7: Kill, Pivot, or Persevere
There is only one thing left to do: analyze our learnings and make a decision:
Kill, pivot, or move forward?
Easier said than done? Well, I hope I can make it easy for you. Let's look at what we've done.
First, we built a Business Model Canvas to clarify all of our assumptions for our business.
Second, we learned how to conduct problem interviews with our target customers. We needed to validate whether or not our target customer even has the problems that we think they do.
Third, we conducted some competitive research, and built a simple model to understand where our solution fits into the competitive landscape.
Fourth, we analyzed the market to understand just how big an opportunity this might be. And we looked at some of the economics of how much of the market we'd need to capture in order to be successful.
And finally, we set up a landing page experiment to validate whether or not our proposed solution, a value proposition, would resonate with our target customer, and whether we can even reach them in the channels that we listed on our canvas in step one.
Based on all this activity, we should have a very strong idea of whether this business has a chance or not.
Listen, if any of the above steps failed to produce an overwhelmingly compelling result--if you couldn't validate your problem statements, or found a competitive landscape that's over-crowded, or discovered the market simply isn't big enough, or couldn't get any sign-ups on your landing page--it is quite probable that this particular idea is not the one.
But now you know how to go through your next idea and test it. And you can do it more quickly and confidently than before. This is the essence of lean and agile techniques for validating business ideas before you build them.
However, if you're experiments during this course were all a resounding success, you're probably wondering how you're going to actually build this MVP.
If that's your problem, if you have a strong signal from the market and need to build a working MVP quickly, you will definitely want to try my 12 Week MVP process. Everything that I offer in my day-to-day coaching with startups is outlined in that process, and you can follow along yourself.
Or if you want me to work on this MVP with you, let's set up a time to chat.
PS: If you want even more detail on how to build your MVP, how to scale it to a winning product, and how to form a successful startup company around your product, do check out the Startup Patterns book. It's packed with practical advice and examples both from my own experience, and interviews with leading entrepreneurs who are applying these methods right now.I am here to help.
Don't feel ready to go it alone? Give me a call so I can help you.
Prefer email? That's fine. I am reachable at mcafee . sam at gmail . com