2. How to Select Your Initial Product Features
Barry Doctor, Harborlight Partners
3. What is it?
What is it NOT?
How do you know?
5. Delight customers
Get lots of them signed up
Make a lot of $$
Realize some big vision or change the world
7. “Maximize chances of success”
◦ Build a great product with enough features that
increase the odds that customers will want it
◦ Problem: no feedback until the end, might be too
late to adjust
“Release early and often”
◦ Get as much feedback as possible – quick
◦ Problem: run around in circles, chasing what
customers think they want
8. Avoid building products that nobody wants
Maximize the learning per dollar spent
Probably much more minimum than you
think!
9. Visionary customers can fill in the gaps on
missing features, if the product solves a real
problem
Allows us to achieve a big vision in small
increments without going in circles
Requires a commitment to iteration
11. Anther Possible Definition:
Good products for startups to build
Minimum Viable
Crappy products nobody wants to use
products built by companies better
financed than you
14. What is the Market Problem that your product
solves?
15. I just had an idea
I needed it
I thought it was cool
I had this one guy who wanted it
16. Who has the problem?
In what industries?
Identify buyers and users
What are they using today instead of your
sparkly, glitzy, innovative, never before seen
product?
17. The simplest solution that someone will pay
for is the MVP
18. Describe your MVP concept to possible buyers
Share wireframes or mock-ups
Gather feedback from possible buyers
Do NOT build the product… yet
20. Identify who (buyers & users) has the problem
Research the target industry
Talk to potential buyers & users
Establish your positioning
Test the concepts
21. that version of a new product which allows a
team to collect the maximum amount
of validated learning about customers with
the least effort.
22. It’s like [reference
product in another
category]
but for [new
application]
The Amazon Kindle
Paperwhite: it’s like
an iPod but for books.
23. Our <products and services>
help <buyers/users>
who want to <solve a problem>
by <reducing something>
and <increasing something else>
unlike <competing solution>.
24. because the concept is flawed
because the solution doesn’t solve the problem
because the product isn’t yet good enough
because the market positioning is wrong
because you’re targeting the wrong customers
26. Understand the market
Define the market problem
Create Detailed Personas – details in ebook at
www.outsideinview.com
27. Identify the Market Problem first
Determine the target buyer persona
Ensure that the solution will solve the
problem AND it is something the target buyer
needs and is willing to pay for
Mock up/smoke test/alpha test concept
Collect buyer feedback
Revise & Iterate…
28. Smoke test / landing page / AdWords / SEM
Alpha test / In-product split testing
Remove some features
Paper prototypes
Customer discovery/validation/feedback –
physically do some interviews
◦ Find/create user community
◦ Use Google Hangouts, LinkedIn, Dev communities