7 tips for productizing startup ideas

Koen Delvaux@kodel – www.del-mot.be

01/11/2010

Idea versus product

Productizing is turning an idea into something that can be sold

Properties of a product

It exists

Made for a marketHas a design

Sells for a price

It worksKnown by a name

Serves a purpose

User testing: Get out there

Don’t do user surveys behind a desk.Confront users with your productin the context where they will use it.

Pricepoint: Make the sale

Don’t ask:Would you buy a product X for Y?

Ask:I have X and can sell it only today for Y.Do you want it?

You don’t need the product to sell it.(and determine price elasticity)

Underdo the competition

(credit: 37signals)Try to focus on 1 feature that others missed out on

More fun!

Spread ALL your ideas

Your idea sucks.Tell it to other people until it becomes good.

Afraid they will steal your idea?The owner of an idea is:• The one who makes the most noise• The one who executes upon it

Person to person, not online

Iterate: Fast & small

First product shipped: 3 months after startIncremental releases: every 3 weeks

Don’t plan, but DO

Agile methods:• Often only blabla• Customer= teammember

See: http://refactr.com

Don’t follow the planFollow the user

Partner like crazy

Define your marketFind your competitors.Then see how you could partner with them.

Your go to market model will define the boundaries of your product.

Pick a spot in the value chainDon’t try to be the whole chain(tip: emerging market = blue ocean)

Business models can wait

1 CSF for startups: find product-market fit

• Your value proposition will keep changinguntil you find product-market fit

• Your business model will be dictated by yourfinal value proposition

Risk:« we can’t change that,

since our business model depends on it » (free is not a bad place to start)

Final notes

Productizing is easy when you build a product for yourselves. Teams that create products out of their own need are more successful. They can trust on their intuition and work with passion.

A startup CEO’s job is product manager.

Engineering and sales should “get” the product, both at the same level of understanding.