designing great products and the skinny on mvp, minimum viable products

Designing Great Products

The Skinny on MVPs

What We’ll Cover• The Basics on MVP – why we love being

skinny • The importance of the why when we create

experiences…Mission and Vision• The tools to deliver awesome MVP

experiences…including the experiment loop• A bit of practice and role playing• A case study to demonstrate the process• The challenge at networking

The basics of creating MVPs using D4D and Lean Start Up principles

AND

The Importance of Why…the Mission

We need to drive innovation…this next

breakthrough will bring at least $5M

Source: Fastcompany.com

The Minimum Viable Product, MVP

The Minimum Viable Product, MVP

The minimum viable product is that version of

a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least

effort.

Build it and they will come…

The Myth

Build it and they will come…

Source: The Lean StartUp

Learning through Experiments

A moment on measuring…Behavior

• No surveys allowed…• You need currency – a way to measure

whether someone will use your product/service/experience

4:10 pm

Trigger…Starting Point• Problem• Vision

Design for Delight

Evoking positive emotion by going beyond customer expectations in delivering ease and benefit

...so people buy more and tell others about their experience

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Sample Problem Statement

I am an undergrad and I want to gain muscle

but I haven’t been able to even to gain

muscle even though I work out which makes

me feel insecure.

“Jacob”

Customer Empathy: Engaging Techniques

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Why do we care?

We need to gain empathy and a deeper understanding of our target customer so that we can build products and services

that reflect our customer’s needs and go beyond their expectations!

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Steps to a Great Interview1. Think about what questions you want to ask

– Questions should be open-ended and non-leading• What do you think of this? vs. Do you like this?• What would you do next? vs. Would you go here?• What do you like or dislike? vs. Do you like this feature?

Important questions: “why?”, “tell me about…”, or “tell me more”

2. Put Customer at ease– Introduce yourself and try to make the customer feel comfortable– Build rapport – ask what they do, where they live, kids etc.

3. Ask your questions and listen actively– Remember to focus on the details and probe for more info– Minimize how much you are talking – if you’re talking, you’re not learning– Don’t assume you know the answer -- Test your discoveries, “let me make sure I

understand…”

Steps to a Great Interview4. Thank the customer!

– Tell them that you learned a lot from them (even if you didn’t!)

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Let’s role play (Handouts)

Observations• Jacob works out 5xs a week with low

weights• Jacob gets about (4) hours of sleep…

he doesn’t really sleep• He hasn’t changed his diet – follows

mostly a vegetarian diet

Insights• Low protein in Jacob’s diet: Key to

bulking up• Sleep deprivation: Jacob’s lack of

sleep leads to low body mass

Inspire

Align

A product vision is more than a statement. It is a belief in how your product will impact the lives of those you serve.  

It aligns the team’s passion and obsession to deliver nothing less than awesome.

Intuit Confidential

MISSION/PURPOSEWhy we existChange people’s financial lives so profoundly they can’t imagine going back to their old way

PRODUCT VISIONWhat we’re going to achieveStart-to-finish tax prep in 10 minutes for simple filers

STRATEGYHow we’re going to get thereDeliver awesome product experiences.

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Vision10% increase in campus talk about Jacob because he gained 10 lbs of muscle mass Let’s be honest...it’s all about the chicks

Source: Getrippedathome.com

“A thousand songs in your pocket”

Intuit Confidential

A Moment on Going “Cheap”… Cheap Experiments

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Types of Cheap Experiments

– Concierge – Mechanical Turk– Mocked up prototypes– Story boards– Concept sheets

4:32ish

Assumptions• Most people who will take the test

would know about the blog…( TT has 26M customers and that 70% of the blog readers were returning TT customers)

• We assumed that people would find the articles helpful

• We assumed that we just had to organize things better

Insights• Almost no awareness that blog existed• Everyone loved the content –all said it

was helpful• Everyone wanted to share articles or

bookmark but no easy way to do this• We also were surprised by the articles

that were most popular – those that helped people understand key deductions for side businesses

The VisionEmpower you with knowledge and

confidence to take control of your finances, starting with taxes, so that you can keep 20% more of your hard-earned money

Cheap Experiments

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Key Insights•“Get me where I want to go” (less steps)•People prefer visual icons over descriptive text •Lead the way; help me find useful articles

Before and After Home Page

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Before and After Menu

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Before and After Interaction with Blog

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The E2E View…Build, Measure, Learn

VisionRelease

MVP

Release MVP

Cheap experiment

Cheap experiment

LOF – Leap of faith assumption LOF – Leap of faith

assumption

Observations, Insights, what’s the next Leap of Faith to test?

Happy Hour…the challenge

Your Brainstorm Challenge (Handouts)

Goal: Create a problem statement that answers the following… "what problems does someone have that we can solve when

they travel alone to conferences”

Aliza, Joy and Carolyn will monitor and help people along

(4) Teams: 2 using stickies, 2 bumpercar teams

Problem Statement Template

I am a ___________(description) and I want __________ (what are

they trying to achieve) but I have been ___________(state the

barrier), which makes me feel _________(emotion)

Resources

• The Lean StartUp by Eric Ries• The Lean Entrepreneur by Brant Cooper• Innovation Catalyst (HBR):

http://hbr.org/2011/06/the-innovation-catalysts/ar/1

• Design for Delight: http://vimeo.com/user7289841 ; http://www.slideshare.net/stephengay/innovation-d4d-v2

Vijoy_caro@intuit.com@heyjoyjoyLinkedin

Carolyn_Spencer@intuit.com@carolynnspencerwww.linkedin.com/in/carolynnspencer

Aliza_Carpio@intuit.com@socialacwww.linkedin.com/in/alizacarpio/