Become The Machine
By now you’ve built a customer advisory panel, you’ve clarified the problem, and you’ve developed a solution. So the next question is, how do I test this solution?
There are lots of different ways to think about this, but the main point right now is to remember is that you are cheaper than just about anything else. You can act like the solution and learn what your customers want from that. It’s called the concierge model. Eric Reise gives lot’s of great examples in the book “The Lean Startup.”
By way of demonstration, I’ll share an idea that failed. And why this process was important.
In 2014 my company had an idea for a new product. It would be a “what went well” journal.
The problem is that people get run down during the week. The day to day grind can leave even the most optimistic a little blue by the end of the week. We had a customer advisory panel that had communicated that they agreed that this idea was a problem. The solution that we came up with was to create an experience where you tracked three things that went well every day and then at the end of the week, we send you what went well this week as a reminder.
There is some great science behind this approach. If you’re interested, you can learn more about Dr. Martin Seligman’s work at Authentic Happiness.
Our customers agreed, they liked the idea, and we were ready to test it. But how?
Building an app is not cheap, even when you are an app company! It would have been a huge opportunity cost for us as we would have had to give up on development time to make this happen. We might be willing to do it if we knew that users would be purchasing the service. But we weren’t certain of that yet.
We knew we should try the concierge model. I would act as the computer.
I created a Google form that had a place for customers to write out three things that went well that day. I emailed that to users every day. Starting on the second day, I had a reminder of what they had said from the previous day. On the last day, I sent them a summary of all the things that they had written.
The customers loved it! They loved the reminders; they loved the summary. The loved the idea that would be reminded to do the exercise each day.
Based on their enthusiasm, I began to think through what I would need to build the app.
- A reminder system to remind customers to use the software
- Customer management for logins, passwords, etc
- A database for the customer’s data
- Realy nice clean design and a simple user experience
So, I was almost ready to get started building it, when I sent out the last questionnaire. I asked the customers, how much would you pay to use this experience?
Nothing. Not a cent. The customers loved the idea and loved how it made them feel, but they would never pay for it. This was for two important reasons.
- Customers couldn’t see themselves doing this for the long haul
- Doing this had shown them that they could just make this part of their own mindfulness exercises.
Bummer and halleluiah!
By acting as the application and getting a test out to my customers in a matter of an hour or two, I saved myself countless time in building an app that would ultimately never go anywhere because customers just weren’t going to pay for it.
So, while I was sad to see this not work out, I was also thrilled to have seen this process work in real-time and save me lot’s of frustration down the road, and it prevented the loss of significant cash flow.
In case you’re wondering, could I have kept going with the process to get a better solution that customers would pay for? Of course. However, I didn’t want to for two reasons. 1) there are lot’s of problems to solve in the mental health domain and 2) I had other curiosities at the time. This brings me to the final point.
It’s ok to have a cap. An ending that you limit yourself too. You know yourself and your passion. Maybe it’s not worth it for you to keep pursuing a problem/solution fit. And that’s ok to figure out and have a plan for. I know for me, I’ll take a concept through the concierge phase, and if I don’t have a fit, then I move on without any guilt because I know I went through with the process and the process worked. Also, I like to fly fish, so I need some time for that.
Join the Conversation
This is the from the archive of an ongoing series called Making Things That Matter. Each week I will send you an email with another step in the process of building products and launching ideas. Signup here to join the conversation.
