Minimal Viable HQ: 11 things to run a lab from a handbag and a flip chart

Sometimes it’s not possible to make space for a slick beanbag-filled lab. Usually, that’s not a problem. Here’s how we created a minimum viable HQ in a break-out area near The Times newsroom.

When Fluxx helped launch The Brief Premium, a new legal product from The Times, within a few days we had over 100 customers and after a couple of months we had over 500. This is how we managed the product and kept customers happy.

1. Find your spot. Select your start-up ‘HQ’ space wisely. Make it open-plan with plenty of natural light.
2. Get close to the buzz. Find a position where there’s a bit of buzz or activity — a break-out area near the canteen. Closed offices are quiet and comfortable, but it’s much harder to make an impact or meet the people you need.
3. Wall space. Is more important than desk space. If necessary, use whiteboards, screens or even flip charts on stands as temporary walls.
4. Customer investigations. Act like a detective, and get everything you know about customers up on the wall. Use Post-Its for customer anecdotes, unsolved questions and important facts. Get it all out!
5. Critical metrics. What numbers will prove your business model? We used total customers, engagement (average pages per visit), total revenue and cost per acquisition. Write them big and update them every day.
6. Helpdesk operations. Track the total number of support queries, and Post-it any unresolved issues. You don’t want to lose this stuff in a dusty spreadsheet.
7. Progress metrics. How many customers have you spoken to? How many experiments have you launched? For passing traffic, this is progress in action.
8. Call centre. For the customer service hotline, we used callready.co.uk to create a disposable dedicated customer service number that diverted to an old Pay As You Go Nokia handset. We were up and running within an hour or so.
9. Nerve Centre. Spreadsheets to track customers and support calls, the email inbox, and the place to use tools like Unbounce to launch experiments quickly.
10. Live Chat. We used GoSquared to provide live chat. With the app on our own smartphones, we got used to answering customer questions in the canteen queue (and yes, on the loo).
11. All the answers. A FAQ and a script to answer key questions about the product is really helpful and keeps you sounding slick to new customers.

If you’d like to see ways we’ve helped companies and could help yours, take a look at our site: Fluxx.uk.com, subscribe to our newsletter and/or read the free download of our new book The Plan Sucks.

Fluxx is a company that uses experiments to understand customers, helping clients to build better products. We do product and service design at such a pace we transform the way organisations work. Atkins, National Grid, the Parliamentary Digital Service and the Royal Society of Arts.

If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy “Is this the start-up you’re looking for”, “How do you design the future in just 5 days in a field”, “How Fluxx uses JUGAAD innovation everyday”, “Six behavioural flaws that make us stupid around money” and “13 things we learned while designing a more democratic Houses of Parliament.”

For more visit our Medium page: https://medium.com/fluxx-studio-notes