Gravity

Confessions of a serial intrapreneur

Harsh Jawharkar

Before we begin

The opinions expressed are solely my own based on

lessons learned over the last 14 years across multiple industries and circumstances

Practical lessons learned, no theory, no prescriptions

Please share your own learnings and feedback

hjawharkar@gmail.com
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Serial intrapreneur = launching new ventures (mostly unfunded) within the constraints of large organizations
Current Role Managing Director Mobile and New Channel Development at Charles Schwab & Co. Created a new type of wallet at PayPal by commercializing an award-winning product platform; laid the foundation for the company to go after the multi-billion dollar global prepaid market

Launched a social payments venture and built up the incubator at Wells Fargo; now that technology is being commercialized into the largest joint-venture personal payment network in the U.S.

Started out designing/launching new products at leading firms like IDEO, A.T. Kearney, Pfizer, and Sapient

T-shaped tool-box
Business Strategy & Operations

Channel Marketing

Launching new ventures and products

Design & Human Factors

Digital Advertising

Quick Poll Major product innovation pain-points

The matrix prevents innovation responsibility without authority Making do with the talent on board some people are great, some people arent Conducting test and learn in a risk-averse consensus environment Knowing when to let go and deviating from your vision How can we be operationally efficient AND innovative?

Being Agile in a waterfall environment

Difficulty prioritizing bets and managing the pipeline Finding the right speed for innovation going too fast or too slow Getting funded how to pitch reputation conscious corporate sponsors Competing with or cannibalizing entrenched products

Key Themes
Evangelizing, gameplanning, and creating a coalition of support (internal and external) Finding the right fit, adapting to your speed, pivoting, and measuring for success Solving the right problem, focusing on the minimum viable product, and bootstrapping your way to launch Building the right team, getting people motivated, and establishing the right attitude
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Story

Process

Approach

Team

Building the right team

Build a T-shaped team quality over quantity

Thinking Linking Doing

Observing Empathizing Brainstorming

Cross-pollinating Synthesizing Facilitating

Executing Implementing Testing

Bottom Line No delicate geniuses or divas; find tough people with thick skins Get to know your teams strengths/weaknesses as early as possible
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You cant teach attitude but you can teach skills

Prioritize quick learners

over "domain experts

The experts are nice-to-

have; but all things equal, find the hungry people

You cant teach attitude,

so dont overvalue aptitude

The upstart

The expert
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Listen to the skeptics but shed the deadweight

Negativity is contagious,

everyone is impressionable

Cut out the virus before it

spreads and affects the rest of your team

Two options: 1) Step in to fill the gaps and

pick up the load 2) Use it as a growth opportunity for other team

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Sometimes we forget about the sweat equity

Leave your titles and

egos at the door to build team spirit

You may be the

quarterback but you need to block and tackle to get people to buy into the vision

Create a huddle to get

people excited and make the handoffs seamless

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Youre the pinch hitter, shortstop, handyman, and more

Design
Design the minimum viable product Document and drive feature development Work across disciplines to drive creation of all artifacts necessary (e.g. use-cases, architecture, sitemap, wireframes, content, etc.)

Build
Establish the product roadmap Manage the flow of work; anticipate and trouble-shoot Iterate and create repeatable and scalable practices to drive ease + efficiency

Lead
Bring all disciplines together (right place, right time) to realize the business strategy from concept to execution seamlessly

Monetize
Own the business every decision is framed by the cost of doing business and the value created Measure engagement and obtain feedback for fast iteration to get to product-market fit and to create monetization options

Evangelize
Sell the vision internally and externally establish advocacy and develop champions Be a scout get in front to clear roadblocks and hurdles to make everyones jobs easier

Bottom Line: Theres a difference between being a decisive leader and a passive manager

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Approaching the problem

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What type is your challenge and what assets do you have?

Is it evolutionary? Is it more

important to go after a quick win?

Or is it revolutionary? Are

you solving something everyone else has failed at?

Are you going to build, buy,

or integrate? What pieces do you have in place?

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Map the battlefield theyre not gonna let you just build it
Operationalize
Budget / P&L Exec Spons or Mgmt
Cashflow Progress Reports Regulatory Compliance Admin Site Fin/Acctg Processes

Build
Engg

Taskflow

Analytics Schema Prod Architecture Wireframes Sitemap

Design / Conten t

Lynchpi n

PRD/MVP Content

Legal/ Risk

Fraud Models Svcing Infrastructure System Admin Approach Test Scripts Use-cases

PM/ Analys t

Cust Suppor t

QA

Identify roadblocks early, can you use influencers to open those gates?

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Focus on the minimum viable product, not ideal product

Find the right set of problems to solve Prioritize the problem you think you can solve Build and launch the MVP to test hypotheses Based on iterations, determine the product fits the market needs Exit

Customer Problem Discovery

Define Hypotheses + MVP

Test MVP

ProductMarket Fit?

Scale + Monetize (as-is)

Pivot(s) + Scale + Monetize

Measure + Validate

References: 1) Steve Blank 2) Sean Ellis 3) Eric Ries

Use Qualitative + Quantitative methods to test the MVP Look for pivots across solution use-cases 16

Pick depth of insights over breadth

Theres never enough

time or money to do the ideal amount of research

Use syndicated research

to get breadth but pay for qualitative insights to get depth

Focus on the behaviors

that will make your product use that as a basis for your metrics

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Eat your own dog food and make it interesting

Personality is the API for

loyalty

Find ways to live the

product, regardless of your role on the team

Belief is important for the

team; if you dont believe no one else will

Sources: bigorangeslide.com, Fred Wilsons A VC Blog

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Fake it till you make it

Sample User Flow Diagram User enrolls Enter Expenses

Log in

Receive Money

If there are show-stopping gaps

Algorithm

Find a way to boot-strap to drive traction and hit critical mass

Major Capability Gap Route funds to requester

Send IOUs/Requ est $

Settlement Account

Make a Payment
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Customizing the Process

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Find the path that fits your type of innovation

Evolution
Systematic innovation processes and portfolios managed at an enterprise level

Revolution
Small group of intrapreneurs, skunkworks, or tiger teams looking for opportunities to fail fast

Socratic Scoring 1. How attractive is the opportunity? 2. What is the level of alignment with our strategic objectives? 3. How actionable is the opportunity?

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Buyer beware shiny new processes need to be broken in

ILLUSTRATIVE (Not to Scale) 8 weeks

CYCLE 1
Iteration 0
MVP and Vision is set Base BRD = PRD + Product/Business Strategy Core sitemap, high level task-flows created Technical architecture established and environment/stack is final Project plan (baseline) created and feature-set grouped across iterations

Iteration 1
Artifacts for Iter. 2 coding are prepared Includes PRD Update, Wireframes, Usecases, QA test scripts, etc. Code, test, and deploy Iter. 1 feature set

Iteration 2
Code, test, and deploy Iter. 2 feature set

Artifact creation for Iter. 3

CYCLE 2
Iteration 4 Iteration n

Iteration 3

Between specific iterations, conducted multiple Listening Labs (usability) to ensure the MVP is still relevant and sound using lowfidelity prototypes
Established the overall QA/Alpha-testing strategy and recruited towards later milestone deployment dates to start uncovering bugs, loopholes, and edge cases Landing pages, FAQs, Demo/Videos were developed at a later stage based on progress

Agile (Scrum-based) Development

Agile = Co-location + fully dedicated resources +

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If at first you dont succeed look for the pivot

Consumers
More variety in use-cases

Prosumers
Similar

Small Business
Less variety in use-cases

Customer Attributes

Lower $ volumes and transaction Lower need for robust reporting, tracking, and formal messaging Less inclined to pay for premium features Similar

Similar

Higher $ volumes and transactions Greater need for robust reporting, tracking, and formal messaging

Similar

More inclined to pay for premium features/services

Consumer Basic
Simple IOU (Just-Pay-Me URL) Savings towards goals Collecting gift $ (self)

Consumer Plus

Consumer Pro
Landlord collecting tenant dues Non-profit raising $ / collecting dues Parent-child money management

Collecting towards trip/event Ad hoc social events Pooling for group gift

Ongoing roommate expenses Collecting team, club, group dues Individual raising $ for charities

Micro-biz billing services Micro-biz merchant account

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Design for metrics with the story in mind

What info do you need

Actionable
Provides a path forward

to tell the best story?

Measure often and

early, rethink features that cant be measured

Credible

Measurement is a
Simple

Accepted in the organization

feature, not an afterthought

Keep it simple if you

Easy to understand

cant explain it quickly then its not useful

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What would it look like if work stops now? Be Frugal

Be frugal where you

allocate the money; luxuries come later

Youre going to need a

buffer, something always goes wrong

If this was your last dollar,

what would it look like if you had to launch now?

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Telling the Story

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Crafting your story is a journey, it requires constant (and somewhat obsessive) iteration
A story is better than a pitch in

consensus environments
Components Why does the problem even matter? Why is the competition failing or what are they missing? Why is your solution different or better (and for whom)? Can you really get this done and for how much? Who benefits inside the org (aside from the customers)?
Be your own devils advocate

whats the story against your story?

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Stay under the radar until youre ready for primetime

Resist the temptation

to surface with a half-baked story

First impression can

make or break you; test with low-risk people

Play the long game

be patient and resist any instantgratification urge for 28

When youre ready, script your game-plan around your audiences agenda
Everyone is interested in

the same thing WIIFM

Make a list of influencers

for your roadshow whats their agenda?

Its a numbers game

build a coalition of support (inside and outside the org)

Sources: johnlesko.biz

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Know your role in the game in order to perfect the message

Whats the bigger

picture and where does your initiative fit?

What are the

priorities for your organization?

The ideal story =

high upside + low

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Thank You!
Harsh Jawharkar http://www.linkedin.com/in/harsh https://www.twitter.com/hjawharkar

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