2. You Are Here
• Interested in startups that create products
• Interested in the concept of “lean startups”
• Have been, currently are, or are thinking
about founding a startup
3. I hope to get you here
• Clear, high level understanding of Market
Validation, Customer Development and The
Lean Startup
• Some level of understanding of how these
benefit the creation of a successful product
• Excited to look into these three models and
try them out and see what works for you
5. What is Market Validation?
A process for
determining whether
or not your target
market is:
• Real
• Worthy of your idea
• Addressable
6. Really. What is Market Validation?
• Primary (Proprietary) Market Research
1. Face to Face Interviews
2. Phone Interviews
3. On Line Interviews / Surveys
• Secondary Market Research
– Analysts
– Market Research
7. What does Market Validation Teach Us?
• What state is the market in?
– Early adopter, early majority, late majority, laggards
• What is the competition?
– Actual competitors
– Alternatives to a true solution
• What are customers willing to pay?
• How serious is the need?
• What is the operational cost to adopting your
proposed solution?
8. Takeaway:
Market Validation ensures that you
actually have an opportunity worth
pursuing, and helps you understand
what solution will actually capture
that market opportunity.
10. What is Customer Development?
A process for achieving
product-market fit that
helps you to
definitively:
• Define your
customer
• Define your market
state
• Define your go to
market strategy
• Ensure these
definitions are all real
12. Really. What is Customer Development?
• Business Visionary (CEO)
– Customer (Day to day user, Economic buyer, decision
maker)
– Problem / Solution
• Scale of recognition (Latent or Active)
– Impact of pain / Mission Critical?
– How does the customer spend their day now?
• Tech Co-Founder (CTO or Chief Maker)
– Product (Features, Benefits, IP, TCO, Dependency
Analysis)
13. Takeaway:
Customer Development is a
discipline for bringing a product to
the market successfully in a startup.
20. What is a Business Model?
A business model
describes the
rationale of how an
organization
creates, delivers, and
captures value
(economic, social, or
other forms of value).
23. Sounds Nice. Here’s Reality
• Startups are hard. It’s REALLY difficult to
actually execute. Don’t ask me why. It just is.
• You will be way better off if you are highly
skilled and experienced in your endeavor than
otherwise.
• Building a quality team is key, and also hard.
A-Level players with good chemistry have the
best chance of winning.
24. More Reality
• You may need money to achieve product-market
fit. Raising money sucks for most of us, and has
nothing to do with innovation or doing great
work.
• Competition validates your market, but can throw
you off your path when you start losing deals to
it.
• Unless you have innovated before and gone
through the pain of mistakes, you will likely make
a lot of them.
25. How to deal with reality
• Lone founder is a tough road. Get a co-founder.
• Get advisors and mentors. You have blind spots.
• Get laser focused on a minimum viable product.
(makes raising money easier when you have
success, or maybe not necessary at all)
• Make goals and measure everything.
• Make sure you can’t not do the startup. It’s the
only thing that will get you through.
26. Practical Application:
• Find a balance of Market Validation & Customer
Development that works for you.
• Check yourself against your Business Model
Canvas.
• Try Squared Circle Agile for Product Development
(I made this crap up).
• Say AAARR! To Determine your MVP.
(Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral &
Revenue)
• Be a Data Driven Founder.
31. Data Driven Startup Philosophy & Framework
The point of testing
is to prove or disprove assumptions quickly
Optimize Your Startup for Learning not Data
Checklist for Data Driven Startup:
★ Operating Dashboard
★ Conversion Funnel Analysis
★ Cohort Analysis
http://www.slideshare.net/dcancel/data-drivenstartups
32. Data Driven Operating Dashboard
http://www.slideshare.net/dcancel/data-drivenstartups
