Startup Science 2017 ⑤

Startup Science ⑤
"Making a successful startup is an Art.
Making a startup that doesn’t fail is a Science.”
Created by
Masa Tadokoro

Reviewing Previous Processes
Copyright 2017 Masayuki Tadokoro All rights reserved

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
Product
Solution-fit
Customer
Problem-fit
Idea
Verification

Agenda
① Idea Verification : What is a good start-up idea?
② Customer-problem Fit： Does the issue really exist?
③ Problem-solution Fit:
④ Product-Market Fit:
Do you provide an appropriate
solution to the issue?
Does the market for the solution
exist?
⑤ Venture Finance: Financial knowledge needed in
Start-up

Product-market-fit
Deliver the MVP
to the first
customer
Clarify what to
learn with an
MVP
Figure out things to
learn using the MVP
Chose MVP type
and build
Learn by delivering
to an evangelist customer
Conduct Qualitative analysis by
interviews with customers and
Quantitative analysis by
innovation metrics
Examine the UX
with Hooked model
Improve UX to
Enhance
the customer
engagement
Iterate product to
bring more value
to customers
Iterate product/ launch
it
Conduct
Quantitative &
Qualitative Analysis
Build MVP
Repeat the
process until
the PMF has
been achieved
Create
Highly adaptive teamPivot the business model
Pivot the
Business Model

Many start-up founders build MVP (coded MVP) without
validating the existence of the issue or verification of the
solution.
Without a clear issue validation, building a coded MVP would
be a waste of your time/resources.
In other words, building an MVP prematurely is one of the
biggest reasons why startups fail.
❓

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
Building an MVP
based on idea
- it usually takes several
month

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
Making an MVP
people don’t want
ll
The largest
waste in startup

Being misled by Lean Startup, many startup
founders sometimes build a coded MVP without
validating issue/solutions first.
This will lead to “pre-mature-scaling"

In summary, you confirmed the issue exists, you were able to
describe what a valid solution is like and you were able to create a
prototype; the value was validated by users.
In this phase, you will build the actual product and launch it. You
will measure how sticky users are using it and get feedback.
You will iterate the product until you reach the PMF status
i.e. "You have built something people want".
Product-Market Fit

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
Product
Solution-fit
Customer
Problem-fit
Create
Plan A
Build an MVP
and release

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
Product
Solution-fit
Customer
Problem-fit
Create
Plan A
Verify with
Data

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
Product
Solution-fit
Customer
Problem-fit
Create
Plan A
Run a iteration cycle
until product-market-fit
has been achieved

"Without a PMF, the value of the product is not propagated to
customers by word of mouth and customers won't be
aggressive about using it. Any media would never applaud it
and selling cycles rotate slowly.
However, with a PMF, it's very clear.
Customers come to us to buy products as we produce.
Adding services, the number of usage increases and we
might hire more sales and customer support staff and
journalists will contact me."
- Marc Andreessen

“Make something
people want”
- Paul Graham
Y Combinator, Founder

What is an MVP？
MVP = Minimum Viable Product
❓

Viable
Product
Products built by
companies
better-financed
than you
Minimum
Product
Crappy products
nobody wants to use
Minimal + Viable =
Good products for a
startup to build
MVP

Build
Ideas
Product
Mea
sure
Data
Learn
What is a Lean Start-up?
With a lean startup, you build the product for a
new idea or concept quickly (build MVP) and
then iterate on a build-measure-learn cycle
based on the customer's feedback of your
product.
Your hypothesis is validated during the
iteration cycles.
By using the lean start-up method, start-up
founders will be able to find a product-market-
fit before burning up all of the resources.

An MVP is a product with minimum function
when you launch it to the market for the first
time; MVP is for validating your hypothesis.
- Eric Ries

If you are not embarrassed with
your MVP, the launch was too
late.
- Reid Hoffman
Founder of Linked-in

Create an MVP
you feel embarrassed with
when you launch

Exercise
❓
You are about to build an on-demand
restaurant take-out delivery service.
What kind of MVP(Landing Page MVP)
should you build?

Lean Canvas for “Food delivery service”
Have take-out
menu at
home
Picking up
take-out is
painful
On-demand
web service
Web site
Blog
Deliver take-out
menus of the
restaurants who
are not able to
deliver
Number of
deliveries
N/A
8 USD
per delivery
Restaurant
doesn’t want to
hire delivery
boy
Restaurant
who wants to
deliver wide area
Cost of
delivery
Sales to
restaurant

?
End-users
who want to use
take-out service.
Restaurants who
want to deliver
take-out menus
to many more
customers
You charge 8 dollars
for each delivery
Business model of
food delivery service
Market place

Please create landing page MVP
?

Put price tag
Call-to-Action
How it works
Clear offering
PDF menu

Doordash
Doordash founders built a landing page
MVP in one hour and released it. The MVP
was a mere landing page with a phone
number and PDF menus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQOC-qy-GDY

What Doordash tried
to learn through MVP：
Do customers and suppliers (restaurants)
really exist?

The phone started
ringing
the very next day.

At the beginning,
Doordash founders purchased
take-out foods by themselves
and delivered it to the customers
by driving themselves.

Put
price tag
Get harsh
feedback
through Sales
They could learn how the food-delivery mechanism worked very
well, as they operated the entire process manually and talked to
end-users/suppliers directly.

Product-market-fit
Deliver the MVP
to the first
customer
Clarify what to
learn with an
MVP
learn using the
MVP
Chose MVP type
and build
Learn by delivering
to an evangelist customer
innovation metrics
Examine the UX
with Hooked model
Improve UX to
Enhance
the customer
engagement
Iterate product to
bring more value
to customers
it
Conduct
Quantitative &
Build MVP
Repeat the
process until
the PMF has
been achieved
Create
Pivot the
Business Model

What you want to learn
Verified story to learn What KPIs do you measure to verify?
What you build Cost & time to build
Quantitative result Qualitative result
What you learned
What you want to learn from the next sprint
Iteration canvas
Build MVP to utilize iteration canvas
You may maximize the result of learning with
your team per unit of time

Time is the most precious
resource for startups.
Startups that succeed are
those that manage to iterate
enough times before
running out of resources.
- Ash Maurya

”Can customers gain wifi data volume and utilize
it?”
What would you want to learn from Anytime
Online‘s MVP？
Frustrated by bad wifi
connectivity during the trip
Catherin (25 yrs old)
Tourist Inbounding to Japan
Nationality: Australia
Personality: Smartphone
heavy user

Can customers gain wifi data volume and utilize it?
Verified story to learn What KPIs do you measure to verify?
What you learned
Iteration canvas
Write what you
want to learn from
an MVP

You want to clarify what
to learn before building
an MVP.
-Jeff Gothelf
Author of “Lean UX”

As an MVP, build features as small
as possible.
An MVP will scope out the most
important facts.

Image of building an MVP
Anti-pattern of an MVP
MVP

In almost all cases, if an entrepreneur or person
in charge of product function wonders whether
an MVP of a product has too many functions or
not, they should immediately decide to make it
simpler.
- Eric Ries
”リーンスタートアップ”より

Take Notice on MVP
Don’t try to render system
automation/modification from the beginning.

Zappos didn’t elaborate its system
at the early stage of making product(MVP)

Before creating the drop shipping system, Zappos managed its logistics by
hand. When customers ordered, they went to shoe shops nearby, packed
and shipped the ordered goods.
They manage daily issues hands on aside
from managing their website.

Don't spare your resources to adding
nice-to-have like functions.
Concentrate on providing "an outstanding solution".

Concentrate on providing
“an outstanding solution”.

As a kind of selling stuff (books), they
prepared by accumulating a remarkable large
amount.

Things not to do when
making an MVP.
・Try to collect all information of customer needs and
demands
・Automate all the works that your staff can do
・List up all functions that customers would want
・Hand out detailed specification to the person in
charge in producing product
・See reactions of potential customers using focus
group interview

What you want to learn：
Can customer gain wifi data
volume and utilize it?
To learn it,
extract possible
stories to verify with
an MVP

Story① Customers answer ad owners’ questionnaires to acquire wifi data volume
Story② Customers share this service on Facebook to gain wifi data volume
Story③ Customers attain wifi data volume by watching ad movies

Backlog In Progress Completed Validation
Backlog storyaa
Extract stories that
you want to learn in
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
analysis/introspection
by customer interview
Utilize of Kanban Board
Story
①
Story
②
Story
③
Stories before
building
Stories in
progress
Waiting for
validation after
completion
Conduct quantitative
& qualitative analysis

Backlog storyaa
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
Story
Story
Story Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Put them
in priority
order
(Up to 5) (Up to 5) (Up to 5) (Up to 5)
Put maximum
numbers on each
stage

Backlog storyaa
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
Story
Story
Story Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Setting maximum number
helps you
see where is the bottle
neck
and put resources

Backlog storyaa
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
Story
Story
Story Story
Story
Story
Story
Story Story
Story
Story
Story
StoryStory
Story
Story
Story
Story
Dissolve bottle neck
and increase through
put (productivity)

Story① Customers answer ad owners’ questionnaires to acquire wifi data volume
Story② Customers share this service on Facebook to gain wifi data volume
Story③ Customers attain wifi data volume by watching ad movies
Extract “absolutely
necessary” story

Open screen
Menu
screen
Ad watch Confirmation
Usage
confirmation
Activation
A story to be verified:
A user activates the app and signs up.
He/she watches add and utilize gained data
volume

Story Kanban Board
Backlog story
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
Put a story onto the
right that is
absolutely necessarily
implemented in MVP
MVP
story
Story
1-1
Story
1-2

Story Kanban Board
Backlog story
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
MVP
story
Story
1-1
Story
1-2
Leave other
stories on
backlog

Verified story to learn
volume
What KPIs do you measure to verify?
What you learned
Iteration Canvas
Write down a
story to be
verified

Verify indications to measure
performance of MVP.

volume
What you learned
Iteration Canvas

AARRR！Introducing AARRR, pirate metrics.
AARRR is a framework
to put users in a funnel
from acquisition to revenue
Acquisition: User acquisition
Activation: User sign-up
Retention: User comes back
Revenue: User pays for service
Referral: User introduces
other users

When making MVP,
pay attention to Activation/
Retention/Revenue
AARRR！
Acquisition: User acquisition
Activation: User sign-up
Retention: User comes back
Revenue: User pays for service
Referral: User introduces
other users

You may not focus on customer acquisition
by word of mouth before achieving product-market fit.
(this makes the product known to customers)
You shouldn’t conduct
customer acquisition
Conversion rate is only 0.1%
so that rest would be in vain
X

Putting many resources into customer acquisition before
achieving product-market fit is like pouring water into a
bucket with many holes.

Conduct customer acquisition after achieving product-
market fit.
(this makes the product known to customers)
Conduct customer
acquisition
Conversion rates are high
so that putting resources
never be in vain
○

After product-market fit is achieved, acquired
customers won't easily move away from your
product.

“Build something
100 people love,
not something one million
people kind of like.”
-Paul Graham

First
Sign up screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Wifi usage
confirmation
Start
using wifi
Re-log in
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Mapping of UX and AARRR
Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue

First
Sign up
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Wifi
usage
confirmation
Start
using
wifi
Re-log in
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Mapping of UX and AARRR
Log in rates in 3days
after registering
Average number of ad
views per user
Percentage of users
who completed the
sequence
Sign up rates
Number of UU
accessing to the
sign up screen
KGI

KGI
KPI Number of UU
accessing to the
sign up screen
Leaving rates
in the menu
screen
Percentage of
users starting
watching ads
Ad watch
completion
rates
Rates of
starting
using the
app
Factorize KGIs in each stage to actionable
KPIs
Leaving
rates in the
log in screen
Leaving
rates in the
menu
screen
views per user
Sign up rates
Factorization
after registering
views per user
Percentage of users
who completed the
sequence
Sign up rates
Number of UU
accessing to the
sign up screen
First
Sign up
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Wifi
usage
confirmation
Start
using wifi
Re-log in
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching

What is a good indicator?
A good indicator
is measurable
A good indicator
Is easy to see
A good indicator
is actionable
A good indicator
is an indicator
of cause & effect
(An indicator
occurs changes
in other indicators)

First
Sign up
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Wifi
usage
confirmation
Start
using wifi
Re-log in
screen
Menu
screen
Start
watching
ad
Complete
watching
Leads actionable
plans?
Is each KPI
measurable?
Is each KPI factorized
enough?
Are these KPIs important
factors of KGI?
KGI
KPI Number of UU
accessing to the
sign up screen
Leaving rates
in the menu
screen
Percentage of
users starting
watching ads
Ad watch
completion
rates
Rates of
starting
using the
app
Leaving
rates in the
log in screen
Leaving
rates in the
menu
screen
views per user
Sign up rates
after registering
views per user
Percentage of users
who completed the
sequence
Sign up rates
Number of UU
accessing to the
sign up screen

volume
What you learned
Iteration Canvas
Activation: Sign up rates, rates of completion of the sequence
Retention: Rates of re-logging in 3 days after registration
Revenue: Average # of ad views per a day

Find the very indicators that customers
love through creating an MVP.
It is not necessary that KGI/KPI is able
to be set at the beginning.

E-
commerce
2-sided
market SaaS
Mobile Apps
User-Gen
Content Media
MAU Number of bookings Churn rates/
ARPU
ARPU/
Number of DL
Number of actions/
number of spam mails
PV/
Number of signing up
Game
Active Users
after 5-7 days
Message
WAU
Critical KPI/KGI variables depend on the product
characteristics.
SNS
DAU

The German Football Team Having
Won in 2014 World Cup

The most critical KPI of Germany national team.
“A span that each member receives and takes out
a pass”.
Shortened the span from 2.8 seconds to 1.6
seconds.

E-
commerce
2-sided
market SaaS
Mobile Apps
User-Gen
Content Media
MAU Number of bookings Churn率/
ARPU
ARPU/
Number of DL
Number of actions/
number of spam mails
PV/
Number of signing up
Game
Active Users
after 5-7 days
Message
WAU
SNS
DAU
Mobile Apps
User-Gen
Content Media
MAU ブッキングの数 Churn率/
ARPU
Game
WAU DAU
What is KPI/KGI of your product?
Verify it through creating an MVP
Critical KPI/KGI variables depend on the product
characteristics.

Story Kanban Board
Backlog story
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
MVP
story
Story
1-1
Story
1-2
Create MVP

Verify types of MVP.
Landing page MVP:
MVP providing a landing page
scribing Value suggestion, minimum
features price, Call-to-action
Pre-order MVP：
MVP soliciting potential customers
to sign up to order a prepared
solution
Audience MVP：
MVP developing customer
basement before producing a
product. Audience verifies which
contents are hot and which
functions are used.
Wizard-of-Oz/Concierge MVP：
MVP solving customers’ issues by hands
not by automated system. It will get many
feedbacks through providing meticulous
services for customers.
Piece meal MVP:
MVP getting feedback from users
through introducing a step-by-step
interaction to users
Movie MVP：
MVP getting sign-up users and
feedback of customers by video
explaining a product before
launching
＊These are just typical models so that not all products would be categorized into them

Landing Page MVP: Doordash

Put
price tag
Get harsh
feedback
through Sales
They could learn how the food-delivery mechanism worked
very well, as they operated the entire process manually
and talked to end-users/suppliers directly.

They fundraised 17.3 million USD
one year after they founded.

By using the money from VCs, they built a delivery dispatch
system to optimize operations by collecting big data.

Pre-order MVP

After posting on Kickstarter, Pebble continuously listened to
customers and they iterated the product more than 100 times
before they launched it.
100
Times
❓

They sold 400,000 units in 2013.
They sold more than 1 million units in 2014.
-http://fortune.com/2014/03/20/pebble-sold-400000-smartwatches-last-year-on-track-to-double-revenues-in-2014/

Audience development MVP: Pinterest

The Pinterest founder found out that initial users had a strong interest in
design. So the founding team designed a community and observed
enthusiastic users. Based on this observation, they added features to the
product
❓

In one year, the number of unique users
grew to 20 million.

Wizard of OZ MVP: Zappos

Before building the drop-shipping system, they operated the entire
process manually. When they got an order, they went to a shoe
store nearby and packed and shipped the shoes to users.
❓

Amazon.com acquired Zappos
for 847 million USD
https://techcrunch.com/2009/07/22/amazon-buys-zappos/

Brian Chesky, the founder of Airbnb, went to New York.
He became a photographer and supported homeowners by taking
nice room photos. Consequently, the weekly revenue doubled.
Start using
professional
photographer

Concierge MVP: Food on the Table

Food-on-table founders manually created purchasing and recipe
decisions for restaurant owners for the next week. It was based
on the information provided by the restaurant, i.e. inventory,
promotion information and revenue of the previous week.

How-it-works video MVP:Dropbox

Drew Houston, the founder of Dropbox,
put a demo video on
hacker news. It was played more than 10,000 times.

Piecemeal MVP: 3 Tiny Habits

The founder put the step-by-step process on the main page and
verified whether the product would deliver value to users;
3,500users registered. They came to the conclusion that the service deserves
to be built

Build a Minimal Sellable Product,
not Minimal Viable Product.

Never provide your product for free.

They could learn how the food-delivery mechanism worked
very well, as they operated the entire process manually
and talked to end-users/suppliers directly.
Put
price tag
Get harsh
Feedback
through Sales

Marketing won’t
give you harsh feedback,
but sales will.
Jessica Livingston
Y-combinator Partner

-Paul Graham
Founder of Y Combinator
”Sell before make”
Y Combinator as a startup builds MVPs
while imagining whether
the product could be sold
before producing it.

"Minimum Sellable Product"
means a ‘fully trustable product'
for purchasing. A state of ‘sellable'
is the easiest and simplest way of
proving it, I believe.”
- Taro Fukuyama
CEO, Anypark
”Entrepreneur creating future”

Sellable
Product
Product able
to be
sold with
a price tag
Minimum
Product
Less
valuable product
Minimal + Sellable
A product Start-up should
make

Put price tag

Open screen Menu screen
Ad watch Confirmation
Usage
confirmation
Activation
What you want to
learn by MVP:
A user activates the
app and signs up.
He/she watches add and
utilize gained data volume
Revenue model：
Attain affiliate
revenue if
customers
watch ads

Tourists from
English speaking
countries
inbounding to Japan
(smartphone heavy
user aged at 20s to
30s
Frustrated by
bad wifi
connectivity
during the
transit
Lean canvas of Anytime Online
Purchase data volume by
credit card
Customers can
add data volume
any where any
time
Add data volume by
watching ads
You must think of
Revenue model
(how to sell)
Affiliate model by
ad viewing of customers
Add data volume by
answering
questionnaires

Pricing and revenue model are core
factors of an MVP.
Pricing will help you verify
whether the value suggestion moves
customers.

volume
What you learned
Iteration Canvas
Retention: Rates of re-logging in in 3 days after registration
Draw the image or outline how
the MVP you want to build

volume
What you learned
Retention: Rates of re-logging in in 3 days after registration
20 ppl per a day/2 weeks
Roughly estimate
a necessary term
Iteration Canvas

Accurate estimation isn’t needed in developing
of features.
Use trigonometrical survey to estimate:
The difficulty of needed techniques?
When is it completed?

Trigonometric Survey
Implement the issue as a sample and
estimate the whole process of the MVP
creation from a relative viewpoint.
issue A
The whole process
of MVP creation
(10 times of issue A)
3 days 30 days
(10 times of 3 days)

Product-Market Fit
Deliver the MVP
to the first
customer
Clarify what to
learn with an
MVP
learn using the
MVP
Chose MVP type
and build
Learn by delivering to an
evangelist customer
innovation metrics
Examine the UX
with Hooked model
Improve UX to
Enhance
the customer
engagement
Iterate product to
bring more value
to customers
it
Conduct
Quantitative &
Build MVP
Repeat the
process until
the PMF has
been achieved
Create
Pivot the
Business Model

In a startup, there are only
two things you should do;
1. Build your product
2. Talk to users
Paul Graham
Y Combinator, Founder
http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

Get out of the building
and find evangelist users!

Put budget behind
solving the problem
Looked for a solution
themselves
Tried to solve the problem
themselves
Knows they have the problem
Have the problem, the startup founder
thinks they have
Evangelist Users
have these 5 traits
Steve Blank

Evangelist customers (early adopter)
complement lack of a product with
imagination.
- Eric Ries
“The Lean Start-Up”

Focus on selling to
the first 10 customers.
Don’t focus on first 1000 customers.

Do not build a product liked
by millions of people;
build a product loved by
a small number of people.
Paul Graham

Early adopters will determine
your business model.

“20% of customers will
give 80% of
your feedback”
Marvin Liao
Partner, 500 Startup

Story Kanban Board
Backlog story
the iteration
Build
Build
completed
launch
Quantitative
analysis (split
test, cohort
analysis)
Qualitative
MVP
story
Story
1-1
Story
1-2
Launch it

Ask your friends
for introductions.
How to find Early-evangelist

Use twitter advanced search and
search with relevant key words/location.

Create a Facebook group
and lead dialogues.

Attend relevant
conferences.

Visit relevant exhibitions.

Find in your current company
(while you are still an employee).
*It is valid especially for B2B products

Finally, simply send an e-mail
request for interview.

It’s all about action.

Where can you meet your
evangelists - those who are
proactively seeking a
solution?
Exercise
❓

Get out of
the Building!
-Steve Blank
Start-up owner’s manual

At beginning,
you should keep
getting appointments
until you will fill up
your calendar.
Steve Blank
Start-up owner’s manual

Most top performers in
Y Combinator are sales-animals;
you should spend most of the
time on sales, and the rest of the
time you should spend on
hacking.
Paul Graham
From Launch Pad
http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

I'm appalled at the number
of startups who say ‘we've
spent nothing on marketing;
our customer acquisition is
entirely organic' - aka "I'm a
marketing retard.”
- Dave McClure
Founder of 500 startup

Tourists from
English speaking
countries
inbounding to Japan
(smartphone heavy
user aged at 20s to
30s
Frustrated by
bad wifi
connectivity
during the
transit
Lean Canvas of Anytime Online
Purchase data volume by
credit card
Add data volume by
answering
questionnaires
Customers can
add data volume
any where any
time
Add data volume by
watching ads Find early
adopters

Sales are a vital factor for a startup.
Founder of Clever
keeps calling to
get customer leads
Enterprise related solution:
- Try to acquire customer leads by
any means necessary
- Make a ton of cold calls
- Go to the customer's office.
Consumer related solution:
- Ask around for sign-ups
- Go to events and get users proactively
- Focusing on getting users manually
・Focusing on getting users manually

Collision Installation
Stripe provides a payment solution.
Collision brothers, founders of Stripe,
asked YC founders in the same batch to sign-up.
When they agreed,
they did set-up for users by saying,
“Let me install our software to your PC”
Paul Graham called it
“Collision Installation”

≈
Paul English,
the founder of Kayak,
put a red fixed line phone
in the middle of the room.
He let engineers
compete to pick up
support calls.

Dive into a customer community.
*If there is no such a community,
create a community on your own
An effective strategy
in early stage startups.

Customer
community
Company
Feedback for developer
Customers
Executive
Developer
Person in
charge
Unify with the
customer community

Strategies towards
the customer community.
Be a customer(s) yourself
Build a customer group/forum/association
Conduct regular focus interviews
In the case of user generated content, hold
competitions and public ceremonies for winners.

セールス(カスタマー獲得）に
不安にならなくて良い
スタートアップは先進的
であるがゆえにイノベーター層
（アーリーアダプター）つまり、
100人に営業して、2,3人しか買ってくれない。
しかし、この状況は、ずっと続くものではない。
自分の能力が低いからとではない
考えることが大事である。

Why is it so important
to talk to paid users directly?
Talk to users !
❓

≈
Marketing won’t
give you
harsh feedback,
but sales will.
Jessica Livingston
Y Combinator Partner

Verify results
with survey feedback

We don’t know what are the right questions
and right answers after launching MVP
It is suggested that questionnaires have
right answers and wrong answers

Focus Group Interview

This method is not for digging up deep
insights from customers since it creates
group thinking.

Start-up founders can build the product
while they are directly talking to customers
The Unfair Advantage of Startups

Product
Market-Fit
Risk
（= Risk not to
create needed
products）
Time
PMF risk is rising
without customer
feedback
Reduce the risk that you could produce unneeded
products for which you have consumed a lot of resources/time.
PMF risk is limited with
customer feedback
High
Low

Wufoo developer spent
at least 4 to 8 hours
directly communicating
to users. The inputs were
used for the next
product iteration.
Kevin Hale
Y Combinator Partner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz_LgBAGYyo

Startup Science 2017 ⑤

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