FOCUS framework by Justin Wilcox (a summary)
Two fundamental principles of the lean method are:
1) Declare your victories.
2) People don’t buy products, people buy solutions to problems.
So we ask, how can we build a product/service that solves people’s problems? One way is to seek what lean practitioners call product-market fit.
What is product-market fit?
Product market fit means satisfying a market that satisfies you. — Justin Wilcox
What satisfies you?
All people live in an attraction/aversion loop. People are passionate about things they are attracted to and are averse to the things that bring discomfort/pain.
The passion that is usually attached to a product/service needs to be attached to the declared victories instead. Doing so allows the startup founders to remain uncommitted to a particular product and service if it brings them no closer to achieving their declared victories.
How can we satisfy a market? By achieving product-market fit.
Justin Wilcox developed five experiments to better achieve product-market fit. The five experiments are intended as tests to five assumptions.
These are:
1) Assumption: There are people out there that are trying to solve this problem.
Find early adopter test
- Who are the people that are trying to solve the problem that your solution is also trying to solve, and can I find them?
- Use customer interviews to determine how customers describe their problem (marketing copy) and where they go to find solutions (marketing channels).
- The customer’s descriptions of the problem will be used as the marketing copy and the places they go to seek the solution will be the marketing channels.
2) Assumption: I am able to reach those people and describe the problem in a way that makes them want to consider my solution.
Offer test
- Customers are engaging with your offer and you can iterate your marketing outreach.
3) Assumption: People are willing to pay me for the solution.
Currency test
- People will pay you the money you need to achieve your declared victory, if you build this thing/service. Ways to test this is via landing page pre-sales or letters of intent.
4) Assumption: The solution actually does solve the problem in a way that satisfies the customer.
Utility test
- Providing value, that is, can you actually solve people’s problems? Then, you be the solution to the problem, for example by beginning with a manual solution (Minimum Viable Product). It’s easier to take feedback from your customers if your solution is manual rather than automated.
5) Assumption: The solution can be automated and scaled.
Scaling test
- Now is the time to build software and robots to replace you and automate. And also to reach out to the 2nd or 3rd marketing channels and 2nd or 3rd customer segments.
My take-aways:
Building the product is what comes last in this framework. Before any building takes place there are 5 assumptions that need to be validated using the 5 tests/experiments (or some variation) described above.
As I revisit these notes, I realize that Wilcox’s framework goes beyond a startup success recipe and reaches upstream to the state of mind of the creator. By declaring your victories upfront, the framework calls on the creator to attempt to make their ultimate assumptions explicit. The point here, as I understand it, is not to create a rigid goal that must be followed at all costs, but to kick start the heart of the venture with a value. -RD, 3/24/20
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