Paul OrlandoVenture Partner & Adjunct Professor @porlando

The Minimum Viable Product,Customer Discovery Interviews

& Why Few Know What They Are

What causes the most difficulty for early-stage companies?

…How can we solve this?

The MVP

“The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort.” -- Eric Ries

What They Say…

The MVP

“Our MVP is the crappy version of what we’re going to build later.”

-- most new companies talking about MVPs

What We Hear…

The MVP

“blah blah blah get validated learning blah blah blah use least effort blah blah

and have testable hypotheses.” -- me

New Translation…

Solve Problems

Satisfy Needs

Fuel Addictions

Ideal Customers

1. They have a problem2. Are aware of having a problem3. Have been actively searching for a solution4. Have hacked together a solution5. Have or can acquire a budget

MVP technique What it is

In-person Interviews

Talk to people to learn about them and their problems

Landing Page / Adwords

Use a product description to test actions from lots of people

Mockup / Wireframe

Paper or digital non-functioning iterations to test reactions

“Parasite” Ride on top of an existing network to speed up data collection

Concierge People do work of a not yet built system

Video Show what it’s like to use it

Prototype Actually build a basic version

MVP technique What can go wrong

In-person Interviews

Delays, Bad interviewers, Wrong interviewees, Can’t find interviewees

Landing Page / Adwords

Don’t know what to measure, distribution

Mockup / Wireframe

Disbelief, No data collection, Becomes design and feature focused

“Parasite” Disbelief

Concierge Can’t actually build it

Video Cost distribution

Prototype Time, cost, can’t build it

All Can’t get enough people (or the right people) involved

The Siren Song of the Startup Survey

Would you like to take a survey so I can feel like I’m learning something?

Startup Weekend Surveys Gone Wrong

We built a website and mobile app to let you find free fruits and vegetables near you as well as share yours with others. Would you use it?

How much would you be willing to pay for a consumer product that creates a stable “sand free” zone at the beach?

Startup Weekend Surveys Gone Wrong

Startup Weekend Surveys Gone Wrong

How to Interview - test

How much would you pay for this?

How to Interview – is this a good question?

How much would you pay for this?

How to Interview – is this a good question?

How much would you pay for this?

No hypothetical q

uestions

The Mom Test.*

Talk about their life, not your idea.Ask about specifics in the past.Future-tense opinions are lies. You gain nothing by convincing them.

* Thanks to Salim Virani and Rob Fitzpatrick

How to Interview – Sample questions

Why do you do that? Tell me more about that.When does that happen? In what situations does this happen?

How to Interview – Sample questions

Who else is affected by this? Tell me about the last time you dealt with this.

How to Interview – Sample questions

If you had a magic wand, what would you do or change?

How to Interview – Sample questions

What else should I have asked? Other people have to told me that...

I actually have a [thing] available now. You can [download / buy] it here.

How to Interview

Know what you want to learn.

No hypothetical questions.

Testing action is better than asking a question.

Take notes.

Then what?

The forgotten hypotheses...