1.
MASTER OF
STARTUPS
SERIES
MINIMUM VIABLE
PRODUCT AND PIVOT
www.geekhouse.si/en

2.
BLAZ KOS
• 10+ years working with start-ups
• Management of university incubator, technology park and business angel network
• Management of two start-up accelerators and co-working space
• PODIM Conference – one of the biggest conferences in Alps-Adriatic region
• 600+ lectures in CEE
• Mentored over 300 start-ups
• Two handbooks about startups, 1500+ pages on two blogs
I am on a life mission to make the world a more innovative, organized and transparent place to be by
helping individuals, organizations and communities achieve their peak potential and an entirely new level of
performance.

3.
www.AgileLeanLife.com
An entirely new level of personal performance.

4.
A picture is worth a
thousand words.
A MVP is worth a thousand
pictures, sketches, business
plans….

5.
The minimum set
of features needed
to learn from
earlyvangelists.

6.
The Minimum Viable Product is the
smallest thing you can build that will
create the value you‘ve promisted to your
market.
Nowhere in definition is said how much of that offering
has to be real.

7.
Stop thinking about the
big picture.
Start thinking about
CREATING VALUE NOW.

8.
REQUIREMENTS DEVELOPMENT QA RELEASE
Some learning
Very little learning
Most learning

9.
It‘s all about SPEED.

10.
Learn Faster
Split Tests
Customer Development
Five Whys
Customer Advisory Board
Falsifiable Hypotheses
Product Owner
Accountability
Customer Archetypes
Cross-functional Teams
Semi-autonomous Teams
Smoke Tests
Measure Faster
Split Tests
Continuous Deployment
Usability Tests
Real-time Monitoring & Alerting
Customer Liaison
Build Faster
Unit Tests
Usability Tests
Continuous Integration
Incremental Deployment
Free & Open-Source
Cloud Computing
Cluster Immune System
Just-in-time Scalability
Refactoring
Developer Sandbox
Minimum Viable Product
Measure Faster
Funnel Analysis
Cohort Analysis
Net Promoter Score
Search Engine Marketing
Predictive Monitoring
Source: Lean Startup

11.
Video + Subscription Wordpress Blog + PDF

12.
MVP IDEAS
• Explainer Video
• A Landing Page / WordPress Page
• Wizard of Oz / Flinstoning (front-end + manually)
• Crowdfunding
• Single Feature MVP
• E-mail test

13.
• Automagically Websides
• Landing Pages
• Customer Contact Tools
• Surveys
• Product Launch Tools
• Product Demo Videos
• Screencasting
• Online Advertising
• Mobile marketing
• Email marketing
• Gamification
• Outsourcing
• Market research tools
• Accelerators
• Animations
• Forms
• Q&A Communities
• Blogging platforms
• Wireframing tools
• Lean Startup tools
• Web Drawing Libraries
• Website usability
• Heat maps
• A/B Testing
• Cloud Apps
• Website design tools
• Development tools
• Customer Feedback Tools
• Startup Advice
• Templates
•…

14.
• FINDING YOUR TARGET MARKET
Generative
(Insight)
Evaluative
(Test)
Quantitative
(Numbers)
Qualitative
(Discriptions)
Surveys
Interviews
Contextual Inquiry (Byer & Holzblatt)
Mental models (Indi Young)
Depth Interviews
Starbucks
Ethnography
Diary Studies
Participatory Design (Co-Creation)
UsabilityTesting
Moderate Card Sorting
Wizard of Oz testing
DesirabilityToolkit
R.I.T.
Web Analytics
SplitTesting (A/B)
Optimizley
Multi-variantTesting
Remote Card Sorting
Clicktale / CrazyEgg
Treejack
Chalkmark / 5 second test
KPI

15.
Sources and additional resources
CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT
• 95 Ways to find your first customers for customer development or your first sale
• http://jasonevanish.com/2013/08/11/95-ways-to-find-your-first-customers-for-customer-development-or-
your-first-sale/
• Best Cold Calling Script
• http://www.quora.com/Customer-Development/When-setting-up-Customer-Development-Interviews-
What%E2%80%99s-the-best-Cold-calling-script-you-found-success-with
• 12 Tips for Early Customer Development Interviews
• http://giffconstable.com/2012/12/12-tips-for-early-customer-development-interviews-revision-3/
• How to Structure (and get the most out of) Customer Development Interviews
• http://jasonevanish.com/2012/01/18/how-to-structure-and-get-the-most-out-of-customer-development-
interviews/
• The Art of The Customer Development Conversation
• http://market-by-numbers.com/2010/09/the-art-of-the-customer-development-conversations/
• Insight Interviews
• http://blog.luxr.co/talk-to-the-nice-people/
• Customer Development Interviews
• http://www.cindyalvarez.com/communication/customer-development-interviews-how-to-what-you-should-
be-learning
• Customer Development Interviews: What You should be learning
• http://www.cindyalvarez.com/communication/customer-development-interviews-how-to-what-you-should-
be-learning

16.
Sources and additional resources
• Customer Interviews: Quora
• http://www.quora.com/Customer-Development/What-are-your-favorite-methods-for-doing-
problem-interviews-during-Customer-Discovery
• Getting Back on Customer Development Horse
• http://jasonevanish.com/2012/01/18/how-do-you-get-back-on-the-customer-development-
horse//
• Tips for a better customer interview process
• http://blog.kytelabs.com/?p=17
• Bad Customer Development Questions
• http://kevindewalt.com/2013/01/21/bad-customer-development-questions-and-how-to-avoid-
my-mistakes/
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
• 10 Examples of MVP
• http://venturehacks.com/articles/minimum-viable-product-examples
• The Ultimate Guide to MVP
• http://scalemybusiness.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-minimum-viable-products/

17.
Sources and additional resources
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
• Minimum Viable Product Guide
• http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-product-guide.html
• http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/03/minimum-viable-product.html
• How I Build MVP
• http://practicetrumpstheory.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/

18.
PIVOT

19.
• Fundamental change in business strategy
• Change directions but stay grounded in:
• Vision
• Learned facts

20.
When do you pivot?
When each additional
experiment leads to
less progress.
You hit local maximum.

21.
DON‘T GET STUCK IN THE LAND
OF THE LIVING DEAD.
• NO GROWTH
• NO DEATH
• CONSUMING RESOURCES
• NOT MOVING AHEAD
TERRIBLE DRAIN OF
HUMAN ENERGY

22.
•Big vision
•Deep understanding of the
problem
•Validated learning
•Actual falsifiable hypotheses
•Metrics and targets
•A passion for the pivot

23.
 Zoom-in Pivot
 Zoom-out Pivot
 Customer Segment Pivot
 Customer Need Pivot
 Platform Pivot
 Business Architecture Pivot
 Value Capture Pivot
 Engine of Growth Pivot
 Channel Pivot
 Technology Pivot
10
Source: Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

24.
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
Do we understand the industry?
Is there a severe problem/pain?
Does anybody care at all?
Are we building the right product?
Will they pay for it?
= SALES ROADMAP
1
2
3
4
5
6
Source: Steven Blank

25.
CUSTOMER VALIDATION
People
Vote
With
Their
Money

26.
(sources and references) Learn More
Steve Blank
@sgblank
http://steveblank.com/
Eric Ries
@EricRies
http://startuplessonslearned.com/
Ash Maurya
@ashmaurya
http://ashmaurya.com/
Dave McClure
@davemcclure
http://davemcclure.com/
Alex Osterwalder
@AlexOsterwalder
http://alexosterwalder.com
Brad Feld
@bfeld
http://feld.com/