How to create your Minimum Viable Product - Raff Paquin

How to build your Minimum Viable Product

Presented by @raffpaquin

Objectives of the afternoon:

• What problem are we solving with the MVP?

• What feature should be included or not in the MVP?

• How/What to measure in the MVP and why?

• How to transform ideas into a prototype?

• How to transform a prototype into actionable insights?

• How to monetize those actionable insights?

What is my background?

• My name is Raff Paquin.

• I’m part of the founding team @ Frank & Oak

• Former Head of Technology

• Now partner at Interaction Ventures and I’m helping businesses to scale

• Feel free to contact me! me@raff.ca

What is your background?

• Who is a student?

• Who is an entrepreneur full time?

• Who is thinking about launching a startup?

• Who is from Montreal?

• Who is active on Twitter?

@raffpaquin #Montreal #tech #Startup

@SergiusEscobar #Montreal #tech #Startup

@founding #Montreal #tech #Startup

Customer Validation & Development with Beth Thouin.What did you learn last week?

Customer Validation & Development with Beth Thouin.

What did you learn last week?

Listen. Test hypotheses. Seek for proof.

The market is validated. Now what?

Startups are machine to learn. You should always be looking for

learning opportunities.

Continue to validate.We need to start testing our

hypotheses in the ‘real world’. But that is complexe, no?

Start to build.&

Starting to build. Two approaches:

Maximise change of success Release early, release often

Build a great product Build all the features we need

Beautiful, easy to use Scalable and safe

Sell the vision to early adopters Release something early

Missing features Don’t invest too much in UI/UX

Startups need to learn. All the time.

Maximise change of success Release early, release often

Build a great product Build all the features we need

Beautiful, easy to use Scalable and safe

Sell the vision to early adopters Release something early

Missing features Don’t invest too much in UI/UX

Release early, release often.

Why do you think it’s better to release early and often?

Release early, release often.

What are the minimum features needed to test an idea like Zappos?

Release early, release often.

What are the minimum features needed to test an idea like Zappos?

Amazon bought Zappos for 1.2B$

Release early, release often.

How often do you think businesses like Frank & Oak release new versions of their website?

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

You need to read this book.

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

You should also follow this guy

online.

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

Remember: Startups are

machine to learn.

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

Are-we lazy?! No!We want to lower

the risk, minimise the money needed and optimize our time.

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

… and time, money and

energy.

Wikipedia time!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a key lean startup concept popularized by Eric Ries.

The basic idea is to maximize validated learning for the least amount of effort.

After all, why waste effort building out a product without first testing if it's worth it.

Remember Beth’s presentation. Always

validate.

Build the product! Test the idea!

A B

What is the main objective of the MVP?

or

What is the goal of the MVP?

Build the product! Test the idea!

A B

The MVP is a process to continuously test ideas and built the product,

at the same time.

The process:

Let’s take a 10 minutes break!Pause

The process:

Test hypotheses (ideas) by building a prototype (code)Step 1 - Build

Prototype

Hypotheses

Bu

ild1

What kind of idea do we want to test? What king of prototype should we build? What technology should we use to build code? PHP? Node.js? Where can I find a technical co-founder (CTO)? What if my product is not perfect, does customer will trust my brand?

Tools: • Google Form http://www.google.ca/forms/about/ • Mailchimp http://mailchimp.com/ • sumo.me http://sumome.com/ • IFTTT https://ifttt.com/ • Zappier https://zapier.com/ • Shopify https://www.shopify.ca/ • LaunchRock http://launchrock.co/

Expose your prototype (code) to customers and track behaviours (data)Step 2 - Measure

Behaviours

Prototype

Me

asure2

What should we track? How to setup tracking? How often should we look at data? How we know we have enough data to take a decision? What to do if data make no sense? How to bring traffic to the MVP?

Tools: • Google Analytics http://www.google.ca/analytics/ • Optimizely https://www.optimizely.com/ • Gecko Board https://www.geckoboard.com/ • Mixpanel ($) http://www.mixpanel.com/ • KissMetrics ($) https://www.kissmetrics.com/ • RJMetrics ($$$) https://rjmetrics.com/ • Looker ($$$) http://www.looker.com/

Transform behaviours (data) into new hypotheses (ideas)Step 3 - Learn

New hypotheses

Behaviours

Learn3

How to track knowledge? How to write and share knowledge with the rest of the team? How to prepare the next iteration? How to develop the roadmap and prioritize the next features? Should you raise money to build the next iteration?

Tools: • Google Sheets http://www.google.ca/sheets/about/ • Asana http://asana.com • Balsamic Mockups http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/ • Phone • Email

What is the value of this process?

What is the value of this process?We create validated ideas that increase the value of the startup (a product that customer wants) while lowering the risk.

When should we stop this process?

When should we stop this process?NEVER!

Wait! So you are telling me that business like Frank & Oak are still doing it?

Wait! So you are telling me that business like Frank & Oak are still doing it?Yes they are!

Oh wow. So, businesses like Google are also doing it?

Oh wow. So, businesses like Google are also doing it?Oh yes they are!

Questions.

@raffpaquinThank you.