Bring the right product to market by feeling, seeing, and experiencing what the user experiences through an empathic approach to product validation.

1. Empathic Product
Validation
Traversing the problem and solution space

2. Empathy, the ability to
understand and share the
feelings of another.

4. Hi, I’m Noble
Alumni Board
GLASSHOLE

5. “Make something you
understand that delights and
addresses unmet needs.”
You DON’T HAVE to change the world.
[http://www.paulgraham.com/good.html]

6. “Start with the customer
experience and work
backwards to the tech.”
Steve Jobs

7. Market Product
Problem & Solution space
Hypothesis Rework reduction

8. Suffer through the pain
What users see, feel, and
experience, is human &
builds domain expertise

9. Validating a self
driving robot butler
empathically

10. Meet Pennyworth
The adorable Golf concierge
You can summon with an app.
Rover credit: Starship [starship.xyz]
Thats me!

11. An actual
Delivery
rover called
Starship.
Competition
Image credit www.starship.xyz

12. Problem Space
Now for some fun:
➔ Let’s find our target audience
Trust your intuitions about people
➔ Meeting underserved needs
Ideas are cheap, execution is scarce
➔ Value Proposition
Insights inform value statement
➔ Start with the Golden Path
Focusing the key user journey
➔ Build > Learn > Measure
Testing and improving the Golden Path

13. Finding your target
persona through user
research screenings,
user interviews.
Tip
● Golf/Country Clubs
● Hospitality Managers
● Golfers
● Craigslist*
● Your network*
Problem Space

14. Users make ideas
evolve, they fuel
your product market
fit.
The environment is
always changing
Let go, to
learn.
Problem Space

15. Our Persona
We’ve found our persona,
mission accomplished?
Rover credit: Starship [starship.xyz]
Problem Space

16. Problem Space
Now for some fun:
➔ Let’s find our target audience
Trust your intuitions about people
➔ Meeting underserved needs
Ideas mostly suck, research...research
➔ Value Proposition
Insights inform value statement
➔ Start with the Golden Path
Focusing the key user journey
➔ Build > Learn > Measure
Testing and improving the Golden Path

17. Importance vs Satisfaction
What business are we in?
Plot this with logistic regression ML algorithms or the Kano model
Tip
● Don’t be led astray
by not identifying
the right customer
● Discover addl value
(Manager: Better
service for example)
Problem Space

18. Visualizing Value
max growth
50
100
100
Satisfaction
Importance
Problem Space

19. Credit: Google Ventures
Problem Space

20. The landscape
Unmet needs of a resort manager?
Unmet needs of a golfer?
Rover credit: Starship [starship.xyz]
Problem Space

21. Solution Space
Now for some fun:
➔ Let’s find our target audience
Trust your intuitions about people
➔ Meeting underserved needs
Ideas are cheap, execution is scarce
➔ Value Proposition
Insights inform value statement
➔ Start with the Golden Path
Focusing the key user journey
➔ Build > Learn > Measure
Testing and improving the Golden Path

22. Value position “user story”
For (target customer) who
(problem) our (name) is (solution)
that provides (benefit). Unlike
(competition), our product
(competitive differentiation)
Credit: Geoffrey Moore
Solution Space

23. Value Statement Framework
For golf club managers who want
to reduce cost of concessionaires,
Pennyworth is a robot that delivers
goods to resort patrons. Unlike
Starship ...
Solution Space

24. Solution Space
Now for some fun:
➔ Let’s find our target audience
Trust your intuitions about people
➔ Meeting underserved needs
Ideas are cheap, execution is scarce
➔ Value Proposition
Insights inform value statement
➔ Start with the Golden Path
Focusing the key user journey
➔ Build > Learn > Measure
Testing and improving the Golden Path

25. Low > Medium Fidelity Prototypes
Solution Space

26. Golden Path
Stock Rover Receive Order Dispatch Rover Confirm sale
❤See Move Communicate
Software Hardware
Solution Space

27. Reality.
Tip
● Medium/High
Fidelity Prototype
● Focuses on solving
problem, not on
polish...yet
Solution Space

28. Reality.
Tip
● Medium/High
Fidelity Prototype
● Focuses on solving
problem, not on
polish...yet
Image credit: dailydot.com/unclick/8-year-old-golfer-drone-video

29. “Don’t make something unless it is
both necessary and useful; but if
it is both necessary and useful,
don’t hesitate to make it
beautiful”
Shaker Design Philosophy

30. Solution Space
Now for some fun:
➔ Let’s find our target audience
Trust your intuitions about people
➔ Meeting underserved needs
Ideas are cheap, execution is scarce
➔ Value Proposition
Insights inform value statement
➔ Start with the Golden Path
Focusing the key user journey
➔ Build > Learn > Measure
Testing and improving the Golden Path

31. Measuring user satisfaction
and delight after launch
with empathic feature
validation
Solution Space

32. Empathic Product
Validation in the real
world.
Slack and Do Not
Disturb

33. Empathic Product
Validation in the real
world.
iPhone Camera and
Black Skin

34. Let be more empathic in our
problem and solution space
phases to understand and address
real human needs.

35. Tech Entrepreneurship Courses

36. MVP ≠ Minimum Viable Prototype
M❤P === “Minimum Loveable Product”
Solution Space

37. +nobleackerson
@nobleackerson
/founder-in-the-trenches
/c/nobleackerson
Lost Explorers Tech Talks

38. Good luck!
➔ HEART Framework
https://goo.gl/qxZH2m
➔ Kano Model
https://goo.gl/181lEi
➔ Slack DND
https://goo.gl/14Co03
➔ Kodak Camera & Racial Bias
http://goo.gl/o3T1He
➔ Original Medium Post
https://goo.gl/jWG0j9