At Google Campus London, 23/09
@secretsauceconf
#getyoursauce
When we are very little we are asking questions all the time. It could be something simple (and often very annoying) as “Are we there yet?” — to more complicated questions, i.e. “Why Earth is round?”. When we become adults we often lose this ability and instead focus on giving answers — even before hearing the question.
However, correctly identifying the problem and asking the right questions are directly linked to your long-term success.
@AnthonyWCatt — Managing Director at Oxygen Startups on “Idea generation & validation”, was talking about an importance of developing an idea & pushing it to the real world.
First question you have to ask yourself is: Where is the Pain?
(And I know the general, most commonly used answer to that, but let’s not go there)
Is there something the world desperately needs that happens to be your own passion? Can it be done faster, better, cheaper, and more importantly — can you be the one who does that?
By asking all these questions you are thinking from you future user/customer point of view — they have the problem in the first place and then they try to find or get offered a solution to their problem. Once you have identified the problem, only then you should start thinking of a solution. Not the other way around, pal.
The great way to tackle your next step is to visualize your thoughts by creating an ideation maps & making assumptions — what do you think people need? Test your assumptions and ask for the feedback, people are there to point out things that they feel would be more comfortable for users. Then, use the feedback to transform your product into its best version.
Follow the AARRR metrics (Not a “lion roar”, but rather an extremely useful technique — check out this this relatively old but still very relevant video by Dave McClure who developed these metrics to help you gain more insight on it: http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2007/09/startup-metrics.html)
Acquisition — How do users find you?
Activation — Do they have a great first experience?
Retention — Do they come back?
Referral — Do you tell others?
Revenue — How do you make money?
So, you’ve asked the right questions, you found a solution as well as a business model for your startup. Next step is to put that into practice and develop your product/service.
Execution is a very important step and it can often take a lot of time to get it good enough for everyone to see, but for the love of God, launch your product/service already, “even if it is ugly!”
Don’t forget to read the first Secret Sauce Conference article on Matthew Clifford’s talk about “How to prepare to be a founder”
& the third part on the “Content Marketing 101 and How to attract humans” by Vincent Dignan.
