The document summarizes key concepts around startups, minimum viable products (MVP), and achieving product/market fit. It includes workshops on developing hypotheses for a startup idea and creating an MVP. Customers should be interviewed to validate problems and solutions, and qualitative feedback is more important than numbers in understanding customer needs. Various types of MVPs are presented such as landing pages, videos, and single feature products. The goal of an MVP is to validate assumptions quickly before building full features. Achieving product/market fit is the big leap for a startup, and actionable, rather than vanity, metrics should be used to guide decisions.

1. Sebastian Fittko on
Startup Analytics and MVP
at E-Entreprenuership Summer School 2013, Zeppelin Universität
1

2. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

3. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

4. Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

5. "Success consists of going from failure
to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
– Winston Churchill
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

6. Image curtsey: http://steveblank.fi/press.html

7. "A startup is an
organization formed
to search for a
repeatable and
scalable
business model."
– Steve Blank
Image curtsey: http://steveblank.fi/press.html

8. Traction
Startup XY
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit
Focus: Discovery, Validated Learning
Experiments: Iteration, Pivots
Methodology: Qualitative, Quantitative
BIG thanks to © Ash Maurya!
Scale

9. Traction
New idea startup
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit
Scale

10. Traction
New idea startup
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons
Scale

11. Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

12. What are you aiming for?
„Being in a good market with a product
that can satisfy that market.“
– Marc Andreessen
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

13. Go where the beef is and
people want your stuff!!
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

14. Traction
Product/Market Fit
Find a product
the market wants!
Time

15. Traction
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit
Scale
Focus: Efficiency, Growth
Experiments: Optimizations
Methodology: Quantitative

16. Traction
Start here =
Copy cat
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit
Scale
Focus: Efficiency, Growth
Experiments: Optimizations
Methodology: Quantitative

17. Start here =
Copy cat
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

18. Traction
Product/Market Fit
Start here!
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit

19. Traction
Product/Market Fit
Start here!
Achieve this!
Time
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/Market
Fit

20. Where is the pain?
Insights
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

21. Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

22. Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

23. „Everybody has a plan
until they get punched
in the mouth.“
– Mike Tyson

24. Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

25. Day
Month
No.
Who are our Key Partners?
Who are our key suppliers?
Which Key Resources are we acquiring from partners?
Which Key Activities do partners perform?
What Key Activities do our Value Propositions require?
Our Distribution Channels?
Customer Relationships?
Revenue streams?
What Key Resources do our Value Propositions require?
Our Distribution Channels? Customer Relationships?
Revenue Streams?
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
Which Key Resources are most expensive?
Which Key Activities are most expensive?
What value do we deliver to the customer?
Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve?
What bundles of products and services are we offering to each Customer Segment?
Which customer needs are we satisfying?
What type of relationship does each of our Customer
Segments expect us to establish and maintain with them?
Which ones have we established?
How are they integrated with the rest of our business model?
How costly are they?
For whom are we creating value?
Who are our most important customers?
Through which Channels do our Customer Segments
want to be reached?
How are we reaching them now?
How are our Channels integrated?
Which ones work best?
Which ones are most cost-efficient?
How are we integrating them with customer routines?
For what value are our customers really willing to pay?
For what do they currently pay?
How are they currently paying?
How would they prefer to pay?
How much does each Revenue Stream contribute to overall revenues?
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http:/
/creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
BIG thanks to Alex Osterwalder! You can download the here: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/business_model_canvas_poster.pdf
Year

26. Day
Month
No.
Who are our Key Partners?
Who are our key suppliers?
Which Key Resources are we acquiring from partners?
Which Key Activities do partners perform?
What Key Activities do our Value Propositions require?
Our Distribution Channels?
Customer Relationships?
Revenue streams?
What Key Resources do our Value Propositions require?
Our Distribution Channels? Customer Relationships?
Revenue Streams?
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
Which Key Resources are most expensive?
Which Key Activities are most expensive?
What value do we deliver to the customer?
Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve?
What bundles of products and services are we offering to each Customer Segment?
Which customer needs are we satisfying?
What type of relationship does each of our Customer
Segments expect us to establish and maintain with them?
Which ones have we established?
How are they integrated with the rest of our business model?
How costly are they?
For whom are we creating value?
Who are our most important customers?
Through which Channels do our Customer Segments
want to be reached?
How are we reaching them now?
How are our Channels integrated?
Which ones work best?
Which ones are most cost-efficient?
How are we integrating them with customer routines?
For what value are our customers really willing to pay?
For what do they currently pay?
How are they currently paying?
How would they prefer to pay?
How much does each Revenue Stream contribute to overall revenues?
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http:/
/creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
BIG thanks to Alex Osterwalder! You can download the here: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/business_model_canvas_poster.pdf
Year

27. Day
Month
Year
No.
Who are our Key Partners?
Who are our key suppliers?
Which Key Resources are we acquiring from partners?
Which Key Activities do partners perform?
What Key Activities do our Value Propositions require?
Our Distribution Channels?
Customer Relationships?
Revenue streams?
Hypothesis
What value do we deliver to the customer?
Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve?
What bundles of products and services are we offering to each Customer Segment?
Which customer needs are we satisfying?
Hypothesis
What type of relationship does each of our Customer
Segments expect us to establish and maintain with them?
Which ones have we established?
How are they integrated with the rest of our business model?
How costly are they?
For whom are we creating value?
Who are our most important customers?
Hypothesis
Hypothesis
Hypothesis
What Key Resources do our Value Propositions require?
Our Distribution Channels? Customer Relationships?
Revenue Streams?
Through which Channels do our Customer Segments
want to be reached?
How are we reaching them now?
How are our Channels integrated?
Which ones work best?
Which ones are most cost-efficient?
How are we integrating them with customer routines?
Hypothesis
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model?
Which Key Resources are most expensive?
Which Key Activities are most expensive?
For what value are our customers really willing to pay?
For what do they currently pay?
How are they currently paying?
How would they prefer to pay?
How much does each Revenue Stream contribute to overall revenues?
Hypothesis
Hypothesis
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
To view a copy of this license, visit http:/
/creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
BIG thanks to Alex Osterwalder! You can download the here: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/business_model_canvas_poster.pdf

28. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

29. Workshop: 6 hypothesis
Pitch your idea and
the underlying hypothesis
(1) Pain aka problem?
(2) Pain relief?
(3) Solution?
(4) Get the user engaged?
(5) Growth
(6) Revenue? How? Amount?

30. Bla
Bla
Bla
Bla
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons
Bla

31. Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

32. How to present?
Pitch your idea and
the underlying hypothesis
EACH
- 5 minutes to pitch the idea & hypothesis
- 10 minutes discussion

33. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

34. Hypothesis 1
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

35. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

36. How to gather customer insights
and validate decisions?
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

37. Quantitative
Measure customer behavior
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

38. vs.

39. Qualitative
Asking for customer intend
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

40. How to validate
customer intend?
Traction
Product/Market Fit
Problem/
Solution Fit
Time

41. We do this in two steps:
1st step
Validate Problem
2nd step
Validate Solution
Do they care?
Do they need it?
Do they have budget for it?
Who really is they?
Does our solution really
solve their Problem?
Do they understand the
solution?
Would they pay for it?

42. Numbers are a horrible way to
understand customer intend!
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

43. So go and ask your customers!

44. “If I had asked people what they wanted, they
would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

45. Henry Ford asked wrong!
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they
would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

46. The hard things in customer interviews
Knowing who your customer is.
Define narrow segmentation!
5-10 customers per segment.

47. The hard things in customer interviews
Ask the right way.
Did or do, NEVER would.
Don‘t ask for opinions.
Don‘t assume problems.

48. The hard things in customer interviews
Use their feedback.
Know what you want to learn.
Test your riskiest assumptions.
Learn or pivot.

49. The hard things in customer interviews
Be prepared to
kill your idea!

50. The interview
Design a questionnaire based
on your assumptions.
Testrun the interview.
Let them speak.
Ask open questions.
Let them be the expert.
In person, no Skype, no
online survey, no phone,
no email!
Don‘t do more interviews
if feedback repeats!

51. The interview – protocol
No laptop.
Use Post-its.
Write down exact
customer phrase.

52. NEVER delegate interviews!
Interviews should be done by
the product deciders.
Lern to talk and listen to your
customers!
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

53. Review with your team!
Use exact wording by the customer.
Understand their answers in their context.
Reflect and rethink your assumptions.
Which assuptions turned out wrong?
See what you‘ve learned.
Adapt your solution.

54. Validate Solution.
Come back to interviewees.
Focus first on current solution.
Discuss flaws of current solutions.
Show mockups and interactive demos.
Get improvement feedback.
Get them to commit. Pay a price?
Build a MVP.
or iterate.

55. If you were wrong – be HAPPY!
You don‘t wasted your money,
time and money
Iterate or pivot
Usually a successful startup didn‘t
start with the final solution
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

56. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

57. Numbers are a great way to
verify customers intend!
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

58. MVPs to verify problem/solution fit
& product/market fit

59. „New ventures rapidly
assemble minimum viable
products and immediately
elicit customer feedback.
Then, using customers’ input to revise their
assumptions, they start the
cycle over again, testing
redesigned offerings and
making further small
adjustments (iterations) or
more substantive ones
(pivots) to ideas that aren’t
working.“
– Steve Blank

60. Example MVPs

61. Video MVP

62. Dropbox MVP

63. Lessons learned
Give the early adopters a hint
of the product experience.
The same feedback as if putting a
product in their hand.
Video had the waiting list (of emails)
jump from 5000 to whopping 75000
in one single day
Dropbox MVP

64. Landing Page MVP

66. Lessons learned
Create a landingpage on the
solution you offer.
Drive traffic to your page: Google AdWord
campaign or platform like betali.st
Setup Google Analystics or other tool.
Measure conversion and virality.
Make questions easy, e.g. chat.
Dropbox MVP

67. Wizard of Oz MVP

68. Zappos

69. Lessons learned
No stocking of items and
no backend required.
No scalable business: all of it done by the
founder himself, and by hand.
Validate the most important assumptions
with little investment with a real life
shopping experience
Dropbox MVP

70. Concierge MVP

71. Food on the table

72. Lessons learned
Gather insides by offering a
hands on real life service
Add paying customers
Start coding when you need to scale
your service to satisfy demand
Dropbox MVP

73. Raise Funds from
Customers

74. Pebble Watch

75. Lessons learned
Gather early adopters and raving fans
Stay in constant contact
with your backers
Get strong commitment by potential
customers via investment
Not every product has a strong consumer
focus with clear added value
Dropbox MVP

76. Single Feature MVP

77. Google

78. Lessons learned
Focus is about saying NO!
Many relate that their first mistake
was to make too many features.
Adding more features will not make
the product a must have
Dropbox MVP

79. What is a startup?
Workshop: hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

81. How to present?
Pitch your idea and
the underlying hypothesis
- 5 minutes to pitch the idea & hypothesis
- 10 minutes discussion

82. What is a startup?
Workshop: 5 hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

83. Our MVP is …
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

84. What is a startup?
Workshop: 5 hypothesis
Presenting results
Startup analytics 1
What is a MVP?
Workshop MVP
Presenting results
Startup analytics 2

85. Traction
Product/Market Fit
How to achieve?
Time
Product/
Markt Fit

86. The big leap for the startup
Achieve product/market fit
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

87. Numbers are a great for
decision making!
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

88. The metrics have to
be to actionable!

89. Where is the difference
Actionable metric
Vanity metric
An actionable metric is
one that ties specific and
repeatable actions to
observed results.
Vanity metrics which only
serve to document the
current state of the product
but offer no insight into
how we got here or what to
do next.

90. 3 rules to actionable metrics
(1) Identify the right metrics
(2) Create simple reports
(3) Metrics are people, too

91. (1) Identify right
key metrics
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

92. Startup Metrics for Pirates
•
•
•
•
•
Acquisition: users come to site from various channels
Activation: users enjoy 1st visit: "happy experience
Retention: users come back, visit site multiple times
Referral: users like product enough to refer others
Revenue: users conduct some monetization behavior
AARRR!
(note: If you re in a hurry, Google
Startup Metrics & watch 5m video)

93. Metrics Framework
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referal
Revenue
Product/
Markt Fit

94. Product/Market Fit
Providing a great first
experience (Activation) and
most important of all, that they
come back.
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

95. Signup action
Signup
Specific
Action
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

96. Retention action
Revisits
Churn – cancelation no activity
Key Activity – usage pattern
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

97. (2) Create simple reports
Reports that are hard to understand
simply won’t get used
1-page reports and funnels

98. Funnel Reports

99. Conversion Funnel for June
Sign-up
4200 (100%)
Downloaded
3400 (81%)
Did key activity
1880 (45%)
Purchased
375 (9%)
BIG thanks to © Ash Maurya!

100. Split tests
Variant A – Landing Page Variant B – Landing Page
Sign-up
Sign-up
4200 (100%)
4500 (100%)
Downloaded
Downloaded
3400 (81%)
3800 (84%)
Did key activity
Did key activity
1880 (45%)
2050 (45%)
Purchased
Purchased
375 (9%)
530 (12%)
BIG thanks to © Ash Maurya!

101. Variant A
Variant B
Conversion +30%

102. “Freemium” vs. “Free Trial” experiment
Free Trial (control group)
Freemium
Sign-up
Sign-up
1000 (100%)
1500 (100%)
Downloaded
Downloaded
800 (80%)
1200 (80%)
Did key activity
Did key activity
400 (40%)
450 (30%)
Purchased
Purchased
100 (10%)
75 (5%)
BIG thanks to © Ash Maurya!

103. “Freemium” vs. “Free Trial” experiment
Free Trial (control group)
Freemium
Sign-up
Sign-up
1000 (100%)
1500 (100%)
Downloaded
800 (80%)
Improve
engagementactivity
Did key and
400 (40%)
drive people to
upgrade.
Purchased
100 (10%)
Downloaded
1200 (80%)
Did key activity
450 (30%)
Purchased
75 (5%)

104. Cohort

105. June
Sign-up
4200 (100%)
Downloaded
3400 (81%)
Did key activity
1880 (45%)
Purchased
375 (9%)
June Week 1
June Week 2
June Week 3
June Week 4
Sign-up
Sign-up
Sign-up
Sign-up
900 (100%)
1000 (100%)
1100 (100%)
1200 (100%)
Downloaded
Downloaded
Downloaded
Downloaded
750 (83%)
800 (80%)
850 (81%)
900 (80%)
Key activity
Key activity
Key activity
Key activity
380 (42%)
500 (50%)
650 (60%)
350 (30%)
Purchased
Purchased
Purchased
Purchased
95 (11%)
100 (10%)
180 (16%)
0 (0%)
BIG thanks to © Ash Maurya!

106. June
Sign-up
4200 (100%)
Downloaded
3400 (81%)
DidWhat happened
key activity
here?
1880 (45%)
Feature release?
Purchased
New intro video?
375 (9%)
QA on the live app?
June Week 1
June Week 2
June Week 3
June Week 4
Sign-up
Sign-up
Sign-up
Sign-up
900 (100%)
1000 (100%)
1100 (100%)
1200 (100%)
Downloaded
Downloaded
Downloaded
Downloaded
750 (83%)
800 (80%)
850 (81%)
900 (80%)
Key activity
Key activity
Key activity
Key activity
500 (50%)
650 (60%)
350 (30%)
Purchased
Purchased
Purchased
Purchased
95 (11%)
100 (10%)
180 (16%)
0 (0%)
380 (42%)

107. Retention
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

108. BIG thanks to © Ash Maurya!

109. (3) Metrics are people, too!
Image curtsey: http://www.flickr.com/commons

110. Free Trial (control group)
Sign-up
1000 (100%)
Downloaded
800 (80%)
Troubleshooting
when things go
wrong.
Did key activity
400 (40%)
benjamin@example.com
Purchased
sebastian@example.com
100 (10%)
zu@example.com
chris@example.com

111. THX!
contact:
sebastian.fittko@gmail.com
twitter: @forstartups
XING – Linkedin

112. Credits
BIG Thx for inspiration
go to
Eric Ries
Steve Blank
Ash Maurya
Dave McClure
Alexander Osterwalder
and to the Lean Startup Community
Pictures by flickr.com/commons

113. Must-reads!

114. Tools
Recommendet by
Ash Maurya
Dave McClure
and myself

115. Tools Acquisition
Google Analytics
(web analytics)
google.com/analytics
Google Keyword Tool
(keyword research tool)
adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
SEO Book Tools
(SEO related tools)
tools.seobook.com

116. Tools Activation
Crazy Egg
(Visual Click Mapping)
http://crazyegg.com
Google Website Optimizer
(A/B & Multivariate Testing)
http://google.com/websiteoptimizer
Optimizely
(A/B Testing)
https://www.optimizely.com
Kissmetrics
(A/B Testing, Event Tracking, Cohort)
https://www.kissmetrics.com
Marketo.com
(B2B Lead Generation Management)
http://marketo.com

117. Tools Retention
Campaign Monitor / MailChimp
(Email Newsletter Software)
campaignmonitor.com / mailchimp.com
TriggerMail
(Site-centric Email Management)
triggermail.net
Litmus
(Email and Website Design Testing - Clients / Browsers)
litmusapp.com
Mixpanel
Cohort Analysis
https://mixpanel.com