How to apply the lean startup methodology for a social enterprise, as well as do customer discovery and development

1. BT Social Intrapreneurship
Lean Startup

2. Welcome!

3. Are you a real entrepreneur?
Do you have what it takes?

9. The wrong mindset
“Build it and they will come” “Sell what you can make”

10. • Mismanagement of Available Funds
• Internal Issues
• Inadequate/Misleading Market Research
• Premature Scaling
• Lack of Focus and Flexibility
Top 10 reasons why startups fail

11. REDUCING RISK IS YOUR #1 GOAL
+ The idea is the trigger for an important mission
− It is the starting point – not the end goal
− Great execution is 10 times more important
− Failing to plan is planning to Fail
Don’t fall in love
with your first
Business Idea!
Bill Gross
Number #1 Reason: No Market NEED!

12. 5. FUNDING 4. GREAT IDEA 3. PLANNING
2. EXECUTION (TEAM) 1. TIMING
The 5 fundamental bricks to succeed?

13. Planning works in the presence of a
long and stable operating history
Create a new product or service under
conditions of extreme uncertainty
“No business plan
survives the first
customer contact”
You are not a micro-corporation

14. Start-up Company
Startup = Experiment

15. SEARCH PHASE
Understand the door you want to open
before you make the key.

16. RiesBlank Osterwalder Maurya
Time for a paradigm Shift?

19. If we’re building something that no-body wants,
what does it matter if we accomplish it…
 On time
 On budget
 With high quality
 With beautiful design?
Achieving Failure: successfully executing a bad plan
Stop Achieving Failure

20. Organizations do this all the time

21. What effort
is WASTEFUL?
“My great Idea” What creates
VALUE?
Learn what the
customers want
Focus on building the right thing

22. • Focus on the solution
• 50 pages business plan
• Specify all features
• Development in Secrecy
• Complete product build
• Focus on the problem
• 1 page canvas
• Minimum viable product
• Continual customer input
• Continuous deployment
A consequence of the .COM bubble

23. Your plan is a bunch
of assumptions
You test the
most important
Keep on testing
HO HO…
NO
OK
A new forma mentis rooted on Agility

24. What if your key
hypothesis are
invalidated?
Pivot.
Change direction but
stay grounded in what
you have learned!

25. • No Traction
• Your solution is not liked
• Bad acquisition & retention
• Not willing to pay the price
PIVOT before is too late

26. Most startups Pivot…
First built for
Palmpilots
Was a podcasting
company
Was to be written
by experts only
Was invoicing for a
web design firm
Was a Database
company
Was side feature
of an MMO Game

27. • Zoom-in / out
• Customer segment / Need
• Business architecture
• Revenue Model
• Channels
• Technology
The you are,
the easier it is
to
Be Agile: Reduce the time between pivots

28. Principles

29. Speed wins!
If we can minimize the total
time through the loop we can
increase our odds of success!
(before we run our of money)
Continuous deployment

30. Validate and Fail Fast

31. Don’t hide in a garage: co-create!

32. “Learning is the
essential unit of
progress for
start-ups”
Eric Ries

34. 3 Pillars… …for any business

35. Focus on the Problem…Who’s?
Customer
A group of people or firms
who share similar characteristics.
Problem
Must be specific
to the segment!
«People are not recicling»
is not a problem someone has.
«Forgets the day of the week for collection»
«Confused how to sort plastics»
2 similar but yet
different problems!

36. How many customer segments do you have in mind?

37. Geographic Demographic Behavioural Psychographic
Local, National, Regional ,
Internationa, (city, state, or
even country of residence).
Ethnicity, gender, age,
marital status, income,
education, occupation.
Spending & consumption
habits, product usage
intensity, desired benefits
Personality traits, Social
class, values and lifestyle,
interests and opinions.
Major Cities
Man, Over 40y.o.,
200K€ Salary
Customers wanting a value
for money impulse buy
Behavioural
• The time of day they tend to shop and make purchases
• The time of year they shop and make purchases
• The routines they go through when shopping
• Their preferred place and method of shopping
• The ways in which they use what they‟ve purchased
+ + +
Driven and ambitious, care
about power and control,
expect to be noticed
Customer Segmentation

38. Geographic Demographic Behavioural Psychographic
• Major Cities in Western
Europe and North
America;
• At least 3 years old;
• Medium in size (team 5+);
• Have 2+ cohorts per year;
• Large Mentors network.
• Wish to make process
more efficient;
• Buy 3-5 months before
the program starts;
• Strong online component;
• Wish engage community;
• Stakeholders
participation;
Who are we
targeting?
Impact incubators
and Accelerators!
+ + +
We can find them in F6S.com, ANDE, Conveeners AT, etc.
Example with Babele

39. Sometimes you have too many
potential customer segments...
Market Size
How “many” of this type of
customer exist
Pay for value
How much we think they
will pay for this value
Accessibility
How easy is it to find, contact &
sell customers in this segment
How to prioritize customers?
​ ​​

40. Value proposition design

41. Value proposition Canvas

42. Let’s define the Customer Archetype
Taxi Passenger
in Bucharest

43. 1. Functional Jobs
Complete a TASK E.g. cook a meal,
complete Math homework, eat healthier,
my KPI’s as an employee….
2. Social Jobs
Gain Power, Status: E.g. fit socially in
with a particular crowd, wowing my boss
with a PPT.
3. Personal/ Emotional Jobs
Feel good: e.g. be more successful with
women, succeeding at having dinner
with family every night…
! Job Context & Importance;
!! Don’t forget the influencers.
Customer Job
Find Taxi
Call Taxi
Give Directions
Pay
What are they trying to get done?
Convey an image
of success

44. What annoys the customer before,
during and after getting the job done?
1. Negative Emotions
(Frustrations)
2. Undesired costs & situations
(Time, money, un-performance and
mistakes)
3. Risks
(Technical, social and financial)
! Find the problem cause
E.g. Obstacles that prevent from starting
a job or completing a task.
!! Pains’ Urgency & Importance
Customer Pains
Find Taxi
Call Taxi
Give Directions
Pay
What obstacles are on their way?
Compete with
other customers
Wait a long time
Unsafe driver
Overcharged by
taxi
Fear of Dead battery
Lack of charging stations
Frequent Charging

45. E.g. Positive emotions, Functional
utility, social gains or cost savings.
1. Required Gains
Most basic gains expected E.g. iPhone has SMS
2. Expected Gains
Basic gains E.g. iPhone is sleek and visual
appealing
3. Desired Gains
Customer wish-list: easily synced with other
devices
4. Unexpected Gains
Innovation, revolutionized customer experience.
E.g. the touchscreen in the first iphone.
Customer Gains
Find Taxi
Call Taxi
Give Directions
Pay
What would make their life easier?
Compete with
other customers
Wait a long time
Unsafe driver
Overcharged by
taxi
Easy payment
Fair price
Arrives on time
Professional

46. Customer inspired innovation
Find Taxi
Call Taxi
Give Directions
Pay
Compete with
other customers
Wait a long time
Unsafe driver
Overcharged by
taxi
Easy payment
Fair price
Arrive on time
Professional
Taxi
smartphone
app
Professional driver
Sate time
Rating System
Visual Map
Instant Booking
No Cash
Assigned Driver
Cost system

47. Customer segment
Define all the segments
that come to mind.
Characteristics
Shortlist the most attractive
segments based on characteristics
Archetype
Define & rank Jobs, Pains
& Gains for each segment
Take 30 minutes
Geographic
Demographic
Behavioural
Psychographic

49. Find Taxi
Call Taxi
Give Directions
Pay
Validate your assumptions first!
Compete with
other customers
Wait a long time
Unsafe driver
Overcharged by
taxi
Easy payment
Fair price
Arrive on time
Professional

51. • Insights
• New use cases
• Referrals
• Testimonials
• Problems
Can‟t find customers willing to talk about their problems? You can‟t find customers.
Discover your customers

52. Techniques to gain customers’ insights

53. Data Detective

54. The journalist

55. The Anthropologist

56. More interviews = better understanding

57. Focus on the early adopters!
​ ​​
They can die or be fired...
• Who are they?
• Where can you find them?
• How to observe / interview?

58. When do you stop?What do you want to learn?
1. Is the problem real?
2. Would they pay you to solve it?
3. What solutions do they use today?
1. Interview more than 10 people
2. Understand your first customers
3. Find most urgent pains & gains
Vs.
Prepare your interview

59. 1. SPAM Warning: never get your domain associated with spamming;
2. Personalize each email with a specific comment about the company, the person’s twitter profile, etc.
3. Highlight the problem you’re trying to solve quickly (2nd sentence) but keep it vague;
4. Keep it short (4 sentence max)
Get an
intro
Webinar
workshop
Mechanical
Turk
Cold call
Cold email
In case of Cold email
How to reach prospects for an interview?

60. Step 1: Let them explain who they are and their Role
• Get the customer to describe her world, using her words.
• Make sure you find the right person for your “problem context“
Step 2: Define Success
• “What does the Ideal Outcome look like for you?”
• Look for metrics and not generic statements
Step 3: Define the problems
• “What’s the hardest part about achieving that ideal outcome?”
• “Can you tell me about the last time that happened?” > ASK STORIES!
• “Why was that hard?”
• “What, if anything, have you done to solve that problem?”
• “What don’t you love about the solutions you’ve tried?”
The interview Script

61. 1. Do not talk about your idea;
2. Do not ask about the future;
3. Do not ask what they want.
Don’t ask:
• “What’s the hardest part about finding a
good vegetarian restaurant in a new city?”
• “What’s the hardest part about being a vegetarian?”
Ask:
• “What’s the hardest part about eating out as a vegetarian?”
How not to interview?

62. Tell me a story about
eating out as a
vegetarian?
The portions aren‟t
large enough”
I don‟t really trust that the
things I order are meat-free
A yelp search for
„vegetarian‟ returns results
like „Joe‟s All American Steak
House‟ with comments like,
„Don‟t bring your vegetarian
friends here.'
Example

63. Take 30 minutes
Early adopters
Who are they? Where can
you find them?
Customer discovery
Observation strategy?
Interview strategy & script?
Data Detective
Find relevant information
about your target.

64. Success
Learn to solve the
customer problem
Effectiveness
Maximize learning
minimizing the effort
Productivity
Figuring out the
right thing to build
Wrap-up

65. Customers would have liked the full product,
but the MVP sucks, so we abandoned the vision.
FALSE
NEGATIVE
But Customers don’t know what they want!
VISIONARY
COMPLEX
It would be faster to just build it right, all this
measuring distracts from delighting our customers
TOO BUSY
TO LEARN
Lean Startup FEARS

66. Be fast, react quickly Obsession with execution quality Bias towards ACTION
Listen & Learn as much as you can Do Whatever it takes Show up : Meet people
NEVER Give Up : Be relentless Be courageous Collaborate

68. Platform
Complete assignments
& get feedback
Do 10 interviews
Take as much info as possible on
the people you are interviewing
Upload
Interview notes and
conclusions
This Module’s assignment