Josh Wexler Solution Director

April, 2015

Define Your Product Vision

2

Agenda

Overview of Originate

Product Vision

Define a Product Vision Exercise

Next steps

Originate Overview

Originate is a digital product development and venture resource firm.

We partner with the world’s most ambitious companies and entrepreneurs to tackle complex challenges and build transformative products.

4

We have partners, not clients.

We partner with forward-looking enterprises and high growth startups to conceive, design, and build transformative software products.

Our team of designers, developers, and strategists create modern mobile, web, and data-driven software.

Our partnership model ensures full alignment toward the same vision of building useful, innovative, and successful products.

• Founded in 2007 • 120+ employees • 6 Talent Centers

Research

Our Process

Prototype Validate Build Scale

HYPOTHESIS VISION MODEL LAUNCH

Opportunity Areas Project Plan

Product Brief

Proof of Concept Experience Prototypes

Proof of Technology

Product Roadmap Architecture Plan

Epics & Stories

Release Strategy Style guides & Standards Measurement & Analytics

Our Services

Originate offers a full suite of product design and development services, operational support, and strategic advisory services to our partners. Our primary areas of expertise include the following:

Product Strategy

Including: • Research & Insights • Opportunity Analysis • Product Positioning • Feature Planning • User Stories & Epics • Roadmap Planning • Ecosystem Planning

UX & Design

Including: • User Research & Testing • Concept Development • User Flows & Mapping • User Interface Design • Visual Design • Style Guides • Content Creation

Software Development

Including: • Technical R&D • Technical Prototyping • Mobile & Web Development • Systems & Software Architecture • Code Audits & Reviews • Dev Ops Strategy • QA & Testing

Technical Capabilities

HTML 5, Javascript, React, jQuery, AJAX,

Angular.js

Tomcat, Lift, Play, JBoss, Node.js, Ruby on Rails

iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Titanium, Unity

Ruby, Scala, Python, Go, Java, C/C++

MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, MongoDB,

MSSQL

Web Mobile Languages Server Database

Originate has deep experience across a wide array of technologies. We leverage a variety of modern stacks based on the problem we are solving.

9

Selected Past Partners

Case Studies

Mobile

Angie’s ListSnapFix enables subscribers to use their phone to snap

a photo of a household repair need and have a highly-

rated service provider dispatched to assist.

Case Study

Description

Originate partnered with Angie’s List to develop an new home repair

marketplace optimized for mobile. Originate created SnapFix, an

app enabling members to take a photo of a home repair need, which

is used to automatically identify and route the most appropriate

repairperson to fix the problem. Originate also created ServiceTown,

an app for processing, scheduling and tracking jobs for service

providers. Originate completed full-scale development and launch

of both apps. After widespread adoption they were incorporated into

the flagship Angie’s List app.

snapfix.angieslist.com

Feature Brainstorming

Concept Sketches

Detailed Wireframes

Services

• Prototyping

• UX Design

• Visual Design

• Mobile Development

• Web Development

Navigation Tray Easy access to application’s primary features

Home Repair Request Schedule a highly-rated Angie’s List provider

Image Capture Quickly snap a picture and note the service needed

Platform

Echo360Echo360 provides active learning technology to over 2

million students and faculty across the globe. A cloud-

based infrastructure delivers an interactive in-class

experience — on every device, in any location.

Case Study

Description

We partnered with Echo360 to transform their legacy, on-premise

product into a cloud-based active learning platform, including lecture

capture, live quizzes and polls, collaborative note taking, and a

student analytics dashboard — all informed by the distinct needs of

students, lecturers/professors, and administrators.

Our redesign enabled Echo360 to capture immediate market

opportunities while laying the groundwork for the company’s future.

echo360.com

Data Visualization Design

Field Observations Detailed Wireframes

Services

• UX Research

• Concept Development

• User Experience

• Interface Design

• Technical Architecture

• Agile Development

• Cloud Strategy

Student Presentation View Interactive reference materials

Student Instructor View Video capture of in-class lecture

Schedule Services Hosted applications from RMS

Instructor Analytics View Display for attendance and engagement data

Class Selection Interface Displays new content and questions for classes

Tablet

FanlimeFanlime is a revolutionary platform that enables fans

to track and purchase what’s trending through the eyes

of their favorite athletes.

Case Study

Description

Originate initially partnered with Fanlime to define the product

vision for beta rollout, build the iPad app for athletes, and to

establish the web experience for fans.

We are currently working with the Fanlime team on a broader

product launch that includes an exclusive digital magazine for

athletes, as well as an engaging consumer experience that can scale

to millions of fans.

fanlime.com

Touch Interaction Models

Co-Creation Work Sessions Scenario-based User Flows

Services

• Product Strategy

• Concept Development

• User Experience

• Visual Design

• App Development

Personalized Athlete Experience Main page for an athlete’s favorite items to be explored

Product Detail Page Product detail that their favorite athletes have selected

Trend Board View Quick glance view of trending products and people

Product vision

22

What Makes a Great Digital Product?

FEASIBILITY

DESIRABILITY USABILITY

A Great Product

Dimensions

23

How Do You Get There?

FEASIBILITY

DESIRABILITY USABILITY

Dimensions

?

24

The New Product Process

Product Vision • Articulate assumptions

• Find inspiration

• Create personas

• Create paper prototypes

Problem/Solution Fit

• Understand the problem

• Create prototypes of the solution

• Validate solution

• Learn and pivot

Product/Market Fit

• Build product (MVP)

• Create market tests

• Validate channels

• Learn and pivot

Scale

• Raise money (if needed)

• Build team

• Scale technology

• Create company

25

Product Risks

Market Risk Is there a real need in the market and does the market want the solution?

Product Risk How does the product fit the market need in a way that users find enjoyable?

Technical Risk What are the technical challenges and issues that threaten product success?

Business Risk Can the business fully deploy and operate the product?

Market

Product

Technical

Business

The process enables you to uncover and mitigate risk as early as possible, maximizing the chances of success for what you build.

26

A Product Vision

A shared understanding of how a product is going to solve a problem for a set of customers and deliver on its value proposition when it has been released into the market

27

The Product Canvas

Define a Product Vision Exercise

1

Background – Alzheimer’s1

2

Alzheimer's+disease+(AD)+accounts+for+60%+to+70%+of+cases+of+demen;a.+It+is+a+chronic+neurodegenera;ve+disease+that+usually+starts+slowly+and+gets+worse+over+;me.++The+most+common+early+symptom+is+difficulty+in+remembering+recent+events+(short+term+memory+loss).+As+the+disease+advances,+symptoms+can+include:+problems+with+language,+disorienta;on+(including+easily+geHng+lost),+mood+swings,+loss+of+mo;va;on,+not+managing+self+care,+and+behavioral+issues.++As+a+person's+condi;on+declines+they+oIen+withdraw+from+family+and+society.+Gradually,+bodily+func;ons+are+lost,+ul;mately+leading+to+death.+Although+the+speed+of+progression+can+vary,+the+average+life+expectancy+following+diagnosis+is+three+to+nine+years.++The+cause+of+Alzheimer's+disease+is+poorly+understood.+No+treatments+stop+or+reverse+its+progression,+though+some+may+temporarily+improve+symptoms.+Affected+people+increasingly+rely+on+others+for+assistance+oIen+placing+a+burden+on+the+caregiver;+the+pressures+can+include+social,+psychological,+physical,+and+economic+elements.++In+2010,+there+were+between+21+and+35+million+people+worldwide+with+AD.+It+most+oIen+begins+in+people+over+65+years+of+age,+although+4%+to+5%+of+cases+are+earlyTonset+Alzheimer's+which+begin+before+this.+It+affects+about+6%+of+people+65+years+and+older.+

1Wikipedia Entry on Alzheimer's

Background – Still Alice

3

Forget Me Not

4

Product Canvas

5

Problem

Cost Structure Values Streams

Solution Unique Value Proposition

Advantage Customer Segments

Key Metrics Channels

Top 3 problems Target customers or groups

Top 3 features Single, clear, compelling message that states why you are different and worth buying

Can’t be easily copied or bought

Path to customersKey activities you measure

Customer acquisition costsDistribution costsHostingPeople, etc

Revenue ModelLifetime ValueRevenueGross Margin

Parking Lot (Knowledge gaps, questions, ideas)

Personas Narratives / Prototypes

Learnings

Tech StackInspiration

Anything that inspires with business model, brand, design or functionality The technology we want to use or explore to build our solution and the tools we want to utilize as we work together

Capture anything that comes while creating a canvas, ideas, questions, places to explore further

Characters (or user roles) created to represent the various customers in the target groups

Step-by-step stories of a personas using the solution and a visual/functional representations of those stories

Hypotheses, experiments and learning

Directions

6

1.  You should prepare to create multiple canvases, one for each customer group, and to test them in parallel

2.  Each canvas should take anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 hours to create, but no more than 5 hours

3.  Each canvas should be done in a single session with as few breaks as possible 4.  Be concise: the core canvas and all text should fit on a single page 5.  Think in the present: things on the canvas should be based on what you know

now (make sure to record any gaps you find in the knowledge gaps section) 6.  Take a customer centric view: think of your customer first 7.  It is ok to leave blanks where we don’t have enough information 8.  Quickly write a first draft, review and discuss, then revisit and break things apart

and prioritize thoughts in each section

Customer segment

7

Children of an Alzheimer's family member right after diagnosis

Problem

8

What problem are we trying to solve?

1.  A problem can also be thought of as a job that customers want you to complete for them

Tips

Severity+of+Problem+ Top+of+mind+

Customer Groups

9

Who suffers from our problem? Who is going to use our product? Who is going to pay for our product?

1.  Create a list of customer segments within your group. 2.  Distinguish between customers and users: Customers pay for your product but may not use it. A user

uses your product but may not pay. a)  Example: you are a user of Facebook but you don't pay, so you would be a user and not a customer.

Advertisers pay to advertise on Facebook, thus they are customers. 3.  Split large groups into smaller segments. This may need to be a place to iterate as you build the canvas. It

is always better to err on the side of specificity. 4.  Specify who is going to be the early adopters within that segment (an even smaller group who will be the

first to purchase your solution). These will be the people you initially target with your marketing. 5.  Identify other user roles that will interact with that customer and make sure to denote that they are users

rather than customers.

Tips

Customer Groups: Earlyvangelists

10

People who are suffering the most severe pain — people who are willing to take a risk on your unproven, unfinished product

Inspiration

11

Who else has solved this problem with a product? Who inspires us with their design or functionality?

1.  Inspiration is anything that inspires you with its business model, brand, design, or functionality. 2.  Pull in anything but make sure to focus on the two following areas:

1.  Existing alternative solutions to your problem: how do your customers current solve this problem? The answer may be nothing, but typically you're competing with something. If there are not alternatives, you should ask if the customer pain is large enough to warrant a solution.

2.  Find other unique value propositions (UVP): study what works about companies who have clear UVPs that you like. Use what you can from those to revise your UVP.

3.  Take notes on positives and negatives and note ideas that might be good to borrow.

Tips

Unique Value Proposition

12

Why is our product different and worth others’ attention?

1.  Think of the UVP as the big statement on a landing web page. It needs to distill the essence of the product in a few words that can fit into a headline.

2.  This is one of the main places to iterate. 3.  Tips on how to create a first UVP:

a)  Be different, but make sure your difference matters. Deploy the problem statement in the UVP. b)  Target early adopters, they need to know that the product solves their specific problems.

4.  Focus on end-user benefits over features. How will your customers have benefited from using your product when they are done and how long will it take to get that benefit?

5.  From Dane Maxwell: Instant Clarity Headline = end result customer wants + specific period of time + address the objections

6.  Pick the words you use to define your solution carefully. They can be used as keywords to drive SEO. 7.  Answer what, who, why. If you can't get the why in, create a sub heading.

Tips

Solutions

13

What does our product need to do to solve the problem or deliver on its Unique Value Proposition?

1.  This box is only half the size for a reason. While the solution can feel like the safest part, we don’t know enough about the problem yet for it to be worth a lot of thinking.

2.  We want to articulate just the top 3-4 features.

Tips

Channels

14

How are we going to get in front of customers (early adaptors)?

1.  If the idea requires access to large numbers of customers right away for it to succeed (network effect) , we may want to reevaluate the idea.

2.  We want channels that can eventually be scaled. 3.  Free versus paid: there is no such thing as a free channel. Channels we normally associate as being free,

like SEO, social media, and blogging, have a time and effort associated with them. 4.  Inbound versus outbound: Inbound channels use “pull messaging” to let customers find you organically,

while outbound channels rely on “push messaging” to reach customers. 5.  Direct sales versus automated sales: First sell manually, then automate. 6.  Direct versus indirect: To maximize learning, go direct to customers rather than trying to start a

partnership or hire a salesperson. 7.  Retention before referral: While referral programs can be very effective in spreading the word about your

product, you need to have a product worth spreading first.

Tips

Value Streams

15

How is this product going to deliver value or make money?

1.  Don’t think in terms of 3-5 year projections (which will be wrong). Instead think about what happens if the product is in the market tomorrow.

2.  Plan to deliver enough value with the product that people will pay what you’re charging from the very beginning (unless you’re never planning to charge at all).

3.  Price is a huge part of the perception of the value and should be articulated on the canvas. 4.  Inspiration is a great place to get ideas on how to price things.

Tips

Cost Structure

16

What is this going to cost to build? What are the on-going costs?

1.  What are we going to need to get the first version of your product to market and keep it running for the first 3 months?

2.  Focus on present costs, not future costs (we don’t know what those are going to be). 3.  Factor in the price of time! 4.  Looking at your costs and your revenues, what is your breakeven point? If there are multiple revenue

hypotheses, calculate the breakeven for each.

Tips

Key Metrics

17

What are we going to measure to show that the product has been successful? What is the one metric that matters?

1.  Focus on leading rather than lagging indicators. Leading metrics give you a predictive understanding the future where as lagging metrics explain the past.

a)  Leading metric: sales prospects in a pipeline. Predictor of sale volume b)  Lagging metric: churn (customers who have stopped using the product). They are already gone.

Tips

Key Metrics - Pirate Metrics

18

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Revenue

Referral

Generate attention through a variety of means, both organic and inorganic

Traffic, mentions, cost per click, search results, cost of acquisition, open rate

Turn the resulting drive-by visitors into users who are somehow enrolled

Convince users to come back repeatedly, exhibiting stick behavior

Business outcomes (which vary by your business model: purchases, ad clicks, content creation, subscriptions, etc.)

Viral and word-of-mouth invitations to other potential users

Enrollments, signups, complete onboarding process, used the service at least once, subscriptions

Engagement, times since last visit, daily and monthly active use, churns

Customer lifetime value, conversion rate, shopping cart size, click-through revenue

Invites sent, viral coefficient, viral cycle time

Advantage

19

What advantage do we have that can not be easily copied or bought by others?

1.  Examples a)  Insider information b)  The right “expert” endorsements c)  A dream team d)  Personal authority e)  Large network effects f )  Community g)  Existing customers h)  SEO ranking

2.  It is ok to leave this blank for a while as the true advantage can revel itself after work has started

Tips

Personas

20

Who are the individuals (what do they look like and act like) that are going to be using the product?

1.  Give each persona a name, background points, goals (why they want to use the solution), and frustrations (why they feel compelled to use the solution).

2.  Create only relevant points in the background section (e.g. if the product is about email, it is not relevant what car the persona might drive)

3.  Create as many as needed to describe the various customer groups and or roles.

Tips

Narratives

21

How might those individual personas use the product?

1.  Write down step by step what would happen as one of the personas used our solution. 2.  Use names from the personas where appropriate. 3.  Create a “back bone” of major steps then break them down in detail. 4.  Record any questions, ideas, or issues that arise. 5.  Build a list of terms as they are defined or mentioned. 6.  When starting a new idea, avoid sign-up or onboarding stories (come back to those later) 7.  Go back through the story and organize any data terms in a hierarchy.

Tips

Paper prototyping

22

What does the solution look like as the persona is using it?

1.  Draw each screen in the narrative map and add as much detail as needed. 2.  Sketch quickly, discuss, and explore. Don’t be afraid to throw things away. 3.  Try to keep data fidelity as high as possible using the terms defined in the narrative.

Tips

Functional prototyping

23

How does the solution behave as the persona is using it?

1.  Using a prototyping tool of choice, turn the paper prototype into a functional prototype. 2.  Show the prototype to customers and get feedback

Tips

Next Steps

Problem Validation

25

1.  Validate that the problem is real 2.  Interview possible customers 3.  For more information on problem validation see:

Solution Validation

26

1.  Validate that the solution will solve the problem for customers 2.  Start a landing page (forces a release, testing of the UVP, etc.) 3.  Interview possible customers with the prototype 4.  For more information on problem validation see:

Quick-start Tip: New Project

1.  Use the worksheets, agenda, and materials here to run your own workshop 2.  Always do it with the whole team (or all key players) 3.  Designate someone as time keeper/facilitator

4.  Start sketching and gathering inspiration ASAP 5.  If interested in using the tools shown today, send me an email: josh.wexler@originate.com to help get set

up

27

Key takeaway review

28

Please send me your stories of success and failure at trying some of these things! josh.wexler@originate.com

Problem Customer SegmentsUnique Value PropositionSolution

Channels

Value StreamsCost Structure

Key Metrics

Advantages

Name:__________________________________Project Title:_______________________________ Customer Group:______________________

Business (Brand, Positioning) Design (visual) Functional (features)

Inspiration Parking Lot (Gaps, Ideas)

Order: _______Narrative Map Title:__________________________________

Order: _______Narrative Map Title:__________________________________

Order: _______Paper Prototype Title:__________________________________

Order: _______Paper Prototype Title:__________________________________

Order: _______Screen Title:__________________________________

Order: _______Screen Title:__________________________________

Josh Wexler Director Originate – New York 917-902-6253 josh.wexler@originate.com