Slides from the presentation I gave to students who are competing in the Drexel University Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship business model competition...the presentation focused on lean startup and methods for customer development.

1. Gaining Traction
Joel Eden
Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship,
Drexel University
Business Model Competition Workshop
April 13, 2017

2. B.S. Computer Science, PhD Info Science/Human-Computer Interaction, Drexel
(before that…GED at 16, Camden County College)
Current: Senior User Experience Product Manager, Checkpoint Systems
Past:
Design Researcher, Google
Senior Interaction Designer, Disney Animation Studios (Frozen, Big Hero 6)
Director of User Experience, 21st
Century Insurance
…and many other User Experience jobs
Research Engineer, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Labs
My background

3. Lean (Startup) perspective
Topics

4. …is about recognizing that any new venture is just a series of guesses at a problem or solution
and the only valid way to test whether those guesses are right is to "get outside the building" and
start working with customers.
The competition requires a focus on actively identifying and validating crucial business model
hypotheses rather than writing a static business plan, talking to customers outside the
building rather than gathering secondary data inside the building, applying customer development
rather than relying on product development, and “pivoting” or changing course rather than
executing on the plan.
The Business Model Competition focuses on:
•Identifying and tracking key business model hypotheses
•Testing and validating those hypotheses with customers
•Looking for “disconfirming information” that indicates why key assumptions may be
incorrect
•Pivoting and iterating on the business model based on customer feedback
The format for the competition requires a formal presentation to a judging panel. The presentation
should focus on the process and learning a team went through as they tested their
hypotheses with customers and develop validated business models.
In addition, a written submission that documents the proof of the customer and business model
development efforts will be required.
The Baiada Institute's Business Model Competition

5. People don’t buy what you do,
they buy why you do it.
And what you do simply proves
what you believe.

6. Lean…lean startup, lean UX, agile UX
“A startup is a temporary organization used to search for
a repeatable and scalable business model.” –Steve Blank
“Lean Startup isn't about being cheap [but is about]
being less wasteful and still doing things that are big.” –
Eric Ries
“Lean is about continuously prioritizing and testing your
riskiest assumptions as fast and as cheap as possible…
always...not for a special week in a special room.” -Me

7. Lean (Startup) Build, Measure, Learn loop
But…
Goal is validated learning (loop around), as
fast as possible.

8. Lean Loop – But, need to go backwards to plan
experiments
1. What is my most
important/riskiest
hypothesis?
2. What would I need
to see happen to
(in)validate it?
3. What’s the fastest,
cheapest, least effort thing I
can make or do to test it
(learn)?

9. Need to go backwards to plan experiments
1. What is my most
important/riskiest
hypothesis?
2. What would I need
to see (data) to
validate it?
That’s what
MVP meant!!!!!
not “Build”
3. What’s the fastest,
cheapest, least effort thing I
can make or do to test it
(learn)?

10. Defining experiments from hypotheses
Highest priority item gets tested
(place smaller bets, on smaller batches)
Turn assumptions  falsifiable hypotheses
www.slideshare.net/luxrco

11. Test what? Ash Maurya’s 3 stages of a
startup
Offer  MVP  Product
Instead of MVP at first:
Ash Maurya’s Offer: Unique Value Proposition, Demo of UVP, Exchange of

12. FOCUS Framework – Justin Wilcox
Find early adopters that are already trying to solve the
problem you think they have.
Offer test – same as Ash Maurya’s offer idea.
Currency test – will they buy from you?
Utility test – can you solve the problem (still don’t build!).
Scale – NOW you should build (focus on friction).

14. Behavior trumps what people say they do
In order of validity:
-Observed Behavior
-Evidence of prior behavior (e.g., purchase history)
-"Interviews” - Ask “tell me about the last time you…”
Asking “would you pay for/use...in the future?” is useless
Example Methods:
-Observations
-Diary studies
Don’t misuse market research methods:
Focus groups, surveys, etc get at self reported, attitudinal

15. Tracking insights
Behaviors/People  Personas, Scenarios/Customer Journeys
Business Plan  Lean Canvas (biz model canvas, etc)
Business Model  Ash Maurya’s Traction factory/model
(“pirate metrics”…AARRR)

16. Personas – fictional people (behavioral clusters)

17. Representing Experiences – leverage story methods

18. Represent products/services as stories
After a long meeting, Anne pulls out her personal assistant to note
a couple of items she needs to follow up on, confirm the location of
her next meeting, and see if anything important has come up in the
last couple of hours.
The PA shows her the subject and location of her next
meeting, which is in 25 minutes. There’s also an indication that she
has three messages marked urgent (including one from her boss),
one message from a client whose messages she’s told the PA are
top priority, and a dozen others that can probably wait.
Narrative Scenarios
Storyboards
Product as a person

19. Customer Journey Maps

20. Pitching value (not product)
Should be analogous to feature film story artists, iterating
and pitching (value) stories:
-Our customers/users or the product/service are the heroes
of these stories.

21. Lean Canvas (1 page alternative to biz plan)
(Business Model Canvas  Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas  My
tweak)
Validate in numbered order

22. Ash Maurya’s Traction/customer factory
(based on AARRR pirate metrics)

23. From Story to Building – Story Mapping
Story Mapping
-Donna Lichaw
User Story Mapping
-Jeff Patton

24. Let’s try some of this right now…
“Interview” someone else in the room:
1. Write down riskiest hypothesis
(i.e. if this is wrong, you have no business)
2. How can you test this right now in the room?
3. Try it with 1-2 people right now that don’t know your idea.
-3-5 minute conversation.
-Try to invalidate your assumption.
4. Let me know how it went (we can share as a group if
there’s time).

25. Questions?
joel@wondertron.com
Twitter: @joeleden
These slides will be up on
slideshare.net/joeleden

26. Other slides just in case…

27. Let’s sketch…get out your paper and pencil

28. Let’s sketch …get out your paper and pencil
Draw: Your phone

29. Let’s sketch …get out your paper and pencil
Draw: Your phone
Draw: Your phone’s user interface

30. Let’s sketch …get out your paper and pencil
Draw: Your phone
Draw: Your phone’s user interface
Draw: Your phone’s user experience

31. This is a product

32. This is a product, not an experience

33. More interesting view of a product, still not an experience

34. This is an experience!

35. This is an experience from the user’s perspective

36. Art (designer’s perspective) vs. Design (problem’s perspective)
Interactions happen over time therefore Interaction Design
must consider the interaction aesthetics of use (not just
visual):
(all senses…sense of timing, sense of rhythm, sense of humor)

37. This is a product, not an experience

39. All touchpoints/moments are part of the experience
 the experience is the real product in many ways

40. So how can we represent experiences?

41. Representing Experiences – leverage story methods

42. Represent products/services as stories
After a long meeting, Anne pulls out her personal assistant to note
a couple of items she needs to follow up on, confirm the location of
her next meeting, and see if anything important has come up in the
last couple of hours.
The PA shows her the subject and location of her next
meeting, which is in 25 minutes. There’s also an indication that she
has three messages marked urgent (including one from her boss),
one message from a client whose messages she’s told the PA are
top priority, and a dozen others that can probably wait.
Narrative Scenarios
Storyboards
Product as a person

43. Hyper-real (Disney/Pixar trick)believable futures

44. Lean Design
How can we test product and
service design ideas earlier, faster
and cheaper?

45. Test offers (value propositions) using stories
After a long meeting, Anne pulls out her personal assistant to note
a couple of items she needs to follow up on, confirm the location of
her next meeting, and see if anything important has come up in the
last couple of hours.
The PA shows her the subject and location of her next
meeting, which is in 25 minutes. There’s also an indication that she
has three messages marked urgent (including one from her boss),
one message from a client whose messages she’s told the PA are
top priority, and a dozen others that can probably wait.
Narrative Scenarios
Storyboards
Your goal is to create value, not software, hardware, etc…
so test value!
Your value proposition is the intersection of your
customer’s needs and your solution.

46. Pitching value
Should be analogous to feature film story artists, iterating
and pitching (value) stories:
-Our customers/users or the product/service are the heroes
of these stories.

47. Experience Mapping (customer journey map, service blueprint, etc)
These can be ok for communicating current state, bridging into
product/dev work, but not as good for exploring and testing value.

48. Value pipeline: from story to building
In feature animation, as scenes and shots are approved, they move
further down the production pipeline, towards final rendering.
-We can follow a similar process, keeping track of decisions and
dependencies.
Pipeline hierarchy:
•Discover Needs
•Story (scenarios of use)
•Interaction Framework
•Interaction design (+ Visual, Industrial, etc)
•Software engineering

49. Human Centered Design “poured into” Lean loop…
= Non-linear, lean human centered design
(“pull” design efforts through as hypotheses require,
Now, there’s no difference
between design and research…it’s
all just experiments. Any act of
“making” (what looks like “design”)
is in the act of learning, so it’s both
research and design, intertwingled.

50. Some references: