MDW Boulder April '11 | Tim Malbon_How to actually make something

Hello

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Gareth Kay - Planningness 2009


Let’ s smash stu ff up

Ac t like a start-up

We make new stuff
out of the internet


We help clients make
innovative products &
services out of the Internet


We make things that have
long-term value for people
because they are useful,
playful & sustainable


FROM
paid media model
of buying attention
“trad advertising-like objects”

TO
earned media model of
making stuff useful,
playful & sustainable
“objects that are more like
products & services”


“Ideas that do”
Stop communicating
products & start making
communication products
Gareth Kay, Goodby Silverstein & Partners


The Agency Innovation Scorecard

D - Invention
Creation of a new idea or process

C - Innovation
Arranging the economics requirements
for implementing an invention

Noah Brier
A + Diffusion
Adoption and imitation


[images: twitter, youtube, flickr,
napster, facebook, google, myspace,
ebay, amazon, paypal, skype, slide,
spotify, apple, drop box]


In the latest turn of its wheel,
strategy becomes about how
to make existing institutions
as innovative as start-ups

Walter Kiechel III, The Lords of Strategy


Simple & visual
Very, very fast
Self-organising teams
Trusting individuals
No siloes

Concept/
Seed

Product
Development

Alpha/Beta
Test

Launch/Ship


Strategy

Functional
Spec

Wireframes

small adjustment
Design

Code

Test

Deploy


Client
Brief

Research

Strategic
Development

Agency Brief
small adjustment
Creative
Development

Testing

Production


known problem known solution

B

A


PROBLEM SPACE

KNOWN UNKNOWN

KNOWN
SOLUTION
SPACE
UNKNOWN


PROBLEM SPACE

KNOWN UNKNOWN

DOES

KNOWN
NOT
EXIST
SOLUTION
SPACE
UNKNOWN


PROBLEM SPACE

KNOWN UNKNOWN

DOES

KNOWN
NOT
EXIST
SOLUTION
SPACE
UNKNOWN

AGILE


PROBLEM SPACE

KNOWN UNKNOWN

DOES

KNOWN
NOT
EXIST
SOLUTION
SPACE
UNKNOWN

AGILE LEAN


• Rapid prototyping to test hypotheses
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Nail it then scale it
• Customer obsession (development)
• Iterative, metrics-driven & Agile
• Learn fast, don’t fail fast

Steve Blank

Startups are not a smaller
versions of larger companies


Large
Startup Company
The startup exists to search for a
scalable business model


Large
Startup Company
The large company exists to
execute a business model at scale


Err yes, but we
have *clients*


There is no
one-to-one mapping
(But lots to learn)


‘The Lean Agency’
Lean Agencies exist to
search for new solutions
to their clients’ problems


The
characteristics
of a Lean
Agency

Iterative

Integrated

Evidence/
Metrics
Driven

Minimal
Waste

Skype Education Project
A new service to help more teachers use
Skype in the classroom


| Skype Education Project

Skype came to us
with a comms brief
Theyʼd noticed that teachers all over the world were
using Skype in extraordinary ways.
They wanted us to collect these stories and use them
to promote the service & inspire other teachers.



We responded with some
ideas
And we proposed using an iterative, customer-
development focused approach.
This was an Agile software development project
driven by a continuous feedback loop of qualitative
and quantitative data.


Our initial
assumptions were
that it was all
about a lesson
planning tool
with examples,
ideas and tips on
integrating Skype
into learning


Use case #1: Invite an expert into the classroom

Stage 1 2 3 4

Touchpoint

How would you like to ﬁnd an
How would you like to How would you like to involve How would you like to share
expert to take part in a
User Needs contact them and what would an expert in planning or the experience with the
‘Skype visit’? Some type of
you need to discuss? structuring the lesson? community?
marketplace?

Notes


“Getting out of the building”
George Mayo

Daniela Callegari Middle school language arts teacher in
Maryland, USA
Pioneer in technology and education
Enthusiastic about helping the project

Lisa Reid
Primary school teacher in Italy
No experience with Skype in the classroom yet
Desperate to connect and ﬁnd other classes 6th, 7th & 8th grade science teacher in Ohio, USA
No experience with Skype in the classroom yet
Keen to start using Skype (has used EduSkypers)

Dan Sutch

Tracy Peterson
Technology teacher in Iowa, USA
FutureLab :: innovation in education Has introduced her classes to initial Skype sessions
In-depth knowledge of education & technology Keen to collaborate and extend usage of Skype
Open to ongoing involvement in project


We discovered immediately that their biggest obstacle
was actually finding other teachers who also used Skype


They also told us that teachers don’t have time to read lots
of lesson plans - video clips would be much more helpful



We identified 3 key components
for an Alpha release candidate
Ongoing market research provided further evidence
that ʻFinding and sharingʼ was core. We pieced
together the simplest thing (MVP) that would allow us
to carry out lighter testing of our hypotheses at a
greater scale on the Internet.
We developed the ﬁrst release in 2 iterations (4
weeks).

Insights gleaned from teachers’ websites


Skype educator
ecology
Sign
Mapping service Looking
up

Invite pioneers
propositions Willing
to mentor
for
Tags /
topics
Locatio
n Age
Expert Status group
wanting to Profile Questions &
help Name answers

Case D. Video/Comment
Conversatio studies
n
Suggestion
Video s
Filter
Belong Help
Skype
Search
educator
directory

Parents

IT
Finding
experts
Schedulin
g ‘How to’
Ask a guides School
API driven Link with Connect question policy
Time Tools other issues
B. Micro-Profile zones
teachers Sharing
Profile
search from
anywhere

Planning
Curriculu
m
‘How to’ guides
The Skype Teach
lesson Tools Resources
Experiences of existing
Feedbac community
k
A. Question & Answer

C. Search/Filter


We sketched up 4 pages of a directory service
which we tested with 7 teachers over Skype


Online surveys
- 55 teachers
- 7 countries
- 20+ subjects
Level of Skype teaching proﬁciency

Expert
30%
Intermediate
40%

Novice
29%


“What teachers want”

Find other teachers & share ideas 28%

Find a partner class 25%

Help other teachers 23%

How to use Skype 11.5%

Overcome obstacles to Skyping 9%

Practice Skype 3%


“Teachers who think concept
would be ‘very valuable’”
60% -

55% -

50% -

45% -

Search/Filter Video Q&A



We were working within a
time and cost-boxed plan
We used various Agile techniques as a way of
managing delivery whilst retaining the ﬂexibility to
respond to continuous feedback from testing.
We created a charter that deﬁned key metrics for
success and a shared vision with Skypeʼs project
stakeholders.


Creating an MVP - high level beta stories
Overview People Resources Admin

I would like an admin
I want a directory overview I want to add a resource
I want to login to the site section for the Skype
manually educator site.
3 3 8 5

As an admin, I want to be
I want to create a profile I want to like a resource able to ban people who
misbehave
3 2 1
Tools

As an admin, I want to be
I want to add a Skype I want to view another I want to view a resource able to invite a teacher
Educator badge to my blog educators profile on it’s own page. with a unique url

2 3 5 5

As a member of the site, I I want to view the I want to be able to
I want to see all the moderate content, so that
want to invite other resources that another
educators in a directory bad stuff can be removed
teachers to join. educator has added / liked.

2 3 2 5

I want to filter the educator I want to share a resource I
directory found easily

8 1


A user journey through the service

My profile
A N Other profile

New ideas

People like me

I want to like a resource
The more people who mark an People like me
idea as good the higher the
2 ranking of the idea
Ideas I like

Ideas I might like

Good idea
I want to view the
resources that another Ideas I think are good are saved
educator has added / liked. into my profile so I can find them
again easily and other teachers
2 like me can find them

Mr Mayo

I can mark an idea as good on
the Skype teacher directory


Moving into production: refined wireframes



With the first release, we start
getting analytics
The evidence we now start getting from both Skypeʼs
analytics package Omniture and Google analytics
provide a new stream of feedback and evidence.
The data points to 3 important site enhancements
currently being implemented, having also been
qualitatively validated with teachers in f2f interviews.


Analytics summary:
qualitative and quantitative working together
Beta hard metrics Beta soft metrics

‣ 1860 teachers signed up to the site ‣ Teachers like Skype in the classroom but it could meet their
needs better
‣ 60% of users from the USA
‣ Teachers want to use the site to connect with other teachers
‣ 2/3 of visits are new visitors to the site but find it difficult to find suitable matches with the current
‣ 17% return 2-3 times system
‣ 18% frequent return visits
‣ Teachers want more search tools and a wider range of topics
‣ High level of contact activity - 1,000 contact requests to describe themselves by

‣ 200 resources shared ‣ Teachers want greater granularity on location - probably in
part because of the high number of teachers in the USA
‣ 105 favourites
‣ Teachers find the resources section a useful source of
‣ 45 comments inspiration and information. This is often what they look at
first.



What the analytics told us
• More than 1 in 2 users are connecting with another
• We saw only c200 resources shared. We researched this
further with teachers
• Teachers have started to ʻhack itʼ to create projects
• 60% of the trafﬁc is from the US
• Return visits seemed low, but we realised that we were losing
the tracking when they connected via the Skype app


New objectives and revised
success metrics for phase 2
Phase 2 objectives

➡ Make connecting with another teacher easier and richer
‣ Teachers have more tools to find each other by
‣ Teachers can describe themselves in more detail
‣ Teachers can use alternative connection methods
‣ Teachers can find good contacts again
➡ Show teachers the best and most relevant resources
‣ Teachers see more relevant resources in their profile
‣ Popular resources are more visible
➡ Centre the site around projects rather than profiles
‣ Allow teachers to create and publish projects
‣ Surface relevant projects to teachers
➡ Increase teacher sign ups and number of visits

Phase 2 success metrics

‣ # new sign ups
‣ 1/2 teachers return to the site more than once
‣ Increase the number of teachers from outside the USA
‣ 500 connections per month - either email or Skype
‣ # of favourited resources increases
‣ # of bookmarked teachers
‣ # number of teachers who update their profile with additional information
‣ # number of teachers who embed the badge on their website


Data and evidence-based design
decisions for the new phase


Lessons learned
about iterating..


It’s not iterative if you
only do it once...


Incremental


Iterative


Speed


If it takes too long
any iterative process
is indistinguishable
from waterfall


Externalised + Rough


Sketch Prototypes


If you freeze an idea
If you freeze an idea
too quickly, you fall
too quickly, you fall
in love with it...
in love with it ...refine it too quickly
& you become
attached to it

The crudeness of early
models in particular is
very deliberate

#bdwny Jim Glymph, Gehry Technologies

Feedback

Get out of the building!


Learning
• The whole team learns
• What we learn is communicated
to clients
• What we learn is documented
• Metrics are important


Actionable metrics not vanity metrics
Pirate metrics... AARRR
RETENTION

ACQUISITION ACTIVATION REFERRAL REVENUE

Dave McClure


Incremental execution not
incremental thinking


We always have a vision
that is clearly articulated,
big enough to matter, &
shared by the whole team

Our goal is always to
discover which aspects of
this vision are grounded in
reality, & to adapt those
aspects that are not

Eric Ries, Start-up Lessons Learned


Intuition Iteration


props to @bokardo

Iterative optimisation
may only reach the peak of
a smaller idea

props to @bokardo

A better idea/design may
exist but requires an
intuitive leap

a smaller idea

props to @bokardo

A better idea/design may
exist but requires an
intuitive leap

a smaller idea

Local Maxima
props to @bokardo

This is an ongoing
experiment
(But we can iterate our way to success)


Thank you

Tim Malbon
@malbonster
tim@madebymany.com

http://madebymany.com
Copyright Made by Many 2011


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