So, we're getting ready to ship our first technology MVP. We've done some concierge and pen and paper MVPs. But now, its time to tighten the test-learn-iterate loop. I've read Eric Ries' The Lean Start-up twice already. But I was confused about the details of how I would measure what was working and what was not in our product. One of the early things we want to learn is what information is important to a consumer when making a decision we are trying to help them with. And also, what information is not important to that decision. I was trying to come up with ways to measure each data element we added to the experience and somehow deduce it's importance to the consumer.
I had some ideas but none seemed that clear. So, I went back to the book, particularly Chapter 7, which deals with measurement. Halfway through the chapter, the answer hit me like a ton of bricks. Determining what is important and what is not will be much easier than I was thinking thanks to innovation accounting. Here's my summary of how it will work.
This is a shift in the way I've done product development in the past. Here are some of the ways it is different:
I'm super excited to implement this new way of thinking. I had a real hard time getting sleep last night as I kept thinking about all of the potential this methodology holds for quickly moving the product forward.
Stay tuned, we're shipping soon.