Startup consultation for Langevo (web & mobile game for learning languages)
Download as PPTX, PDF1 like1,042 views
The document provides advice from Roman Sterly to the Langevo startup on improving their "Farmville meets vocabulary learning" language learning game. It emphasizes focusing on customer discovery to validate the problem and solution fit, optimizing the product based on user testing and analytics, and prioritizing acquisition channels and metrics to improve activation, retention, and monetization. Key recommendations include surveying users on game vs learning balance, simplifying onboarding, testing features to increase daily active users, and stopping non-scalable marketing.
Startup consultation for Langevo (web & mobile game for learning languages)
- 1. Langevo startup consultation Roman Sterly, 2014-04-14
- 2. Roman Sterly • CEO / Founder – SportCentral – http://www.sportcentral.com • Blogger /mentor / founder – StartupHelp – http://www.startuphelp.cz • Previously – Socialbakers (one of the best social media analytics company) – IT / marketing companies – Several startup / business awards
- 3. Langevo • „Farmville meets vocabulary learning“ • Startup based in the Czech Republic, 8 people in the team • Web & mobile game similar to populare Farmville game that helps you learn foreign language (vocabulary)
- 5. Why we do this • A lot of ideas X team doesn´t know what to do, how to prioritaze • Team don´t know how users use their product X what does not work • High investments + time X poor results
- 6. Startup process 1. Customer discovery - Problem / solution fit 2. Customer validation - Product / market fit 3. Customer creation - Drive demand 4. Company building - Scale company
- 7. Startup process 1. Customer discovery - Problem / solution fit 2. Customer validation - Product / market fit – Find repeatable and scalable sales model 3. Customer creation - Drive demand 4. Company building - Scale company
- 8. Startup process 1. Make a good product 2. Market the product 3. Make money
- 9. Startup process & metrics 1. Make a good product – activation + retention 2. Market the product – acquisition + referral 3. Make money – revenue
- 10. Startup process & metrics Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue Referral
- 11. Langevo & startup process & metrics • Get to Product / Market fit • Find repeatable and scalable sales model • Focus on activation + retention (+ acquisition channels of the right users) Customer discovery Customer validation Customer creation Company building Langevo
- 12. What is the problem?
- 13. Who is the customer?
- 14. Is it the solution right? • Vocabulary learning methods – OK • Game as a motivator – OK • Langevo game theme – ?
- 15. Is it the right game theme? Why isn´t it like PixWords (1M downloads) Why isn´t it like Word Search (100M downloads)
- 17. How much game X language learning? Game Language learning Where you are / want to be?
- 18. How much game X language learning? Game Language learning Langevo DuolingoFarmVille School
- 19. Discover if the solution is right • What % of people want to learn languages + play a game • How much effort they want to spend on game X on learning • Is the FarmVille concept compelling? • Are there other concepts that would work better? What can you apply from them? • What are the key (future) features? • What would customers happily pay for? -> Survey language school students
- 20. If the solution is right, is the product right?
- 21. Discover what works and what does not in the current product Find out how people use Langevo now • User testing • Survey existing users • Customer analytics (e.g. KISSmetrics, Mixpanel)
- 22. User Acquisition Your goal • High volume • Low cost • High conversion -> Find the best channels through metrics -> Measure CAC for every channel -> Don´t need to drive much traffic to the product yet
- 23. User Acquisition – channels for Langevo Game • Gaming sites – game reviews • Youtube channels – game reviews • Additional platforms (Android, iOS, …) • Social networks (Twitter for hardcore gamers + journalists) • Press releases • Blogs (guest posts, give them content to write about) • Own blog (news about features) • Referral
- 24. User Acquisition – channels for Langevo Language learning • Partners (e.g. language schools, elementary / high schools, books, language organizations, …) -> how to get them participate? – Paid version for their customers for free • Language content for search engines – Landing pages for every language combination – SEO • Own blog (how-tos, tips, guest posts) – Newsletter signup – SEO • Other blogs (guest posts, give them content) • Social networks (Facebook) • Referral
- 25. User Acquisition – channels for Langevo • Stop / cut the crap – Contests? – Czech market / content? – Paid advertising? • Test – Quora-like sites – Language forums – Slideshare – Viral tools (test your X) – -> Good for SEO too • How much would 1M registered users cost?
- 26. User Activation Your goal • Sign up • Start using a be happy about it -> What acquisition channels work best? -> Get rid of everything that doesn´t lead directly to a signup – optimize for conversion
- 27. User Activation – Sign up • Homepage efficiency – Benefits instead of features – Social proof – Design sells – Intro video (make it great!) • Onboarding / checklist / NUX • Lead them to sign up from other landing pages • Bonus if they sign up NOW • Language during sign up / onboarding
- 28. User Activation – Key activity • Game is complicated • Nice tutorial • Key activities – Learn new words (complicated): • 1) go to Buy –> 2) choose from plants / animals / magical -> 3) choose from tomatoes / herbs / … field paramaters -> 4) choose category -> 5) choose words -> 6) hit Buy -> 7) go to Learn -> 8) browse words – Pass the test • Too much text for a game • Too many things screaming for attention
- 29. User Retention Your goal • Get users back to the app -> What is the right period - daily?
- 30. User Retention • Game – Fun – Event emails – Lifecycle emails – Facebook notifications? – Time based features • Learning – Value • Blog – Newsletter
- 31. Metrics • Acquisition – Visitors (10+ sec, 1+ clicks -> don´t leave immediately) – CAC per channel • Activation – Sign up funnel, tutorial funnel – Used key feature – learned 10 words, passed test • Retention – Come back at least 3x/week – MAU, DAU • Value – Value – how much they learn – Net Promoter Score Ratios Conversion rates improvements
- 32. Metrics – macro funnel Visitors Signed up Used key feature Come back Invited friends Bought game items
- 33. Metrics – micro funnel Visited homepage Sign up step 1 Sign up step 2 Sign up step 3 Invited friends Bought game items
- 34. Metrics – funnel Find bottlenecks 100% 75% 8% 7% 5% 4%
- 35. Product development • Build only what leads to your goals, don´t build nice-to-have features! – Ask this for every feature you want to build – Your goal is activation & retention, nothing else – If you can, test the idea before developing it • A/B test variations • When coming up with features ask What can we do to increase X? first – Come up with the right feature – Test the change!
- 36. Plan • Solution survey • User testing • Product survey • Implement customer analytics • Measure key metrics, set up funnels • Start testing acquisition channels • Build features / optimize to increase activation • Build features / optimize to increase retention • Stop creating features you don´t need and marketing that doesn´t scale
- 37. What to read • http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MichaelRose/20091212/ 3798/The_Idiots_Guide_to_Marketing_Your_Indie_Game.p hp • http://joostdevblog.blogspot.nl/2012/11/the-indie- marketing-plan.html • http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie- game-marketing/ • http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics- for-pirates-kaust-nov-2013?qid=5c03a816-8580-42b3-ac8d- f6dab4bac612&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1 • http://tech.co/healthy-startups-net-promoter-score-2012- 01 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmKwF_Si734