IDEA DEVELOPMENTIdeas don’t sell, products do.

Presenter: Tarun Gaur

CEO, tringapps, Inc.

Ideation.Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing and communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as the basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete or abstract.

An Idea.Every idea has a source, it comes from somewhere - a pain or a gain that results in an aha! moment. In this aha! moment you think you have a solution.

Exercise 1: Let’s write it down

Now describe the problem in simple plain words.

You can use two formats: I have an idea that eliminates the pain … I have an idea that provides consumers a gain …

I have an idea that …

Exercise 1: The MECE List - The McKinsey Way

The idea is not that simple that it can be described in one single line …

Break it down into a MECE list Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive

What if ?

Exercise 2: Define the problem

A well written problem statement goes a long way in establishing a valid idea as a customer focussed offering (Product, Solution or a Service). A problem statement helps you understand the value proposition of the idea for your customers.

A Problem Statement

An Elevator Pitch!You need two elevator pitches - One for your idea and one for yourself. We will tell you why shortly …

Exercise 3: Product Elevator Pitch

An Example: TO parents, QuikShare.com is a content platform that they can use to find community verified child-safe content, reliably aggregated by parents themselves

Exercise 4: Founder Elevator Pitch

An Example: I’m a communications professional with a knack for persuasive storytelling. Considering my colleagues often complemented me for my thoughtful and engaging presentations, I’m looking for insight as to how I can best position myself for a role in production or videography at social impact start-up. Because I’m inspired by documentaries, I want to help companies express their missions in compelling and relatable ways in the age of social media.

The TeamIn a startup, the team members should have complementary skills. If one person is a marketer, the other should be a technologist, another a designer and someone with knowledge of operations and finance. This varies with context but the rationale remains the same.

Exercise 5: Define roles for your team

- List out the areas that you need to execute upon from your problem statement - From your product and founder elevator pitch, find the things you can do yourself - For the rest define roles for other members in your potential team

Build vs Buy.You don’t have to have all the skill sets in-house. You can get the skill sets for cash or by sharing equity with professionals but before you take a leap, think carefully if it is worth giving a share now, or some of the skill set acquisition can be deferred.

Exercise 6: Essential Roles vs Deferred Roles

- Product Manager - Designer - Developers - Procurement Manager - Legal - Finance - Operations - Fund Raising Manager - Sales and Marketing

CustomersKnowing your customers is the key to a

successful sustainable startup

Exercise 7: Define your Customers - Give them personas

John Doe wakes up at 6 AM and makes Doe. John is a baker and makes bread with the doe. He has a school going kid, his kid takes the bread every morning and gives it to school’s cafeteria and the cafe owner gives him a cheque which he promptly hands over to his dad when he is back from school.

Personas.

Features

A Product is a collection of features, not ideas. If the features are useful to the customer, customer buys the product and if not, you lose the customer.

Time to define the features.

Exercise 8: Define the User Journeys (Use Cases)

- Pick up the first Persona - Write all User Journeys for the persona: A user journey is the step by step outline of one thing that a customer accomplishes with your product end to end, you can also call it a transaction. - Repeat this process till you cover all the personas

Exercise 9: Define the Features

Once you have the user Journeys in place, next step is to create a set of features. User Journeys are different from features. User Journeys tell you what customers want to do with your product. A feature defines how your system will help them achieve that goal.

Exercise 10: The feature Scrub

Must Have

Should Have

Nice to Have

Exercise 10: The feature Scrub

You are the product thinker, you know your product the best. You can prioritize your features based on value it brings to the customer and what is the customer willing to pay for that value?When you apply this logic, you will notice that the feature that brings the most value to the customer are the ones that are central to your basic idea.

A PRD = DEVELOPED IDEA!Now, go build it!

Presentations! Rs. 10,000 reward to the best idea.