The document discusses the Lean Startup process. It describes the traditional product development process of concept, development, test, and launch. It then introduces the customer development process of customer discovery, validation, and creation. It provides examples of startup market types and two case studies - one for a food ordering startup called Couchkoch that failed its Google AdWords campaign, and another unnamed analytics idea. It outlines next steps of building the MVP and performing customer validation. It lists seven things learned, including that ideas are common but execution is key, to fail fast and learn, focus on product/market fit and early customers, and to streamline your own process. Tools like surveys and ads are recommended.
first stage: what’s the idea, statistical and market research\nforecasts, financial plan\nWITHOUT HAVING TALKED A SINGLE WORD WITH CUSTOMERS\nsecond stage: straight into development, seperate activities of engineering, marketing, finance, further market research with what are believed to be customers\nthird stage: rolling out alpha/beta, PR rollout, last marketing preparations\nfourth stage: BIG BANG SPENDING MODE product launch, full scale sales and marketing warfare\nproduct centric process\n_________\nwhere are the customers?\nfocus on first ship date\nship date does NOT mean that company understands customers or how to sell to them\nexecution instead of learning&discovery\nappealing due to simple, predictable, straightforward approach\nrisk: premature scaling of sales&marketing\ndeath spiral: too many sales people, too many costs, further scaling, further costs\nassumption: all startups are alike\nunrealistic expectations (1% of all people who drink water)\n
first stage: what’s the idea, statistical and market research\nforecasts, financial plan\nWITHOUT HAVING TALKED A SINGLE WORD WITH CUSTOMERS\nsecond stage: straight into development, seperate activities of engineering, marketing, finance, further market research with what are believed to be customers\nthird stage: rolling out alpha/beta, PR rollout, last marketing preparations\nfourth stage: BIG BANG SPENDING MODE product launch, full scale sales and marketing warfare\nproduct centric process\n_________\nwhere are the customers?\nfocus on first ship date\nship date does NOT mean that company understands customers or how to sell to them\nexecution instead of learning&discovery\nappealing due to simple, predictable, straightforward approach\nrisk: premature scaling of sales&marketing\ndeath spiral: too many sales people, too many costs, further scaling, further costs\nassumption: all startups are alike\nunrealistic expectations (1% of all people who drink water)\n
the customer development model is not a replacement for product development, but it actually realises that the product development process is just that\n\nplan to screw up and learn from it\n\ndiscovery: finding out who they are, finding out if the problem you solve is important to them, get out of the building\nvalidation: validate that there are customers who actually pay, sell to these early customers (lead users!), build a repeatable sales roadmap, verify business model, pricing\ncustomer: full scale sales & marketing, not before this point. building on the repeatable sales scheme\ncompany building: learn & discovery > hiring, founding, funding, from startup to company, end of the process, beginning of business\n
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the vision\nthe customers\nthe mvp\nthe validation process\nresult/current stage\n
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the vision\nthe customers\nthe mvp\nthe validation process\nresult/current stage\n
the vision\nthe customers\nthe mvp\nthe validation process\nresult/current stage\n
the vision\nthe customers\nthe mvp\nthe validation process\nresult/current stage\n
wrong channel for this type of customer\ncustomers don’t search explicitly for the solution -> adwords wrong approach\ncold calling and “sales by foot” is depressing and not really lean, requires time & cash -> stop for us\n
the vision\nthe customers\nthe mvp\nthe validation process\nresult/current stage\n
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difference between “interested customers” and “here’s my credit card”\nstill looking for the definite lead users:\nhas problem\naware of problem\nactively looking\nself-built solution\nbudget available\n
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it’s about the execution\nstart making stuff\nreference: seth godin: list of 999 ideas from his MBA course\n
keep the cost and emotional bond lean, don’t become too attached to your ideas\n
basic idea of the whole process\nbefore building anything, before planning anything, before touching anything, get out of the building\npast: hardcore coding sessions for the bin\n
go for the most minimum scope that justifies a product, don’t try to make everyone happy -> back to heavy product development process\nmake a few lead users happy, not everyone\n
build re-usable components, re-use parts, quick & dirty approaches\nreference to tools list\n
the MVP is just a concept that keeps you from developing as much and long as possible\n- signup page\n- photoshop mockup\n- screenshot\n- scribble \n- final output (-> see report idea)\n- anything that gives a “good enough” impression of the product\n
don’t be scared to approach “high-profile” people\nvery positive results, you would be surprised\n\n
again: anything goes, it’s not a beauty contest, quick & dirty, as cheap as possible\nsocial capital\n