Straight to the Build
Every time I’m hot on a new business idea my energy goes through the roof. My smile grows ear to ear, I don’t sleep — in a good way, and my friends enjoy being around me.
What’s not to be excited about? I asked a couple of my trusted advisors and they “love it” and good ole Uncle Logic has given me the official thumbs up. This idea is the one — it’s a no brainer! There is nothing left to do but jump straight into the code — build this MVP out — and start collecting paychecks.
But when I emerge from a 2 weeks head down sprint with my MVP in hand and then start driving cheap traffic — the results are not pretty. No sign ups, a few clicks, but not nearly enough solid engagement metrics to learn what to do next.
Since I just put my heart and soul into this first iteration and received so little back, it is tough for me to execute the incremental changes I know are necessary to iterate through my initial learning stages. My energy begin to fades, my smile recedes to a grin, and my friends retreat to anywhere but around me.
1. Lean Canvas (http://leanstack.com/)
Lean Canvas is a concise business plan template, that helps you think through the critical issues of your business such as your unique value proposition, your revenue streams and potential cost structures. Even though there technically is not a lot to input, I guarantee you that if you do it correctly, it will take you a good while to complete. And when you are finished - your idea will be a much deeper version of its former self.
2. Quick MVP (http://quickmvp.com/)
Quick MVP allows you to create a quick Landing page (no code) that is pre-built with tracking and goal setting to manage your customer engagement. And by the way, when I say a quick landing page, I mean quick — like 1-3 minutes quick. Use your unique value propositions you spent time creating with your Lean Canvas and see if people will click, sign up, or buy what you are selling.
3. Validat.io (http://www.validat.io/)
Validat.io helps you get feedback from someone other than your Mom and best friend. It guides you as you create a custom startup survey based around key startup principals (similar to Lean Canvas) and sends it to 100+ potential customers for feedback. You get back the analyzed results in a dashboard that compares each of the components (product/market fit, virality, pricing, etc..) to your peers and industry leaders. It also gives you tips on what areas you may want to concentrate on before your next iterative build.
4. Twitter Lead Generation Cards (www.ads.twitter.com)
Twitter Lead Generation Cards allow you attach an email sign up to promoted tweets. You can target customers by interests, keywords, and followers. The actual tweets attached to the cards allow you to test different value propositions while the email addresses you collect validate which value props resonate best with your users. Plus you have an email list that you can use once you get to your MVP build.
5. MailChimp Entrepreneur Package (www.mailchimp.com)
You could spam your friends and business contacts with a long email asking about your idea, but instead take advantage of Mailchimp’s Entrepreneur package and test it systematically. There are endless possibilities but here is what I have learned works well. Create a simple HTML layout using their email builder (again no code). Have a short summary of your idea at the top and two buttons — “Love it” and “Like It” — below that. Both buttons should link to your Quick MVP landing page. Count “love” as a confirmation and “like” as a no go (it’s your friends — they are being polite).