Venture Design Guide for Startups

Copyright 2013 Cowan Publishing
NextSpace:
VENTURE
DESIGN
info@alexandercowan.com
alexandercowan.com
@cowanSF

Design Thinking
Lean Startup
Customer Dev.
Agile
} BIG VOID
{ Actual Practice

~ POOR VISIBILITY
X LACK OF TOOLS
X OUTCOMES VS. OUTPUT
X DISINTEGRATED
APPROACH

Business Model
Canvas
VENTURE/PROJECT DESIGN
Product & Promotion
User Stories
Test Cases
ExperimentLearn
Hypothesize
Lean Startup-
Style Assumptions
Foundation in
Design Thinking

Foundation in
Design Thinking

Design
Thinking
And Now
Survival
Back Then
DESIGN THINKING

Empathy
DESIGN THINKING
Creativity

DESIGN THINKING- APPLICATIONS

Entry1
Urinate as they go2
Edges preferred3
Speedy4
PB > cheese5
Empathy

Check & Repair
UV Validation
Relevant Placement
A Better Mouse Trap
Powered by Better Bait
Creativity
1
2
3
4
5

VENTURE/PROJECT DESIGN - PERSONAS
Personas Foundation in
Design Thinking
Personas Problem Scenarios
Alternatives
Your Value Propositions

DESIGN THINKING - PERSONAS

•Women
•Age 28-45
•Have kids
•Socialize with other mom’s
•Online with Facebook
•86% said they’d like to be
more organized
•70% said they’d use an
application that organizes them

Mary is a mom by choice. She had a successful
career in accounting, but welcomed the opportunity to
be a stay at home mom. She loves it. But it’s not like
having kids purged her creative, social instincts. She
wants to connect, she wants to learn, she wants to
interact. Being a mom is a job and she wants to do it
well. That means corresponding with other mom’s on
relevant topics and keeping the family calendar in
ship shape. She posts to Facebook at least twice a
week and responds to other moms’ items more often
than that.
For household stuff, Costco is the go-to place, but
she’ll pick up fresh items at the farmer’s market when
it’s up and splurge at Whole Foods when they’re
having company.
Mary the Mom

END USER PERSONAS
Rita
the Reseller
Orson
the Ofﬁce Mgr.
Ignatius
the IT Guy
Rhonda
the Receptionist
Susan the
Small Bus. Owner
Keith
the Key System User
Amy
the Assistant
Simone
the Standard User
Chuck
the Call Center Agent
Esteban
the Executive
Mikuko
the Mobile User
Cindy
the Call Center Manager

ENTERPRISE PERSONAS
Nietzsche
the Network Eng.
Paola
the Provisioner
Sidney
the Sys. Admin.
Percival the
Product Manager
Sven
the Salesperson
Anthony
the Applications Eng.
Itzhak
the IT Developer
Frank
the Field Eng.
Sam
the Support Eng.
Saul
the Site Developer
Fritz
the Field Eng. Manager
Bruce
the Business Owner

YOUR VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
!
ALTERNATIVE(S)
?
PROBLEM SCENARIO
X

MARY THE MOM
About: Mary the mom. . . [Describe like your friend or the beginning
of a short story. What kind of shoes does she wear?]. . .
Thinks: . . .
Sees: . . .
Feels: . . .
Does: . . .
1. List at least 3 personas
2. More time? Describe as much as you can the
items below. (5 min)

DESIGN THINKING - USING PERSONAS
Alternatives
MAKING
STUFF
SELLING
STUFF
Who’s buying?
Where?
Why?
What does the user
actually do?
Who are we
selling to?
Where do we
reach them?
With what
proposition?
What does the user
(most) want?
Design Thinking
Alternatives

MVP
DESIGN THINKING - CREATING PERSONAS
Tell me about yourself.
What do you do? How often?
How does it make you feel?
Interviews
AdWords, etc. + Landing
Page Tests
Real-Time Analytics
& Recording
Minimum Viable
Product
What language, propositions resonate?
What is the customer prepared to do?
What do users actually do?
Do customers like it? Buy it? Use it?
Tell others about it?

Who is the
buyer? User?
What problem(s)
are you solving?
Personas
Problem Scenarios
What’s the
business?
Positioning Statement,
Business Model
Canvas
What has to
happen?
Lean Startup-Style
Assumptions
What economics
and requirement
for cash?
Lean Financial
Model
What’s the
operating
environment like?
Five Forces Analysis
Pitch Deck
(coming soon)
I need a compact
overview
I’m going to a
bank, traditional
investor
Business Plan
I need to present
ﬁnancial (tax,
ﬁnanciers).
Income Statement,
Statement of Cash
Flows, Balance
Sheet
Operational Stack Presentation Stack
VENTURE DESIGN STACK
Corp. WebsiteI need to
communicate
[various items in
Ops Stack]
What are we
building?
Why?
User Stories
Wireframes/
Prototypes

BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS

Value
Propositions
Customer
Segments

Value
Propositions
Customer
Segments
Customer
Relationships Channels
Key
Activities
Key
Resources
Key
Partnerships
Cost
Structure
Revenue
Streams

Design Thinking
Alternatives
ExperimentLearn
Hypothesize
Lean Startup-
Style Assumptions

PLANNING
!5,000,000%
0%
5,000,000%
10,000,000%
15,000,000%
20,000,000%
25,000,000%
30,000,000%
35,000,000%
40,000,000%
45,000,000%
2012% 2013% 2014% 2015% 2016% 2017% 2018% 2019% 2020%
Revenue%
Expense%
EBITDA%
Five Year
Plan
Then
Lean
Management
Now
6.a PIVOT
experiments
disprove
hypothesis
01 IDEA!
02 HYPOTHESIS
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATION
05 PIVOT OR PERSEVERE?
6.b PERSEVERE

PLANNINGPLANNING WITH LEAN STARTUP
Do I have real evidence from my buyer that
this is compelling?
01 IDEA!
What are the key assumptions
required to make this business work?
02 HYPOTHESIS
How do I definitely prove or disprove
the assumptions with a minimum of
time and effort?
03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
04 EXPERIMENTATIONAm I reacting or am I focused on
validating my pivotal assumptions?
‘Pivot or persevere?’

Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation
1
[A key assumption about
the business]
[Whether it needs
proving
[Experiment to
prove or disprove]
1
Parents want to organize
the distribution of
allowances with an app
Yes
* Post the proposition in ads
online
* Measure sign-up’s on a landing
page
2
Parents want to link
allowances to chores
Yes
* Show prototypes with choices
* Test in beta
2
Parents have smart
phones
No n/a
PLANNING WITH LEAN STARTUP
Focus on strategic,
pivotal assumptions

Crossing t’s
Dotting i’s
Doesn’t matter unless it
helps prove (or disprove)
your pivotal assumptions

Subject
all your
activities +
metrics to
that litmus
test.

CONCIERGE MVP AND LEAN STARTUP
Get paid for
customer
discovery.

Priority Key Assumption Needs Proving? Experimentation
1
[A key assumption about
the business]
[Whether it needs
proving
[Experiment to
prove or disprove]
1
Parents want to organize
the distribution of
allowances with an app
Yes
* Post the proposition in ads
online
* Measure sign-up’s on a landing
page
2
Parents want to link
allowances to chores
Yes
* Show prototypes with choices
* Test in beta
2
Parents have smart
phones
No n/a
PLANNING WITH LEAN AT LARGE

Design Thinking
Alternatives
Lean at Large
ExperimentLearn
Hypothesize
Lean Startup-
Style Assumptions

Let’s not
argue.
Let’s assume.
Then test.

“Parents want to better organize the distribution of allowances”
Priority: [1 for existential; 2+ for others]
Needs Proving?: [yes or no]
Experimentation: [how will most quickly, cheaply prove or disprove]
* Bonus Question: How do these relate to your personas?
1. List at least 3 assumptions
2. Note as much as you can on experiments
(5 min)

DESIGN THINKING - STORYBOARDS
BEFORE

DESIGN THINKING - STORYBOARDS
AFTER

DESIGN THINKING- STORYBOARDS
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tristique sed vel neque. Nunc sed dictum ligula. Quisque sollicitudin neque
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adipiscing augue. Morbi ac suscipit tellus. Vestibulum gravida molestie est vel
vehicula. Phasellus eleifend nisi cursus nunc facilisis egestas.
Aliquam venenatis et libero commodo convallis. Donec accumsan elit non turpis
pulvinar, id sodales purus blandit. Phasellus tristique fermentum nunc in feugiat.
Maecenas eget varius est, id malesuada est. Fusce vitae nunc purus. Nam
vehicula eros vitae sapien scelerisque auctor. Maecenas et justo ac libero
dictum dapibus. Etiam volutpat erat eget ante ullamcorper placerat. Maecenas
convallis massa aliquam ullamcorper posuere. Phasellus nulla est, rhoncus
blandit dapibus sit amet, facilisis at orci. Nulla facilisi. Maecenas ultrices justo
quis nibh sagittis tempor. Pellentesque id semper turpis.

A
I
D
A
O
R
ttention
nterest
esire
ction
nboarding
etention

ORGANIZATION
==
Aping
Then
Customer
Development
Now

CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT
MVP
Nascent
Product-Market
Fit(?) Scale
PIVOTAL
ASSUMPTIONS
PRODUCT
ORG.
PARTNERS,
CHANNELS
Founders
N/A
Probably too
soon
Test, revise,
test...
MVP
Customer dev.
team
Probably too
soon
Validated- now
tactical
Focus: efﬁciency,
extension
Full functional
organization
Yeah, maybe?
Validated- now
tactical
What would a
startup do??
Scalable
organization
Yeah, deﬁnitely!

Business Model
Canvas
Design Thinking
Alternatives
ExperimentLearn
Hypothesize
Lean Startup-
Style Assumptions

Specialties
(VARIOUS)DESIGN
UNIXSYSADMIN
RUBY
PYTON
JAVA
PHP
...
...
...
SEO
ANALYTICS
...
(VARIOUS)MGMT.
...
Basic
Technical
Literacy
SOFTWARE
FUNDAMENTALS
Model-View-Controller
ARCHITECTURE
FUNDAMENTALS
App. & Platform Integration
ROLES & SYSTEMS
In a Technical Team
Stories
Personas
Development Discussion
Foundation
Concepts
ITERATIVE
MANAGEMENT
DESIGN
THINKING
CUSTOMER
DEVELOPMENT
AGILE
Collaboration AGILE
As Product Owner
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

DEVELOPMENT
Waterfall
Then
Agile
Now

Business Model
Canvas
Product & Promotion
User Stories
Test Cases
ExperimentLearn
Hypothesize
Lean Startup-
Style Assumptions
Foundation in
Design Thinking

Individuals
Interactions
>
Processes
Tools
Working
software
Comprehensive
Documentation
>
Customer
collaboration
Contract
negotiation>
Responding
to change
Following
a plan
>
AGILE FOUNDATIONS

Drafting
Stories
PERSONAS
STORIES
Epic Stories
Stories
Test Cases
“As a [persona],
I want to [do something]
so that I can [derive a beneﬁt]”
AGILE USER STORIES

STORY TEST CASE
“As a receptionist I want to receive an out of the box phone
Make sure the available templates are
editable in a visual environment usable by
a Product Manager
As a receptionist, I want to receive an out of the box phone
set up that’s created against best practices so I don’t have
to set it all up by myself.”
Make sure it’s possible to update the
template at install timeto set it all up by myself.
Make sure the template designation is
available in all Loki provisioning interfaces
Make sure it’s possible for the user to reset
to the default template
“As a receptionist, I want to change the buttons on my
phone so they do what I want.”
Make sure the available functions are
filtered by the services assigned to the user
Make sure available functions are filtered
based on the capabilities of the phone key
“As a receptionist, I want a custom configuration on my phone so that I can manage calls in the way I’ve
come to expect.”
EPIC STORY
AGILE USER STORIES

AGILE & LEAN
validate feature
relevance with
customers
Past
collaborate with
development
team
Present
observe and
envision what’s
next
Future

FULL CIRCLE
!
THINK SEE
FEEL DO
PERSONAS
Who?
X
PROBLEM
SCENARIOS
What?
USER
STORIES
How?
VALUE
PROPOSITIONS
& ASSUMPTIONS
What if?
!
PRODUCT &
PROMOTION
Pivot?
/
WIREFRAMES/
PROTOTYPES
How?
..
Scale?

BUY THE BOOK
A practical primer for anyone
wanting to actually implement
today’s best practices in product
development (available online or
at any major retailer)
VISIT THE SITE
Free talks, tutorials, and
resources for product
development and new ventures.

acowan@alexandercowan.com
@cowanSF
www.alexandercowan.com/resources
bit.ly/holanextspace
www.alexandercowan.com/speaking
www.alexandercowan.com/startup-sprints

Venture Design Guide for Startups

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