The Lean Startup
Build a Business Worth Building
Davender Gupta, MS, MBA
Venture Growth Strategist and Leadership Coach
TheScaleupProject.com davender@davender.com
ESG1114-65 ESG-UQAM Montreal, October 8, 2019
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved 1

True or false?
Everyone can benefit from my product
Everyone wants my product
Everyone is looking for my product
Everyone is ready to buy my product
Everyone will buy my product because it
is so much better than the competition
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

The truth is that most people don’t care...
IndifferentHostile Interested
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

A Business Is A System which…
•creates value
•delivers value
•captures value
enabling all of the
stakeholders to
achieve what is
most important to
them in the
moment.
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

6
MY
Ideas
Passions
Needs
Dreams
Interests
Desires
RESOURCES
NO
MEANS
THE
PROFIT
ZONE
THEIR
Ideas
Passions
Needs
Dreams
Interests
Desires
NO
DEMAND
NO
PASSION
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

What is your
customer
looking for?
What functional jobs is your customer
trying get done? (e.g. perform or complete a
specific task, solve a specific problem, ...)
What social jobs is your customer trying to
get done? (e.g. trying to look good, gain
power or status, ...)
What emotional jobs is your customer
trying get done? (e.g. esthetics, feel good,
security, ...)
What basic needs is your customer trying to
satisfy? (e.g. communication,
companionship, sex,…)
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Customer
Discovery
Understanding what
your customer wants
and needs so you can
build a product which
precisely matches
what they are looking
for.
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

The Critical
Question
Is this a problem
which justifies the
investment of
thousands of hours
and many
thousands of
dollars?
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

LEAN STARTUP
Build
Measure
Learn
IDEAS
TESTDATA
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

MVP – Minimal Viable Product
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Two Critical Hypothesis
• How does your offer deliver value
to the customer?
Value Creation
Hypothesis
• What is the customer’s motivation
to invest in your offer?
Value Capture
Hypothesis
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Customer Discovery
Interview

Discover
What you know
About what
you know
(beliefs)
About what
you don’t know
(hypothesis)
What you
don’t know
About what
you know
(intuition)
About what you
don’t know
(insight)
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Who is your customer?
Write out 5 characteristics of your customer
• Age, gender, family
• Employment, profession, education
• What do they like
• What they don’t like
• Something they’re trying to do but having difficulty
doing it.
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

The Discovery
Interview
Not allowed to talk about your
product
Only open questions (Who, What,
Where, When, Why, How)
No “Puppy” Questions
Ask Seven Whys
Goal: Discover something you
didn’t know
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Three
Questions
What is most important to
your customer RIGHT NOW?
What is their vision of
success?
What is their motivation to
commit to a solution?
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

What have you
learned?
How does this
change your
product?
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Your Mission
To find the specific people who recognize
the value of what you offer and who are
ready and willing to commit time,
attention, energy and money
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Life is too short
to build
something no
one wants!
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved

Davender Gupta, MS, MBA
Venture Growth Strategist
Founder, The Scaleup Project
linkedin.com/in/coachdavender
slideshare.com/coachdavender
facebook.com/coachdavender
TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com
514-448-1894
22
©2019 Davender Gupta. TheScaleupProject.com
davender@davender.com All Rights Reserved