1. 6. Product Design

2. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Goal: building a product customers want

3. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
But how to find out what customers want?
Flickr:CLSB

4. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Thirty thousand new consumer products
are launched each year. But over 90% of
them fail— and that’s after marketing
professionals have spent massive amounts
of money trying to understand what their
customers want.
Christensen et al.
Marketing Malpractice The Cause and the Cure
Harv. Bus Rev. 2005 Dec;83(12):74-83, 152.

5. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
"If I had asked people what they
wanted, they would have said
faster horses."
Henry Ford

6. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
If there's one thing every junior consultant
needs to have injected into their head with
a heavy duty 2500 RPM DeWalt Drill, it's
this: Customers Don't Know What They
Want. Stop Expecting Customers to
Know What They Want. It's just never
going to happen. Get over it.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000356.html

7. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Communicating with customers

8. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Hold the Mayo
Ask people what they don't want
Most software surveys and research questions are
centered around what people want in a product. "What
feature do you think is missing?" "If you could add just
one thing, what would it be?" "What would make this
product more useful for you?"
What about the other side of the coin? Why not ask people
what they don't want? "If you could remove one feature,
what would it be?" "What don't you use?" "What gets in
your way the most?"
More isn't the answer. Sometimes the biggest favor you
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ can do for customers is to leave something out.
Innovation Comes From Saying No
[Innovation] comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't
get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about
new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can
concentrate on the things that are really important.
—Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple (from The Seed of Apple's Innovation

9. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
So, what to do then?
1) Build something you like
2) Ask customers - the right way
3) Measure
4) Iterate

10. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
1) Build something you like
You are the domain expert, others
- can’t imagine where (Vision) technology will lead to
- can’t discriminate what’s feasible, what’s not
Building something you like
- is a good start
- is a pre-condition to be successful (?)
Resource: Make Opinionated Software
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php

11. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
2) Ask customers - the right way
Approaches that seem to work
A) Asking for desired outcome
B) Integrating a product feedback loop

12. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Asking for desired outcome
What job does the
user/customer want
to get done?
purpose brand

13. Hiring a milk shake do get a job done
Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Clayton Christensen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3fGwsrXuZw

14. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Purpose Brand Example
Until 1960’s one single product
observational research showed:
some customers have creative uses for the product
- adding the product to laundry detergent
- mixing it into toothpaste
- sprinkling it on the carpet
- others placing open boxes in the refrigerator

15. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Purpose Brand Example
Job focus may grow product categories
A purpose brand for each “job”
These products make now more than 90% of Arm & Hammers revenues
Christensen et al., Marketing Malpractice The Cause and the Cure, Harv. Bus Rev. 2005 Dec;83(12):74-83, 152.

16. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
2) Ask customers - the right way
Two approaches that seem to work
A) Asking for desired outcome
B) Product feedback loop

17. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup

18. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup

19. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup

20. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
3) Measure
Hal R. Varian Keynote at IJCAI 2009
http://videolectures.net/ijcai09_varian_cmt/

21. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
3) Measure
Timothy Ferriss at LeWeb 2009
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-than-10000/

22. What is special about Vision?
In Terms of Product Design

23. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Special challenges for Vision Startups
Technological limits
(e.g. object class recognition)
Novel usage concepts
-> user education
High costs for product development

24. How we did it

25. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
How we did it: Paperboy Purpose Brand
Direct application of job-based product design
Before After
Job 1/ Product 1
Job 2 / Product 2
kooaba Visual Search Job 3 / Product 3

26. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
How we did it: Paperboy Purpose Brand
Paperboy
Delivers digital extras for print

27. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtCF8deqnFw

28. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
How we did it:
polarrose.com
usability tests with video recordings
user feedback
customer dialogues (packaging of technology)

29. Q&A

30. Learnings from founding a Computer Vision Startup
Resources
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/
Joel on Software: Customers
fog0000000356.html
37 signals getting real http://gettingreal.37signals.com/
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/
Getting real: make opinionated Software
ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php
Clayton Christensen: Milk Shake Job http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3fGwsrXuZw
http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2010/05/
Kathy Sierra: letting users get better at sth
kathy-sierra-at-business-of-software-2009.html
User Voice www.uservoice.com
Get Satisfaction www.getsatisfaction.com
Hal Varian at IJCAI 2009 http://videolectures.net/ijcai09_varian_cmt/
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/
Timothy Ferris at LeWeb 2009
how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-