-Subtraction: Remove a key element

-Multiplication: Copy a key element

-Division: Dividing a products into components

-Task unification: assign new task to existing element

-Attribute dependency change: create new dependencies or break old ones up

Variation of product attributes (especially functions)

Thermos Idea from class

The BEST way to communicate?

Can we subsract more?

Prototypes and Customer-

Development

temiz@kth.se

Back ground

• B.S Electronics and Communication Engineering

• Master in ICT entrepreneurship ,

• SSES Alumni

• Previously Java,.Net Developer

• PhD Candidate at Indek KTH

• Now business developer, entrepreneur,

This presentation•Not about a specific business idea

•About business processes

•About prototypes •It is pretty long

•Feel free to fall asleep, interrupt or leave

•I hope you know all this already.

•If not, I really think it can give you a lot

Startup process

Development process

Waterfall is drying•Agile Agile Agile Agile Agile

•Scrum

•XP extreme programming

•Kanban

•Continous Integration/Deployment

•Developers hate Waterfall like mad!

What is Agile?

•It works when requirements change

•And requirements change

Why Agile?

Add agile to process

What is wrong with this picture?

Everything except agile

•Old style startup model must DIE!

•I will dance on it’s grave!

•Because it sucks!

•Because where is the customer?

•Because things change!

•Market risk! Need to adapt!

Lets get serious•A lot of startups fails

•It affects your relationships

•It absorbs your life

•It can make old friends be enemies

•It is your life. Don’t let business coaches or experts run your life.

•It is not fun to fail. It is also your coworkers and familys problem. Lets avoid that, then running a startup can be fun and meaningful.

Why should I listen to

you?•Do not listen me!

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO QUESTION ALL ASSUMPTIONS.

MINE, YOURS, EXPERTS.

Are you a God?

•I can predict what my customers want

•I can predict a 5-year financial plan

•I can predict what customers will like

•I can manage this process

•I know the risks, the opportunities

•I will never give up

Are you a mortal•I have a hunch about what customers

want

•I think it can make money

•I will measure and discuss with customers

•Lets use the scientific method. Measure!

•Test assumptions, test on users, be scientific.

•If I find problems, I can change things.Why not use the scientific process to develop business ideas? A business idea is a set of testable hypotheses.

Some are actually Gods?

•Twitter

•Google

•mystery company

Twttr has married Short Code Messaging, SMS with a way to create social groups. By

sending a text message to a short code (for TWTTR) you can send your location information, your mood information or

whatever and share it with people who are on your social-mob! Best part – no

installation necessary!NOTE: They have done a PIVOT. Changed idea, but not completely.

Rhetoric question: What use was the prediction about the SMS market they probably had in

the business plan?

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," Senior Vice

President Urs Holzle said in the blog post. "We don't plan to continue

developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site, at least through the end of the year, and extend the technology for use in

other Google projects.NOTE: They are doing a PIVOT,

reusing the technology in a new way.

Mystery companyWhen we think of design, we think of this

companyRhetoric question:

Was their core value

firmly set in their original business

plan?

Don’t burn your business plan

• Just don’t make a new one

• Thinking through the business is good

• But I think you can think through your business in faster and better ways.

• Do a powerpoint instead (Guy Kawasaki).

• Business Model Canvas – another presentation

• KEY POINT: CHANGE is the norm.

• KEY POINT: You have a vague idea what CUSTOMERS will want.

Customer Development

•One line summary: Test your assumptions

•Get out of the building

•Formulate hypotheses and test them

•Do Minimum Viable Products (MVP:s)

•Pivot. Change aspects of business as you go

The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that

WinSteven Gary Blank

MVP

•Minimum set of features that is enough to satisfy some set of customers (usually early adopters)

Slice- which part of it/ how to rotate it?

Pivoting

•Changing important part of business model

•- can be simple: chancing pricing

•-can be complex: target customer, user needs change, feature set changes, new distribution channel

•Disclaimer: I did not actually read the Four Steps to the Epiphany when I prepared presentation.

•However, I have read the “cheat sheet”

•And I have read blogs and so on...

•I simply started with the “prototype” book. Then, I bought the “Full” book.

Lean Startup

•Eric Ries. He has failed, he has succeeded.

•Lean Startup = Customer Development + Agile

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/

Search for Eric Ries on YouTube! Great 1h talk!

Cust Dev + Prototypes

•Consumer Development = business prototypes

•Lean startup = Cust dev + Agile

•Lean startup is great. But requires that you have IT-guys in team

•My idea = Cust Dev + Prototypes

•Might work better when you don’t have an IT-team or do not want to waste your resources!

•Complements agile

Some kinds of prototypes

•Mockups/line drawings. Show ideas.

•Paper prototypes. Test interaction on users.

•Landingpages. Great way to test business idea!

•Working prototype. Testable IT that works as a specification.

Mockup•Line drawing to show how system

looks

•Computer aided, such as Balsamiq Mockups

•Or use pen and paper

•Get your ideas down!

Paper-prototypes•Users try system, talk out loud

•Test interaction

Test: Landingpage• You find discover a new electric-engine

that can be installed in old cars. By concentrating on a few Swedish bestsellers such as Volvo V70 and Saab9-5, you think you can make a business out of this.

• Make a single webpage explaining the idea.

• It has two buttons “Pre-order for V70”, and “Pre-order Saab9-5”.

• Buy Ad-words for “electric car“ showing ads “Adapt Saab9-5 to electric power”

Landingpage•Measure how many visit the

landing-page

• Measure how many click the “Pre-order” buttons (and get their contact details)

• Just explain to viewers politely you have not started yet but will get back to them.

• Before committing to anything, you can verify if people are interested and if they are on the way to actually buy for the price you show.

• Do A/B tests of messages, see what works.

Results: Landingpage• Sorry, thousands view the page but no

one buys.

• You have just saved a lot of trouble.

• But, you discover a lot of visitors from a blog from old Rolls-Royce enthusiasts.

• PIVOT: A lot of people wants to cruise with old classics and want to be eco-friendly and these cars really suck gas. And they can afford the conversion. Your market is now high-margin and European, maybe global.

Working prototypes•Looks / behaves like a real program

•But the aim is to make it fast to explain

•A prototype explains better than a specification

•A prototype can be used to test on users

Working prototypes

Prototype vs Agile•Agile = building gradually. Quality.

•Prototype = max shortcuts

•No database needed, no security/scalability

•Free to use a completely other language/tools.

•Optimize shortcuts, quality is secondary

•The anti-thesis of what programmers usually do. Few take pride in doing shit.

Why prototypes?

• Demo, try, get feedback, think through

• Show to customers

• Show to investors

• A much better specification. Same cost?

• Can be combined with Agile

• Makes outsourcing possible

• Make mistakes early

Mock Up: Twitter

Mock Up: Guess

Mock Up: Guess

Mock Up: Evernote

Prototype Example

Now, may I ask some questions?

•Was it too ugly? drawings, videos etc.

•Too long?

•Easy or difficult to follow?

•Anything to remove/add?

•Other comments?

This presentation is also a prototype•Try message/slides. Get feedback !!!

•MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

•The slides can be given to graphic designers

•Even outsourced

•Would you give a specification to designers?1. Picture of trad biz process

2. Picture of waterfall

Second slide. Waterfall.

•Thank to CEO ColoredCoins Henrik Hjelte

•Twitter: @hankhero

Thank you!

•Serdar Temiz

•temiz@kth.se