Hypotheses (Thu Sep 13, lecture 3)
How we use a scientific method to determine product/market fit; first round of product brainstorming

Homework due for today

Legend: : Participation | : Early | : PDF | : Team | : Zipped Legend: : Participation | : Early | : PDF | | : Zipped

  1. Read: Lean Startup Chapter 4 and 5. Please consider the following warmup questions, and write up your responses.
    • Explain what a concierge MVP is and how it is used
    • What does Eric Ries mean by “getting out of the building”? What message is he trying to get across? What mistake is he trying to teach you to avoid?
    • What 1 or 2 important things from the reading did you not understand? And if you understood it all, then what 1 or 2 important things were most insightful/useful/valuable to you. Please make sure I can tell which is which!
    • Deliverable: Submit warmup quiz in Latte as a pdf, before 10am on class day!
  2. Pilot Teams: Meet outside of class TWO TIMES for at least 1 hour each, and discuss the project, and begin drafting their Pilot Project Report (see The Pilot Project). Do this as a shared Google doc. Make that document publically available. Update Latte Page “Pilot Project Teams and Reports Link Page” with the names of the pilot team members, and a link to the draft of your report. Team Deliverable: Your draft pilot project report as a pdf with the team members names listed.
  3. Read and Listen: Build Measure learn vs. Learn Measure Build and Getting Out of the Office is Product Management

Useful (optional) reading

Discussion

  • Thanks for warmups
  • Whats an MVP exactly, according to RIES?
  • Why is the term confusing
  • What is a concierge MVP?
  • What is getting out of the building?
  • What exactly is a hypothesis, give examples from your product ideas
  • (Don’t worry about antilog. It’s not a useful concept :)

Thoughts about Lean Startup

  • Basically: identify the right product for the right customer
  • “Lean” term stolen from “Lean Manufacturing” (Toyota et al)
  • Some key characteristics:
    • Small Batches vs. Large Batches
    • Minimize WIP
    • Changes in plan are expected and embraced
    • “Pull” vs. Push
    • Small self-managed teams
    • Don’t try to plan everything from day one
    • Instead, Iterate, iterate, iterate!
  • Agile Software Development (next term :)
    • Also based on the same principles
    • And with the same objectives
  • Lean Startup
    • Yes, just another buzzword
    • Some might say “there’s nothing new under the sun”
    • Realize there are several ‘methodologies’ that people push
    • The underlying principles are similar
  • My own experience with the idea of Lean Startup
    • Where did it come from
    • Is it just Eric Ries self promotion?
    • Why do I think it’s a good approach
    • “Scientific method?”
  • Some ideas that we’ll explore more in the next few weeks
    • Validated Learning
    • Build/Measure/Learn
    • Hypotheses and assumptions
    • Minimum Viable Product
    • Customer Development
    • Pivoting
    • Metrics and real-world data
      • Innovation accounting

Talk about Term Projects

  • In week 5 we will begin working on the term projects
  • Between now and then we will be coming up with ideas, writing them up, etc.
  • Here is a page with Product Idea Inspirations
  • Discuss how it should work: Term Project Outline

Brainstorm!

  • Every student will have to create at least one idea for a term project.
  • As we brainstorm about product ideas you can start collecting the ones that you like and want to put forward as your idea for a term project.
Right now First round of brainstorming on possible term projects. Collect them on whiteboard and write them down.

Hypotheses

Four Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask
  1. Do customers/consumers/users recognize that they have the problem you are trying to solve?
  2. If there was a solution, would they buy it?
  3. Would they buy it from us?
  4. Can we build a solution for that problem?

The tendency of all computer science, IT, entrepreneurs, everywhere, always is to start with question 4.

  • Example hypotheses for the pilot project: Hypotheses

Next Class