VENTURE DESIGN SPRINTS

KICKING OFF A
MOTIVATION SPRINT
Alex Cowan
2015 COWAN+

THE VENTURE DESIGN PROCESS

S HO

IF
AT

WH

CUSTOMER
DISCOVERY &
EXPERIMENTS

PRODUCT &
PROMOTION

VALUE
PROPOSITIONS &
ASSUMPTIONS

WH

PERSONAS

WHO?

AT

SC

PIVOT?

AL

E?

USER STORIES
& PROTOTYPES

PROBLEM
SCENARIOS &
ALTERNATIVES

2015 COWAN+

THE DESIGN SPRINT

INPUT

Time Boxed

OUTPUT

2015 COWAN+

THE DESIGN SPRINT

WHAT DO
WE DO NEXT
WEEK?

HERES
WHAT

PERSONAS
& PROBLEMS?

NO
NEED

NEED

MOTIVATIONS?

NO
NEED

NEED

PROBLEM
SCENARIO
SPRINT

USABILITY?

NO
NEED

NEED

MOTIVATION
SPRINT

ARCHITECTURE?

NO
NEED

BUILD STUFF!

NEED

USABILITY
SPRINT

ARCHITECTURE
SPRINT

2015 COWAN+

SPRINT TYPES

Motivation
Sprint

VALIDATED
PROPOSITIONS

So you dont deliver a

solution no one wants.

WORKING USER
STORIES

So you practice driving

to user stories and
test yourself on your
understanding and
readiness.
2015 COWAN+

CONCEPTS

Lean Startup
0

Evidence-Based Innovation & The Scientific Method

Learning Objectives vs. Scaling Objectives
Structuring Assumptions
Applied Experimentation and Minimum Viable
Products (MVPs)

2015 COWAN+

WORKING YOUR VALUE HYPOTHESIS

CUSTOMER CREATION HYPOTHESIS

PERSONA HYPOTHESIS
VALUE HYPOTHESIS

PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS

USABILITY HYPOTHESIS
2015 COWAN+

SYSTEMATIC DRIVE TO VALUE VIA LEAN STARTUP

Do I have real evidence from my buyer that
this is compelling?

01 IDEA!

What is our value hypothesis and what are

its key assumptions?

02 HYPOTHESIS

How do I definitely prove or disprove the

assumptions with a minimum of time and
effort?
Am I reacting or am I focused on
validating my pivotal assumptions?
Pivot or persevere?

source: adapted from The Lean Startup

6.a YES
results
disprove
hypothesis

03 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

04 EXPERIMENTATION

05 REVISE?

6.b NO
we appear to
have a valid
hypothesis

VALUE
HYPOTHESIS
2015 COWAN+

ENABLE
QUIZ

EXAMPLE: ENABLE QUIZ

ENABLE
QUIZ

OPPORTUNITY
Hiring quality technical talent is critical for
many companies, but screening for skill sets is
time consuming and awkward.
CHALLENGE
The founding team wants to bootstrap without
external funding so they need to focus on a
specific technical domain, one that will get
them strong early traction.

2015 COWAN+

EXAMPLE: ENABLE QUIZ

ENABLE
QUIZ

Persona(s)

Helen the HR Manager- responsible for sourcing and screening job candidates
Frank the Functional Manager- hiring manager responsible for acquiring and managing talent

Problem
Scenario

Helen: hard to screen for technical skills

Frank: never has enough time for recruiting and doesnt want to be a jerk during interviews

Alternatives

Helen: call references, take their word for it (on skills)

Frank: ask a few probing questions

Value
Hypothesis

If Enable Quiz offers companies that hire engineers lightweight technical quizzes that screen job candidates for
engineering positions, then these companies would trial, use, adopt, and pay for such a service.

What Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

That you can bootstrap?
That doesnt require software at all?
2015 COWAN+

ENABLE
QUIZ

THE CONCIERGE MVP

Work with a set of HR managers to produce
position-specific quizzes by hand on paper (or
Google Forms, etc.).
Metrics:
Do the HR managers use them? How often?
Do they want one for their next open position?
Do the functional managers care?

2015 COWAN+

CASE STUDY: ZAPPOS

ZAPPOS

OPPORTUNITY
(1999) An observed problem scenario around
the difficulty of finding the right shoe at local
retail and a giant (but nascent) market in online
retail.
CHALLENGE
Consumers still in the early stages of adopting
and habituating to online retail. Founder (Nick
Swinmurn) wanted to bootstrap.

2015 COWAN+

CASE STUDY: ZAPPOS

Persona(s)

Sam the shoe-hound- knows what he wants but not where to get it.

Problem
Scenario

Sam is unable to find the shoe he wants at local retailers, wasting time and getting frustrated.

Alternatives

Possibly mail order or wait until hes in a bigger market to go to the store.

Value
Hypothesis

Make the shoe Sam wants accessible online and make sure he has a great experience so hell come back and not
have to think about where to find the shoe he wants anymore.

What Minimum Viable Product (MVP)?

That you can bootstrap?
That doesnt require software at all?
2015 COWAN+

CASE STUDY: ZAPPOS

Photographed shoes and put them online to
observe whether anyone bought them.
Result:
It worked and the rest is history.

2015 COWAN+

UNBUNDLING THE VALUE HYPOTHESIS INTO ASSUMPTIONS

If we [do something] for [persona], they will [respond in a certain way]
MVP Archetype
Wizard of Oz
Concierge
Sales

Example Assumptions (Enable Quiz)

If we get HR managers to a landing page with a demo, 10% will sign up for
our email product announcements.
If we create position-specific quizzes for HR managers, theyll use them
~100% of the time and, after two positions, be willing to pay.
If we offer the service at [x] price with [y] supplemental assistance,
companies that hire a lot of engineers will pay [z].

2015 COWAN+

UNBUNDLING THE VALUE HYPOTHESIS INTO ASSUMPTIONS

If we [do something] for [persona], they will [respond in a certain way]
MVP Archetype
Wizard of Oz
Concierge
Sales

Example Assumptions (Enable Quiz)

If we get HR managers to a landing page with a demo, 10% will sign up for
our email product announcements.
If we create position-specific quizzes for HR managers, theyll use them
~100% of the time and, after two positions, be willing to pay.
If we offer the service at [x] price with [y] supplemental assistance,
companies that hire a lot of engineers will pay [z].

2015 COWAN+

EXAMPLE: ENABLE QUIZ CONCIERGE MVP

Component

Notes

What assumption will this test?

If we offer HR managers at companies that hire a lot of engineers a lightweight

quizzing app, they will convert to paid subscriptions after an unpaid trial.

How?

Well start with custom-built quizzes on Google Forms to assess the basic value of
the product to the HR manager.

What is/are the pivotal metric(s)?

1: If we create position-specific quizzes for HR managers, theyll use them ~100% of

the time. Metric: [quizzes administered]/[candidates interviewed].

What is the threshold for true (validated) vs.

false (invalidated)?

2: If the HR managers use the quiz, theyll send through <1/2 the candidates. Metric:
% candidates screened for the functional manager (baseline vs. with the quiz)
3: If we offer the service at [x] price, companies that hire a lot of engineers will pay
[z]. Metric: % subjects paying $100 for a custom-created quiz (after 2 quizzes)

What will you do next if the result is true?

False?

True: Build a simple1.0

1 & 2 True: Look at customer creation hypothesis, value hypothesis
False: Consider value hypothesis, problem hypothesis

How much time, money will it take to set up?

see bit.ly/exp-test

Roughly, what will it take?

see bit.ly/exp-test

Roughly, how long will it take to run?

see bit.ly/exp-test

2015 COWAN+

GETTING READY FOR YOUR SESSIONS

2015 COWAN+

DAY 1 ACTIVITIES: MOTIVATION SPRINT

Intro. Concepts + Warmup

Draft Structured Assumptions
Brainstorm Experiment Ideas
Rank Experiment Ideas
Detail Experiment Ideas
Detail Experiment Plan

2015 COWAN+

DAY 2-4 ACTIVITIES: MOTIVATION SPRINT

Experimentation

2015 COWAN+

DAY 5 ACTIVITIES: MOTIVATION SPRINT

Review Metrics & Evidence

Draft User Stories, Storyboards, Wireframes
Decide Next Steps
2015 COWAN+

YOUR BRIEF
Who & What?
We want to unpack and detail this basic assumption:
If we [do x] for [a certain persona] they will [respond in a
certain way].

Why?
We need to determine if building [initial software deliverable] is
likely to be valuable to [personas].

How?
Our deliverables will be: a set of experiments and validated
assumptions, along with user stories to test our readiness and
concepts for implementation.
2015 COWAN+