The document discusses The Experiment Board, a tool for Lean Startup methodology. It explains that the board has two sides - the left for brainstorming hypotheses to test, and the right for executing experiments. It outlines the scientific method process of idea, hypothesis, experimental design, experimentation, and pivoting or persevering. The goal is to decrease time spent between pivots by validating learning quickly from customers.

1. The Experiment Board
#leanstartupmachine
Francesco Collovà (@neckgoes)

2. What is Lean Startup Machine?
Intensive three day workshop on Lean Startup
methodology and tools to solve real world
problems

3. What is Lean Startup?
Provide a disciplined framework for decision making
Move Faster & be more successful
Learn how to build better idea with experiment
Innovation account
Make your customers happy (lean principles)
Stop wasting people’s time!

4. What is a startup?
Entrepreneurs
Are Everywhere!

5. Startup Fail!
You want to start a new business or a new
product idea how do you should start?
98% of startup fail!
You discover too late people don’t want
to use it!!

6. Startup
=
Experiment!

7. Scientific Method

8. • 01 - IDEA!
• 02 - HYPOTHESIS
• 03 - EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
• 04 - EXPERIMENTATION
??
• 05 - PIVOT or PERSEVERE (LEARN)
• 06 - PERSVERE
Lean in
Action
Pivot
experiments
disprove
hypothesis

10. The Experiment Board
• On the left side there is the brainstorm area
• Were the team list the different hypothesis to test
A Startup’s runway is the number of pivots it can still make (Eric Ries)
Goal: decrease time and money spent between pivots
• On the right there is the execution area were experiment
will develop, measure your progress by learning (and
how quickly you can learn)
Product = Experiment (on top)
Progress = Validated Learning (on bottom)
Brainstorm Execution

11. 01- 02 Steps – Idea & Hypothesis
Formulate an Hypothesis, every experiment starts by
forming a hypothesis in a way it can be easily tested.
Idea are often so huge and is really hard to really break it
down and focus on what to test first.
By turning into hypothesis you constrain ideas, focusing
and learning faster

12. 02 Step Define your core hypothesis
Customers
Problem
Solution hypothesis
Three
Hypothesis
Type
A group with a common pain
What is the specific problem this
group has?
Do not define solution until the
problem is validated!
Initially we are not going to find the
solution, every problem has
multiple solution and setting a
solution maybe you are losing a
better solution

13. 02 Customers and Problems
Start on the left listing the different customer segments
(one customer per team member 5’)
Focus on problems list them (one per team member 5’)
Understand the Customers and
the problem and try to validate
that
Start at customer level not at
solution level: because every
customer has a problem and
every problem ha a solution
(not the reverse!)

14. 02 Assumptions
List assumptions to be tested. Every hypothesis has a set
of assumptions
Assumptions are what you
believe to be true in order for
the hypothesis to be true. Each
team member should
brainstorm 5 assumptions.
This allow to get the surface of
the riskiest part of the business
(10’)

15. 03 Step - Design Experiment
Plan your MVP. Ask yourself what I need to learn?
What are the core assumption of our business?
Prioritize: which assumption is the riskiest? (if it is invalidated it would
cause the business to fail)
Ask yourself what experiment should I build in order to
get this learning?
MVP = Experiment !!
MVP ≠ a functioning product

16. 03 Step - Riskiest Assumption
After you have a set of assumptions you
discuss them and together pick the riskiest
assumption.
The riskiest assumption is the one that has the
quarter liability of the business

17. 03 Step - How do we test it?
Three metod:
Exploration - Pitch - Concierge
<Interview> get out and get answers from the customers </>
<Pitch> selling something before actually having it in the sell </>
<Concierge> delivery manually the service for the customers </>

18. 03 Step - How do we test it?
What do we build to test?
Exploration -> reproduce problem (customer interview)
Pitch -> collect currency (Ask to customer for cash in exchange for solving
specific problems or for specific solution )
Concierge -> deliver customer expectation (actually deliver on the pitch
with the little technology as possible to as few customers as you can until
they are really excited and happy with your service)
They are all key to do in order before you actually write any code or build any
infrastructure in your business

19. 03 Establish a Success criteria
The minimum amount of validation that you need
in order to invest more resource time and effort
into proceeding into the project.
(you can set a success criteria as a fraction)
Turn your ideas into experiments
get out of the building and collect data

20. 03 Step Measure
How do we measure results?
Decide the weakest outcome you will accept as validation (minimum
success criteria)
The minimum amount of validation that you need to
continue working on this product.
As a team always take all involved deciding the minimum validation
from customers getting out of the building that you need to continue
working on this.

21. 04 Get out of the building
Turn your ideas into
experiments get out of the
building and collect data.

22. 05 Step Analyze Results
Persevere or Pivot ?
Now you have collected data from real customers it’s time to decide if you’ve
met your minimum success criteria.
INVALIDATED
If not the riskiest hypothesis is invalid: Pivot
Hypothesis (one of the core hypothesis)
VALIDATED
If Yes Brainstorm and test the next Riskiest
Assumption doing a test on it
(Note: if you validate with the wrong customers it is
not validated)

23. Personal: francesco.collova@gmail.com
Personal: http://uroutes.blogspot.it/
Twitter: @neckgoes
LinkedIn: it.linkedin.com/in/fcollova/
Francesco Collovà