Dan Arkind's slide deck for the Product Development session on August 17th, 2016. Silicon Valley Summer 2016 with Adeo Ressi semester.

1. Product Development
Founder’s Institute
Summer 2016

2. Tour Guide
Dan Arkind
Founded JobScore, an
online jobs startup
15-years recruiting,
mostly for startups

3. Recruiter, built JobScore for myself
2003 Idea
2006 Working product
2008 Public Launch
2013 $2M run rate
Bootstrapped, no outside investment
Over $1M hard cash investment
Offshore development team in Brazil

4. Idea
MVP
Product /
Market Fit

5. Idea
Profit
The valley of death

6. 1. Team
2. Market
3. Product

7. Software takes 10 years

8. You are going to
create, sell and support
some crappy software

9. Products require
behavioral change

10. Feel the
PAIN

11. Focus on the
PERSON

12. Understand the
CONTEXT

13. Follow the
$$

14. GIVE
them
SOMETHING

15. GET
PAID

16. No $$ =
DEATH

17. Idea
Profit
The valley of death

18. 1. Team
2. Market
3. Product

19. It’s not easy

20. It takes a team

22. TRY
everything

23. Figure out what
you suck at

24. Ask for
HELP

25. Find
mentors

26. Interaction Design

27. Visual Design

28. Quantitative Market Research

29. (your cofounder)

30. • Write the press release first
• Define the experience
• Write the FAQ & help docs
Werner Vogels
CTO - Amazon.com
Work backwards

31. How do I figure out the
End State?

32. Idea to Offering

34. Better feedback

35. • Organize your thoughts
• Make sure it’s easy
• Cheap, quality feedback

36. Do it manually

37. Work with what you’ve got

38. Invent as
little as
possible
(stand on the shoulders of giants)

39. Steal shamelessly

40. Build half a product
not a half-assed product

41. Start Ugly

42. Make it easy

43. It’s not about
YOUR FRIENDS

44. Don’t believe
your own BS

45. Get clicks

46.  Crop
 Callout

47. TURK
it

48. Question your
questions.

49. Definition 
Development Plan

50. Listen

51. Focus

52. Trust your gut

53. What you think
matters
doesn’t matter

54. What can we have working
by the end of the week?
By the end of the month?

55. Advisory
Council
Introduction

56. Treat your time as a precious,
valuable commodity
$300 / hr

57. Prioritize working software
Release early and often

58. Be in the
same room

59. Write stuff down
and share it.

60. Hire
great
writers

61. You want whiners.

62. ROI
“How long does that take?”

63. Turn interviewees
into advocates

64. Have good taste:
No one cares
more than you

65. Create your
Own
Paper Prototype

66.  Who is the user?
 What’s their problem?
 What am I supposed to
accomplish?
 Homepage Headline
 CTAs