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An Entrepreneur’s Handbook full of knowledge

Analyzing the business press, following portals describing interesting facts from the world of startups, we can get acquainted with various cases of young companies, which can boast of a great history, stories of success and thousands of customers. However, among these stories, some do not have a happy ending. Why does this happen? Why do businesses fail? Why does it often occur right after the start? There can be many reasons. This e-book will show you ways to minimize the risk of financial and advertising failure.

Book about MVP – Inside you will find things:

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Why follow the MVP methodology? 

Imagine we have a very limited budget, and we need to launch a new product. It doesn’t matter what it is. In most cases, what we have may not be enough for the whole process. So, we can expect not only to run out of money, but to simply lose it. Creating minimally finished products is a globally praised way of working. That’s because it teaches us that every time, we spend money on something that may turn out to be something people don’t want to use, our assumptions should be checked and tested. Its greatest benefits are:

• Low risk and high return on investment – The MVP is designed to see if our premise has a chance of making a name for itself with customers. It should show if there will be a group of customers willing to pay for the product or service. At the same time, it should provide us with a high return on investment with little risk and expense. Sprint specialists, who can also be used to introduce prototypes for testing, which I will write about below, believe that a new product should simply have the basic and most important functions. In the case of an online store, this would be a few products that can be ordered to test the purchase path. A game – a level that can be completed to show gameplay, an application – a feature that differentiates it from existing software of its kind. Why exactly that? We need to focus on the most important product features, which we believe are.
• Getting to know potential customers quickly – Jake Knapp, who works for Google Venture, says, “The sooner our customers see the prototype, the better for us. That way we know their opinions, reactions, and behaviors. If we make a new sandwich in a restaurant, we want to know what the people who are going to eat it think. After all, we’re not going to make thousands of sandwiches, but we can make dozens or even a dozen and serve them to customers. We can collect information about the sandwiches, their taste, the amount of potential price. We will also build a profile of potential customers. We will know if they prefer to eat sandwiches in the morning, on their way to work, or as a snack at lunchtime. This is very important for us – knowing the needs of customers will allow us to reach new people.

At this point, we can’t forget about our customers, who are the heart of our business. It’s a bit like the beta version of computer games I mentioned earlier. The thing about a beta, or even an earlier version, the alpha, is that the most dedicated players will play it. Even if it’s not perfect, they’ll take the time to download the files, install the game, and then share their opinions. They are called early adopters. If we know who they are, it will be much easier to match them with sales and marketing activities. We will talk more about product matching and early adopters later in this manual.

In 2015, we started working on a tool that would turn any smartphone into a microphone. Imagine you are sitting in a crowded room during a conference. Suddenly, someone in the back row in the corner has a question. A person with a microphone runs across the room to hand it to the person. But by the time he reaches the person, he has already finished his question, which no one has heard. Meanwhile, someone else comes up from the other end of the room. How much energy it takes to manage such a conference. We knew the problem was real and that it existed, but we didn’t know if it was serious enough to be a challenge for these companies. To test our assumptions, we started our work by implementing a prototype. We worked for less than two weeks and came up with a product that looked very primitive. We wanted to get the initial feedback we needed as quickly as possible. It turned out that we had created a product that was highly sought after by conference companies, who couldn’t wait to test it on a live audience. Unfortunately, when it came down to it, no one in the room wanted to use it.

But what the hell, I thought. We have such a fantastic product, we are solving a very advanced problem, and here is nothing. Deeper analysis showed us that the problem was somewhere else than we thought. It turned out that fear of public speaking was at the top of the list of people’s biggest fears. This wasn’t only true for people on stage, but also for those who wanted to ask a question, right in the middle of the conference. It didn’t matter if they were using a traditional microphone or our solution. They were limited by fear.

By getting out to people quickly, we gained valuable information that allowed us to create another, better version that offered anonymity.  In addition to audio communication, we gave users the ability to ask questions and comment in text form. Both by name and anonymously. We introduced a system of comments and polls and identification of people in the room. It was a hit, and we didn’t have to wait long to see the results. At a conference in London organized by a pharmaceutical company from the United States, the increase in engagement was huge. In previous editions, the number of questions from the audience could be counted on the fingers of one hand. This time the presenters were inundated with 912 questions!

After a few weeks and a few tweaks, we went even further and invited 150 companies from around the world to participate in the test. To my surprise, the seats sold out in a matter of hours, with virtually no promotion. Interestingly, the list included some of the biggest and most recognizable brands in the world.

We worked hard over the next few months, collecting data from our customers, analyzing their needs, and listening to what they wanted to tell us

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