Getting out of the buildingSeptember 2015

Magnus Christensson Partner magnus@socialsquare.dk

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 :)