This document outlines a new product strategy for increasing the chances of building products customers will buy. It discusses defining the market problem and determining customer needs. Enterprise needs and an elevator pitch should then be developed. Key assumptions should be identified and hypotheses created to test those assumptions. The strategy advocates iterating the design and testing assumptions to get feedback and improve the product.

1. New Product Strategy
How to increase your chances of building new
products customers will buy
Presented by Jonathan Gowins

2. Problem:
Many new product initiatives are
expensive and ineffective.

3. “
“If you build it, they will come…”
Or will they?

4. ◉ Consultants
◉ Executive leadership
◉ Product management
◉ Sales
◉ Customers
? Where do new product ideas come from?

6. Market problem1

7. CBInsights, The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail

8. “
“Startups fail when they are not solving a market problem…
We had great technology, great data, great reputation as a
thought leader, great expertise, great advisors, etc., but
what we didn’t have was the technology or business model
that solved a pain point in a scalable way.”
– Treehouse Logic

9. ◉ Urgent, pervasive, and customers will pay for it1
◉ An unmet need that is important to the customer,
but poorly satisfied2
?
1. Pragmatic Marketing
2. Jobs-to-be-Done theory, Clay Christensen
What is a market problem?

10. “
“Customers are not buying your product, they are
hiring it to get a job done.”
- Clay Christensen

11. What job do your customers
want to hire you for?

12. “
“Can we rent a movie!?”
- All kids, Everywhere

13. http://businessinsider.com/how-netflix-bankrupted-and-destroyed-blockbuster-infographic-2011-3

14. Market Need
(Job to be done)
Blockbuster People want to rent DVDs
Hollywood Video People want to rent DVDs
Netflix
Should have asked “why?”
People want to be entertained

15. ◉ Everyone list market problem(s) (or unmet needs) on stickies
◉ Consolidate stickies into similar groups
◉ Everyone puts a dot on the problem they deem most important
◉ Prioritize and select top need(s)
! Exercise: Define Market Problem

16. Enterprise needs2

17. The business goals you hope to achieve by solving the
market problem
◉ “Achieve a gross profit margin of 60%”
◉ “Be #1 in the _______ market”
◉ “Allow users to complete _______ in under two minutes”
◉ “Increase NPS by 20%”
? What is an enterprise need?

18. “
“Features and services are outputs. The
business goals they are meant to achieve
are outcomes.”
– Jeff Gothelf, Lean UX

19. ◉ Everyone list business goal(s) on stickies
◉ Consolidate stickies into similar groups
◉ Everyone puts a dot on the goals they deem most important
◉ Prioritize and select top goal(s)
! Exercise: Business goals

20. User needs3

21. http://www.brilliantexperience.com

23. Hypothesis & assumptions4

24. Elevator pitch:
For (target customer),
who (customer need),
PRODUCT NAME is a (market category)
that (one key benefit).
Unlike (competition),
PRODUCT NAME (unique differentiator).

25. For consumers,
who want to be entertained,
Netflix is a media rental service
that offers a massive library of content.
Unlike Blockbuster,
Netflix removes the physical hassle from the rental experience.

26. ◉ Place a paper representing each section of the elevator pitch on the wall
◉ Every person writes their proposal for each section of the pitch and sticks
it on the relevant paper
◉ Everyone puts a dot on the one sticky for each section they deem most
important
◉ Prioritize and finalize the elevator pitch after group discussion
! Exercise: Elevator pitch

27. Part 1: Based on your elevator pitch, list out what you believe to be true (assumptions)
◉ Have everyone write assumptions on stickies and put them on the wall.
◉ Everyone gets seven dots. Put them on the seven riskiest assumptions.
◉ Prioritize. These are the assumptions you will want to test first.
Part 2: Write a hypothesis statement for each assumption
“We believe [this statement is true]. We will know we’re [right/wrong] when we see the
following feedback from the market: [qualitative feedback] and/or [quantitative feedback]
and/or [key performance indicator change].”
! Exercise: Assumptions

28. ◉ I believe my customers have a need to _______.
◉ These needs can be solved with _______.
◉ My initial customers will be _______.
◉ The #1 value a customer wants to get out of my service is _______.
◉ The customer can also get these additional benefits _______.
◉ I will acquire the majority of my customers through _______.
◉ I will make money by _______.
◉ My primary competition in the market will be _______.
◉ We will beat them due to _______.
◉ My biggest product risk is _______.
◉ We will solve this through _______.
!
Jeff Gothelf, Lean UX
Assumption examples

29. Iterate (Design & Test)5

30. “
“You perfect results. What I can promise you is that you
won’t get it right if you don’t commit to keep trying.”
– Clay Christensen, How Will You Measure Your Life?

31. From idea to product…
Market
problem
User
needs
Iterate
Test
assumptions
Enterprise
needs

32. You can find me at
◉ Linkedin.com/in/JonathanGowins
◉ Jonathan.Gowins@gmail.com
Thanks!

33. Credits
Special thanks and credit to the following:
◉ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
◉ John W alen, Brilliant Experience
◉ Pragmatic Marketing
◉ Clay Christensen
◉ Jeff Gothelf, Lean UX