1. Running Lean
to MVP
what we’ve learned

2. Who am I?
“Stay far from timid,
only make moves when your heart’s in it,
and live the phrase: sky’s the limit!”
- The Notorious B.I.G.

3. What’s Running Lean?

4. What’s an MVP?

5. Overview
1. Meta Principles
2. Create Your Lean Canvas
3. Get Ready To Experiment
4. The Problem Interview
5. The Solution Interview

6. Overview
1. Meta Principles
2. Create Your Lean Canvas
3. Get Ready To Experiment
4. The Problem Interview
5. The Solution Interview

7. Meta Principle No.1
● Document Your Plan A
click for a
template
1. 9.
8.
6.
5.
4. 3. 2.
7.

8. Meta Principle No.2
● Identify the Riskiest parts
Problem/Solution
Fit
Product/Market Fit Scale
● Do I have a
problem worth
solving?
● Is it a must-have
solution?
● Will people pay for
it?
● Can it be solved
(feasibility)?
● Have I built
something, some
people want?
● How do I
accelerate
growth?
MVP
Launch
Seek
Funding

9. Meta Principle No.3
● Systematically Test Your Plan

10. Overview
1. Meta Principles
2. Create Your Lean Canvas
3. Get Ready To Experiment
4. The Problem Interview
5. The Solution Interview

11. Create Your Lean Canvas
what the book says:
1.
9.8.
7. 6.
5.4. 3. 2.

12. Create Your Lean Canvas
what we did:

13. Create Your Lean Canvas
what we learned:
● Do so in 20 minutes!
● Lean Canvas suits startups better than
Business Model Canvas.
● It is an imperative to sit down and fill
out your canvas.

14. Overview
1. Meta Principles
2. Create Your Lean Canvas
3. Get Ready To Experiment
4. The Problem Interview
5. The Solution Interview

15. Get Ready To Experiment
what the book says:
● Assemble a Problem/Solution Team
○ Ideal Size 2, 3 people
○ Must Haves:
■ development (how to build stuff)
■ design (aesthetics and user experience)
■ marketing (copywriting, communication, metrics,
pricing, positioning)

16. Get Ready To Experiment
what we did:
● We were 2
○ Problem Team = me
○ Solution Team = co-founder
● We split our tasks:
○ development (co-founder)
○ design (co-founder + me)
○ marketing and everything else (me)

17. Get Ready To Experiment
what we learned:
● We made mistakes!
○ Don’t waste your time on things you suck at!
○ Customer Development a.k.a. “getting out of the
building” has to be done by all co-founders!
○ Problem and Solution division is beneficial, if to be
applied, the teams have to take leadership in their
respective parts.
○ Geographically separated cofounders are just not
sustainable!

18. Overview
1. Meta Principles
2. Create Your Lean Canvas
3. Get Ready To Experiment
4. The Problem Interview
5. The Solution Interview

19. The Problem Interview
what the book says:
● Hypotheses to validate:
● Formulate Falsifiable
Hypotheses!
○ [Specific Repeatable Action] will
[Expected Measurable Outcome]
○ Problem - What are you solving?
○ Existing Alternative - Who is the competition.
○ Customer Segments - Who has the pain?

20. The Problem Interview
what we did:

21. The Problem Interview
what we did:

22. The Problem Interview
what the book says:
● Review your results weekly!
● According to the results we iterated the interview script
through four versions.
○ Problem Interview 1.0 (Script)
○ Problem Interview 1.1 (Script)
○ Problem Interview 2.0 (Script)
○ Problem Interview 3.0 (Script)
what we did:

23. The Problem Interview
what the book says:
● Start to focus on Early Adopters
what we did:
● We found out about two distinct groups of customers.

24. The Problem Interview
what the book says:
● Refine The Problems
what we did:
● From a very vague specification we went to three very
specific problems.

25. The Problem Interview
what the book says:
● Understand their existing alternatives
what we did:
● We found out about alternatives that never came to our
minds before.

26. The Problem Interview
what the book says:
● Pay attention to words customers use
what we did:
● “The free porn is great!”
● “I love the amount of stuff I get to steal.”
● “Any dumbass can write anything anywhere.”

27. The Problem Interview
what we learned:

28. The Problem Interview
what we learned:

29. Overview
1. Meta Principles
2. Create Your Lean Canvas
3. Get Ready To Experiment
4. The Problem Interview
5. The Solution Interview

30. The Solution Interview
what the book says:
● Formulate Falsifiable Hypotheses!
○ [Specific Repeatable Action] will [Expected
Measurable Outcome]
● Hypotheses to validate:
○ Solution - How will you solve these problems?
○ Revenue Streams - What is the pricing model?
○ Early Adopters - Who has the biggest pain?

31. The Solution Interview
what we did:

32. The Solution Interview
what the book says:
● Review your results weekly!
what we did:
● According to the results we iterated the interview script
through two versions.
○ Solution Interview 1.0 (Script)
○ Solution Interview 2.0 (Script)

33. The Solution Interview
what the book says:
● Add/kill Features!
what we did:
● What features people care, talk, are interested in?
● What features they are only “OK” with?

34. The Solution Interview
what the book says:
● Reconfirm Earlier Hypotheses
what we did:
● Customers generally agreed to what we proposed as
facts, based on our Problem Interview results.

35. The Solution Interview
what the book says:
● Refine Pricing
what we did:
● Pay as you go vs. Subscription.
● The more I contribute the less I pay.

36. The Solution Interview
what we learned:

37. Interviews
what we learned:
● Interviews are inefficient but they are an
invaluable source of learning!
○ Customers will teach you what you don’t know
you don’t know.
○ Customers will define the problems for you (if
they have them).
○ Customers will tell you exactly how, and what do they
use to solve the problem currently, and also what they
like and what they don’t like about the solution.

38. Interviews
what we learned:
● Interviewing is tricky!
○ It is difficult to do it objectively.
○ It is best to use pen and paper.
○ Overcome yourself.
● Understanding of methodology
○ Make sure everyone on the team understands the
methodology so you can align your goals and
priorities.

39. In Conclusion
● Feedback loop is the most powerful tool to
validate.
● You don’t need anything else than a pen
and a paper to run it!
● You don’t know anything until you validate
something.
● Marry the problem, not the solution.

40. What’s next?
If you liked the
presentation,
please help me by
taking part in this
survey :)

41. For More Information
● other presentations
○ Presentation by Dr. Thomas Funke (pdf)
○ Presentation by Rob Fitzpatrick (video)
● www.relevate.it
○ Blog posts that focus on one chapter each.
● www.amazon.com
○ the book is available in hardcover and kindle editions

42. Questions?
“Most people never ask. And that’s what
separates sometimes the people who do things
from the people who just dream about them.”
- Steve Jobs

43. Thank You!
matej@relevate.it
about.me/MatejLukasik