1. Warning: This TalkContains Actual TacticsKISSinsights Case StudyCindy AlvarezWeb 2.0 Expo • May 3, 2010
2. Where Do I Start?• Get a Hypothesis (and write it down)• 2-Pronged Validation• Figure Out What You Want to Learn• Iterate on Your Interview• Just Build It• What will it take for someone to pay you $?
3. Get A HypothesisMy hypothesis is that____________ people have aproblem doing ____________.
4. Hypothesis for KISSinsightsMy hypothesis is that productmanager type people have aproblem doing fast/effective/frequent customer research.
5. The 2 Big QuestionsIs this a Where exactly isrecognizable, the pain?interesting pain?
6. 2-Pronged Validationsplash page “so, tell me about how you do _____...” BUY NOW survey
7. Interviews Are Features, Too PLANASSESS DO
8. What Should You Be Learning?• What are they doing now? (This is YOUR COMPETITION.)• What are other tools leaving on the table?• Who is involved?• How frequent / severe is the pain?• Whatever else your customer thinks is IMPORTANT enough to COMPLAIN about
9. The customer is theexpert, you’re just anotetaker.
10. “If you could wave a magic wand, what would you be able to do?”
11. Iterating on the Interview• What was interesting / surprising?• Kill the yes/no questions• Don’t agree with the customer• Silence is good• Validate or contradict
12. Learnings That Became KISSinsights• What are they doing now? Mostly going without customer research.• What are other tools leaving on the table? Privacy, targeting controls.• Who is involved? Product manager, reluctant developer.• How frequent / severe is the pain? Constant - “whenever we make decisions on what to build”• IMPORTANT enough to COMPLAIN? Hate writing, don’t know where to start, hate having to ask developer to change site
13. The Numbers• ~20 interviews (15-20 minute phone calls)• 3 scrappy user tests (15-20 minute face-to-face with paper prototypes)• 2 splash pages (Facebook Ads, StumbleUpon traffic)• Hacky MVP on KISSmetrics.com• 8 “alpha testers”
14. Just Build It“It’s a very ‘M’ MVP.” - Cindy Alvarez, to Hiten Shah
15. Internal MVP: 2 days Public MVP: 2 months1400+ signups (so far)
16. What Does It Take to Get Paid?Interest Installation Gratification Value Pay
17. Thank You!http://www.cindyalvarez.com/best-practices/customer-development-interviews-how-to-finding-peoplehttp://www.cindyalvarez.com/communication/customer-development-interviews-how-to-what-you-should-be-learninghttp://blog.meatinthesky.com/the-evolution-of-the-customer-development-inthttp://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2010/01/the-threeminute-rule.htmlhttp://www.cindyalvarez.com/best-practices/quantitative-vs-qualitative@KISSmetrics @cindyalvarez
2. Where Do I Start?
• Get a Hypothesis (and write it down)
• 2-Pronged Validation
• Figure Out What You Want to Learn
• Iterate on Your Interview
• Just Build It
• What will it take for someone to pay
you $?
3. Get A Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that
____________ people have a
problem doing ____________.
4. Hypothesis for KISSinsights
My hypothesis is that product
manager type people have a
problem doing fast/effective/
frequent customer research.
5. The 2 Big Questions
Is this a Where exactly is
recognizable, the pain?
interesting pain?
8. What Should You Be Learning?
• What are they doing now? (This is YOUR
COMPETITION.)
• What are other tools leaving on the table?
• Who is involved?
• How frequent / severe is the pain?
• Whatever else your customer thinks is
IMPORTANT enough to COMPLAIN about
10. “If you could wave a
magic wand, what
would you be able to
do?”
11. Iterating on the Interview
• What was interesting /
surprising?
• Kill the yes/no questions
• Don’t agree with the customer
• Silence is good
• Validate or contradict
12. Learnings That Became KISSinsights
• What are they doing now? Mostly going
without customer research.
• What are other tools leaving on the table?
Privacy, targeting controls.
• Who is involved? Product manager, reluctant
developer.
• How frequent / severe is the pain? Constant
- “whenever we make decisions on what to build”
• IMPORTANT enough to COMPLAIN? Hate
writing, don’t know where to start, hate having to ask
developer to change site
13. The Numbers
• ~20 interviews (15-20 minute
phone calls)
• 3 scrappy user tests (15-20 minute
face-to-face with paper prototypes)
• 2 splash pages (Facebook Ads,
StumbleUpon traffic)
• Hacky MVP on KISSmetrics.com
• 8 “alpha testers”
You need to have a hypothesis. If you don’t, you don’t have anything to prove right OR wrong.\nWrite it down. \n
You need to have a hypothesis. If you don’t, you don’t have anything to prove right OR wrong.\nWrite it down. \n
Even if you don’t have a product in mind, it’s good to write down a hypothesis - you might stumble upon something. KI was inspired by customer dev interviews we did for KM.\n
Do people care enough to click (a splash page, an ad)?\nWhat are the hairy details - you need to know that to know how you can exploit them\n
Start in tandem but splash page may be a stage-gate (if no one clicks, stop)\nConversations are ongoing\n
Plan - think of the interview like a feature you’d code - you design, you do it, then you test it to make sure it does what you want\n\n\n
Plan - think of the interview like a feature you’d code - you design, you do it, then you test it to make sure it does what you want\n\n\n
Yes, your competition may be “nothing” (ooh, bad market) or “writing stuff down with pencil and paper”\nTalk about UV/GS - we wanted it to do X but it didn’t\nWho = either these are all stakeholders, or they’re people who want OUT of the loop\n\n\n
Yes, your competition may be “nothing” (ooh, bad market) or “writing stuff down with pencil and paper”\nTalk about UV/GS - we wanted it to do X but it didn’t\nWho = either these are all stakeholders, or they’re people who want OUT of the loop\n\n\n
Yes/no = you don’t learn\nAgree = learning nothing. “Let me be sure I understand you - you wanted X?”\nDeliberate mis-understanding can be good\nSilence -> people just keep talking\nDon’t assume customers agree with each other\n\n\n
Yes, your competition may be “nothing” (ooh, bad market) or “writing stuff down with pencil and paper”\nTalk about UV/GS - we wanted it to do X but it didn’t\nWho = either these are all stakeholders, or they’re people who want OUT of the loop\n\n\n
Yes, your competition may be “nothing” (ooh, bad market) or “writing stuff down with pencil and paper”\nTalk about UV/GS - we wanted it to do X but it didn’t\nWho = either these are all stakeholders, or they’re people who want OUT of the loop\n\n\n
Yes, your competition may be “nothing” (ooh, bad market) or “writing stuff down with pencil and paper”\nTalk about UV/GS - we wanted it to do X but it didn’t\nWho = either these are all stakeholders, or they’re people who want OUT of the loop\n\n\n
Yes, your competition may be “nothing” (ooh, bad market) or “writing stuff down with pencil and paper”\nTalk about UV/GS - we wanted it to do X but it didn’t\nWho = either these are all stakeholders, or they’re people who want OUT of the loop\n\n\n
Interest = MVP. Installation = your early adopters don’t need it\nGratification = MDP. Value = how are people actually using your product? What more do they need? (unlikely to be able to predict this before) Pay.\n\n\n