This document provides homework and guidance for a new venture development course. It includes: - Homework of reading materials on creating a Lean Canvas and identifying risks, and optional videos. - Instructions to prepare an initial Lean Canvas, determine risks, and prepare a case study report on Dropbox. - Guidance on conducting customer interviews, including key things to learn and Steve Blank's checklist. - Definition of an early adaptor customer and how to develop a customer persona. - Homework for the next session of conducting 10 customer interviews and revising the Lean Canvas based on learnings.

1. Bora Özkent
NEW VENTURE
DEVELOPMENT DAY-3

2. Homework for Tomorrow
• Read Running Lean
– Part-2 Create Your Lean Canvas
– Part-3 Identify the Riskiest Parts of Your Plan
• Optional: Visit Ash Maurya’s You Tube Channel and Watch
an extra video and prepare
comments:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimRGeoiw
UPmIddym-HdaCg
• Prepare the first version of your Lean Canvas (Use
LeanStack.Com for documentation) and determine the
riskiest parts of your canvas
• Prepare Case Study “Dropbox” with your group and write a
report (Maximum 2 Pages, 12 Font-Arial)
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3. New Venture Development, Bora Özkent
2014
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4. Dropbox Case Questions
1. Dropbox is a late mover in a crowded space. What opportunity did Houston
see? Specifically, what are the key elements of Dropbox’s current business
model?
2. Is Dropbox profitable as of June 2010? Are you optimistic about its prospects?
How does your estimate of Dropbox’s current profitability influence your
evaluation of the venture’s prospects?
3. When he applied to Y Combinator (see case Exhibit 2), what hypotheses did
Houston hold about key elements of Dropbox’s business model? As of June
2010, which of these hypotheses have been confirmed, and which have been
discarded? What is your assessment of the approach Houston used to test
hypotheses? Did he waste time/resources or make notable mistakes? Can you
imagine better ways to test key hypotheses?
4. Imagine that at the same time Dropbox was founded, Google decided to target
the opportunity that Houston had identified. How would Google’s approach to
pursuing “G-Drive” have differed from the approach that Dropbox’s team
followed?
5. What should Houston do about the decision posed at the end of the case, i.e.,
creating a separate version for small and medium-sized business (SMB)
customers? What process should he use to make this decision?
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5. CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS
New Venture Development, Bora Özkent
2014
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6. New Venture Development, Bora Özkent
2014
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What is the Biggest Problem?

7. New Venture Development, Bora Özkent
2014
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8. Four Main Outcomes
• How do customers solve the problem
today? How do they do the job today?
• Do customers care about the problems
that you mention in your canvas? Are
they looking for a solution?
• Do customers have other problems
worth solving?
• Who is going to be the early adaptor
and their persona.
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9. What You Should Learn?..
• How is your customer currently dealing with this task/problem? (What
solution/process are they using?)
• What do they like about their current solution/process?
• Is there some other solution/process you’ve tried in the past that was better
or worse?
• What do they wish they could do that currently isn’t possible or practical?
• If they could do [answer to the above question], how would that make their
lives better?
• Who is involved with this solution/process? How long does it take?
• What is their state of mind when doing this task? How
busy/hurried/stressed/bored/frustrated? [note: learn this by watching their
facial expressions and listening to their voice]
• What are they doing immediately before and after their current
solution/process?
• How much time or money would they be willing to invest in a solution that
made their lives easier?
New Venture Development, Bora Özkent
2014
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10. Steve Blank’s Check List
Watch Steve Blank Checklist
Videoshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqvoMMcq7I&list=PL
cdm0yqdmhJopRkThQ16Wc8LXqSoQg15m

12. Who Is The Early Adaptor?

13. Who Is The Early Adaptor?
New Venture Development, Bora Özkent
2014
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1. Has a problem
2. Is aware of having a problem
3. Has been actively looking for a solution
4. Has put together a solution out of piece
parts
5. Has or can acquire a budget
http://www.spikelab.org/blog/early-adopters-definition.html

14. Customer Persona of the Early Adaptor
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http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html

15. Homework For Next Session
• Read Book: Running Lean
– Part 4. Systematically Test Your Plan
• Chapter 6: Get Ready to Interview Customers
• Chapter 7: The Problem Interview
• Read Persona and Early Adaptor Articles
– http://www.spikelab.org/blog/early-adopters-definition.html
– http://www.spikelab.org/blog/persona-development.html
• Optional: Watch Steve Blank Checklist Videos
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqvoMMcq7I&list=PLcdm0yqdmhJopRk
ThQ16Wc8LXqSoQg15m
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16. Homework For Next Session
• Make10 Customer Interviews interviews per group, document them on
the problem interview sheets, bring sheets to the class.
• Learn from your customers about your business idea and develop
Lean Canvas Version 2.
• Prepare powerpoint presentation
– Initial lean canvas
– What you have learned from customers
– Describe your early adaptor customer and supplier personas in detail
– New lean canvas (Show what has changed)
• Other Recommended Resources For Customer Interviews
– 26 Resources to Help You Master Customer Development Interviews
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/26-customer-development-resources
– http://www.cindyalvarez.com
– https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsK2-j7YBb-AamoSDXROPjw
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