2. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
STRATEGY & TACTICS
Where are
things
headed?
What do we
do when they
get there?
Strategy &
Foresight
Tactics &
Intrapreneurship
3. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
EVIDENCE-BASED INNOVATION VIA ‘LEAN STARTUP’
Do I have real evidence from my buyer
that this is compelling?
01 IDEA!
What are the key assumptions required
to make this business work?
02 HYPOTHESIS
How do I definitely prove or disprove the
assumptions with a minimum of time
and effort?
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATIONAm I reacting or am I focused on
validating my pivotal assumptions?
‘Pivot or persevere?’
4. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
ALEX COWAN!
AlexanderCowan.com!
@cowanSF
X
!
?
YOUR VALUE PROPOSITIONS
ALTERNATIVE(S)
PROBLEM SCENARIO
CREATING A TESTABLE HYPOTHESIS
5. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
… and they have a certain
PROBLEMS(S) …
… where they’re currently using
certain ALTERNATIVE(S) …
… and I have a VALUE
PROPOSITION that’s better enough
than the alternatives to cause the
persona to act (purchase, use, etc.).
A certain PERSONA exists…
CREATING A TESTABLE HYPOTHESIS
!
?
X
6. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
PRIORITIZING AND FOCUSING
Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation
1
[A key assumption about the
business]
[Whether it needs
proving!
[Experiment to !
prove or disprove]
1
Hiring managers would
prefer a lightweight quiz app
over calling references and
ad hoc probing.
Yes
* Customer interviews on problem
scenario!
* Value testing through ‘minimum
viable product’
2
Managers want to be able to
add their questions as well
Yes
* Show prototypes with choices
* Test in beta
2 Parents have smart phones No n/a
Focus on strategic,
pivotal assumptions
7. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
TESTING YOUR HYPOTHESIS VIA ‘MVP’
M
V
P
inimum What is the fastest,
cheapest way to
validate or
invalidate this
option so we give
ourselves more
options on future
success?!
8. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
TESTING YOUR HYPOTHESIS VIA ‘MVP’
M
V
P
iable
inimum
Will it give us a
definitive result?
What are the
actionable metrics?
9. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
TESTING YOUR HYPOTHESIS VIA ‘MVP’
M
V
P
iable
roduct Does it really
require actual
product? Can we
use alternative
brands, channels?
inimum
10. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
CASE STUDY: DROPBOX
OPPORTUNITY!
Underlying demand and supporting
infrastructure ready for a great file sharing
app. !
!
CHALLENGE!
Building a great cross-platform app.
required VC funding. VC’s saw a space
with lots of existing competitors struggling
to get traction.!
11. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
CASE STUDY: DROPBOX
Persona
Tom the Techie- early adopter who works on projects that require swapping a lot of files between a
shifting network of collaborators.
Problem
Scenario
It’s difficult to share files between a network of collaborators, particularly if they’re: big or numerous or
change a lot.
Alternatives
Many existing products, but none of them super compelling and widely adopted.!
Also, custom setup’s which work but are cumbersome to set up and maintain.
Value Prop.
A file sharing service that truly feels transparent to the user across all major platforms- OSX, iOS,
Windows, etc.
What Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? !
!
That you can bootstrap?!
!
That doesn’t require software at all?
12. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
THE ‘WIZARD OF OZ’ MVP
Result: Excellent traction and
conversion to sign-up’s. !
Strong validation signal.
Created a synthetic demo
tailored for early market
(techies), promoted it, and
measured email sign-up’s.
13. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
CASE STUDY: LEONID SYSTEMS
OPPORTUNITY!
Major disruption and new product
opportunities among telecom providers
with introduction of voice-over-IP and cloud
communications. !
!
IT systems need to be rethought. !
!
CHALLENGE!
As a one-person startup, Leonid had
actionable ideas but not enough resources
to execute an end-to-end solution.!
14. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
CASE STUDY: LEONID SYSTEMS
Persona
Chris the CTO- has funding and mandate to transition the business towards hosted services; many
bases to cover
Problem
Scenario
IT is the most expensive, most risky area when making changes to the business.
Alternatives
1) Place large, risky bets on major new system upgrades. 2) Make small incremental updates (but risk
not keeping pace).
Value Prop.
Leonid will offer modular, integration-friendly applications in two critical areas: 1) services provisioning
and 2) end user self-service portals.
What Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? !
!
That you can bootstrap?!
!
That doesn’t require software at all?
15. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
LEONID MVP #3: SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
CONSULTING
‘PRODUCTIZED’
CONSULTING
PRODUCTS
Started with consulting as a
‘concierge’ vehicle to create
tactical solutions, evolving to
full-fledged product.
Result: Steady step-wise
growth with consistently better
understanding of key customer
problem scenarios.
16. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
EXAMPLE: ENABLE QUIZ
OPPORTUNITY!
Hiring quality technical talent is critical for
many companies, but screening for skill
sets is time consuming and awkward. !
!
CHALLENGE!
The founding team wants to bootstrap
without external funding so they need to
focus on a specific technical domain, one
that will get them strong early traction.!
17. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
EXAMPLE: ENABLE QUIZ
Persona(s)
Helen the HR Manager- responsible for sourcing and screening job candidates!
Frank the Functional Manager- hiring manager responsible for acquiring and managing talent
Problem
Scenario
Helen: hard to screen for technical skills!
Frank: never has enough time for recruiting and doesn’t want to be a jerk during interviews
Alternatives
Helen: call references, take their word for it (on skills)!
Frank: ask a few probing questions
Value Prop. A lightweight quizzing app that has Helen can use to do quick, effective screening.
What Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for deciding on the right first topics? !
!
That you can bootstrap?!
!
That doesn’t require software at all?
18. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
THE ‘PRE-SALES’ MVP
Target Outcome: Informed
selection of starter topics (and
baseline on initial conversions).
Ran Google AdWord
campaigns across top ranking
technical topics, measuring
click through rate and landing
page sign-up’s.
19. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
4 TYPES OF LEAN HYPOTHESES
PERSONA
HYPOTHESIS
PROBLEM
HYPOTHESIS
VALUE
HYPOTHESIS
CUSTOMER CREATION
HYPOTHESIS
20. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
PERSONA HYPOTHESIS
ALEX COWAN!
AlexanderCowan.com!
@cowanSF
Does this person exist? !
Can you identify them?!
Do you understand them really well?!
What do they think-see-feel-do in your area?
21. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS
ALEX COWAN!
AlexanderCowan.com!
@cowanSF
Have you identified a discrete problem/need?!
How important is it to the target persona(s)?!
What alternatives do they use today? How?
22. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
VALUE HYPOTHESIS
ALEX COWAN!
AlexanderCowan.com!
@cowanSF
How much better than the best alternative is your
product? !
How obvious is that to the customer?
23. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
CUSTOMER CREATION HYPOTHESIS
ALEX COWAN!
AlexanderCowan.com!
@cowanSF
How will you get the customer’s: attention, interest,
desire, action, onboarding, retention?!
How will you know if it’s working?
25. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
OLD SCHOOL VS. NEW SCHOOL
OLD
SCHOOL
NEW
SCHOOL
$ !?
? ! ? ? ?
26. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
ALEX COWAN!
AlexanderCowan.com!
@cowanSF
THE FULL STACK PRODUCT PERSON
Specialties
DESIGN&UX
UNIXSYSADMIN
RUBY
PYTON
JAVA
PHP
...
ENTERPRISESALES
...
SEO
ANALYTICS
...
...
...
Technical
Literacy
ARCHITECTURE
FUNDAMENTALS!
App. & Platform
Integration
ROLES &
SYSTEMS!
In a Technical
Team
Foundation
Concepts
LEAN
DESIGN!
THINKING
CUSTOMER!
DEV.
AGILE
SOFTWARE
FUNDAMENTALS!
Model-View-
Controller
27. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
THE CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK
MVP
Product-Market
Fit(?)
PIVOTAL
ASSUMPTIONS
PRODUCT
ORG.
PARTNERS,
CHANNELS
Nascent
Founders
N/A
Probably too
soon
Test, revise,
test...
MVP
Customer dev.
team
Probably too
soon
Validated- now
tactical
Focus: efficiency,
extension
Full functional
organization
Yeah, maybe?
Scale
Validated- now
tactical
What would a
startup do??
Scalable
organization
Yeah, definitely!
28. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
THINK SEE
FEEL DO
PERSONAS
Who?
X
PROBLEM!
SCENARIOS &
ALTERNATIVES
What?
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
& ASSUMPTIONS
What if?
!
USER
STORIES &
PROTOTYPES
How?
Scale?
Pivot?
PRODUCT &
PROMOTION
/
CUSTOMER
DISCOVERY &
EXPERIMENTS
Tell me…?
FULL CIRCLE
29. Copyright 2014 Cowan Publishing
FULL CIRCLE (IN REVERSE)
!
PRODUCT &
PROMOTION
USER
STORIES &
PROTOTYPES
Did the implementation
deliver on the story?
/
CUSTOMER
DISCOVERY
&
EXPERIMENT
How did the
customer/user
react?
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
& ASSUMPTIONS
!
Was the
implemented
story relevant to
the proposition?
X
PROBLEM!
SCENARIOS &
ALTERNATIVES
Is problem
relevant? Is the
proposition
better vs.
alternatives?
THINK SEE
FEEL DO
PERSONAS
Do we
understand this
person? What
makes them
tick?