@Leancamp

Channel Development

SaintSal — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:50:50 +0000

Jordan Elpern-Waxman suggested:
Congratulations. You've used customer development to attain the product/market fit - now what? Even assuming your awesome product really is as awesome as you think, you are competing for a finite amount of customer dollars, time, and attention. How are you going to break through the clutter to reach your customer, get their attention, and get them to open their wallet? Unless you’re Facebook, you are going to need channel partners to get your product to market, at lease initially. How do you find a channel partner for your product, and how do you get that channel partner to distribute your product? Once your BD guy has gotten that distribution partnership, how do you get your partner to invest energy into selling your product over everyone else’s (what the retail industry calls “preferred shelf placement”)? I came up with the term Channel Development as an adaption of an amazing presentation I heard yesterday called Magic & Money: your users want magic, but your partners want money. More traditional names include go-to-market strategy or business development. Channel Development, or the Magic & Money problem, is what’s called a two-part game: you have to solve for your users’ needs and your partners’ needs simultaneously. Solve for only one, and nothing will happen. Reaching channel/product fit – another term I just made up – requires iterating along what the presentation called “parallel insight arrays” – going from commercial insight to consumer insight and back. This session will use a fishbowl or roundtable format, depending on the level of interest. The presentation, by the founder of innovation consultancy Fahrenheit212, focused on innovation in large companies who have the advantage of existing channel partners, brand recognition, etc. I will present the basic concept and then we will collectively adapt it to the startup reality and build a framework for startups to do Channel Development successfully.

Workshop/Game: Design the Box

SaintSal — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 04:56:31 +0000

Thomas Schranz suggested:
I'd like to host a 'Design the Box'-Workshop: Design the Box is a useful game to facilitate reflection about a product's vision and how to communicate it in a way the customer understands. We've played the game a lot with our own products and with products of friends and it helped us a great deal because it forces you to nail down your opinion on certain things * what's the usp * what's the vision * what's the business model * who's the customer * … and helps you to identify aspects of your product where you are uncertain. A great way to brainstorm new product ideas but also to streamline existing products (and a reality check on internal communication and assumptions). * http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/JimHighsmithonProductVisi.html * http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/using-design-games

Effective Listening…let’s brainstorm about how to listen better [updated]

SaintSal — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 03:37:21 +0000

Since so much of the Customer Development and Lean/ Agile methodologies depend upon internal and external dialog, being an effective listener could be the difference between getting startups off the ground or not. We're a startup enterprise software business deep into Customer Discovery and problem-solution interviews. The concept for this session is a roundtable discussion on good techniques for listening well and ensuring what customers say is what we hear.

Salim Virani said:

"Ensuring what customers say is what we hear." This is so hard! Great topic - looking forward to it!

Effective Listening…let’s brainstorm about how to listen better

SaintSal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:58:07 +0000

Seth Surchin suggested:
Since so much of the Customer Development and Lean/ Agile methodologies depend upon internal and external dialog, being an effective listener could be the difference between getting startups off the ground or not. We're a startup enterprise software business deep into Customer Discovery and problem-solution interviews. The concept for this session is a roundtable discussion on good techniques for listening well and ensuring what customers say is what we hear.

Successful MVP’s from Lean Startup Machine

SaintSal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:53:35 +0000

Ryan MacCarrigan suggested:
- How and why should MVP's be leveraged as part of the validated learning process? - How are MVP's essential to speed, pivots, and maximizing runway? - What are the four most common types of MVP's that teams use at Lean Startup Machine? - What are some notable or creative examples from LSM? - Open Q&A

Is the Open Innovation paradigm compatible with Lean Startup principles?

SaintSal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:48:21 +0000

What the metric?

SaintSal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:46:24 +0000

Stuart Eccles suggested:
A collaborative workshop session discussing what metrics are worth measuring and optimising for a theoretical idea you have yet to build or a currently running business. After my last session on lean startup metrics at LSM (http://www.slideshare.net/stueccles/lean-startup-metrics) I had lots of discussions with people about what metrics they should be measuring and optimising for their product at their stage of growth. I thought we could make a collaborative session to allow people to help out each other on what and how to measure and optimise.

What the metric?

SaintSal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:46:24 +0000

Knowsy iPad game case study

SaintSal — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 02:09:45 +0000

Lane Halley suggested:
I helped The Innovation Games Company bring a new game platform from concept to App Store in just a few weeks. A key success factor was the way the small, collaborative, cross-functional team worked together. During this project, I learned some new ways to adapt my familiar user experience techniques so they more quick, visual, continuous and collaborative. I'll share what worked (and what didn’t work) and provide five useful UX practices that help your team move faster with better results.

How to stay lean when developing physical products… [updated]

SaintSal — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:20:26 +0000

We hear a lot about the lean start-up with web products, but how have others used these principles with hardware or consumer products?

Christopher Pett said:

This is my focus at the moment. Deleting code is free. Scrapping components, materials and assemblies; not so much. So product development doesn't sit squarely with aspects of the agile method. But it's true that the lean start-up approach, having borrowed from manufacturing enterprise culture, is now being adopted by industrial studios and product development practices. It's an interesting conversation and one that I'd love to pick up with more people. Thanks Mark.