EBD 380 Ch. 8

Market validation

the process of interacting with potential customers to acquire reasonable evidence that a need is being met with a new product or service and that people are willing to pay for that product or service

Experiment

a test designed to help you prove or disprove the validity of a hypothesis, which is simply an assumption you have about your venture

Hypothesis

assumption that is tested through research and experimentation

Characteristics of good experiments

1. They are structured and follow a particular template

2. They are focused and don't try to test too many things at the same time. They focus on a core hypothesis

3. They are believable, so you can trust what you learn

4. They are flexible, so you can make changes while in the experiment if necessary

5. They are compact, so you can learn quickly

Considerations for experiments

bring people through an experience and watch their behaviors and decisions

test your product and the value you create for customers before you’ve finished the product itself. consider what aspect of the product or service you want to test before testing the whole thing

prioritize what you want to learn. you don’t have time to run experiments on everything. quick testing helps you prioritize and test the most important risks and assumptions

create a structured plan for your experiment before you start. a chaotic experiment leads to chaotic results

set up success metrics before you being so you don’t rationalize your results after the fact

weave customer interviews into experiments, when appropriate, to maximize learning and insights

keep an open mind about your results, good or bad, and use good judgement when interpreting what you learn

Impaakt

company that provides reports of large organizations’ impact on the environment and society

Betrand Garcon

Truth curve

created by Giff Constable

slightly specific to online businesses

If you start a business without even doing the lowest level of effort – interviewing – you are said to be living in “fantasy land

believability of information and level of effort 

Interviews

a very low-cost and easy way to get feedback, ideas, and validate needs

Paper testing

simple way to outline your vision and spot any mistakes before the process goes further... a range of techniques, including wireframing, storyboarding, or drawing the product you envision

Advertising

You might not think about advertising as an experiment

But – you can advertise and see how much interest you receive!

Advertising is used for experimenting very often –

A/B testing or A/B splits

A/B splits

A way to compare 2 versions of a marketing campaign, mobile application , website, or other measurable media to determine which performs better

Button to nowhere and landing page

Before spending lots of time developing certain features of a website, you can place links or buttons that do nothing

However, you can collect data about who clicks on those links to determine how much interest there is in them

Task completion

you watch someone use your product

This lets you know what works and what doesn’

Prototype

an early version of a product

Preselling

involves actually selling products and soliciting payments before a product has been developed

One example could be crowdfunding on sites like KickStarter or IndieGogo

Live product and business

Once your business is actually up and running, you can get a plethora of great information from your daily activities!

Consider the differences in context between entrepreneurs and managers. One of them was that there’s a lack of data. You are on the way towards having a good stock of data now.

Low-fidelity prototype

aka rapid prototype

low cost, rough and quick to build so you can explore different options with customers and test early-stage assumption

sketches, paper models

Medium-fidelity prototype

more detail and realism but not the final solution, yet gives customers a better sense of what the final product with look and feel

digitally-created wireframes, 3D printed models

High-fidelity prototype

most realistic version of the product before final production or release

very close version to how the actual product will look, feel, and function

pilot projects, minimum viable product

Minimum viable product

a version of the product that allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort

Minimum

the most bare-bones solution possible

Viable

sufficient for early adopters

Product

something customers can touch and feel

Feedback interviews

help you get more information on why people are interacting with your product or service in different ways”