Poornima Vijayashanker, founder of BizeeBee and Femgineer, explains the value of validating your MVP on paper to avoid failed launches and produce successful products.

1. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER
Poornima Vijayashanker, @poornima, poornima@femgineer.com
CEO & Founder,
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2. INTRODUCTION 2
POORNIMA VIJAYASHANKER
CEO & FOUNDER
‣ Duke University - Electrical Engineer & Computer Science
‣ R&D Engineer @ Synopsys
‣ Founding Engineer @ Mint.com
‣ Femgineer.com - Startup Methodologies
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3. AGENDA 3
‣ 2 Reasons Minimum Viable Products Fail
‣ Picking Features for a Minimum Viable Product
‣ Paper Prototyping
‣ Usability Testing
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4. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 4
2 REASONS MVPS FAIL
Supplemental Reading: 2 Reasons MVPs Fail
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5. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 5
You jump into building...
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6. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 6
1. You haven’t figured out how to provide a
simple value proposition that differentiates
your product from your competition.
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7. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 7
2. You haven’t identified who the early
adopter for the product is.
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8. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 8
HOW TO ATTRACT EARLY ADOPTERS
‣ Identify and Research product of key competitors
‣ Interview people using competitors products
‣ Interview people not using competitors products
Supplemental Reading:Challenges of Getting Early Adopters, Acquiring Customers & Monetizing, Getting Your Startup Team to
Understand Your Customer
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9. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 9
Who is the early adopter?
- Find them!
- Schedule an interview.
- Sign them up to test your product.
KNOW THY CUSTOMER BETTER THAN THY SELF
Expose Problems Expose Competition
What are ALL their problems? Who is the competitor?
What are they currently using to How are they solving problem?
solve their problems?
What problems are they
What can they not live without? creating?
Why are they loved/hated?
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10. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 10
Early adopters are people who aren’t using
a competitor’s solution.
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PICKING FEATURES FOR
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
Supplemental Reading: Challenges of Getting Early Adopters, Acquiring Customers & Monetizing, Getting Your Startup Team to
Understand Your Customer
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12. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 12
Turn feedback from interviews into user
stories.
Then create a simple paper prototype
based on a different value proposition.
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13. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 13
USABILITY TESTING
Explain the Set What are you Thank them
product. expectations. testing. for their time.
What you are Make them Setup a
testing. comfortable. follow up.
How they are
helping.
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14. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 14
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TIPS TO DO THINGS QUICKLY
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1. Try out a service like UserTesting.com.
2. Always keep leads in the loop!
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17. REVIEW 17
‣ 2 Reasons Minimum Viable Products Fail
‣ Picking Features for a Minimum Viable Product
‣ Paper Prototyping
‣ Usability Testing
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18. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 18
Q&A
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19. VALIDATE YOUR MVP ON PAPER 19
Office Hours
Thursdays & Fridays 2pm PST
Sign up for a 30 minute slot here!
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