Developing lean ideas

IDEASAlan Jones

Chief Growth Hacker

BlueChilli

TONIGHT…AGENDA

‣ Introductions: who are we? At what stage in the idea process are we?‣ Rapid review of Lean Methodology‣ A lean case study‣ What makes an entrepreneurial idea?‣ Homework ☹

• Makes money; or• Creates other value for the entrepreneur

• Builds awareness/personal brand• Proves/hones your skills

What’s a lean entrepreneurial idea?

• Coming up with a new way to achieve something as fast as possible, using as little money and time as possible

• Using the resources you have available to you• Not spending serious money until you’re sure you can earn it back

What’s lean entrepreneurial ideation mean?

@BIGYAHU

About me

‣ Early Microsoft online product manager‣ Early Yahoo! hire‣ Co-founded HomeScreen, Bluepulse, Pollenizer, The

New Agency, FromLittleThings.co‣ Invested in Startmate, Pollenizer, Blackbird VC,

ChromaSun, BugHerd, OtherLevels, Scriptrock

About you

‣ Who are you?‣ What have you done?‣ What do you do now?‣ Do you have an idea to develop?

‣Share it briefly with the class‣We’ll return to it later

‣ or are you here to learn how to find one?‣What do you hope to do with your ideas?

The value of ideas

‣ An idea is worth very little, what counts is developing and executing on your idea

‣ BUT‣ You can’t develop and execute if you have no idea‣ …so ideas are important!

INTRODUCTION

Risk and sharing

‣ “The biggest risk… is not whether you can deliver it, but whether anybody wants it” — Pollenizer

‣ http://friendda.org - hand outs

lean ideation case study

LEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEASTRIPPYTHING

1Trippything

People might need help managing travel itineraries

• Take six months and $300k to build a web platform• Believe focus group market research on revenue models• Spend $250k on marketing and launch• Spend $30k on 3mths ad sales team salaries• Find everybody loves it but users don’t want to pay or

advertise• Total potential spend $750k

1Trippything

Lean ideation approach • 1 week to design a brand and an interface mockup

• 1 day to setup A/B testing landing pages to test benefits, features and price variations

• 2 hours to review landing page data • 1 day to realise Trippything was a great idea at

the wrong time• Total estimated spend: $1,500

1

Think people might need help managing travel itineraries

TRIPPYTHING

LEAN PROCESS1. 1 week to design a brand and an interface mockup2. 1 day to setup A/B testing landing pages to test benefits, features and

price variations3. 2 hours to review landing page data 4. 1 day to realise Trippything was a great idea at the wrong time5. Total estimated spend: $1,500

LEAN idea DEVELOPMENT

IT’S NOT ABOUT ONE IDEALEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS

The WD-40 story and Norm Larsen’s nuclear missiles

It’s about multiple ideas — “Ideases”

With ideases, each idea leverages what you’ve learned from your previous ideas

EXERCISE: CREATIVE JUICES

Take one of the following products

Develop 10x one- sentence descriptions that will sell it

‣ Johnsons Baby Wipes‣ Uber cars‣ iPhone 5‣ Australian Tax Office‣ Path app for iOS/Android‣ A golden retriever puppy

Where do ideas come from? – Seth Godin

Listening to a lecture

Where do ideas come from? – Seth Godin

Reading a book(but not watching TV)

Where do ideas come from? – Seth Godin

From bad ideas

(but only if you have enough of them)

Where do ideas come from? – Seth Godin

• Ideas hate conference rooms• Ideas fear experts• Ideas adore a beginner’s mind

(a little awareness is a beautiful thing)

Where do ideas come from? – Neil Gaiman

“The Ideas aren't the hard bit. They're a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you're trying to build: making it interesting, making it new. “

Execution planning

‣ If ideas aren’t important, what is?‣ Execution: developing your idea, testing it, finding

customers for it, retaining customers and maximising their lifetime value

‣ How much time can you dedicate? When will it be?‣ Write down your execution plan

Resource audit

‣ What resources do you have to call upon?‣ You might have money (but not time)‣ You might have time (but not money)‣ Friends with skills and time‣ Mentors with experience and connections‣ Lean methodologies

‣ List your resources now

EXERCISE

Cliché surfing

‣ Take a cliché and invert, deny or scale it

Idea cloud exercise

Starting idea Change product/service

Change customer

Change pricing model

Change channel

Product/Service

Diapers to your door

Diapers to your workplace

Diapers to your door

Diapers to your door

Diapers to your door

CustomerFirst-time young

mumsWorkplace

crecheTwin/triplet

mumsFirst-time young

mumsFirst-time young

mums

Pricing model

Monthly subscription

Annual contractMonthly

subscriptionBuy nappy

creditsMonthly

subscription

Marketing channel

Parenting magazines

HR department sales call

Relatives through PR

Parenting magazines

Daily deals site (e.g. Spreets)

BONUS EXERCISE

Lean canvas

INSPIRATION

Resources I recommend

‣ Blungr and Domainr for product names and domains‣ Namestall for names‣ CPC ads on Facebook, Google‣ Tumblr or WordPress for a test environment‣ Twitter and Facebook pages for free social marketing‣ Mailchimp‣ Launchrock‣ Canvanizer for lean canvas in the cloud‣ General Assembly community

HOMEWORKLEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS

1. Write a <300 word story on a company that developed a product or service through lean methodology. What do you think they did right or wrong? What would you have done differently?

2. Develop your favourite idea as a Lean Canvas, either alone or with a class member.

3. Join the Google Group to get help and share ideas — leave me your email address for an invite to the private group.

Q&A

LEAN ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS