'Accelerate Your Startup' for the Stanford Entrepreneur Group @cowanSF: This is an excerpt from www.alexandercowan.com/speaking . For tutorials and templates on how to do all this, you can try www.alexandercowan.com/resources. I had a great time meeting with alumni at this event. We reviewed key techniques companies are using to build better products and businesses and I used Leonid Systems (B2C enterprise software) as a case study.

1. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Stanford
Alumni
Association
Accelerate Your
Startup
Stanford
Entrepreneurs

2. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing

3. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing

4. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Design Thinking
Lean Startup
Customer Dev.
Agile
} BIG VOID
{ Actual Practice

5. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
to learn
more about
launching
new ideas
KNOWLEDGE
of software
development
not assumed
ACTION
to work on
new ideas
DESIRE
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

6. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
PLANNING
ORGANIZATION
DEVELOPMENT

7. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
Self-Love
And Then
Survival
Back Then
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

8. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

9. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
Self-Love
And Then
Design
Thinking
And Now
Survival
Back Then

10. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Empathy
DESIGN THINKING- WHAT IS
Creativity

11. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
Personas
Problem
Scenarios
?
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

12. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
•Women
•Age 28-45
•Have kids
•Socialize with other mom’s
•Online with Facebook
•86% said they’d like to be
more organized
•70% said they’d use an
application that organizes them
IDEATION

13. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

14. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Mary is a mom by choice. She had a successful
career in accounting, but welcomed the opportunity to
be a stay at home mom. She loves it. But it’s not like
having kids purged her creative, social instincts. She
wants to connect, she wants to learn, she wants to
interact. Being a mom is a job and she wants to do it
well. That means corresponding with other mom’s on
relevant topics and keeping the family calendar in
ship shape. She posts to Facebook at least twice a
week and responds to other moms’ items more often
than that.
For household stuff, Costco is the go-to place, but
she’ll pick up fresh items at the farmer’s market when
it’s up and splurge at Whole Foods when they’re
having company.
Mary the Mom
IDEATION

15. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION

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IDEATION
Personas
User
Stories
Problem
Scenarios
?

17. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Drafting
Stories
PERSONAS
STORIES
Epic Stories
Stories
Test Cases
“As a [persona],
I want to [do something]
so that I can [derive a benefit]”
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

18. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
BorrowedwithutmostregardfromBanksy(banksy.co.uk)
IDEATION

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PLANNING
!5,000,000%
0%
5,000,000%
10,000,000%
15,000,000%
20,000,000%
25,000,000%
30,000,000%
35,000,000%
40,000,000%
45,000,000%
2012% 2013% 2014% 2015% 2016% 2017% 2018% 2019% 2020%
Revenue%
Expense%
EBITDA%
Five Year
Plan
Then
Iterative
Management
Now
6.a PIVOT
experiments
disprove
hypothesis
01 IDEA!
02 HYPOTHESIS
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATION
05 PIVOT OR PERSEVERE?
6.b PERSEVERE
experiments prove
hypothesis
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

20. !5,000,000%
0%
5,000,000%
10,000,000%
15,000,000%
20,000,000%
25,000,000%
30,000,000%
35,000,000%
40,000,000%
45,000,000%
2012% 2013% 2014% 2015% 2016% 2017% 2018% 2019% 2020%
Revenue%
Expense%
EBITDA%
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

21. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNINGPLANNING
Do I have real evidence from my buyer that
this is compelling?
6.a YES
results
disprove
hypothesis
01 IDEA!
02 HYPOTHESIS
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATION
05 REVISE?
6.b NO
we appear to
have a valid
hypothesis
What are the key assumptions
required to make this business work?
6.a YES
results
disprove
hypothesis
01 IDEA!
02 HYPOTHESIS
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATION
05 REVISE?
6.b NO
we appear to
have a valid
hypothesis
How do I definitely prove or disprove
the assumptions with a minimum of
time and effort?
6.a YES
results
disprove
hypothesis
01 IDEA!
02 HYPOTHESIS
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATION
05 REVISE?
6.b NO
we appear to
have a valid
hypothesis
6.a YES
results
disprove
hypothesis
01 IDEA!
02 HYPOTHESIS
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATION
05 REVISE?
6.b NO
we appear to
have a valid
hypothesis
Am I reacting or am I focused on
validating my pivotal assumptions?
‘Pivot or persevere?’
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

22. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation
1
[A key assumption about
the business]
[Whether it needs
proving
[Experiment to
prove or disprove]
1
Parents want to better
organize the distribution
of allowances
Yes
* Post the proposition in ads
online
* Measure sign-up’s on a landing
page
2
Parents have smart
phones
No n/a
PLANNING
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

23. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING

24. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
$
PLANNING
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

25. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
ORGANIZATION
==
Aping
Then
Customer
Development
Now
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

26. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
≠
ORGANIZATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

27. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
ORGANIZATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

28. Specialties
(VARIOUS)DESIGN
UNIXSYSADMIN
RUBY
PYTON
JAVA
PHP
...
...
...
SEO
ANALYTICS
...
(VARIOUS)MGMT.
...
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Basic
Technical
Literacy
SOFTWARE
FUNDAMENTALS
Model-View-Controller
ARCHITECTURE
FUNDAMENTALS
App. & Platform Integration
ROLES & SYSTEMS
In a Technical Team
Stories
Personas
Development Discussion
Foundation
Concepts
ITERATIVE
MANAGEMENT
DESIGN
THINKING
CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT
AGILE
Collaboration AGILE
As Product Owner
ORGANIZATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

29. Big Company
Recipes Applied
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
5 Year Plan ==
10x Returns!
X: < Odds at Lotto
VC-Encouraged
Menagerie
X: Too much
too soon
X: Lack of Experience
in Hands-on Discovery
X: Better Luck with
the Lottery
Time to Face the Music
X: New Theories to
Explain Plan v. Actual
X: Fun and Profit-
Unlikely
ORGANIZATION
++
New Idea!
Expanded Team
Revisions to Plan
== Edgy Board
X: Want Lots of
Capital at Work
It Works! Working 5 Year Plan
New HiresFounders Investors Board
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

30. Investors?
Advisors?
Focus on Validated
Learning
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Key Assumptions
ID’ed, Validated
Lower Risk &
Capital Requirement
Resources
As Needed
Clear Focus in
Hiring & Contracting
Roles and Success
Criteria Clear
Progress is Quick
and Measurable
Time to Face
the Music
Validated Learning
Answers Shared
Questions
Fun & Profit
ORGANIZATION
++
New Idea!
Full Tilt at a ‘Pivot or
Persevere’ Moment
Is approach
working or not?
Option for
Non-Traditional
Funding Strategies
Expanded TeamNew HiresFounders Investors Board
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

31. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
DEVELOPMENT
Waterfall
Then
Agile
Now
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

32. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Individuals
Interactions
>
Processes
Tools
Working
software
Comprehensive
Documentation
>
Customer
collaboration
Contract
negotiation
>
Responding
to change
Following
a plan
>
DEVELOPMENT
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

33. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
DEVELOPMENT
validate feature
relevance with
customers
Past
collaborate with
development
team
Present
observe and
envision what’s
next
Future

34. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
direction
personas
user stories
hypothesis (assumptions)
experimental design
roles & team
objectives
working product
DESIGN
THINKING
ITERATIVE
MGMT.
CUSTOMER
DEV.
AGILE
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

35. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
THE STORY
In 2007.
I left cloud
telephony
provider,
BroadSoft. . .

36. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
THE STORY
. . . to pursue
new ideas
about the
delivery of
cloud
services.
NETWORK
Application Servers
Host Infrastructure
Data Transport
Customer Equipment
CRM
Order Management
Service Delivery
Billing
Case Mgmt.
Inventory
Workflow
IT
Portals
CONSULTING
Service
Design
Process
Design
Customization
& Integration

37. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

38. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
Operators will want to
see what services
their users are using
so they can tune their
offer and interfaces. ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

39. TOOL SETS AND FEASIBLE
ARCHITECTURE AVAILABLE
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
GOOD PLATFORMS
AVAILABLE &
LEONID’S LEARNING’S
LIGHTWEIGHT
ARCHITECTURES
AVAILABLE
LACK OF PORTAL
CUSTOMIZATION TOOLS
& ADD-ON WIDGETS
PROVISIONING
LABOR INTENSIVE &
LEGACY SLOW TO
ADAPT
AN IT OVERHAUL
REQUIRES RADICAL
MODERNIATION

40. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

41. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
USER STORIES
“As a receptionist, I want to receive an out
of the box set up that’s created against
best practices so I don’t have to set it all
up by myself.”
“As a receptionist, I want to change the
buttons on my phone so they do what I
want.”
PROBLEM SCENARIO
‘I want a good out-of-the-box experience.
And to change the display on my phone.’
PERSONA
Rhonda the Receptionist
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

42. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
STORY TEST CASE
“As a receptionist, I want to receive an out of the box phone
set up that’s created against best practices so I don’t have
to set it all up by myself.”
Make sure the available templates are
editable in a visual environment usable by
a Product Manager
“As a receptionist, I want to receive an out of the box phone
set up that’s created against best practices so I don’t have
to set it all up by myself.”
Make sure it’s possible to update the
template at install time
“As a receptionist, I want to receive an out of the box phone
set up that’s created against best practices so I don’t have
to set it all up by myself.”
Make sure the template designation is
available in all Loki provisioning interfaces
“As a receptionist, I want to change the buttons on my
phone so they do what I want.”
Make sure it’s possible for the user to reset
to the default template
“As a receptionist, I want to change the buttons on my
phone so they do what I want.”
Make sure the available functions are
filtered by the services assigned to the user
“As a receptionist, I want to change the buttons on my
phone so they do what I want.”
Make sure available functions are filtered
based on the capabilities of the phone key
“As a receptionist, I want a custom configuration on my phone so that I can manage calls in the way I’ve
come to expect.”
EPIC STORY
IDEATION

43. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

44. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
IDEATION
Inflection
Points
New data structures on host platform
(BroadWorks)
Validated sucess in process design.
Maturation of off-the-shelf platforms
(SugarCRM, Salesforce.com)
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

45. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

46. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING
Theses
Growth?
Retention?
Supportability?
Ongoing investment?
Competition?
Hypotheses
Does anyone want this?
Are we the people to do it?
Pivot or persevere?
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

47. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PRIORITY KEY ASSUMPTIONS
NEEDS
PROVING?
EXPERIMENTATION
1
End users at large want a visual tool
to manage their phones
No
- Already proven by prototypes from
partner
1
Giving the capability to end user
admin’s will do more good than harm
Yes - Beta testing with customers
1
The design and architecture are
supportable in current customer
environments
Yes
- Lab testing with customers...but really...
- Field testing at scale
1
The target price point is bearable by
the market
Yes
- Initial sales negotiations
- Mainline (post beta) sales
2
The capability makes sense with end
users (vs. admin’s)
Yes
- Some proxy data on overall activity by
user type
- Customer interviews
- Beta testing
2
(Various makes and models of
phones are worth investing in)
Yes - Advanced orders
PLANNING

48. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING
Good ≠ Viral
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

49. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.The templates here are made available on the same CC license terms as the original canvas.
Fixed: product development, G&A
Variable: field teams, support
BroadSoft
Other resellers
Integrators
Other network system
vendors
Product development
Large account mgmt.
Consulting
Custom Dev.
Actionable insight
on cloud UC
Best practice recipes
Dev. Team
Licensing
Maintenance & Support
Consulting
Custom Development
Dedicated personal
assistance
BroadSoft
SIPhon Networks
Direct
Reduced time & risk to
get to market
Reduced cost
Implementation of
learned best practices
Large/incumbent
Medium/competitive
Small/niche
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING

50. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.The templates here are made available on the same CC license terms as the original canvas.
Licensing
Maintenance & Support
Consulting
Custom Development
Dedicated personal
assistance
BroadSoft
SIPhon Networks
Direct
Reduced time & risk to
get to market
Reduced cost
Implementation of
learned best practices
Large/incumbent
Medium/competitive
Small/niche
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING

51. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.The templates here are made available on the same CC license terms as the original canvas.
Fixed: product development, G&A
Variable: field teams, support
BroadSoft
Other resellers
Integrators
Other network system
vendors
Product development
Large account mgmt.
Consulting
Custom Dev.
Actionable insight
on cloud UC
Best practice recipes
Dev. Team
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING

52. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.The templates here are made available on the same CC license terms as the original canvas.
Fixed: product development, G&A
Variable: field teams, support
BroadSoft
Other resellers
Integrators
Other network system
vendors
Product development
Large account mgmt.
Consulting
Custom Dev.
Actionable insight
on cloud UC
Best practice recipes
Dev. Team
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
PLANNING

53. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishingsee alexandercowan.com/finplan
operations begin
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Revenue (consulting)
(+some
software)
(50%
software)
(scaling
software)
Expenses (small/me+) (variable)
(++fixed
costs)
Financing (n/a)
(small debt
offer- family)
(n/a) (bank-based
financing)
Earnings (profitable)
Visibility (moderate)
(low/
moderate)
(low/
moderate)
(high) (high)
(current products:
high
new products:
moderate)
PLANNING

54. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
ORGANIZATION
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

55. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
ORGANIZATION
Customer
Development
(me)
(dev & ops
mgmt.)
(dev & operations
team)
Scaling
(me)
(expanded
sr. mgmt.)
(dev &
operations team)
Feasibility
(me)
(dev
contractors)
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

56. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
DEVELOPMENT
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

57. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
DEVELOPMENT
LOKI
PORTALS
ITERATION 01 ITERATION 02 ITERATION 03 ITERATION 04
ITERATION 01 ITERATION 02 ITERATION 03 ITERATION 04
LOKI
PROVISIONING
LOKI BPM
DOC’S &
INFRASTRUCTURE
A
ITERATION 05
ITERATION 05
D
E
C
G
Predictive
Content
B
F
Predictive
Content
Predictive
Content
Predictive
Content
Adaptive
Content
Adaptive
Content
Adaptive
Content
Adaptive
Content

58. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
BUY THE BOOK
A practical primer for anyone
wanting to actually implement
today’s best practices in product
development (available online or
at any major retailer)
VISIT THE SITE
Free talks, tutorials, and
resources for product
development and new ventures.
MORE?
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF

59. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
@cowanSF
alexandercowan.com/blog
acowan@alexandercowan.com
alexandercowan.com/speaking
alexandercowan.com/resources
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF