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Startup School: Testing your MVPs and Prototypes

Lindsey Gray Senior Director, NYU Entrepreneurial Institute Adjunct Faculty, Tandon School of Engineering Instructor, NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) October 18, 2016

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“Starting a startup is something you !can only learn !intrinsically by !

doing it. What you �need to learn is �

the needs of your !own users.”

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Need to do this before finishing designing and/or building your product/service

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Your job is not to validate your product…

Your job is not to validate your product…

It’s to validate the problem, who has it and

then how best to solve it?

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Prototypes and MVPs are tools to help you test your hypotheses.

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What is a prototype?

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A model of a product or service built to demonstrate or test the feasibility of a concept.

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What is a prototype?

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u  Rough u  Rapid u  Right

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What is an MVP?

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MVP = Minimally Viable Product

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What is an MVP?

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“The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the

maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the

least effort.” -Eric Reis

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What is an MVP?

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Minimal Nobody wants

to use it

Viable Products build by companies

that have no financial limitations

MVP

Minimum feature set

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What is an MVP?

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u  Typically distributed to customers u  Can be used with larger test groups u  Enough functionality for customer to

use on their own

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What is an MVP?

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Prototype vs. MVP?

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Prototypes à test product/service design. MVPs à test business hypotheses. Bothà learn about customer wants & needs.

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Prototype

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A model of a product or service built to demonstrate or test the feasibility of a concept.

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Prototypes can be…

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u  Sketches on paper u  Digital mock-ups u  Handmade constructions u  3D prints u  Videos u  Simulated experiences u  Virtual models u  …

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Types of prototypes: Physical form

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Types of prototypes: “Works-like”

vimeo.com/39845871

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Types of prototypes: “Looks-like”

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Types of prototypes: “Works-like” & “Looks-like”

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Types of prototypes: Experience/Service

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“Selecting the focus of a prototype is the art of identifying the most important open design questions.”

-Houde and Hill

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“The IKEA Effect”: When you build something yourself you value it way more than you should.

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-Norton, Mochon, Ariely

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Why prototype? Fail safely…and quickly

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Tom Kelly, IDEO

“Fail often so you can succeed sooner.”

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Why prototype? Learn what we don’t know

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Why prototype? Co-design & collaborate

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Why prototype? Get user feedback

Innosight  LLC  

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Why prototype? Align people…teammates, partners, potential customers…

bit.ly/elmosdanceparty

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“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand meetings. “

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-IDEO

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Prototyping Stages

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Prototyping Best Practices 1. Think with your hands Build to think

2. Test early Fail often to succeed sooner

3. Collect user feedback Be ready to be surprised

4. Avoid emotional attachment Don’t invest in an idea too long before testing it

5. Rough, Rapid, Right Quick, dirty, and ugly is ok

6. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate Build often to evolve

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What is an MVP?

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“The version of a new product which allows a team to collect the

maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the

least effort.” -Eric Reis

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Using an MVP to test

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1.  Define customer and problem

2.  Identify key assumption to test

3.  Design a test

4.  Execute the test (utilize high-fidelity prototype?)

5.  Measure test outcomes (customer behavior)

6.  Evaluate what worked and what didn’t

7.  Pivot or persevere

Melissa Perri @lissijean

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Testing Method: Concierge

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Delivering the product/service manually

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Pros: •  Close to the customer,

easy to learn

•  Easy to adjust based on feedback and learning

•  Easy and cheap to get started

Cons: •  Not scalable

•  Time-consuming to run

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Testing Method: Concierge

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Testing Method: Wizard of Oz

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Looks real but manual in the back end

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Pros: •  Looks real to customer

•  Customer is responding to what experience would be if you built it

Cons: •  Hard to get started, higher

fidelity required

•  Not as close to the customer, may not know WHY behind behavior

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Testing Method: Wizard of Oz

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Testing Method: Landing Page+…

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A pitch of your product to gauge idea reception

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Pros: •  Don’t need complete

concept to get started

•  Can launch in minutes

•  Really cheap

Cons: •  You still need to get

people to your page!...see last week’s lecture

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Testing Method: Landing Page +…

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Testing Method: Video

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Demo what your product can do by hacking it together for a video

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Pros: •  Can demo complicated

things

•  Show a prototype before producing them all

Cons: •  Harder to put together

•  Some parts may have to be done to include in the video

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Testing Method: Video

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Where do I start?

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“The best way to start, is to start.” - Ryan Jacoby, MACHINE

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“It’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

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The process

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1.  Define customer and problem

2.  Identify key assumption to test

3.  Design a test

4.  Execute the test (utilize high-fidelity prototype?)

5.  Measure test outcomes (customer behavior)

6.  Evaluate what worked and what didn’t

7.  Pivot or persevere

Melissa Perri @lissijean

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An example

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bit.ly/steveblankdrone

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“I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.“

- Thomas Edison

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Helping startups start up

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Questions?

entrepreneur@nyu.edu @nyuentrepreneur entrepreneur.nyu.edu 16 Washington Place

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