Lean User Experience in a Lean Startup

Lean UX
Chicago Lean Startup Circle

Bernhard Kappe Bob Moll
CEO UX Lead
Pathfinder Software Pathfinder Software

http://pathfindersoftware.com Copyright © 2011 Pathfinder Software

The Fastest Path to Product Success


The Fastest Path to Product Success
Lean Startup
Lean UX
Agile Development
Lean Marketing
Lean Metrics


Let’s do a little
matchmaking.


Lean Startup, Meet UX
• User Experience is critical to
product success: Bad user
experience will sink great
business solutions

• UX designers talk to users, do
rapid prototyping, and do testing
to validate (sound familiar?)

• UX designers have talent,
experience, and techniques that
are really useful in a lean startup


UX, Meet the Lean Startup
• You’re frustrated that no one on
the business side values user
research, prototyping and
validating with users, right?

• Lean Startup practitioners are
business people who believe
that talking to customers,
prototyping and validation are
core to their business.
(And they have a great personality too)


You two seem like
you’d make a great
couple.
How can we get you
together?

A Deﬁnition of Lean UX

Applying design methods (UX) to
the hypothesize-test-learn
processes of a Lean Startup


Origin of Lean UX
Lean UX:
Coined by Janice Fraser
of LUXr
in San Francisco

Josh Seiden
Jeff Gotthelf
Zach Larson
...


Our Talk Tonight: 3 Questions
1 What is a Lean Startup?

2 How are UX Methods Used in Developing
a Lean Startup?

3 What Makes Someone Effective with
Lean UX?


Question 1
What is a Lean Startup?


The Classic
Startup
(un-Lean)
• Write Business Plan
• Get Funding
• Build Software
• Launch
• Get Feedback
• Start Version 2


Sounds like
Classic
Waterfall!
• Build on Assumptions
• Launch
• Find Out Your Business
Assumptions are Wrong
• Try to Change at Scale
• Run Out of Time and Money


If Nobody Buys...

=
• On Time

• On Budget Failed
• High Quality Software
• Great User Experience


Reality

9 out of 10 new products
fail.


Why They Fail

• A Problem Not Worth Solving
• Building the Wrong Solution
• Can’t Get Customers to Pay
• Can’t Get Customers Cheaply Enough


Another Approach:

“Lean”


Just to Clarify...

Lean Startup
= Cheap and
Bootstrapped


Lean Manufacturing

A production practice that considers the
expenditure of resources for any goal other than
the creation of value for the end customer to be
wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working
from the perspective of the customer who
consumes a product or service, "value" is defined
as any action or process that a customer would be
willing to pay for.


“Translation”

If customer won’t pay for it, it’s not valuable

Don’t spend resources on stuff that’s not valuable


How do you figure out
what’s valuable?


Toyota Product System (TPS)

• Challenges: form a long term vision and meet
challenges with courage and creativity

• Kaizen: (continuous improvement) - Improve
business operations continuously, always driving for
innovation and evolution

• Genchi Genbutsu: (go and see) - Go to the
source to ﬁnd the facts to make correct decisions,
build consensus and achieve goals at best speed


Go to the Customer

• Genchi Genbutsu = Get Out of the Building!
(Go to the source (the customer) to ﬁnd the facts)


Lean Startup
• A scientiﬁc method for creating innovation

• Goal: Discover a business model that works before
you run out of time and money

• Experiments to validate business model hypotheses

• Fast Cycle Time: Need to go through experiments
as quickly as possible, with as little wasted effort as
possible.


The “Lean”
Concept Uses a
Hypothesize
Scientiﬁc
Approach to Test
Discover What Learn
Works with Less Revise
Waste

Question 2
How are UX methods used
in Developing a Lean Startup?


Lean Startup

Business Model
Customer Discovery
Customer Segments
Problem Interviews
Solution Interviews
MVPs
Product Development
Customer Validation


Lean Startup

Business Model
Customer Discovery
Customer Segments UX techniques can be
Problem Interviews applied to more than
Solution Interviews just product
MVPs development
Product Development
Customer Validation


Using UX for
Business Model
Generation


Brainstorm a Lean Canvas


UX Method: Team Brainstorm

Name a
unique
way we
add
value


Customer Discovery
Searching for Problem/Solution Fit

• Get Earlyvangelists

• Problem Interviews

• Solution Interviews

• Build and Test a Series of MVPs

• Get First Paying Customers

• Pivot?


UX Method: Prototype Landing
Pages to Find Earlyvangelists

Landing Pages: First Iteration of Brand and Visual Design


Using UX for Problem
Interviews


Problem Interviews

• Find Out Demographics

• Validate Their Top 3 Problems

• Rank the Problems

• Describe How They Currently Solve the
Problems


Problem Interviews

• Pair Interviewing with UX designer

• Card Sorting

• Use Problem Interview Results to Drive
Segments and Personas


UX Method: Card Sort

Too much Hard to use
time Expensive!

No person e with
behind
Was te tim s
your websit
e ext ra step


UX Method: Card Sort
1
Expensive! 4 Too much
time
2
Hard to use e with
Was te tim s
ext ra step
3p
No 5
erson behin
d
your websit
e


UX Method: Visualize the
Personas, Goals


Using UX for Solution
Interviews


Solution Interviews

• Recap Demographics and Problem

• Describe and Show Solution (don’t sell it!)

• Does it resonate?

• What’s most important, What can you take away, what’s
missing?

• Can you get insight into channels?

• Ask about pricing


Solution Interviews

Approach: Show things, let them talk


UX Method: Design an
infographic to restate problem


UX Method: Low Fi Prototypes


Paper Prototype
Show about 6 screens, ask them to
prioritize.

4
5 2

6 3
1


Paper Prototype
What can be taken away? what’s
missing?

4
5X 2

X
6
1
3


Paper Prototype
You are drilling down to MVP

1 2
3 4


Using UX for MVP
(Product Development)


Minimum Viable Product

“Enough to Validate”

Will people use it? Will they buy it?


Screenﬂow Movie Prototype

Initial MVP

• Screenﬂow Movie of Mockups

• Landing Page - Sign Up if You’re Interested

• Posted on Hacker News and Digg
Result: 90,000 Signups in Three Days


That’s Validation


Build-Test Process for the MVP

Inception Agile Small Releases
iterations


Build the Core, Not Everything


Agile Iterations


Time-Boxed UX Workshops
(1-2 hours)


UX Method: Create a
Storyboard (Wall)


UX Method: Prototype
and Test


Once You’ve Validated Problem/Solution
Fit and Get Paying Customers

... Move on to Customer Validation


Product/Market Fit
Path to Product Market Fit
9000

Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer Lifetime Value/3

6750

4500

Product/Market Fit:
LTV/3 >= CAC
2250

0
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 6 Month 5 Month 6 Month ? Month 8 Month 9 Month 16 Month 11 Month 12

Reducing Customer Acquisition Costs
with UX

• Does the Experience Match the Marketing?

• Changes to Optimize Customer Acquisition Funnel/
Experience for New Users


Increasing LTV with UX

• Improve value (and price) through:
• adding features
• improving features
• taking away features
• Reduce churn by ﬁnding and fostering loyalty
behaviors (optimize the customer retention funnel)


UX in Customer Validation

• You have real users and precise usage data on
individuals - analyze it!

• Make small changes fast (hours, not weeks to get
into production)

• When you make changes - A/B test (or do
multivariate if you have big enough volumes.)


Question 3

What Makes Someone
Effective with Lean UX?


Team Player

Design + product management +
development = 1 product team


Brainstorming

Come up with lots of ideas quickly, then
pick the best and test them


Visualizing

Get ideas on a wall in pictures where
everyone can see them


Listening

Get out of the building and talk to people,
hear what they say, what they mean


Rapid Prototyping Skill

Hypothesize - Prototype - Test
(repeat)


Passion for Problem Solving

Get immersed in the people and problem
domain - you’ll be more creative


No Sacred Cows

Flexibility to throw things out and try
something new


Summary
Team Player
Brainstorming
Visualizing
Listening
Rapid Prototyping Skill
Passion for Problem Solving
No Sacred Cows


Lean Startup + UX


Thanks for your attention!
Find out more:
Pathﬁndersoftware.com
Bernhard:
bkappe at pathf.com
Bob
rmoll at pathf.com


Lean User Experience in a Lean Startup

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