Customer Development Week 3

Agenda 5:30 – Team Stand Up 5:40 – Market Segments and Customer Development 6:30 – Activity 7:25 – Review Note at 7:00PM we will do a break out session for the mentors to answer these questions. Please remind them that this will happen. What do you think of the program? What do you like about it? How can we help support you or your team better?

Objectives Introduce Market Segments Introduce Customer Development At the end of this session participants will 1) Understand how markets are segmented 2) Understand that the market drives business approach 3) Understand the goal of customer development 4) Be introduced to methods to get customers to interview 5) How to Capture (via survey) and Manage Data

Market Segments & Customer Development Speaker Name Title Credentials CRITERIA - At the end of this session participants will 1) Understand how markets are segmented 2) Understand that the market drives business approach

Market Segments New Market Existing Market Resegmented Market Niche Lower cost Defined by Steve Blank in Four Steps to the Epiphany

Why does it matter? Your approach will be different depending on the market segment.

What is your Market Segment? If there is no established or well defined market and there are no existing competitors you are in a NEW market

New Market Requires a lot of time and money to create the market. Need to find early adopters and educate them on the value of the solution. Both twitter and foursquare are new markets about 5 years old

What is your Market Segment? If there is an established and well defined market with lots of customers, but you offer something “better” (performance, features, service) you are in an EXISTING market

Existing Market Competing based on “performance” differences. Requires branding to differentiate from competitors + lots of money! vs

Existing Market An existing market but offer virtually the same features at a LOWER COST. vs

Resegmented Market If you are carving out a small part of a bigger market to offer something with a uniquely more compelling value you are in RESEGMENTED (or niche) market. Communication tools for business people vs. Communication tools for architects

What is YOUR Market Segment? In your group, take a few minutes to talk about what market segment your app idea falls under.

Customer Development Process Problem / Solution Hypothesis Market Research Personas Get Out of the Building Problem / Solution Fit MVP - Minimally Viable Product These are the terms and processes you will use in the Customer Development process. Problem / Solution is the beginning of the customer development process - in Workspace you will have a template that prompts you to begin each Cusdev session by restarting the problem/solution to make sure you keep the goal of what you want to learn front of mind. Market Research is investigating and researching the market for similar applications or ways that people solve this problem Personas describe the customer you envision benefitting from this solution – Problem/Solution Fit - when you found a validated problem and a validated solution to that problem you have found P/S fit MVP - often referred to as anything you build

Customer Development “Customer development isn’t asking customers what they want—it’s seeking to understand what they need, how they work, where their pain points and highest priorities are. ” —Cindy Alvarez This section is mostly taken from Cindy Alvarez’s blog so we have to thank her and credit her for her depth of knowledge and insights - or just get her to do this section. Cindy Alvarez helps companies build better products through intensely understanding their customers. Customer development isn’t just asking customers what they want – it’s seeking to understand what they need, how they work, where their pain points and highest priorities are. Cindy will be speaking in the Bay Area Technovation so please go to the course syllabus to view her talk.

Customer Development What will I learn? How long will it take? The short answer: how people are really getting a task done, who is doing what, and why it sucks. How long will it take? I don’t know. Sorry, but that’s the truth.  How can I find customers before I’ve even built a product? How were you planning on finding them after you’ve built a product? Seriously, this is the million-dollar question, and the answer is not “we’ll build it and they’ll come” or even “we’ll advertise a LOT” — unless you’re Apple, Microsoft, Google, or Facebook, you don’t have the dollars or distribution to make those work. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Customer Development In Market Research you uncovered places where people that should be interested in your product “live” on the internet Customer development is the process of connecting with them to learn from them As your relationship to the problem/solution and market changes and evolves, so will what you need to know. Using the Symple App example - do chronically ill have problems communicating accurate data about how they are feeling? As you progress with developing your app you will need to know more in depth information and possibly from different people. An example of a progressive customer development might be finding out if doctors want to work with a tool like this? Would they spend money to capture the data and if so how much. It is also possible that doctors already use a solution but unless you are a chronically ill person you would not know about it - or there may be a solution that is provided by an insurance company or a drug company. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Customer Development One goal of customer development is to survey people to find out if what you think it true about them is actually true about them Another goal is to find out if there are ways people are solving that problem that you are unaware of Using the Symple App example - do chronically ill have problems communicating accurate data about how they are feeling? As you progress with developing your app you will need to know more in depth information and possibly from different people. An example of a progressive customer development might be finding out if doctors want to work with a tool like this? Would they spend money to capture the data and if so how much. It is also possible that doctors already use a solution but unless you are a chronically ill person you would not know about it - or there may be a solution that is provided by an insurance company or a drug company. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Get Out of the Building There are a number of ways you can do customer development, and they all require you to “get out of the building”—either physically or virtually! You can use Twitter, Email, Phone to find the people to collect the data that will inform your next steps as your product and market evolve. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Twitter Search An effective way of reaching people…plus it is free! Summarize your idea and build a survey to capture feedback. Reach out to people who have already discussed a similar product, problem, or solution and address a tweet directly to them. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Sample Tweet: @username Would love yr feedback on [product/problem/solution] – shd only take 2mins [URL] thanks! Some people will ignore this, but many more will feel a bit flattered that they’re being asked.  Use this judiciously – more than one or two of these tweets per day and you’ll look like a spammer. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Email Templates “Request” email templates “Referral Request” email template “Tweet Request” email template In the Technovation Workspace there are templates that can be used to email. Look under the "Contact Templates" tab in your google docs workspace, you will find several helpful templates for sending emails and tweets to prospective interviewees Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Surveys Your surveys will be different depending on how you found people and whether you have found problem/solution fit. Your first survey may need to focus on qualifying the subject and asking for contact information Another survey will begin to ask them about their behavior / needs Your third survey might ask them to test or give feedback on your MVP You may be wondering, “So what is this URL I’m sending people to?  Can’t I just have people email me?” NO!!! - do a survey so you can keep track of answers and have reliable and valid data! Survey monkey is tool where you will create your surveys. Capture the results in a spreadsheet in your Workspace so you can keep the data for reference throughout the process. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Survey Best Practices No survey should have more that 10 questions. Use multiple choice questions that can be answered by checkboxes so people don’t have to think too hard to participate Using multiple choice you can also allow for more than one answer After you have gotten to the “Right People” you need to get them to complete the survey - your first survey might have just a few questions Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Asking for Data When you are searching for problem/solution fit you will be asking questions about your problem and/or solution hypothesis Find out if your subjects have the problem Find out how they are solving it Ask about their behavior and needs Get contact information so you can ask for the interview Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Asking the Right Questions When you write down your problem/solution hypothesis you will have made some assumptions about people who will use or buy your product. State your assumptions Prioritize in order of highest risk to lowest You want to test the riskiest assumptions first Asking the right questions is as important as asking the right people. In the next session you will begin with stating your assumptions about the community, the problem, the solution. As you become comfortable with how things break out into groups - you will prioritize and find the “riskiest” assumptions You will test these first Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Asking for an Interview You have three main goals with this survey: Communicate your idea in 10 seconds or less Offer something interesting to the people who visit Get contact information so you can ask for the interview If you have problem/solution fit and a qualified subject pool the most important thing you want to know is how they are willing to participate. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Sample Survey Source: www.cindyalvarez.com Notice the description of what Cindy wanted - to know how the target subjects would be able to help them. She used multiple choice and allowed the subjects to choose more than one response. She has used surveys with these 2 questions for multiple products, and so far, overall less than 80% of ALL respondents to this survey choose at least one way in which they’d like to give feedback, AND give an email address. That is an amazing response rate. Source: www.cindyalvarez.com

Activity Brainstorm Personas Write Interview Questions Set up SurveyMonkey Create Surveys Plan Outreach

Brainstorm Personas Find the Persona tab in your team’s Technovation Workspace on Google Docs Persona - This is the template in workspace that we will use to capture the results of your brainstorming of the personas that you are going to test and then the iterative personas (types of people that may benefit from solving the problem or the solution).

Interview Questions Write the interview questions before you write the survey intro Phrase questions in a relevant way to the subject Make sure the questions get you information that is useful – don’t waste their time! Use formatting options for questions to get more information in fewer questions. Check for typos, spelling and grammatical errors. Test the survey before making a public request! Get a teammates - mentors, friends and even family members to test the survey to see if they understand the questions

Sticky Note Activity Write as many questions as you can for the potential customer of your product Write each question on a sticky note You have 5 minutes! Sticky note activity: After: cluster questions that are about the same topic Write down your assumptions - this means the things you think are true but you don’t actually know that

Survey Intro 10 seconds to get attention Your survey introduction must persuade them to contribute Who are you persuading? What are you persuading them of?

Survey You will likely do many surveys, so don’t stress over it. You are looking for people who will be your customer or has influence over your customer. Ask only whether they meet the criteria you are looking for—one of the right people.

Go to http://www.surveymonkey.com to sign up for a new account Choose “sign up with your Google account” on the right Click “Create Survey” Choose “Create a new survey” and title your survey Choose “Market Research” as the Category Create questions Preview survey Email to mentor and teammates to test and double check that it is going to get you what you want in the way of information.

Customer Development Create your first survey Send the survey—in person, by phone, or online If you are doing phone interviews have the survey in front of you and fill it out. In-person interviews you should print out a survey so you can be consistent in data capture and collection. ALWAYS: transcribe the data back into your team Workspace Refer back to learning and activity information for reference.

Measure and Learn Example Survey A Results Find the Example Survey A tab in your team’s Technovation Workspace on Google Docs Example A Demonstrates that the team had identified a problem for a group of people. The goal with subsequent surveys is to drill further into the problem and refine the ideas for how to solve it and then test those ideas

Measure and Learn Example Survey B Results Find the Example Survey B tab in your team’s Technovation Workspace on Google Docs Example B shows that the team did not find a reliable subject pool to test their problem/solution hypothesis. Use the Blank Survey sheet to record your own measure and learn

Reminder: Weekly Reflections What did your team like about this week? What challenges did your team have this week? Anything else your team would like to share? Each week you will write in the Weekly Reflections section of the Technovation Workspace answering these questions. All of your team (mentor, teacher and instructor) will be reading your response and your instructor will respond to you. You will write these reflections at the your school site meeting.

Technovation Challenge Google Group A place for participants in the program to ask and answer each others questions. http://groups.google.com/group/technovationchallenge

Share with us on Twitter & Facebook Tweet us: @_technovation_ #technovation Like us on Facebook: Technovation Challenge

Ongoing Offsite Activities Customer Development Evaluate Data Continue learning with App Inventor Continue with the customer development by sending out surveys. Check to see if any new survey results have come in and if so - how that impacts you and the business. Continue with App Inventor tutorials