Session 1 Chalmers Innovation Startup Camp fall 2014

1. Validation and MVP

2. Today
• How to validate your assumptions (presentation
+ WS)
• What is an MVP (presentation + WS)

3. How can you validate?

4. • Remember: what to validate

5. Validate with whom?
Source: Steve Blanks

6. Source: Buffer Blog

7. Source: Buffer Blog

8. Validate your idea
• Define how you reach your target groups
(channels)
• Define what you want to test
• Define the metric

9. What is an MVP
• Be able to test a product hypothesis with
minimal resources
• Accelerate learning
• Reduce wasted engineering hours

10. The biggest misconception
An MVP consists of the minimum set of features
deemed necessary for a working software product,
with the goal of bringing it to market quickly

11. Source: Moz, “7 unlikely recommendations for startups & entrepreneurs”

12. The difference
• Question A: How can we build the simplest
technically feasible product?
• Question B: How can we build the simplest
product to resonate with early adopters?
Source: Mattias Honorato

13. Stop overthinking
Source: Mattias Honorato

14. Some examples
• Dropbox — started with a 3 minute video for their
MVP, resulting in signups increasing from 5,000
people to 75,000 overnight—all of this in absence of
a real product
• Foursquare — started from collecting customer
feedback using Google Docs
• Virgin Air — began with one plane and one route to
validate their assumptions, with more planes and
routes added as they refined their business
• Groupon — started as a WordPress blog with a
widget that sent PDF coupons via email

15. Define your MVP/EVP
• Key assumptions you need to test
• Key features to talk to ealyevangelists
• Scale down?