Before you launch your idea test it and see if there is initial interest. This presentation will help you to test your idea and refine it before you launch. Lets make your idea more successful.

1. Testing a value proposition

2. 10 testing principles
1. Realize that evidence trumps opinion
2. Learn faster and reduce risk by embracing failure
3. Test early, refine later
4. Experiments = reality
5. Balance learnings and vision
6. Identify idea killers
7. Understand customers first
8. Make it measurable
9. Accept that not all facts are equal
10. Test irreversible decisions twice as much

3. Do you have evidence?
Which gains matter most to
your customers?
Which ones are most
essential?
Which pains matter most to
your customers?
Which ones are most
extreme?
Which jobs matter to your
customers?
Which ones matter most?
Which one of your gain creators
customers really need or desire?
Which ones do they crave most?
Which one of your pain relievers helps
your customers with their headaches?
Which ones do they crave most?
Which one of your
products and services
customers really want?
Which ones they want
the most?

4. Testing your value proposition
1. Select a value proposition to test
2. Select factors of competition
3. Score your value proposition
4. Add competing value propositions
5. Score competing propositions
6. Analyse your sweet spot

6. De Bono Thinking Hats
• Pitch
− White hat
−Information and data. Neutral and objective
− Black hat
−Difficulties, weaknesses, dangers, spotting the risks
− Yellow hat
−Positives, plus points
− Green hat
−Ideas, alternatives, possibilities, solutions to black hat issues
• Evolve and redesign if required

7. • Lets do it.
− Discuss your idea with your group
− Your group then goes through the De Bono hats a round at
a time
−First round white hat
−Second round black hat etc
You have 5 mins per round

8. Use experiments to test
Willingness to
pay
Priorities and
Preferences
Interest and
Relevance
Provide evidence that potential
customers are interested enough in
your value proposition to pay. Deliver
facts that show they will put their
money where their mouth is
Show which jobs, pains and gains
your potential customers and partners
value most and which ones they value
least. Provide evidence that indicates
which features of your value
proposition they prefer
Prove that potential customers are
genuinely interested. Show that your
ideas are relevant enough to them to
get them to perform actions that go
beyond lip service

9. Experiments
• Lab studies
− Minimum viable products
− Prototypes
• Sales actions
− Mock sales
− Presales
− Crowdfunding
• Tracking actions
− Ad and link tracking
− Landing page
− A/B testing
• Participatory design and evaluation
− Speedboat
− Illustrations, storyboards and scenarios

10. Lab studies
Minimum viable product
• Make your idea real as quickly as possible
• A MVP is a representation or prototype of your product
• Not finished or polished
• Goal is to design and produce a MVP to explore customer
interest
• How
− Storyboard
− Drawings
− Renders
− 3D prototypes
Questions to ask of a MVP
• Which MVP’s create value for you?
• Which ones should we progress with and which ones
should we ditch?
• What is missing?
• What would you like to see?
• What should be left out?
• What should be added?
• Could there be other options?

11. Sales actions
Crowdfunding
• Crowdfunding is one of the best ways of attracting pre
sales and analysing initial interest
• Its also a way of raising funds at the same time
• Look at sites like Kickstarter
• Kickstarter allows you to advertise a project and if people
like it they will pledge money in exchange for the item
itself
• The project receives funds only if you reach your
predefined funding goal – all or nothing.
Pre sales
• Main objective here is to explore initial interest not sales
• If there isn’t enough interest to produce the end product
the sale can be cancelled and the customer reimbursed
• It’s a good way of funding the first round of products
without using your own money

12. Tracking
Ad tracking
• Select search terms that best represent what you want
to test, i.e. pains, gains or the value proposition
• Design your ad / test with a headline, link to a landing
page and blurb. Make sure it represents what you want
to test
• Launch your campaign. Define a budget for your
campaign and launch it. Pay only for clicks on your ad
which represent interest
• Measure clicks. Learn how many people click on your
ad. No clicks may indicate a lack of interest
Unique link tracking
• Fabricate a unique and trackable link to more detailed
information about your idea with a service such as goo.gl
• Pitch and track your idea to a potential customer. During
or after the meeting give the person the unique link and
mention it points to more detailed information
• Learn about genuine interest. Track if the customer
used the link or not. If the link wasn’t used it may
indicate a lack of interest or more important jobs, pains,
and gains than those that your idea addresses

13. Landing page
• The goal of a landing page is to validate one or more
hypotheses, not to collect emails or sell, which is a nice by
product of the experiment.
• Elements
− Traffic – generate traffic with ads, social media or existing
channels
− Headline – Craft a headline that speaks to your potential
customers and introduces the value proposition
− Value proposition – ensure your value proposition is clear and
tangible to potential customers
− Call to action – get website visitors to perform an action that
you can learn from
− Outreach – Reach out to people who performed the call to
action. Investigate why they were motivated to perform the
action
Total audience
addressed
Visitors to
website
Visitors who
performed the
action
Visitors who
are willing to
talk to you

14. Experiments
• Lab studies
− Minimum viable products
− Prototypes
• Sales actions
− Mock sales
− Presales
− Crowdfunding
• Tracking actions
− Ad and link tracking
− Landing page
− A/B testing
• Participatory design and evaluation
− Speedboat
− Illustrations, storyboards and scenarios
Which ones
could you use?

15. Innovation Games
Product box
1. Design. Invite customers to design a cardboard box
for the product they would buy. Ask them to
feature key marketing messages, main features and
key benefits they would expect
2. Pitch. Ask them to now pitch the box to you.
3. Capture. Observe and note which messages,
features and benefits customers mention on the box
and in the pitch. Relate this back to your initial
value proposition
Speed Boat
1. Set up – Prepare a large poster with a speed boat
or sailboat at sea
2. Identify pains – Invite people to identify problems,
obstacles and risks that are preventing them
performing their jobs. Each one is an anchor and
the lower the anchor the more extreme the pain
3. Identify gains – Invite people to identify things that
will make the boat go faster.
4. Analyse – Compare the results against your own
initial thoughts

16. Lets try them
• One group do the speed boat test
• One group do the product box test
• Then swap
You have 20 mins per test

17. The testing process
Build
Measure
Learn
1. (Re)Shape your ideas 2. Extract your hypothesis
3. Design your test
4. Enter the learning loop
5. Capture the results
6. Measure progress

18. 10 characteristics of great value propositions
1. Are embedded in great business models
2. Focus on the jobs, pains and gains that matter most to customers
3. Focus on unsatisfied jobs, unresolved gains and unresolved pains
4. Target few jobs, pains and gains but do so very well
5. Go beyond functional jobs and address emotional and social jobs
6. Align with how customers measure success
7. Focus on jobs, pains and gains that a lot of people have or that some will pay a lot of money for.
8. Differentiate from competition on jobs, pains and gains that customers care about
9. Outperform competition substantially on at least one dimension
10. Are difficult to copy