Lean Startup Circle San Francisco: 'B2B Hacks - Getting from Consulting to Scalable Products'
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The document discusses the transition from consulting to scalable products, emphasizing the importance of customer empathy, service standardization, and workflow design. It highlights various case scenarios and personas to identify common issues in enterprise software implementations, while proposing solutions through design thinking and product validation. The author, Alex Cowan, provides insights and practical advice for improving service quality and establishing effective management practices in the B2B sector.
![Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
[First name]
the
[Role]
ex: Mary
the
Mom ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lean-startup-circle-san-francisco-alex-cowanv34pdf-130420204421-phpapp01/85/Lean-Startup-Circle-San-Francisco-B2B-Hacks-Getting-from-Consulting-to-Scalable-Products-23-320.jpg)
![Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
[First name]
the
[Role]
ex: Mary
the
Mom
(write down 3 personas)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lean-startup-circle-san-francisco-alex-cowanv34pdf-130420204421-phpapp01/85/Lean-Startup-Circle-San-Francisco-B2B-Hacks-Getting-from-Consulting-to-Scalable-Products-24-320.jpg)
![Descriptive
inputs Directed set up Right checklists Few tickets
Right hardware
ordered
Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Weak Product >> Broken Processes
Customer Sales Project Mgr./
Systems Designer
Field Service Support
Customer
“I’ll take [1 admin,
1 mobile. . .].”
“They’ll take
[1 admin, 1
mobile. . .].”
“I’ve provisioned ...
Time to install
them.”
“Here you are- 10
phones configured.”
“Works good,
looks good.”
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lean-startup-circle-san-francisco-alex-cowanv34pdf-130420204421-phpapp01/85/Lean-Startup-Circle-San-Francisco-B2B-Hacks-Getting-from-Consulting-to-Scalable-Products-29-320.jpg)
![Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation
1
[A key assumption
about the business]
[Whether it needs
proving
[Experiment to
prove or disprove]
1
End users want to log in
and do self-care
Yes!
Instrument adequate reporting,
create awareness,
see if they nibble
1
Reducing the portals
clicks to destination
from 4-6 to 2-3 is good
enough
Yes
- Log and analyze navigation
- Do support calls go down?
EXERCISE: LIST YOUR ASSUMPTIONS
ALEX COWAN
AlexanderCowan.com
@cowanSF](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lean-startup-circle-san-francisco-alex-cowanv34pdf-130420204421-phpapp01/85/Lean-Startup-Circle-San-Francisco-B2B-Hacks-Getting-from-Consulting-to-Scalable-Products-44-320.jpg)
Lean Startup Circle San Francisco: 'B2B Hacks - Getting from Consulting to Scalable Products'
- 1. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing B2B Hacks Getting from Consulting to Scalable Products
- 2. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
- 3. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing
- 4. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CUSTOMERS ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 5. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing A LEAN PROGRESSION It pays It’s easy to scale Consultants naturally do customer discovery CONSULTING ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 6. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing A LEAN PROGRESSION It’s easier to sell It’s easier to staff It’s easier to manage CONSULTING ‘PRODUCTIZED’ CONSULTING Customer empathy- more scope, detail on problem scenarios ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 7. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing A LEAN PROGRESSION ‘PRODUCTIZED’ CONSULTING CONSULTING Customer empathy- more scope, detail on problem scenarios PRODUCTS Validated problem scenarios with substantial detail
- 8. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET 50-70% of Enterprise Software Implementations Fail ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 9. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CASE 1 Help me integrate and standardize the infrastructure. And show my people how to use it. ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 10. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PROBLEM SCENARIO: VOIP NETWORKS ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 11. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CASE 1 Help me integrate and standardize the infrastructure. And show my people how to use it. ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 12. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CASE 1 NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 13. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CASE 2 Creating accounts is taking a lot of time/ money. And there are a lot of mistakes. NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 14. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SHIFTS IN SERVICES PROVISIONING Transport Number of Lines Bit Rate Hosted Applications userID password passcode messaging email messaging username messaging password SIP URI BLF URI First Name Last Name CLID First Name CLID Last Name passcode phone number extension email department trunk group service packs(s) service(s) device name device MAC device username device password
- 15. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SOLUTIONS IN SERVICES PROVISIONING PERSONA PROBLEM SCENARIO IMPLEMENTATION Oscar the Operations Executive ‘Services provisioning is labor intensive and error prone’ Text processing scripts Paola the Provisioner ‘We need more guard rails for less experienced staff’ MVP GUI Itzhak the IT Developer ‘IT doesn't like it because it doesn't integrate well’ API + Integration Client
- 16. How do we improve service quality? How do we verify that? Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION CASE 3 ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 17. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing DESIGN THINKING- WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING CUSTOMER DISCOVERY CUSTOMER VALIDATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 18. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Empathy DESIGN THINKING- WHAT IS Creativity
- 19. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing DESIGN THINKING- WHAT IS GOOGLE TRENDS: DESIGN THINKING ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 20. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Self-Love And Then Design Thinking And Now Survival Back Then DESIGN THINKING- WHAT IS ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 21. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing IDEATION Personas User Stories Problem Scenarios ?
- 22. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing IDEATION
- 23. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing [First name] the [Role] ex: Mary the Mom ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 24. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing [First name] the [Role] ex: Mary the Mom (write down 3 personas)
- 25. How do we improve service quality? How do we verify that? Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION CASE 3 ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 26. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing END USER PERSONAS Rita the Reseller Orson the Office Mgr. Ignatius the IT Guy Rhonda the Receptionist Susan the Small Bus. Owner Keith the Key System User Amy the Assistant Simone the Standard User Chuck the Call Center Agent Esteban the Executive Mikuko the Mobile User Cindy the Call Center Manager
- 27. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing ENTERPRISE PERSONAS Nietzsche the Network Eng. Paola the Provisioner Sidney the Sys. Admin. Percival the Product Manager Sven the Salesperson Anthony the Applications Eng. Itzhak the IT Developer Frank the Field Eng. Sam the Support Eng. Saul the Site Developer Fritz the Field Eng. Manager Bruce the Business Owner
- 28. X: No description X: Generic set up X: Wrong checklist X: Trouble tickets X: Wrong hardware ordered Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Weak Product >> Broken Processes Customer Sales Project Mgr./ Systems Designer Field Service Support Customer “Looks good. I’ll take 10.” “They’ll take 10.” “I’ve provisioned 10. Time to install them.” “Here you are- 10 phones a-ringing.” “This isn’t what I want!” ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 29. Descriptive inputs Directed set up Right checklists Few tickets Right hardware ordered Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Weak Product >> Broken Processes Customer Sales Project Mgr./ Systems Designer Field Service Support Customer “I’ll take [1 admin, 1 mobile. . .].” “They’ll take [1 admin, 1 mobile. . .].” “I’ve provisioned ... Time to install them.” “Here you are- 10 phones configured.” “Works good, looks good.” ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 30. How do we improve service quality? How do we verify that? Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CASE 3 SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 31. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing CASE 3 SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW SERVICE DESIGN NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 32. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing ONLINE SELF-CARE PERSONA PROBLEM SCENARIO ‘We our own scope, look and feel. And we need an easy way to do that. And SSO’ Template Driven HTML-CSS-JS Layer SAML SSO Percival the Product Mgr. Saul the Site Developer & ‘This thing should increase satisfaction & involvement; and reduce support calls.’ Bruce the Business Owner Percival the Product Mgr. & IMPLEMENTATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 33. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation 1 End users want to log in and do self-care Yes! Instrument adequate reporting, create awareness, see if they nibble 1 Reducing the portals clicks to destination from 4-6 to 2-3 is good enough Yes - Log and analyze navigation - Do support calls go down? ASSUMPTIONS ON SELF-CARE ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 34. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation 1 End users want to log in and do self-care Yes! Instrument adequate reporting, create awareness, see if they nibble 1 Reducing the portals clicks to destination from 4-6 to 2-3 is good enough Yes - Log and analyze navigation - Do support calls go down? ASSUMPTIONS ON SELF-CARE ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 35. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PERSONA PROBLEM SCENARIO ‘We our own scope, look and feel. And we need an easy way to do that. And SSO’ Percival the Product Mgr. Saul the Site Developer & ‘This thing should increase satisfaction & involvement; and reduce support calls.’ Focus on customer admin experience Bruce the Business Owner Percival the Product Mgr. & ONLINE SELF-CARE Template Driven HTML-CSS-JS Layer SAML SSO IMPLEMENTATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 36. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Take II- DASHBOARDS ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 37. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PERSONA PROBLEM SCENARIO ‘We our own scope, look and feel. And we need an easy way to do that. And SSO’ Percival the Product Mgr. Saul the Site Developer & Orson the Office Manager ‘I still don’t get it.’ ‘This thing should increase satisfaction & involvement; and reduce support calls.’ Bruce the Business Owner Percival the Product Mgr. & ONLINE SELF-CARE Focus on customer admin experience Template Driven HTML-CSS-JS Layer SAML SSO IMPLEMENTATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 38. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation 1 Customer admin’s will do self-care with training and awareness Yes! Focus on training customer admin’s, see if they nibble 1 Presenting all the users of interest on the 1st page will engage these admin’s Yes - Log and analyze navigation - Do support calls go down? ASSUMPTIONS ON SELF-CARE ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 39. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing DASHBOARD ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 40. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PERSONA PROBLEM SCENARIO Percival the Product Mgr. ‘We our own scope, look and feel. And we need an easy way to do that. And SSO’ Orson the Office Manager Rhonda the Receptionist ‘I want a good out-of-the-box experience. And to change the display on my phone.’ Visual Device Management Saul the Site Developer & ‘I still don’t get it.’ ‘This thing should increase satisfaction & involvement; and reduce support calls.’ Bruce the Business Owner Percival the Product Mgr. & ONLINE SELF-CARE One click access via ‘Dashboard’ Focus on customer admin experience Template Driven HTML-CSS-JS Layer SAML SSO IMPLEMENTATION
- 41. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing USER STORIES “As a receptionist, I want to receive an out of the box set up that’s created against best practices so I don’t have to set it all up by myself.” “As a receptionist, I want to change the buttons on my phone so they do what I want.” PROBLEM SCENARIO ‘I want a good out-of-the-box experience. And to change the display on my phone.’ PERSONA Rhonda the Receptionist SOLUTIONS IN ONLINE SELF-CARE ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 42. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PLANNING PRIORITY KEY ASSUMPTIONS NEEDS PROVING? EXPERIMENTATION 1 End users at large want a visual tool to manage their phones No - Already proven by prototypes from partner 1 Giving the capability to end user admin’s will do more good than harm Yes - Beta testing with customers 1 The design and architecture are supportable in current customer environments Yes - Lab testing with customers...but really... - Field testing at scale 1 The target price point is bearable by the market Yes - Initial sales negotiations - Mainline (post beta) sales 2 The capability makes sense with end users (vs. admin’s) Yes - Some proxy data on overall activity by user type - Customer interviews - Beta testing 2 (Various makes and models of phones are worth investing in) Yes - Advanced orders
- 43. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing VISUAL DEVICE MANAGEMENT ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 44. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation 1 [A key assumption about the business] [Whether it needs proving [Experiment to prove or disprove] 1 End users want to log in and do self-care Yes! Instrument adequate reporting, create awareness, see if they nibble 1 Reducing the portals clicks to destination from 4-6 to 2-3 is good enough Yes - Log and analyze navigation - Do support calls go down? EXERCISE: LIST YOUR ASSUMPTIONS ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 45. How do we do this more efficiently? Are we implementing best practices? Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW SERVICE DESIGN NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION CASE 4 ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 46. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PROCESS AUDIT & DESIGN 0.00 50.00 100.00 150.00 200.00 250.00 Consolidated Hours 1. Process 1 1.1. sub-‐process 1.1 1.2. sub-‐process 1.2 1.3. sub-‐process 1.3 2. Process 2 2.1. sub-‐process 2.1 2.1.1. sub-‐process 2.1.1 2.1.2. sub-‐process 2.1.2 2.2. sub-‐process 2.2 3. Process 3 3.1. sub-‐process 3.1 3.2. sub-‐process 3.2 3.3. sub-‐process 3.3 3.4. sub-‐process 3.4 3.5. sub-‐process 3.5 3.5.1.sub-‐process 3.5.1 3.5.2.sub-‐process 3.5.2 4. Process 4 4.1 sub-‐process 4.1 4.2 sub-‐process 4.2 4.3. sub-‐process 4.3 4.4.sub-‐process 4.4 4.5. sub-‐process 4.5 4.6. 5. … 5.1. … 5.2. … 6. .. 6.1. post-‐sale issue resolution AUDIT DESIGN Process(1) BEGINNING/ INPUT Doc or Data END/ OUTPUT Process(2b) Process(2a) Decision USER STORIES ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 47. How do we do this more efficiently? Are we implementing best practices? Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW SERVICE DESIGN NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION CASE 4 ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 48. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SERVICE STANDARDIZATION & WORKFLOW SERVICE DESIGN PROCESS AUDIT, DESIGN NETWORK PRINCIPALS OF OPERATION CASE 4 ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 49. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing PERSONA PROBLEM SCENARIO Bruce the Business Owner ‘We have many customer management systems depending on product, channel.’ Centralize on CRM Percival the Product Manager ‘It’s hard to spin up e-Commerce.’ Ties to billing and focus on order capture. Bruce the Business Owner ‘We can’t implement your recommendations because of our systems.’ PROCESS MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION
- 50. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SELL SIMILAR CUSTOMERS Balance to appeal of easy new business. TARGET DRIVE TOWARDS STANDARDIZATION Find what’s important; drive there. STANDARDIZE SKILLS PAY BILLS Drive to product/market fit by finding work $ B2B CONCIERGE MODEL: 6 TIPS ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 51. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing IDEATION Profit Drivers Revenue Drivers Tighter Proposition (website, pres., etc.) Finite Cost Finite Deliverables Increased Use of Channels Ease of Entry Easy to See What's on Menu Upsell Intellectual Property Multipliers Tighter Talent Definition Simpler Training, Eval., Promotion Cost of Delivery Cost Drivers Less Consultative Selling Simplified Contracting Cost of Sales Standard Project Management Comparable Post Mortems Engagement Management
- 52. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing SELL SIMILAR CUSTOMERS Balance to appeal of easy new business. TARGET DRIVE TOWARDS STANDARDIZATION Find what’s important; drive there. STANDARDIZE SKILLS PAY BILLS Drive to product/market fit by finding work $ CREATE AN EXTENDED FAMILY Make yourself bigger than you are. EXTERNALIZE B2B CONCIERGE MODEL: 6 TIPS BUILD ONCE YOU SEE THE OPENING If you’re not sure, keep learning. PRODUCTIZE BECOME A DOMAIN EXPERT Be a pro concierge before building product. MASTER
- 53. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing Making Progress IDEA! Positioning Statement? Field Work & Analytics Ideation & Design Product Development General Management Pivotal Assumptions? Customer Definition Personas? Problem Scenarios? Field Discovery Still Learning? Field Validation Draft Prototype Quicky Prototype? Yes? Confident? No? Create User Stories Done? New Learning? Define MVP CUSTOMER VALIDATION ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 54. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing BUY THE BOOK A practical primer for anyone wanting to actually implement today’s best practices in product development (available online or at any major retailer) VISIT THE SITE Free talks, tutorials, and resources for product development and new ventures. MORE? ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF
- 55. Copyright 2012 Cowan Publishing @cowanSF alexandercowan.com/blog acowan@alexandercowan.com alexandercowan.com/speaking alexandercowan.com/resources ALEX COWAN AlexanderCowan.com @cowanSF