A presentation about why and how you can get out of the building when you start a business and build a new product.

1. Getting out of the building
September 2015
Magnus Christensson
Partner
magnus@socialsquare.dk

2. My name is Magnus.
I build products, services and businesses.
I help others build as well.

3. Digital strategy and open innovation since 2005

4. My experiences with
“getting out of the
building”

5. Why should we get out
of the building?

6. Starting a company is not ONLY
about how good your idea is, but
about how fast and effective you
can reach your customers.

7. How does a start-up work?

8. … most start-ups don’t work ;(

9. http://www.businessinsider.com/

11. In the beginning both the
problem and the solution
is unknown

12. You and your startup have…
• Limited ressources
• A unknown product meeting an unknown need
• A lifetime dependent of reaching its customers

13. Therefore a start-up works towards...
• Finding a plan that works
• Risk minimizing
• Ressource optimizing
•... through customer focus

14. Minimize the time of
each iteration.
Iterate as many times
as possible.

15. Customer
discovery
Problem/
Solution fit
Customer
validation
Product/
Market fit
Customer
creation
Scale
3 stages

16. • No clear understanding of the problem
• Mitigate the market risk
• Goal: Find a problem worth solving and
discover customers
• Through formulating a set of
hypotheses...
• ...and then testing them hands-on
through customer interviews
• Can take weeks or a couple months to
complete
Problem/
Solution fit
High-touch
Market risk
Qualitative
First: problem/solution fit

17. From a lot of potential users come a few customers
100 users
10 customers

18. • Go from hands-on and high-touch to
automated service and high-tech
• Mitigate the tech risk
• Goal: to build something people want
and validate your business model
• Through iterations of your service
(MVP)
• ...and increased customer acquisition
• The riskiest part of the work which
can take months or years to navigate
Product/Market fit
Self-serve
Tech risk,
Quantitative
Then: product/market fit

19. Developing your service and business

20. KNOWLEDGE about what
works is what you have
least of in a start-up

21. You build knowledge about
what works by meeting
those you build for

22. That’s why we get out of
the building

23. What methods can we
use?

24. Methods and tools

25. Methodology depends on the challenge
and on what your focus is

26. crowd funding/sourcing

27. co-design workshops
theater
puppets
play scenarios together

28. Prototype testing
workshops with users

31. Online prototype testing

32. Invision

33. Interviews

34. • What questions should you ask? Well, what do you want to know?
(It’s a good idea to look at your hypothesis)
• Talk to the right people
(Who are you solving a problem for?)
• Write an interview guide
(Cover all your areas of interest and make it comparable across interviews)
• Get feedback on your prototypes
(Show/tell them how the service works, use your blueprint or mock-ups of touch-points)
• Listen, don’t pitch your idea
(Don’t sell, don’t use leading questions, but open-ended questions. Be curious.)
• Summarize what you learn
(Create overview, identify patterns, conclude and update your documents)
Interviews

36. • What do we want to know?
(it’s a good idea to look at the different hypothesis you have about the problem and
the solution)
• How can you test your hypothesis related to the problem you are trying to solve?
• How can you test your hypothesis regarding the solution?
• Does our value proposition resonate with them?
• What are your early adopters attitude and expectations towards the service?
• What do they use today that is similar to what you offer? And why, do they use it?
• What barriers hinders your early adopters from using your service?
Interviewguide

37. “ghost” calls.
quantitative approach.
call a lot of potential customers - or get
someone to do it for you - and ask if they
are interested to pay for your product.

38. Questionnaires

39. Business Model Canvas
and
Value proposition design

40. The business model canvas is a practical business
tool to design, test, implement and manage
business models over their lifecycle.

43. Case

44. saxo.com
• Wanted to develop a new business and new revenue streams in the
light of digital and technological development in the market
• Wanted to challenge status quo in a market where publishers hinder
new services and models
• Together we launched a process to develop a new business -
inspired by lean start-up methods
• We met and talked to a lot of authors, experts, readers and
publishers
• We found out that self-publishing was a could be a great idea to
work with

45. Become
recognized
Become
independent
Become a
“real” author
Be reviewed
Long
process
Fear of not
becoming
recognized
Be able to
market one
self
Acces to an
audience
No control of
ones
copyright
Bad service
from
publisher
“Though”
contracts
No support
& motivation
from
publisher
Marketing
No control
over sales
A lot of
unknown
costs
Self-
publishing
creates less
money
To have ones
book in ones
hand
Better
access to
readers
Availablity
on multiple
platforms
Make money
Self-publishers
Dialogue
with the
audience
Better access
to data
Knowledge
and tools to
publish
digitally
Save time
Trust and
collaboration
in the
industry

46. Customer jobs
+ important
Not important Weak
+ Strong
Nice to have
Need to have
Pain Gain

47. FIT

48. Support
creative
commons
licensing
Provide access
to reviewers
through affilitate
programs
Easier
“online”
process
Provide and
support forum
for self-
publishers
Offer help/
support to
publish
Upload book
Give access
to customers
on saxo.com
Full control of
copyrights
Access to a
community
of self-
publishers
Fair contract
24/7
customer
support
Marketing
options and
support
Control of
sales
Transperant
cost structure
Promote
self-
publishers
Support print
on demand
Provide
permissions
to market to
audience
Guides to
publishing
A larger cut
of the sales
(70/30)
Possibility to
create
dialogue with
audience
Provide data
on how the
book
performs
Provide
marketing
packages
SAXO
PUBLISH
Provide
additional
channels
(itunes,
amazon, etc)

49. web platform
authors and content creators
publish their material
reducing
increasing the possibilities for revenue and market position
traditional publishers
Developing your service and business
costs, rights issues and technical difficulties

51. Saxo publish
• Released sign-up website and marketing after 1 month (no product
yet)
• +100 potential customer after 2 weeks
• Dialogue with customers in relation to MVP and in development of
product and business
• Launched MVP after 3 months
• 1 year after +2.000 customers (authors) and 10.000 new titles
• Positiv earning to saxo.com

52. Make customer segments for
all potential customers
The municipality?
The elderly?
The nursing home? The family?

53. Customer jobs
+ Important
Not important Weak
+ Strong
Nice to have
Need to have
Pain Gain

55. What have I learned so
far?

56. Create a group of people you can
talk to on an ongoing basis - and
grow the group.
Possible to continuously mirrors
ideas relatively cheap.

57. Remember that it is about
collecting data
But in later stages also about
creating clients and
communication with them.

58. Know what you are asking.
The essence of the prototypes is that
they produce answers to questions you
have. Therefore it is essential that we
know what we want to know.

59. Don’t complicate it more than
necessary.
Sometimes very simple
representations constitute very
efficient prototypes,

60. Try the prototype yourself
Even if you are not part of the target group there
are always insights to be gained by self-testing.
Make the necessary obstructions that you need
to get the end-user experience. Small hacks can
provide valuable insights.

61. Document tests and keep and share
findings.
• Business model canvas…
• Proof is a powerful communicative tool
• Photos, video recordings, quotes

62. Build several prototypes.
Interactive concepts are often complex, and
sometimes it's not possible to do a full
representation of the experience with one
prototype.
It may have advantages to create several different
representations.

63. Know your audience.
The necessary prototype fidelity is deeply
dependent on your audience.
There is a difference between what one can
successfully introduce to a design team and
to end users.

64. Identify your biases before the test.
It is more useful to use some time to identify your
own biases and articulate them before the test.
In this way you become conscious about them
and its easier to pursue an objective space - and
“sell” your idea less.

65. Use prototypes.
For everything related to the
customer. The product, the marketing
material, etc. Show them and get
feedback.

66. Remove yourself from the equation.
E.g give them a picture of a mobile
phone that they can carry with them
and draw interfaces and features on in
situ.
Afterwards interview them about it.

67. Focus on value before growth

68. Good luck
Create something meaningful
- it pays off :)