The document provides tips for developing a hypothesis and validating it through customer interviews in order to build a minimum viable product (MVP) that solves customers' problems. It outlines conducting initial interviews to understand customers' needs, iterating the interview process based on learnings, and just building an initial MVP to start getting customer feedback and payments. The case study then summarizes how KISSinsights validated and developed their MVP through this process.

1. Warning: This Talk Contains Actual Tactics KISSinsights Case Study Cindy Alvarez Web 2.0 Expo • May 3, 2010

2. Where Do I Start? Get a Hypothesis (and write it down ) 2-Pronged Validation Figure Out What You Want to Learn Iterate on Your Interview Just Build It What will it take for someone to pay you $?

3. Get A Hypothesis My hypothesis is that ____________ people have a problem doing ____________.

4. Hypothesis for KISSinsights My hypothesis is that product manager type people have a problem doing fast/effective/frequent customer research.

5. The 2 Big Questions Is this a recognizable, interesting pain? Where exactly is the pain?

6. 2-Pronged Validation BUY NOW splash page survey “ so, tell me about how you do _____...”

7. Interviews Are Features, Too PLAN DO ASSESS

8. What Should You Be Learning? What are they doing now? (This is YOUR COMPETITION.) What are other tools leaving on the table? Who is involved? How frequent / severe is the pain? Whatever else your customer thinks is IMPORTANT enough to COMPLAIN about

9. The customer is the expert, you’re just a notetaker.

10. If you could wave a magic wand, what would you be able to do?” “

11. Iterating on the Interview What was interesting / surprising? Kill the yes/no questions Don’t agree with the customer Silence is good Validate or contradict

12. Learnings That Became KISSinsights What are they doing now? Mostly going without customer research. What are other tools leaving on the table? Privacy, targeting controls. Who is involved? Product manager, reluctant developer. How frequent / severe is the pain? Constant - “whenever we make decisions on what to build” IMPORTANT enough to COMPLAIN? Hate writing, don’t know where to start, hate having to ask developer to change site

13. The Numbers ~20 interviews (15-20 minute phone calls) 3 scrappy user tests (15-20 minute face-to-face with paper prototypes) 2 splash pages (Facebook Ads, StumbleUpon traffic) Hacky MVP on KISSmetrics.com 8 “alpha testers”

14. Just Build It “ It’s a very ‘M’ MVP.” - Cindy Alvarez, to Hiten Shah

15. Internal MVP: 2 days Public MVP: 2 months 1400+ signups (so far)

16. What Does It Take to Get Paid? Interest Installation Gratification Value Pay

17. Thank You! @KISSmetrics @cindyalvarez