Where do you start in your startup?
Design your value proposition either on “push” — from a technology or innovation you possess, or “pull” — based on your customer jobs, pains and gains.
7 am. In shower first 2 minutes. My second baby, just 2 weeks old, is already crying for my attention.
As a mom of two, I know the truth — “the motherhood is a hard, any help is much appreciated.”
A product idea for new moms just hit me.
-“Wow, this idea is amazing! I need to do that right NOW.”
-“..Wait a minute…It is NOT what is taught in the design and lean world.”
So, if I am serious about this idea, it’s time to practice the lean startup.
Eric Rice — the author of The Lean Startup — builds upon lean manufacturing, design thinking, customer development and agile development.
I have returned back to reading, because I like structure and methodologies. They make me feel safe in this crazy complex world we live in.
Based on Value proposition design, I have 2 options to proceed with the product development:
- Push — you have already technology/innovation and you are in search for the customer market;
- Pull — you start with the customer profile — jobs, pains and gains and then you design value proposition.
Since I don’t have anything at this moment, I need to start with the customer profile to identify jobs, pains and gains
As Steve Blank teaches, I need to start with Customer discovery. To say it simply — “Get out of the building” to test the problem “Do People Care?”
Alright, that means I need to be very clear who is my target user in order to test whether the problem exists and whether users care enough to spend their time and money, so I can solve this problem for them.
How in the world can I approach new moms who are so busy with their babies that they don’t have time to take a shower? Not to mention, to find time to speak with a complete stranger about their new motherhood struggles…
And right back to Steve Blank — “The most important customers of all — earlyvangelists”.
It gets interesting from here.
New moms are struggling, overwhelmed and don’t have time and sleep. Who among them are earlyvangelists? And how can I find them?
In the next post you will find out how I have found earlyvangelists and designed a customer profile hypothesis and have started validation of the biggest assumptions with the real moms.
This is a post from series #productdesign where I practice product design and customer development.
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