#52 - A quick challenge for my Founders with great ideas
This week was spent getting UserVoice up and running.
I can’t lie, I am really excited to be able to use this tool to aggregate customer feedback to help us make data-driven decisions and create a better channel to get direct to end-users. Expensive if you’re starting out.
Even before this was introduced, I was out there speaking to end-users. I get over myself and try and understand what the most frustrating things are in their day to day work life?
I am actually seeing less diversity of persona’s as they are usually constrained by their roles with different flavours across industries. That’s why I believe your product doesn’t have to be for everyone. Make the call on what it IS/IS-NOT based on your core competencies and go for the big wins by understanding the market need.
MY CHALLENGE TO YOU
This week set yourself a challenge. Speak to 5 of your users and do simple customer interviews.
I would love to know what you learn :)
Let's Build Great Products
How to validate an idea before you get emotionally attached to it?
Why on earth do we get attached to our ideas when we are not sure if anyone else wants it? Yeah, it’s noble to say you want to create something that doesn’t exist but what if it doesn’t exist because it’s a “nice, to have” but no-one would ever find it valuable enough to give you any money for it?
Solve important problems, design the appropriate experience, identify known-unknowns early.
FOR ME: This isn’t personally my best framework for validating ideas quickly. There are so many tools, and you really need to think about what you are trying to validate. But the title is true, you should validate as quickly as possible before the attachment kicks it. It is better for your time and money.
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If you are working on a tech startup or knows someone who is and needs some help. Drop me a line, I may have something for you.
Sunday Reads
A way to estimate LTV if you haven't been operating for long
I sat with the CFO at work a few weeks ago and didn’t leave until I understood how we measured the value of our most important clients. Being able to tie back to ROI is what matters, and incentive drives behavior.
How do you estimate LTV on the go?
Many early-stage startups struggle to measure LTV, because they haven’t been around very long but don’t let that hold you back. Check out this article for a way to think about how you could predict your business
Customer Success: The Definitive Guide 2018
I believe that helping customers get more out of your product is something that will play a big role in B2B companies in the future. Businesses that have been around for years have had a different experience, but the people (aka the talent) coming through want more.
It contains a lot of links so you might want to bookmark it but here is succinct definition.
Customer success is a system, run by people whose only goal is to help customers get the best out of your product
Helpful Tool(s)
Airtable
Airtable works like a spreadsheet but gives you the power of a database to organize anything
I used it recently, think of it as a spreadsheet that runs in your browser with nothing to install, but is less resource intensive when you want to link and store lots of data.
From what I can see, data-driven marketing people gravitate towards it