Saturday - LaunchWeekend - Session 2 - Problem-Solution fit
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The document discusses the importance of pre-selling a product to validate product-market fit before launching. It provides tips for running experiments to test customer interest through landing pages and collecting metrics like email sign-ups. A case study example shows how one startup tested demand for a baby pulse oximeter through interviews and a prototype before proceeding with development. The key lessons are that pre-selling allows for customer feedback to refine ideas early, avoid wasting resources on solutions customers do not want, and improve the chances of success at launch.
Saturday - LaunchWeekend - Session 2 - Problem-Solution fit
- 1. PROBLEM-SOLUTION FIT 8:30 TO 9:00
- 2. HOW TO GET A PRODUCT-MARKET FIT? (AKA THE WEEKEND PLAN) 1. Customers with big problem! 2. Customers will buy! 3. Customers will keep buying! 4. Cost effective marketing ?
- 3. OBJECTIVE: PRE-SELL YOUR PRODUCT * * If you can’t pre-sell change your pitch or your product
- 4. HOW MOST STARTUPS LAUNCH Months / Years Learning happens here! Product Business Plan Launch Development
- 5. WARNING!!! WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T PRE-SELL? 0 /1700
- 6. DO YOU WANT TO WASTE 365 DAYS? 1 day 365 days 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
- 7. HOW MOST STARTUPS LAUNCH Learning happens here! Months / Years Pre-sell Product Development Business Model
- 8. PRE-SELL SUCCESS CASE STUDIES
- 9. EXAMPLE 1: DROPBOX 75,000 EMAILS
- 10. EXAMPLE 3: BUSINESS MODEL GENERATION 470 STRATEGY PRACTITIONERS CO-AUTHORED $250 EACH $117 800 IN PRE-ORDERS
- 11. THE KEY TO PRE-SELLING NAIL THE PROBLEM & FIND EARLY ADOPTERS BIG PROBLEM SIMPLE SOLUTION
- 12. PRE-SELL: HOW TO TEST IF YOUR CUSTOMERS WILL BUY?
- 13. THE LAUNCH MAP (ONE EXPERIMENT AT A TIME) FIND A CUSTOMER PROBLEM (Must have an exciting number of customers with a problem) CUSTOMERS WILL BUY (Only start these experiments once you have reached customer-problem fit)
- 14. HOW TO USE THE CANVAS 1 Plan your experiment 2 Plan your offer 3 Run your experiment 4 Record your result & insights 5 Make decision 6 Repeat
- 15. PRODUCT ASSUMPTION Describe your target customer
- 16. CUSTOMER ASSUMPTION • Be as specific as possible • Target customers easy to reach Describe customer segment
- 17. PRODUCT ASSUMPTION Describe your target customer Describe your product offering
- 18. Describe your product Describe your value propositions Pricing Structure List your credibility indicators
- 19. A GREAT OFFER Simple jargon free line explain what you are selling Credibility indicators Value Propositions Price
- 20. PRODUCT ASSUMPTION Describe your target customer Describe your product offering Solution Interview
- 22. EXPERIMENT ASSUMPTION Interview technique (4Is) INTRODUCE INDICATORS INTERVIEW INTRODUCTIONS INTERVIEW (PPPC) PRODUCT PRICE PROPOSITION CREDIBILITY
- 23. EXPERIMENT ASSUMPTION Hi my name is {Your name} from {your company name}. Right now, we’re starting a company to {problem that you're trying to solve}. We're currently in the development phase and was hoping you might provide us some insight into the market. I would just like to understand your perceptions of {problem you're trying to solve}. In exchange I’d be happy to tell you about some recent innovations in the {name of industry that your problem is trying to solve}. Is there a time and date that we can sit down and have a chat?
- 28. Headline Call-to-action Propositions Credibility
- 29. HEADLINE & CALL TO ACTION
- 30. VALUE PROPOSITIONS Tip: As few words as possible
- 31. CALL-TO-ACTIONS Tip: Explain what will happen if you hit the button
- 32. CREDIBILITY & CALL-TO-ACTION Tip: Start collecting quotes asap
- 33. HEADLINE & CALL-TO-ACTION Tip: Describe your business in a single line
- 34. CREDIBILITY
- 35. PROPOSITIONS Tip: No more than 4 value propositions per page
- 36. CREDIBILITY
- 37. HEADLINE & CALL-TO-ACTION Tip: 2 x value propositions and product description in 6 words
- 38. PROPOSITIONS Tip: Value propositions described in 2 or 3 words
- 39. CREDIBILITY & CALL-TO-ACTION Tip: Partner with companies to use there logos for credibility
- 43. GOOGLE FORMS
- 44. GOOGLE FORMS
- 45. PHOTOS
- 46. PHOTOS
- 47. USING LANDING PAGES TO PRE-SELL
- 49. DRIVING TRAFFICS TO YOUR SITE Personal contacts • Customer interview emails • Email friends and family • Share on Facebook • Share on Twitter Cold calling • Phone numbers and emails • Facebook messages • Twitter messages Paid • Facebook ads • Google ads • Twitter ads
- 53. PRODUCT ASSUMPTION Describe your target customer Describe your product offering Solution Interview Metric i.e. 7 / 10 Currency i.e. Emails
- 54. EXCITEMENT METRIC & CURRENCY 1. Could I have your email/phone number to notify you when we launch? 2. Could I have a meeting with relevant stakeholders? 3. Will you be a pilot customer? 4. Would you pre-order and pay to help use build it? Metric i.e. 7 / 10 Currency i.e. Emails
- 55. CANVAS CASE STUDY CASE STUDIES
- 56. PRE-SELL Hospital Administrators Pulse Oximetry $300 Solution Interview Pre-orders 5 / 10 Pre-orders 0 / 10 PIVOT *Too expensive * User is not customer Mothers (0 to 6 months) Pulse Oximetry $300 Solution interviews Emails 7 / 10 Emails 80 / 105 PROCEED * Is a demand for it Mothers (0 to 6 months) Pulse Oximetry $300 Landing page, Demo Video & Emails Email sign ups 30 / 50 500 emails PROCEED * If they can built it they can sell it Mothers (0 to 6 months) Pulse Oximetry $300 Demo “Paper prototype” Choose our product 10 / 80 15 / 80 Choose our product PROCEED * Learnt there are 2 distinct market segments
- 57. SESSION TO DO LIST (9:30 TO 14:00) Goals • Run 1 to 2 experiments • At least 5 to 30 customer interactions Prepare to announce • Number of experiments run • Number of customer surveyed / interviewed • Learnings
Editor's Notes
- #6: My Startup Failed. Fuck. I finally said it, my startup failed. Fuck. I felt like I was coming out of the closet when I first stated it aloud to my co-founder. We both knew for months it was not working out, but we never explicitly defined our situation as a failed one. Now that the elephant in the room has a name, we’ll call him “Dumbo” which stands for “Didn’t Understand Markets Brain Outline”. That right there was our main problem. Our market demographic was musicians, and although a few of us had worked around the industry, we concluded recently we were not music SALES domain experts. The product was a flash sale platform for musicians to release their music using dynamic pricing (zillionears.com). To us, this software was a no brainer for musicians to use. The artists get to engage their fans while enticing their community to share with friends. So we talked to a few artists who said they thought it was a cool idea. BOOM! Our idea had been validated! After that moment we basically stopped talking to artists for a year and built (and rebuilt) the software until we thought it was acceptable. Our first beta test was a disaster when Amazon (who was our payment processor) suspended our account for not complying with money transfer issues. Fans were able to participate in the sale, but we were unable to capture their billing. We ended up paying the artist out of our own pocket and giving everyone his music for free (and we never told him that happened until now). From that beta test we found out that our software needed to be rewritten to comply with Amazons terms. More importantly though, people really didn’t really LIKE anything about our product. No one that used the service thought it was that cool. In fact, some people that participated in the sale didn’t even like our “dynamic pricing” system. They were trying to support the artist, so saving a few dollars didn’t excite them. They could easily have just gotten his music for free elsewhere. We should have packed it up early right then, but we felt like we had already gone too far to quit. We rebuilt (and re-designed) the majority of the software, got approved by Amazon, and reached out to over 1,700 artists (each individually through different platforms). We got between 1 and 10 artists interested. Again, this just screams “PUT IT OUT OF ITS MISERY!” But we kept going. Finally the day came for our second beta (which was totally gonna kick ass for sure). The artist we had on board set up his sale page and was ready to go. Only problem is he totally misunderstood what our software was all about. Once he found out about the dynamic pricing he tells us “I think I am just going to release with another platform.” FUCK! Are you serious???? After that we spent another month slowly letting it linger in our day to day lives. We went for one last ditch effort to make a press release, but couldn’t get a single artist (out of the 1,700+ we talked to) to run a sale. My co-founder called me to tell me this news. I asked him “Would you like to use my gun?” I was referring to the scene in The Social Network where Zuckerberg’s lawyer asks Saverin “Would you like to use my pen?” to manipulatively sign his shares over. I, of course, was referring to shooting this fucking company in the head and moving on with our lives! He agreed. We took Zillionears out back, and shot it in the head. It felt good. Although our company did not succeed the way we would have hoped for, we all learned more in the past year than we had in college. Our insights and experiences have been invaluable. For each of my future posts I will go into detail about the things I learned while on this journey, and how to apply the knowledge to future startups so you can avoid ending up in a room with “Dumbo”! Hit me up on twitter! I just got on there. I love to talk to folks about startup experiences! @nemrow