A walkthrough of Viximo's expansion into mobile including early indicators, customer development work, product planning, pilot customers, and go to market - with plenty of lessons learned along the way that should save you time and money.
5. Focus on the Customer
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
5
6. Focus on the Customer
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
Maximize Learning : Investment
6
7. Background
Viximo provides social apps distribution,
engagement, and monetization
‣ Founded 2007, 25 employees today
‣ Lots of “pivots” along the way (not always “lean”)
• Virtual Gifting, Content Marketplace, Mobile Markup Language,
iPhone Apps, Content Distrib Platform, Social Game Developer
‣ Now largest independent social game publisher
• Millions of users all over the world
‣ Integrate, localize, and distribute social games on web
‣ B2B2C business, revenue sharing business model
7
9. Mobile Market Assessment
September 2011
Summary
‣ Management decision to
assess mobile opportunity
‣ Single resource (me)
allocated to research
‣ 20+ customer development
discussions
‣ Goal is informal summary
of the opportunity
9
10. Mobile Market Assessment
September 2011
Summary Takeaways
‣ Management decision to ‣ Assign a lead to the task
assess mobile opportunity
‣ Hold interviews even
‣ Single resource (me) before product concept
allocated to research
‣ Meeting are surprisingly
‣ 20+ customer development easy to get, people want to
discussions talk about their challenges
‣ Goal is informal summary ‣ Approach as research, not
of the opportunity sales
10
12. Mobile Solution Design
October 2011
Summary
‣ Distilled information
‣ Outlined customer
acquisition offering
‣ Engaged product team part
time to outline product
‣ Socialized proposal
‣ Goal is validated plan
12
13. Mobile Solution Design
October 2011
Summary Takeaways
‣ Distilled information ‣ Ramp in product and
business development
‣ Outlined customer slowly
acquisition offering
‣ Review with both those
‣ Engaged product team part who shared pain point and
time to outline product new prospects
‣ Socialized proposal ‣ Be ready to acknowledge
‣ Goal is validated plan you’ve got it wrong
13
15. Mobile Solution Redesign
November 2011
Summary
‣ Revisited information
‣ Outlined social toolkit
offering
‣ Engaged product team part
time to outline product
‣ Socialized proposal
‣ Goal is validated plan
15
16. Mobile Solution Redesign
November 2011
Summary Takeaways
‣ Revisited information ‣ Ramp in product and
business development
‣ Outlined social toolkit slowly
offering
‣ Gather assessments from
‣ Engaged product team part both those who shared pain
time to outline product point and new
‣ Socialized proposal ‣ Be ready to act when
‣ Goal is validated plan you’ve got it right
16
17. The Solution: Social Zone
The ultimate toolkit for making mobile apps truly social
Social Zone Social Zone Social Zone Social Zone
Supergraph Messsaging Presence Promotion
Most Optimized Real-time Social proof
comprehensive multi-channel player cross-promotion
social graph push notifications interactions engine
available
17
18. Mobile Product Plan
December 2011
Summary
‣ Engaged engineers in tech
planning
‣ Understand what remains
to learn
‣ Build learning milestones
into plan
‣ Goal is MVP development
plan
18
19. Mobile Product Plan
December 2011
Summary Takeaways
‣ Engaged engineers in tech ‣ Be ruthless about reducing
planning to the core value (minimum
sales reqs)
‣ Understand what remains
to learn ‣ Get it into customers hands
as soon as possible
‣ Build learning milestones
into plan ‣ Realize that you’ll have it
wrong, plan for iteration
‣ Goal is MVP development
plan
19
20. Original Product Development Plan
...which we actually beat
January 2012 February 2012 March 2012
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Available on
Documentation 1/13
Available on
Alpha (Android) 2/3
Available on
Beta (Android) 2/17
Available on
v.1.0 (Android) 3/2
Available on
Beta (iOS) 3/15
Available on
v.1.0 (iOS) 3/31
20
21. Mobile Go-To-Market
December 2011
Summary
‣ Segmented self-serve
channel from BD channel
‣ Added new resources
‣ Developed pipelines
‣ Began capturing leads
‣ Goal is customer
acquisition plan
21
22. Mobile Go To Market
December 2011
Summary Takeaways
‣ Segmented self-serve ‣ Revisit your entire early
channel from BD channel customer list and grow it
‣ Added new resources ‣ Test variety of messages,
channels
‣ Developed pipelines
‣ Match right message to
‣ Began capturing leads right audience in right
‣ Goal is customer channel
acquisition plan
22
24. Launch
March 2012
Summary
‣ PR launch, conference
presence, hackathons, etc
‣ Continued BD efforts
‣ Continued product dev
based on real use
‣ Goal is repeatable channel,
adoption, and customer
success
24
25. Launch
March 2012
Summary Takeaways
‣ PR launch, conference ‣ Test various onboarding
presence, hackathons, etc techniques
‣ Continued BD efforts ‣ Be willing to be high touch,
figure out how to scale later
‣ Continued product dev
based on real use ‣ Determine what’s working
and double down on that
‣ Goal is repeatable channel,
adoption, and customer ‣ Keep learning
success
25
27. Ramping Resources
Only as traction and plans justify
20
BD
PM
Eng
9
15
6 6
3
3
10
3 3 3
2
5
9
3 7 7 7
2
2
1 1 1
0
Sep 2011 Oct 2011 Nov 2011 Dev 2011 Jan 2012 Feb 2012 Mar 2012 Apr 2012
27
28. Ramping Resources
Only as traction and plans justify
MVP Shipped
Marketing
20 Begins
BD MVP Plan
PM
Eng Finalized
9
15
Customer
Confirmation 6 6
3
3
10
Commitment 3 3 3
to Market
2
5
9
3 7 7 7
2
2
1 1 1
0
Sep 2011 Oct 2011 Nov 2011 Dev 2011 Jan 2012 Feb 2012 Mar 2012 Apr 2012
28
29. A Few Final Thoughts On Pivots...
‣ Leverage what you know/have
29
30. A Few Final Thoughts On Pivots...
‣ Leverage what you know/have
‣ Beware the demotivation of chasing
shiny objects (minimize impacts)
30
31. A Few Final Thoughts On Pivots...
‣ Leverage what you know/have
‣ Beware the demotivation of chasing
shiny objects (minimize impacts)
‣ Think evolution, not revolution,
whenever possible
31