In this class, we will look at how you define a minimum viable product – and think about a “minimum viable BUSINESS product” that is saleable. We will discuss product safety and regulatory implications for a saleable hardware product and discuss practical ways to gauge purchase intent / pricing elasticity before investing in tooling. We will discuss ways to define the product, differentiate it from the competition, and have a protectable core technology or asset that makes it hard for fast followers to copy your strategy. We will talk about the concept of a product roadmap both via software upgrades to a hardware platform (like iOS upgrades) and via upgrades to the hardware platform itself (like iPhone upgrades).

1. MIT Entrepreneurship and
Maker Skills Integrator
So much stuff… DE 5 & 6 and beyond:
Building your product | Building your business
January 17, 2017
Elaine Chen

2. What we are going to cover today
2
1. DE Themes 5 & 6: How do you design and build your
product? | How do you scale your business?
2. Everything and the kitchen sink

3. DE Themes 5 & 6

4. Steps 20: Hypotheses: A reprise
• Basic structure:
• I believe [target market] will [do this action /
use this solution] for [this reason].
4

5. Step 21: Designing experiments
A proper experiment looks like this:
• Define the hypothesis. (As granular as you can make it.)
• Define “Stimulus”
• Design experiment
• Define duration
• Define measureable threshold for some metric. If you
make it over the threshold – persevere. Else: Pivot.
5

6. Product hypothesis testing example
• Product: The Zeo Sleep Manager (Direct to Consumer)
• Hypothesis: Gesture UI is intuitive and easy to use

7. Product hypothesis testing
7
Hypothesis: “I believe users will love our new touch UI
feature to pan and page the sleep graph.”
Stimulus: Functional interactive prototype
Experiment: Usability benchmark.
Duration: 30 min UX test + 15 min debrief
Threshold: 50% of users will complete the task without
help.
Result: 0% figured it out.
We killed the feature.

8. In class Exercise: Design an experiment
Take the top hypothesis you chose a few days ago and
design an experiment.
• What’s the hypothesis?
• What’s the stimulus?
• What is the design of the experiment?
• What’s the duration?
• What’s the measuable threshold to decide whether to
persevere or pivot?
8

9. Sharing!
9

10. Step 22: Defining the MV”B”P
• “M”: Minimum
• “V”: Viable
• “B”: Business
• “P”: Product
10
“The MVP is that version of the
product that enables a full turn of the
Build-Measure-Learn loop with a
minimum amount of effort and the
least amount of development time.
- Ries, Eric (2011-09-13). The Lean
Startup (p. 77), Random House, Inc..
Kindle Edition.
MEASURE
BUILDLEARN
ProductData
Ideas

11. Moore’s Positioning Statement
• For [target customer]
• Who wants/needs [a compelling reason to buy]
• The [product name] is a [product category]
• That provides [these key benefits].
• Unlike [the main competitor],
• The [product name] [provides these key differentiation
points].

12. Sharing!
12

13. Full cycle use case: Reprise
13
1 2 3
4 5 6

14. As a… I want to… So that…
Teacher have parents reinforce the content we cover at
school
the child has a consistent learning experience at home and at
school
Teacher tailor the content for a classroom according to my
curriculum
the children progresses through learning materials in the right
order
Mom control the content my child sees my child is getting educational content while being
entertained
Mom have the content automatically refresh based on
guidelines I set
my child will not get bored and instead will stay engaged with
learning new things
Mom make sure my child does not accidentally go to the
wrong sites on the internet
my child sees only age appropriate content that I approve him
to see
Mom have my child be able to use the media player all
by himself without help from me
I can have enough time to complete small tasks while my child
is playing with the media player
Mom be able to run Playrific on my iPhone I can keep my child entertained during a busy day of errands
Mom be able to view movies I loaded on my phone from
the Playrific viewer
my child can enjoy the content I choose for her while we are
on the go
Mom be able to play audio books that I have purchased
for my iPhone from the Playrific viewer
my child can keep learning even when we are on the go
Mom minimize mobile broadband data charges I won't have a heart attack when I get the phone bill.
Mom minimize battery usage by the Playrific viewer I can still make calls after my child uses my phone
Child have fun and engaging things to look at and games
to play
I won't get bored
User stories

15. UX Flow charts
Splash screen
Setup
First run?
Content home
Skip sign
up?
Sign up
Audio book
page
Local
content
page
Streamed
content
page
Yes No
No Yes

16. Wireframes
Splash screen
Graphic that shows iOS
experience
Setup
x
x
First name: *
Email: *
Welcome to Playrific, a content curator
and viewer for young children. Please
take a moment to set up your child’s
information, add offline content if you
like, and they will be ready to play!
DoneView tutorial
Allow 3G streaming ON
Automatic update ON
Add local content >
Show online content ON
xLast name: *
xChild’s DOB: *
My contentBack
Audio books >
Camera Roll movies >
Audio booksBack
Title
Subtitle
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle
3:02:55
Add
-
-
-
Add Audio BookBack
Title
Subtitle >
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle >
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle >
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle >
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle >
3:02:55
Title
Subtitle >
3:02:55
-
Camera roll
movies
Back Add
- - -
Add MovieBack
Camera roll
Media area
Swipe to go to next page
Tap each square to enter
media player

17. Graphical Compositions

18. The functional spec: For outsourcing
18

19. Emails sent
Click through
Signed up for trial
Began using product
Converted to paid
subscriber
Step 23: Will the dogs eat the dog food?
Free Beta
500
40%
80%
100%
N/A
30 day trial to paid subscription
5000
14%
1 subscriber

20. Testing willingness to pay before there’s anything to
sell: The concept of “currency”
20
Short of taking $$$ from your potential customers for your nonexistent
vaporware, what are some asks you can pose to collect surrogate currency that
is a predictor of future willingness to pay?
• Yes to scheduling a meeting to discuss
• Actually getting a scheduled meeting on the calendar
• Actually meeting you
• Giving you the email of someone else you should meet
• E-introducing you to someone else you should meet
• Providing an email
• Providing Credit Card for a pre-order (no charge)
• Providing Credit Card for a pre-order (charged, rain check provided)
• … etc

21. Landing page: A reprise
21
Design landing
page(s) with a call
to action
State the
hypothesis
Design an
experiment
Send out landing
page to suspects
Wait for results to
come in
Analyze sales
funnel metrics
Persevere or pivot?

22. “But my product is not ready!”
22

23. 23

24. 24

25. Steps 14 & 24: A path to greatness
• In the US market, an “interesting” (a.k.a. “investable”)
startup is one that will reach revenunes of $50m-$100m in
year 5
• How?
• More penetration
• More products
• More segments
• More geographical markets
• … etc
25

26. Roadmap Example 1: iPhone
26
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
iOS 1.2b1 iOS3.0iOS 2.0 iOS4.0
… … iOS4.1
iOS4.2.1
iOS4.3
iOS5.0
…
iOS6 iOS7 iOS8 iOS9 iOS10
iOS4.2.5
iOS4.2.6
iOS4.2.7
iOS4.2.8
iOS4.2.9
iOS4.2.10
iOS4.3.1
iOS4.3.2
iOS4.3.3
iOS4.3.4
iOS4.3.5
… … … … …

27. Roadmap Example 2: Rethink Robotics
27
Release Release
Date
Major Functionality/Bug Fix
Release - v1.0.0 1/18/13 Pick and Place
Release - v1.1.0 4/30/13 Sequencing and Signals
Release - v1.1.1 6/14/13 Patch
Release - v1.1.2 7/9/13 Gripper settings, Fast approach, Camera gain, Start pose
Release - v1.1.3 9/18/13 FSM and Gripper firmware
Release - v2.0.0 10/30/13 Off vertical pick and place, Hold, Custom paths
Release - v2.0.1 12/14/13 Bug fixes, Press harder on pick
Release - v2.1.0 4/16/14 Nudge, Motion presets, Lock/Unlock, Enhanced speed
Release - v2.1.1 5/28/14 Bug fixes, Fixed output signals not being sent from Baxter
Release - v3.0.0 7/30/14 Signal inversion, Tips, Gripper length, Action control
Release - v3.1.0 11/24/14 Robot Positioning System, Landmarks
Release - v3.1.1 2/9/15 Factory or Spring Calibration intermittent fail Patch fix
Release - v3.2.0 4/21/15 Improved and Internal Signals, Hold Only Subtasks and more!
Release - v3.3.0 11/5/15 Improved Controls, Assign part weight to Holds, Latching Signals, Nudge improvements and more!
Release - v3.3.1 1/4/16 Improvement to Intera logs, RPS patch, Sawyer Shipping Pose fix
Release - v3.3.2 3/14/16 Sawyer only release, Improved Controls
What’s
the
core?

28. D.C.C.
Industrial
Design
Early
Market
Your BHM is going to look really small…
PolysNURBsRapid Proto
Sculptural Regular Stylized
Downstream Connection
V1/V2
Form Types Used

29. D.C.C.
Industrial
Design
Early
Market
That’s ok, so long as you have a path to greatness
PolysNURBsRapid Proto
Sculptural Regular Stylized
Downstream Connection
V1/V2
V3 V4
V5?
Form Types Used

30. Technology

31. Prototype

32. Product

33. Business

34. Company

35. 35