I'm a fan of Dave McClure's startup metrics for pirates. It's a simple framework that can make launching a web app or company a little less daunting by breaking the lifecycle of the user into distinct phases.

I'm also a fan of putting your entire business on a single piece of paper. If you can't outline your business on a the back of a napkin, I think it's likely that you've either made it unecessarily complicated or missed how to best communicate it. If the person across the table doesn't get it, your team members might not get it either.

At INSIDR, we actually use the lifecycle approach to map the entire business as we test, trial and iterate through different strategies of acquisition, activation, referral, retention and revenue - outlining them on a single sheet of paper:

In the diagram above, the dotted boxes represent ideas for different acquisition sources, features, revenue models, etc, and the solid boxes represent what's commited, launched and being tested. GREEN means the strategies are working, RED means they aren't, and YELLOW means we don't yet know. Coupled with metrics, it gives a good high-level view of the entire business but more importantly, it becomes a high-level test matrix for the entire business, keeping the emphasis on tesing and trialing to success.

We don't worry much about the reds, because you only need a single green box across each stage of the lifecycle to build a big business. We worry more about the yellows and aggresively pushing them to red or to green, since a partially successful effort can waste time and money and distract from other initiatives that could be much bigger levers.

Bottom line :: Turning the strategic framework into a day-to-day operational doc has kept our eye on the entire lifecycle and made trial and error a core discipline for the team.

But Dell employees went out of their way to conceal these problems. In one e-mail exchange between Dell customer support employees concerning computers at the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett law firm, a Dell worker states, “We need to avoid all language indicating the boards were bad or had ‘issues’ per our discussion this morning.”

In other documents about how to handle questions around the faulty OptiPlex systems, Dell salespeople were told, “Don’t bring this to customer’s attention proactively” and “Emphasize uncertainty.”

“They were fixing bad computers with bad computers and were misleading customers at the same time,”

I had dinner list week with Sean Ellis. I wanted to talk to him about an advisory role at ShopWell, and we spent most of the dinner talking about metrics-driven marketing. It was interesting enough to prompt the first post here in a few months.

I've spent a fair bit time recently thinking about the point where a start-up can and should stop focusing exclusively on the product and spread its energy across marketing and other efforts. My analogy is tennis - there's a strong natural impulse to look past the ball and across the court (towards the opponent, and the spot you want to hit) before you make impact, but its critical to look at the ball all the way through impact to truly crush it. Federer is a great example. In the photo below, you can see he's left looking at where the ball used to be well after the stroke.

 
Similarly, I think its critical to follow-through in a start up, focusing manically on the product until the company finds product market fit.

The survey has eight questions, but two stand-out as particularly interesting because they speak directly to whether the company is ready to go to market:

• How would you feel if you could no longer use the product?
• What would you likely use as an alternative if the product were no longer available?

The survey is typically sent to a subset of users that have used the product enough to see the core value prop, and Sean's is specifically looking for the percentage that would describe themselves as "very disappointed" if they could no longer use the service. Bottom line: if these users wouldn't be disappointed to lose the service, it's time to go back into the garage and build a better product. If they would be disappointed but can easily name an alternative, you've got a utility, and it's time to differentiate. If your users would be disappointed and don't have a alternative ready, you're ready to go to market. Beyond this, there are two other questions I love:

• What's the primary benefit you receive from the product?
• What type of person do you think would benefit most from the product?

I love these questions because they speak to the fact that the value that you envision when you build the product is not necessarily the value the users perceive, and the user you envisioned may not be the best target. For example:

• You built a mobile social network but folks are using it as an address book
• You built a backup service but folks are using it for synchronization
• You build a collaboration portal but kids are using it to trade music

Fred Wilson's talked about the majority of his successful exits coming from companies with the agility to pursue products and business models markedly different than the original vision, and there's often gold in these hills if the company is keen enough to spot it and agile enough to pursue it.

My bottom line takeaway: Follow through until you find product market fit before dividing your resources and attention, use metrics and surveys to objectively when you are there, maintain a keen eye for the opportunities you haven't envisioned.

At ShopWell, we're in the midst of ethnography and focus groups on shopping and how different audiences think about food. It's great to watch, a product of IDEO and user-centric design. I'm curious how I fit in to these segments, so I took a camera and jotted down a few notes on what I was thinking on my last trip.

"What should I do for dinner? Could pick up a taco...but had one yesterday. Could get take out at Pomodoro...but not very healthy. Maybe pick up groceries. Which supermarket? Trader Joe's is too far. Whole foods is right on 24th, near home. But the parking lot will be totally full. Maybe I'll go out after all. Nah, I'll just go."

"Start with Strawberries, as usual. These look kinda random. They're going to fall out all over the basket."

"I'll get these. Nice boxes, will fit in the basket nicely."

"And raspberries, for cereal."

"Not sure if I have blueberries at home, should I get more?"

"One soft avocado, one hard avocado. Am I eating too many of these?"

"One lemon, for broiling fish."

"Limes? No, I'm sick of Corona."

"I wish there was a way to keep these fresh. Seems I always cook half, and the other half goes bad."

"I'll get two this time, try to waste less."

"Need to figure out more ways to cook potatos."

"Wow, haven't seen corn here in a long time. Guess it's in season. I'll grab two."

"Think I have a butternut squash at home, will grab a couple of apples to make a mash."

"Need plain yogurt for granola, a standard."

" Need yogurt drink, as usual."

 "This looks less expensive than the granola I usually buy. But a pain to scoop it out. I'll skip it."

"Haven't bought tortillas in a while. Need to find one in a resealable bag."

"This should do me for the week."

"Not sure what's down this aisle. Should I go? Nah, too far."

"Here's my regular granola. Turns out it's cheaper than the loose stuff. Weird."

"Where's that rice you don't have to cook?"

"Not sure if I can even eat Tortilla Chips without beer, but here goes/"

"I have a ton of fish at home, but I don't want to thaw it. I'll grab a fresh one with spices."

"I'm always starving when the fish runs out, maybe a pizza this time."

"Or two..."

"And some Indian food, these are always good to have around."

"This cheese is so fricking expensive. And so small. Actually, it feels nice to buy something so small and expensive, like a delicacy."

"I wish this bread could keep for more than 2 days. Should I freeze it?"

"I never have enough snacks, maybe some dried fruit this time?"

"Always need some chocolate. Can't remember if this one tastes good or bad."

"Feeling a bit under the weather. Allergic to OJ, maybe grab grapefruit juice?"

$122 for two bags. Ridiculous. I've got to go to Trader Joe's next time"

A Few Other Observations

• As usual, I carried a basket and shopped quickly for what I could fit in the basket
• I bought the usuals, 90% of what I bought are my standard items
• I didn't look at a food label on a package or at any ingredients in detail
• I looked at individual prices regularly but never closely, they never really factored in