the blog
Semi-regular musings on all things marketing, data, product, and business.
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 8: Develop User Personas
A user persona is where you take all the data you’ve collected and create a persona to represent your target audience. Use the chart below to organize your user personas. We’ve included one of Primal Post’s:
Startup Bootcamp, Part 7: Identify your target audience
While you may think your idea is so groundbreaking the whole world will want it, you’ll need to narrow your scope. Having a product a few people love and would recommend to their friends is much more valuable than many people who think your product is “just OK.” This is where you flesh out who you think will care about your idea..
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.
Startup Bootcamp, Part 1: You have a f&@!$%# great idea. Now what?
Most business books would have you believe that innovation is born from a spark, from some “big idea” that hits you over the head and becomes the next billion-dollar business. That’s BS.