1
00:00:08,940 --> 00:00:14,579
So after you fill out the business model canvas and you summarise all your hypotheses

2
00:00:14,580 --> 00:00:18,750
and you have a good idea about all the different aspects of your business,

3
00:00:19,110 --> 00:00:26,670
what you need to be doing is testing your ideas, and you do this through customer development and your product.

4
00:00:28,420 --> 00:00:35,620
So to save your time and energy, you're building the simplest version of your product and you launch it fast.

5
00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:43,390
So you learn from your customers, you understand what they want and what they need, and you modify your product.

6
00:00:46,190 --> 00:00:51,920
And how do you do that? Well, there is a very simple way you talk to people.

7
00:00:53,150 --> 00:01:04,220
And that sounds simple enough, doesn't it? However, the problem with that is that you you can bias people about your idea very easily.

8
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:08,420
And when you do that, you get false positives.

9
00:01:09,380 --> 00:01:13,540
And that doesn't help you. It doesn't add value to your business.

10
00:01:13,550 --> 00:01:18,800
And it actually may get you in trouble and it will get you in trouble.

11
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:24,170
Because when you want to make decisions, you will have bad data.

12
00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:29,660
But how do we know that the data you're acquiring are not useful?

13
00:01:32,450 --> 00:01:42,650
So these are a couple of signs that you can keep an eye on that will tell you that the data you're acquiring don't have any value to your business.

14
00:01:43,370 --> 00:01:52,699
So when you get compliments or generic comments or ideas about more features on your project or common knowledge,

15
00:01:52,700 --> 00:02:01,730
which is stuff you can just learn by using Google Research, these are a waste of your time and other people's time.

16
00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:12,120
And you may wonder why conversations go wrong. Why are the data you're acquiring not useful?

17
00:02:12,930 --> 00:02:19,709
So the problem with founders is that they fall in love with their idea and why they think that

18
00:02:19,710 --> 00:02:25,860
they're being very scientific and very methodical when they're asking people about their idea.

19
00:02:25,950 --> 00:02:29,490
What they're actually doing is facing for compliments.

20
00:02:32,330 --> 00:02:37,910
I have this awesome idea for a business, but that I've been working on for months.

21
00:02:38,270 --> 00:02:43,800
Do you like it? Well, if you put your idea.

22
00:02:44,430 --> 00:02:48,080
Most people will lie to you. Why?

23
00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:49,200
Well.

24
00:02:50,240 --> 00:03:00,950
Because they might don't care or because they don't want to hurt your ego or because they don't want to keep talking about your idea for another hour.

25
00:03:02,450 --> 00:03:08,600
So convincing people that your idea is great is not going to get you anywhere.

26
00:03:09,940 --> 00:03:14,950
Unless they're holding a chequebook and they're ready to to give you money for your business.

27
00:03:15,430 --> 00:03:23,250
Don't do that. So things that you don't need in order to acquire information about your data.

28
00:03:23,580 --> 00:03:25,350
You don't need formal meetings.

29
00:03:25,710 --> 00:03:35,760
You don't need to develop interview scripts or pay people to take surveys or spend hours and hours in talking to people and arranging meetings.

30
00:03:36,860 --> 00:03:44,270
Instead. This is what you need to be doing. So know what information you need to know about your business.

31
00:03:45,140 --> 00:03:50,870
What are your biggest risk, your biggest assumptions about your app for your business?

32
00:03:51,440 --> 00:04:00,830
What is most likely to sink your business and what can you do to eliminate or reduce that risk?

33
00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:08,840
What is it that you need to find out in order to get you to the next step safely?

34
00:04:11,600 --> 00:04:18,440
The next step is big. The customers you have easy access to and have a casual conversation.

35
00:04:19,450 --> 00:04:23,170
Don't talk about your idea because it's very tricky.

36
00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:30,310
You will easily bias them instead and don't trying to convince them, of course, that your idea is great.

37
00:04:30,670 --> 00:04:35,590
Instead, talk about their lives and ask about facts.

38
00:04:36,100 --> 00:04:40,390
Ask about past actions, not future ones.

39
00:04:40,870 --> 00:04:45,010
I asked them about how they're solving that problem today.

40
00:04:45,460 --> 00:04:51,310
What are they using? Which project? Which features are they finding useful?

41
00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:55,240
Why? What else they would like to do to see?

42
00:04:55,660 --> 00:04:59,680
Is that working for them? Or are they looking for something more?

43
00:05:01,260 --> 00:05:09,870
The truth is that if they are not using anything to solve that problem right now, it might not be important enough for them.

44
00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:15,750
They might not care to solve it. And that means they're not going to buy your product.

45
00:05:20,210 --> 00:05:23,960
Ask questions and listen more to what they say.

46
00:05:27,980 --> 00:05:33,230
And remember, no idea survives its first encounter with a customer.

47
00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:44,450
So you have an idea right now when you make your business, it might be a little bit different, but it might be a completely different idea.

48
00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,590
And this is fine. You need to learn as you go.

49
00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:54,620
You need to address a market need. Otherwise, you don't have a business.

50
00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,940
So very quickly because are going to have another lecture on this.

51
00:06:04,050 --> 00:06:11,730
The simplest pro product that you can build to test your critical hypothesis about your business is called the minimum

52
00:06:11,730 --> 00:06:21,120
viable product or MVP is what you're trying to build and launch your business with before you start adding more features.

53
00:06:24,910 --> 00:06:31,030
What if you have a crazy product idea and the manufacturing process is too expensive?

54
00:06:31,940 --> 00:06:41,150
How can you test it? What can you do? Well, nowadays there are a lot of different sites that can help you with that.

55
00:06:41,570 --> 00:06:47,640
Like crowdfunding or Kickstarter. And this is a crazy idea.

56
00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:56,760
These are wobbly balls. And you might be wondering who was going to fire one lightbulb.

57
00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:00,410
What is the point of having a bowl like this?

58
00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:01,250
Well,

59
00:07:02,180 --> 00:07:14,810
this lady had an idea and she uploaded a small video on this site and she was aiming to get $10,000 to fund the manufacturing process of this idea.

60
00:07:15,650 --> 00:07:20,450
And as you see, she raised almost four times that amount,

61
00:07:21,590 --> 00:07:29,960
which gave her the money to do what she was trying to do, but also clearly proved that there is a market.

62
00:07:30,830 --> 00:07:34,820
There are customers. There are people to buy her product.