Is your idea worth pursuing? Can you build a sustainable product and business around it? We took our first steps towards answering these questions today. Your ideas are not precious, and will certainly evolve as you learn more about what your customers really want. We began using the Business Model Canvas as our map for discovery.
Ultimately your customers will decide your idea’s value. You need to articulate the Value Proposition for your product from their point of view.
Can you build a sustainable company around that idea and value proposition? We talked about general classes of customer segments, from mass markets, market segments, niche markets, and custom individualized products. We then explored a few ways to estimate the size of your customer base.
Here’s the Powerpoint deck. Again, formatted to be overlaid on video and (intentionally) not wordy. There are few expansions in the slide notes though.
Homework for Tuesday
Prepare a seven minute presentation about one of your ideas. The audience is us, BUT make it a formal presentation. Remember – three words maximum on your slides!
1. Value Proposition
Do a one sentence version, then explain it in more detail. Why do they need it? Why is it better than their current solution? (Best slide usage: can you demonstrate this with a simple graphic and no words?)
2. Market Opportunity
Estimate the market size for your product in customers and in dollars.
How many customers in a niche to launch with? Is there a bigger market beyond the niche (and if so, how big)? Do the same, but in dollars.
3. What are possible revenue models for your product? How much would customers be willing to pay? Keep it general here, we’ll be digging deeper in future classes.
4. Competition. What is your direct competition? What are indirect competitors? Your direct competition will be products that solve the same problem in a similar way. Your indirect competition are all the things your customer could do instead.
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There are three goals for this homework:
- Build a better understanding of value propositions, customer segments and market opportunities by having to apply them to your own idea.
- Develop critical thinking skills about those topics by discussing your peers’ presentations.
- Developing your own presentation skills through practice and critique.
Additional Resources
Christina Wodtke wrote an excellent article about team ideation with a nice portion on how to think about your value proposition in “Ideation Sprints for New Products & Services.” Her website is filled with other articles about design thinking that can help you out.