
– Seth Godin
18
From bad ideas
(but only if you have enough of
them)
19. Where do ideas come from?
– Seth Godin
19
• Ideas hate conference rooms
• Ideas fear experts
• Ideas adore a beginner’s mind
(a little awareness is a beautiful
thing)
20. Where do ideas come from?
– Neil Gaiman
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“The Ideas aren't the hard bit. They're a small
component of the whole. Creating believable
people who do more or less what you tell them
to is much harder. And hardest by far is the
process of simply sitting down and putting one
word after another to construct whatever it is
you're trying to build: making it interesting,
making it new. “
21. 21
Execution planning
‣ If ideas aren’t important, what is?
‣ Execution: developing your idea, testing it, finding
customers for it, retaining customers and maximising
their lifetime value
‣ How much time can you dedicate? When will it be?
‣ Write down your execution plan
22. 22
Resource audit
‣ What resources do you have to call upon?
‣ You might have money (but not time)
‣ You might have time (but not money)
‣ Friends with skills and time
‣ Mentors with experience and connections
‣ Lean methodologies
‣ List your resources now
24. 24
Idea cloud exercise
Starting idea Change
product/service
Change customer Change pricing
model
Change channel
Product/Servi
ce
Diapers to your
door
Diapers to your
workplace
Diapers to your
door
Diapers to your
door
Diapers to your
door
Customer
First-time young
mums
Workplace creche Twin/triplet mums
First-time young
mums
First-time young
mums
Pricing model
Monthly
subscription
Annual contract
Monthly
subscription
Buy nappy credits
Monthly
subscription
Marketing
channel
Parenting
magazines
HR department
sales call
Relatives through
PR
Parenting
magazines
Daily deals site
(e.g. Spreets)
26. INSPIRATION
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Resources I recommend
‣ Blungr and Domainr for product names and domains
‣ Namestall for names
‣ CPC ads on Facebook, Google
‣ Tumblr or WordPress for a test environment
‣ Twitter and Facebook pages for free social marketing
‣ Mailchimp
‣ Launchrock
‣ Canvanizer for lean canvas in the cloud
‣ General Assembly community
27. HOMEWORK
LEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS
1. Write a <300 word story on a company that developed a product or service
through lean methodology. What do you think they did right or wrong? What
would you have done differently?
2. Develop your favourite idea as a Lean Canvas, either alone or with a class
member.
3. Join the Google Group to get help and share ideas — leave me your email
address for an invite to the private group.
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