Creating Great Minimum Viable Products - Brian Crofts

1. NOVEMBER 5, 2015
INNOVATION @
INTUIT
WELCOME

2. @INTUITINC #BEI13
IMPROVE OUR
CUSTOMERS’ FINANCIAL
LIVES SO PROFOUNDLY…
THEY CAN’T IMAGINE
GOING BACK TO THE OLD
WAY
OUR MISSION

3. NOVEMBER 5, 2015
EVOKING POSITIVE
EMOTION BY GOING
BEYOND CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS IN
EASE AND BENEFIT
THROUGHOUT THEIR
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
DESIGN FOR DELIGHT
...so people buy more and tell
others about their experience

4. KNOW YOUR
CUSTOMER
BETTER THAN THEY
KNOW THEMSELVES
DEEP CUSTOMER EMPATHY

5. @INTUITINC #BEI13
DEEP CUSTOMER EMPATHY
High cost
Tax store charged her
$700 when she was
expecting <$300
Not convenient
Tax store made her wait
with her two kids in tow
Lack of confidence
Her refund was $2000 less
than last year and tax store
could not explain why

6. @INTUITINC #BEI13
A journey TO AWESOME PRODUCT EXPERIENCES

7. WOULD A TAXPAYER
BE WILLING TO
WORK ONLINE WITH
AN ACCOUNTANT
THEY’VE NEVER MET
BEFORE?

8. @INTUITINC #BEI13
LEAN STARTUP

10. I CAN’T … THERE
ARE JUST TOO
MANY…
— SCOTT COOK
“

11. Intuit Confidential11
A video MVP … Dropbox example - demonstrating
the product/service without building a prototype
[Dropbox] had prominent venture capital backers and could
have been expected to apply the standard engineering thinking
to building the business: build it and they will come. But
Dropbox did something different.
In parallel with their product development efforts, the
founders wanted feedback from customers about what really
mattered to them. In particular, Dropbox need to test its leap-
of-faith question: if we can provide a superior customer
experience, will people give our product a try? They believed—
rightly, as it turned out—that file synchronization was a
problem that most people didn’t know they had. Once you
experience the solution, you can’t imagine how you ever lived
without it …
… The challenge was that it was impossible to demonstrate the
working software in a prototype form …
… Drew did something unexpectedly easy: he made a video.
“Our beta waiting list went from 5,000 people to 75,000
people literally overnight.”
In this case, the video was the minimum viable product. The
MVP validated Drew’s leap-of-faith assumption that customers
wanted the product he was developing not because they said
so in a focus group or because of a hopeful analogy to another
business, but because they actually signed up.
LOF Hypothesis: if we provide a superior
experience, they will give our product a try
What they built: a 3 min video
How the measured: # of beta sign-ups
for beta
What they learned: when customer
understand the product concept, interest is
very high (proven by beta sign-up
currency)
- Eric Ries, The Lean Startup

12. 12
Intuit Proprietary & Confidential
Video MVP to test against our two of leap of faith
hypothesis …
Tax Store customers
Will tax store customers
adopt our DIFM solution?
Tax Pros
Will tax pros participate
(supply) our DIFM solution?
Intuit
Can we build service/platform
to support both sides?
Build
video
Measure
beta sign-
ups
Learn
interest in
adoption
Build … to test leap-of-faith hypothesis,
build a video that helps both sides of
the platform visualize the DIFM solution—
to better understand the process and
vision of the new, virtual offering
(customize for each side – both acct &
TS)
Measure … like Dropbox,
include an option to sign-
up for beta or a TY’12
season waitlist. Sign-ups
for new service will be our
currency.
Learn … is there a
statistically significant
level of interest for both
supply and demand side—
enough interest to
derive currency?

13. 13
From minimal viable to “awesome” product

14. 14

15. @INTUITINC #BEI13
METRICS
Confirm
Estimate
Visit
Search
CPA selection
Sign-up
Doc
Share
Pay
Cohort6
3/25-3/31
Shopping
funnel
Product
funnel
Cohort 7:
4/8-4/11
Cohort 6:
3/25-4/7
Cohort 5:
3/11-3/24
Cohort 4:
2/25-3/10
Cohort 3:
2/11-2/24
Cohort 2:
1/28-2/10
Cohort 1:
1/14 – 1/27
5,157 20,634 16,707 20,671 18,801 15,329 5,300
1,45
1
28.1
%
3,99
6
19.4
%
3,37
9
20.2
%
4,14
4
20.1
%
3,73
9
19.9
%
3173
20.7
%
786
14.8
%
863
16.7
%
2,06
7
10.0
%
1,77
2
10.6
%
1,82
3
8.8
%
1,41
7
7.5
%
1,11
3
7.3
%
292
5.5
%
510
9.9
%
1,14
2
5.5
%
977
5.9
%
863
4.2
%
663
3.5
%
463
3.0
%
57
1.0
%
268
5.2
%
625
3.0
%
479
2.9
%
421
2.0
%
299
1.6
%
162
1.1
%
14
0.3
%
165
3.0
%
416
1.8
%
299
1.5
%
213
0.9
%
158
0.7
%
55
0.3
%
3
0%
147
2.9
%
357
1.7
%
252
1.5
%
173
0.9
%
123
0.7
%
51
0.3
%
3
0%

16. @INTUITINC #BEI13
THE LIFE EVENT CUSTOMER
Life Event
(moved, divorced, multiple
jobs, etc.) Usually first time w
a pro.
Online
Delighted by
online experience
of working
remotely with a pro
Tech
Competent
Able to upload & share
documents online

17. @INTUITINC #BEI13
METRICS
20%
26%
36% 42%
31%
6%
10%
26%
47%
37%
17%
16%
26%
29%
23%
0%
20%
40%
60%
1/14 - 1/27 1/28 - 2/10 2/11 - 2/24 2/25 - 3/10 3/11 - 3/24
TurboTax.com + DM
In TTO (ENF)
Paid Search
Cohort performance over time: sign-up to paid # of sign-ups
2,320 In TTO (ENF)
2,396 TT.com + DM
4,101 paid search
Life event, want to delegate Need a pro for reassurance
“I did our taxes using TurboTax and my husband requests that I have
someone double-check it. :-)”
“Just want a CPA to review my return to avoid any automated IRS
audits like one I was subjected to two years back.”
“I have entered in all my information into Turbo Tax but want to make
sure that I captured everything as I owe a significant amount due to
the ###(k) early withdrawal”
“My husband and I purchased a home this year and will be filing
jointly. Thank you!”
“I changed jobs, got married, and moved to NYC in ####.”
“I only had one job in the past year, very simple evaluation.”
“I want to file my taxes jointly with my wife. I was working in Texas
for the first half of #### and moved to Virginia later due to change
in job”
In progress

18. @INTUITINC #BEI13
PERSONA

20. 20

21. 21

22. @INTUITINC #BEI13
CHOOSE A PRO

23. @INTUITINC #BEI13
OUR MISSION

24. @INTUITINC #BEI13
OUR MISSION

25. @INTUITINC #BEI13
OUR MISSION

26. @INTUITINC #BEI13
OUR MISSION

27. @INTUITINC #BEI13
THE LIFE EVENT CUSTOMER
Life Event
(moved, divorced, multiple
jobs, etc.) Usually first time w
a pro.
Online
Delighted by
online experience
of working
remotely with a pro
Tech
Compet
ent
Able to upload
& share
documents
online
7777

28. WHAT DELIGHT
LOOKS LIKE …

29. @INTUITINC #BEI13
WHAT DELIGHT LOOKS LIKE …

30. @INTUITINC #BEI13
TOOLS
Brief Description
https://www.flinto.com/
https://www.mturk.com/
http://www.usertesting.com/
https://redpen.io/
https://www.optimizely.com/
http://www.luckyorange.com/
http://mailchimp.com/
https://www.olark.com/
Efficient way to get design feedback from
teammates, stakeholders, etc.
A/B testing pages/experiences
https://mixpanel.com/
Set-up a specific task/test and get quick results
(Results in <1hr)
Video of customers going through
experience/script. Results in <1hr
Light weight (integration) funnel conversion
report
Quickly create email marketing campaigns to
customers. Easily tracks opens and CTRs
Simple way to collect feedback and to
collaborate on designs
Measures customer behavior; heat mapping,
conversion, polling, chat
Easy to use, configurable chat experience
Tool

31. @INTUITINC #BEI13
TOOLS
Tool Brief Description
https://www.fiverr.com/ Outsourcing small tasks that are typically de-
prioritized due to resource constraints
http://d4d.intuit.com
/
Internal resource: experiment toolkits, D4D
methods, and coaching
https://www.kissmetrics.com/ All-in-one; A/B tests, funnel bailout, cohort
conversion, etc.
https://webflow.com/
Easily create and launch beautiful (new & cool)
homepages for smoke screens
Easily create and launch beautiful (new & cool)
homepages for smoke screenshttp://unbounce.com/