the blog
Semi-regular musings on all things marketing, data, product, and business.
How a few nerds made me a better marketer
This likely doesn’t come as a shock to most of us marketers, but we’re being asked to do more with less -- smaller budgets, shrinking head count, less time. But how did we get here? And how can we change it?
Startup Bootcamp, Part 14: Analyze Feedback and Iterate
Let’s reflect on what you just accomplished, because it’s pretty big. You built a simple, three-component landing page, drove at least 100 pairs of eyes to it, got email sign-ups, received generally positive feedback on your concept and tweaked your offering based on the feedback you received. Sheesh! Wipe that sweat off your brow; that’s a productive three hours.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 11: Build a Landing Page
Did your idea crush it in your initial market feedback exercise? Great, you’re ready to launch your product, rent office space and hire a few employees! Oh, wait; what that really means is you’re ready to expand the number of people exposed to your idea to 100 without spending a fortune. Enter the landing page MVP.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 10: What's my freaking brand name?
You’ve determined who you’re up against in the marketplace and what your competitive advantage is, but what do you call yourself? What will your logo look like? Having the words “TBD Company” (even in a really clean, modern font) in the header of your landing page isn’t a recipe for success.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 9: Get market feedback from 10 people
This next step kicks off the Agile, validated learning and iteration process. Get used to it, nerds (that’s a compliment); this process is continuous from this point onward.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 6: Stalk your competitors
Ever “stumble upon” the Facebook profile of the person you’re meeting later for coffee? Search for your boss’ Zillow listing? See? You’ve been preparing to stalk your competition your whole life and you didn’t even know it. Dig a little deeper to see how worthy these adversaries are and how they might impact you.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 5: Identify your competitors
Have you discussed your exes with your current partner? Why do we do it? That was a rhetorical question! We know the answer; it’s to identify the competition. Deploy a similar strategy with your business idea. Prevent a false start by identifying the competitive landscape early in the process. Dedicate no more than 30 minutes by following these three rules:
Startup Bootcamp, Part 4: Framing your MVP like a science experiment
Remember your middle school science fair? Hastily designed tri-fold poster boards and the ribbons that had no monetary value, but carried more weight than gold? Channel your adolescence and apply the scientific method to your MVP. State your hypothesis, make your assumptions, outline how you’ll measure success and record your observations. Glue sticks not required (you’ll need those for a later section).
Startup Bootcamp, Part 3: The sniff test
The sniff test is an analysis using no outside research to quickly determine if your idea is worth pursuing. We explain how to get it done. And fast.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 2: The minimum viable product explained
MVP--most valuable player? Not exactly. While you’ll always be the MVP to us, in this guide MVP stands for minimum viable product. The MVP isn’t your final product; it’s the minimum amount of time, effort and resources required to put your idea in front of your target audience and test your business hypothesis before fully building it out.