7/15/2011 Presentation to Lean Startup Challenge on how to start a web company without coding

1. Build & Test Your
Idea Without
Programming
Lean Startup Challenge
July 15, 2011
Elizabeth Yin
co-founder of LaunchBit

2. Agenda
 Introduction
 Interviewing customers
 Wizard-of-Oz prototypes
Q&A

3. In high school, we decided to
become internet entrepreneurs

4. Shiny Orb is a social shopping site
for wedding apparel

5. DressMob is a social shopping
site for all dresses

6. The first step is to achieve
product/market fit
Maximize
Product/Market Fit Scale Up
Profit

7. Progress happens in parallel
Talk with Talk with Talk with
customers customers customers
Collect landing page signups
Wizard-of-Oz your prototype

8. Talk to a range of customers… not
your mom!
?

9. Post an ad on Craigslist to find
local people willing to help you
http://www.craigslist.org
Cindy Alvarez
http://www.slideshare.net/cindyalvarez/user-testing-tactics
http://www.surveymonkey.com http://docs.google.com

10. Start by asking questions to help
you understand user behavior
What are the most
frustrating aspects of ABC? May I ask you why
ABC is frustrating?
What is the process you go
through today to do ABC? If you had a magic wand to help
you with ABC, what would it do?
How much would you expect this
magic wand to cost?

11. In subsequent interviews, present
your solution for feedback
So, you said ZYX of ABC was
frustrating, what if the product Would you use it?
looked like this?
Do you have any friends
How much would you expect whom you think could
this to cost, if anything? benefit from this?
We’d love to learn from your
friend, mind making an intro?

12. Ask about behavior and bring a
simple set of “paper” prototypes
Image credit: Simon Collison (flickr)
Image Credit: Mathieu Brault
Do people “get” your idea?

13. Hanging around coffee shops
helps Pulse refine their new ideas

14. Collect signups with a simple
landing page

15. Make sure your messaging is
clear and there is a call to action

16. Your Minimum Viable Product
should have just 1 or 2 functions
Image Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer
Can you explain your product in 1 sentence?

17. Aardvark went to see the
wonderful Wizard of Oz

18. Food on the Table started with
real, live “concierge” service

19. The Wed Connect is our own
experience at quick idea testing

20. Online tools made it possible to
work behind the curtain
Image Credit: Wizard of Oz

21. Get your first users:
5 – 50 customers
Image Credit: Wizard of Oz

22. Find out what your users are doing
on your website

23. There are many affordable tools for
quantitative & qualitative analysis

24. In 5 days, we had numbers to
evaluate The Wed Connect
Bounce Rates
87% of 68 people
56% of 16 people
21 Signups
 Quick math:
 Charge wedding vendors $2 / lead * 21 leads = $42
 Costs: $0.44 * 68 people = $29.92
 Potential profit: $0.58 / person

25. Qualitative feedback taught us
about the customer

26. We determined the viability of The
Wed Connect in just 1 week
0 1 2 7 8
1 day Customer Research
1 day Analysis
1 day Build MVP
5 days Testing and Marketing
Great initial numbers but a frustrating business

27. LaunchBit Startup Guide helps
new entrepreneurs launch ideas

28. Build and test your idea without
programming – Get going!
 More questions? hello@launchbit.com
 Blog: blog.launchbit.com
 @launchbit
 www.launchbit.com