Getting out of the buildingSeptember 2015
Magnus Christensson Partner [email protected]
My name is Magnus.
I build products, services and businesses. I help others build as well.
Digital strategy and open innovation since 2005
My experiences with “getting out of the
building”
Why should we get out of the building?
Starting a company is not ONLY about how good your idea is, but about how fast and effective you
can reach your customers.
How does a start-up work?
… most start-ups don’t work ;(
http://www.businessinsider.com/
In the beginning both the problem and the solution
is unknown
You and your startup have…
• Limited ressources • A unknown product meeting an unknown need • A lifetime dependent of reaching its customers
Therefore a start-up works towards...
• Finding a plan that works • Risk minimizing • Ressource optimizing •... through customer focus
Minimize the time of each iteration.
Iterate as many times as possible.
Customer discovery
Problem/Solution fit
Customer validation
Product/Market fit
Customer creation
Scale
3 stages
• No clear understanding of the problem • Mitigate the market risk • Goal: Find a problem worth solving and
discover customers • Through formulating a set of
hypotheses... • ...and then testing them hands-on
through customer interviews • Can take weeks or a couple months to
complete
Problem/Solution fit
High-touch Market risk Qualitative
First: problem/solution fit
From a lot of potential users come a few customers
100 users
10 customers
• Go from hands-on and high-touch to automated service and high-tech
• Mitigate the tech risk • Goal: to build something people want
and validate your business model • Through iterations of your service
(MVP) • ...and increased customer acquisition • The riskiest part of the work which
can take months or years to navigate
Product/Market fit
Self-serve Tech risk,
Quantitative
Then: product/market fit
Developing your service and business
KNOWLEDGE about what works is what you have
least of in a start-up
You build knowledge about what works by meeting
those you build for
That’s why we get out of the building
What methods can we use?
Methods and tools
Methodology depends on the challenge and on what your focus is
crowd funding/sourcing
co-design workshops
theater puppets play scenarios together
Prototype testing workshops with users
Online prototype testing
Invision
Interviews
• What questions should you ask? Well, what do you want to know? (It’s a good idea to look at your hypothesis)
• Talk to the right people (Who are you solving a problem for?)
• Write an interview guide (Cover all your areas of interest and make it comparable across interviews)
• Get feedback on your prototypes (Show/tell them how the service works, use your blueprint or mock-ups of touch-points)
• Listen, don’t pitch your idea (Don’t sell, don’t use leading questions, but open-ended questions. Be curious.)
• Summarize what you learn (Create overview, identify patterns, conclude and update your documents)
Interviews
• What do we want to know? (it’s a good idea to look at the different hypothesis you have about the problem and the solution)
• How can you test your hypothesis related to the problem you are trying to solve?
• How can you test your hypothesis regarding the solution?
• Does our value proposition resonate with them?
• What are your early adopters attitude and expectations towards the service?
• What do they use today that is similar to what you offer? And why, do they use it?
• What barriers hinders your early adopters from using your service?
Interviewguide
“ghost” calls.
quantitative approach. call a lot of potential customers - or get someone to do it for you - and ask if they are interested to pay for your product.
Questionnaires
Business Model Canvas and
Value proposition design
The business model canvas is a practical business tool to design, test, implement and manage
business models over their lifecycle.
Case
saxo.com• Wanted to develop a new business and new revenue streams in the
light of digital and technological development in the market• Wanted to challenge status quo in a market where publishers hinder
new services and models
• Together we launched a process to develop a new business - inspired by lean start-up methods
• We met and talked to a lot of authors, experts, readers and publishers
• We found out that self-publishing was a could be a great idea to work with
Become recognized
Become independent
Become a “real” author
Be reviewed
Long process
Fear of not becoming recognized
Be able to market one
self
Acces to an audience
No control of ones
copyright
Bad service from
publisher
“Though” contracts
No support & motivation
from publisher
Marketing
No control over sales
A lot of unknown
costs
Self-publishing
creates less money
To have ones book in ones
hand
Better access to readers
Availablity on multiple platforms
Make money
Self-publishers
Dialogue with the
audience
Better access to data
Knowledge and tools to
publish digitally
Save time
Trust and collaboration
in the industry
Customer jobs
+ important
Not important Weak
+ Strong
Nice to have
Need to have
Pain Gain
FIT
Support creative
commons licensing
Provide access to reviewers
through affilitate programs
Easier “online” process
Provide and support forum
for self-publishers
Offer help/support to
publish
Upload bookGive access to customers on saxo.com
Full control of copyrights
Access to a community
of self-publishers
Fair contract
24/7 customer support
Marketing options and
support
Control of sales Transperant
cost structure
Promote self-
publishers
Support print on demand
Provide permissions to market to audience
Guides to publishing
A larger cut of the sales
(70/30)
Possibility to create
dialogue with audience
Provide data on how the
book performs
Provide marketing packages
SAXO PUBLISH
Provide additional channels (itunes,
amazon, etc)
web platform
authors and content creators
publish their material
reducing
increasing the possibilities for revenue and market position
traditional publishers
Developing your service and business
costs, rights issues and technical difficulties
Saxo publish
• Released sign-up website and marketing after 1 month (no product yet)
• +100 potential customer after 2 weeks• Dialogue with customers in relation to MVP and in development of
product and business• Launched MVP after 3 months• 1 year after +2.000 customers (authors) and 10.000 new titles• Positiv earning to saxo.com
Make customer segments for all potential customers
The municipality?
The elderly?
The nursing home? The family?
Customer jobs
+ Important
Not important Weak
+ Strong
Nice to have
Need to have
Pain Gain
What have I learned so far?
Create a group of people you can talk to on an ongoing basis - and grow the group.
Possible to continuously mirrors ideas relatively cheap.
Remember that it is about collecting data
But in later stages also about creating clients and communication with them.
Know what you are asking.
The essence of the prototypes is that they produce answers to questions you have. Therefore it is essential that we know what we want to know.
Don’t complicate it more than necessary.
Sometimes very simple representations constitute very efficient prototypes,
Try the prototype yourself
Even if you are not part of the target group there are always insights to be gained by self-testing.
Make the necessary obstructions that you need to get the end-user experience. Small hacks can provide valuable insights.
Document tests and keep and share findings.
• Business model canvas… • Proof is a powerful communicative tool • Photos, video recordings, quotes
Build several prototypes.
Interactive concepts are often complex, and sometimes it's not possible to do a full representation of the experience with one prototype.
It may have advantages to create several different representations.
Know your audience.
The necessary prototype fidelity is deeply dependent on your audience.
There is a difference between what one can successfully introduce to a design team and to end users.
Identify your biases before the test.
It is more useful to use some time to identify your own biases and articulate them before the test.
In this way you become conscious about them and its easier to pursue an objective space - and “sell” your idea less.
Use prototypes.
For everything related to the customer. The product, the marketing material, etc. Show them and get feedback.
Remove yourself from the equation.
E.g give them a picture of a mobile phone that they can carry with them and draw interfaces and features on in situ. Afterwards interview them about it.
Focus on value before growth
Good luck
Create something meaningful - it pays off :)