20 ways to avoid building stuff - practical customer development tricks

20 Ways To Avoid Building Stuff

@ #UXCGN10Stolen from the awesome

@cindyalvarez’ talk “Ignite: Lean Startup”,

Parisoma Innovation Lofts, San Francisco

Source: http://video.dreamsimplicity.com/GJU4/cindy-alvarez-product-manager-kissmetrics-20-ways-to-not-build-stuff/http://www.slideshare.net/cindyalvarez/20-ways-to-not-build-stuff

Buy Cindy Alvarez’ new bookLean Customer Development Building Products Your Customers Will Buy

How do you develop products that people will actually use and buy? This practical guide shows you how to validate product and company ideas through customer development research—before you waste months and millions on a product or service that no one needs or wants

http://oreil.ly/1hhCmcd

I’m Vidar @blacktar Andersen•Norwegian living in Cologne, DE since 2005

•Professional experience creating enterprise solutions for global F500s and GOs since 1997

•Startup Founder (both hits & misses)

•Corporate Entrepreneurship Consultant to F100s http://plusandersen.com

•Educator (NEXT Instructor, University Lecturer on Startup Entrepreneurship, Lean Launchpad Instructor, EXIST Coach) http://vidarandersen.de

Some I’ve worked with

More like that? Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/vidarandersen

Some I’ve founded

plusandersen.comis.gd/onesec

vidarandersen.de getGauss.com

I’ve been around

Certified Lean Launchpad Educator by Steve Blank, June 2013 @Stanford

More about me? vidarandersen.com

20 Ways To Avoid

Building Stuff

Why?Save TIME + MONEY + HEADACHES: Build the right stuff, at the right time, for the right reasons, right customers

1. Play Shrink: “Tell me how it

would make your life better?”

2. Say what you’re for;

Say what you are against

3. “This is what you

should do, instead”

4. Send the customer to

the competitor

5. Offer a workaround

6. Fake the functionality

7. Ignore it until you can’t

8. Be less attractive to certain

types of customers

9. Compensate: “Until we

can do X, use us for free”

10. Let some fish get away

11. Build a simple API

12. Hide things behind email

instead of building it

13. Force customers to pick a

single priority: Put it to a vote!

14. Charge a ridiculous amount

of money (e.g. for a feature request)

15. Have rules

but don’t enforce them

16. Only build it

if you can measure it (if you can’t measure if it actually works like

intended, it’s not important)

17. Ask for help

(Crowdsource: e.g. “Don’t see your language? Help us with the translation to make it happen!”)

18. Be grateful

19. Notify me when... (e.g. checkboxes)

20. Play nice with others

(enable combining different products, services for value-adds)

Follow Cindy Alvarez on Twitter:

@cindyalvarez

Source: http://video.dreamsimplicity.com/GJU4/cindy-alvarez-product-manager-kissmetrics-20-ways-to-not-build-stuff/

http://www.slideshare.net/cindyalvarez/20-ways-to-not-build-stuff

One more thing

21. MVP it

Minimum Viable Product

• The smallest batch that will teach you something

• That will enable you to test your hypotheses

• So what can you release in one day?

There are several types of MVPs: !

•Explainer Video (dropbox) •Landing Page (unbounce.com) Wizard of Oz MVP (zappos) •Concierge MVP (food on the table) •Piecemeal MVP (wizard of oz + concierge) •Crowd Funding (sell before you build) •Single-feature MVP (google) •What is your MVP going to be?

vidarandersen.com @blacktar