Gravity - Lessons Learned from Intrapreneurship

7/30/2019 Gravity - Lessons Learned from Intrapreneurship

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Gravity

Confessions of a serial intrapreneur

Harsh Jawharkar


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Before we begin

The opinions expressed are solely my own based onlessons learned over the last 14 years across multipleindustries and circumstances

Practical lessons learned, no theory, no prescriptions

Please share your own learnings and [email protected]

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Serial intrapreneur = launching new ventures (mostlyunfunded) within the constraints of large organizations

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Started out designing/launching new products at

leading firms like IDEO, A.T. Kearney, Pfizer, andSapient

Launched a social payments venture and built up theincubator at Wells Fargo; now that technology is beingcommercialized into the largest joint-venture personalpayment network in the U.S.

Created a new type of wallet at PayPal by commercializinganaward-winning product platform; laid the foundation for thecompany to go after the multi-billion dollar global prepaidmarket

Current RoleManaging Director Mobile and New ChannelDevelopment at Charles Schwab & Co.


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T-shaped tool-box

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ChannelMarketing Launching

newventures

andproducts

Design &Human Factors

DigitalAdvertising

BusinessStrategy &Operations


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Quick Poll Major product innovation pain-points

The matrix prevents innovation responsibility without authority

Making do with the talent on board some people are great, somepeople arent

Conducting test and learn in a risk-averse consensus environment

Knowing when to let go and deviating from your vision

How can we be operationally efficient AND innovative?

Being Agile in a waterfall environment

Difficulty prioritizing bets and managing the pipeline

Finding the right speed for innovation going too fast or too slow

Getting funded how to pitch reputation conscious corporatesponsors

Competing with or cannibalizing entrenched products

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Key Themes

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Story

Process

Approach

Team Building the right team,getting people motivated,and establishing the right

attitude

Solving the right problem,focusing on the minimum

viable product, and boot-strapping your way to launch

Finding the right fit, adapting

to your speed, pivoting, andmeasuring for success

Evangelizing, game-planning, and creating acoalition of support (internaland external)


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Building the right team

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Build a T-shaped team quality over quantity

Thinking Linking Doing

Observing

Empathizing

Brainstorming

Cross-pollinating

Synthesizing

Facilitating

Executing

Implementing

Testing

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Bottom LineNo delicate geniuses or divas; find tough people with thick skins

Get to know your teams strengths/weaknesses as early as possible


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You cant teach attitude but you can teach skills

Prioritize quick learnersover "domain experts

The experts are nice-to-have; but all thingsequal, find the hungrypeople

You cant teach attitude,

so dont overvalue

aptitude9

The upstart The expert


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Listen to the skeptics but shed the deadweight

Negativity is contagious,everyone is impressionable

Cut out the virus before itspreads and affects the rest ofyour team

Two options:

1) Step in to fill the gaps andpick up the load

2) Use it as a growth

opportunity for other team 10


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Sometimes we forget about the sweat equity

Leave your titles andegos at the door to buildteam spirit

You may be thequarterback but you needto block and tackle to getpeople to buy into the

vision

Create a huddle to get

people excited and makethe handoffs seamless 11


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Youre the pinch hitter, shortstop, handyman, and more

Design Build Lead Monetize Evangelize

Design theminimum viable

product

Document and drivefeature development

Work acrossdisciplines to drivecreation of allartifacts necessary(e.g. use-cases,architecture,sitemap, wireframes,content, etc.)

Establish theproduct roadmap -

Manage the flow ofwork; anticipateand trouble-shoot

Iterate and createrepeatable andscalable practicesto drive ease +efficiency

Own the business every decision is

framed by the costof doing businessand the valuecreated

Measureengagement andobtain feedback forfast iteration to get

to product-marketfit and to createmonetizationoptions

Sell the visioninternally and

externallyestablish advocacyand developchampions

Be a scout get infront to clearroadblocks andhurdles to make

everyones jobseasier

Bring alldisciplines

together (rightplace, right time) to realize the

business strategy from concept to

execution -seamlessly

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Bottom Line:

Theres a difference between being a decisive leader and apassive manager


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Approaching the problem

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What type is your challenge and what assets do you

have?

Is it evolutionary? Is it moreimportant to go after aquick win?

Or is it revolutionary? Areyou solving somethingeveryone else has failed

at?

Are you going to build, buy,

or integrate? What piecesdo you have in place? 14


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Map the battlefieldtheyre not gonna let you just build it

Operationalize Build

Lynchpin

Budget/

P&L

Legal/Risk

ExecSpons

orMgmt

PRD/MVP

Wireframes

Taskflow

Sitemap

Use-casesTest Scripts

Content

Schema

Prod Architecture

Cashflow

ProgressReports

Regulatory Compliance

Fraud Models

CustSuppor

t

Svcing Infrastructure

Admin Site

Fin/AcctgProcesses Analytics

System AdminApproach

Engg

Design/

Content

PM/Analys

t

QA

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Identify roadblocks early, can you use influencers to openthose gates?


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Focus on the minimum viable product, not ideal product

CustomerProblem

Discovery

DefineHypotheses

+ MVPTest MVP

Measure

+Validate

Product-Market Fit?

Exit

Scale +

Monetize

(as-is)

Pivot(s) +

Scale +

Monetize

References:

1) Steve Blank

2) Sean Ellis3) Eric Ries

Use Qualitative +

Quantitative methods to

test the MVP

Look for pivots across

solution use-cases

Find the right set ofproblems to solve Prioritize the problemyou think you can solve Build and launch theMVP to test hypotheses Based on iterations,determine the product

fits the market needs

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Pick depth of insights over breadth

Theres never enoughtime or money to do theideal amount of research

Use syndicated researchto get breadth but pay forqualitative insights to getdepth

Focus on the behaviorsthat will make yourproduct use that as a

basis for your metrics 17


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Eat your own dog food and make it interesting

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Personality is the API forloyalty

Find ways to live theproduct, regardless of yourrole on the team

Belief is important for theteam; if you dont believe no

one else will

Sources: bigorangeslide.com, Fred Wilsons A VC Blog


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Fake it till you make it

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Userenrolls

Log inEnter

Expenses

Algorithm

SendIOUs/Requ

est $

Make aPayment

SettlementAccount

Routefunds to

requester

ReceiveMoney

Major CapabilityGap

If there are show-stoppinggaps

Find a way to boot-strap to drive

traction and hit critical mass

Sample User Flow Diagram


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Customizing the Process

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Find the path that fits your type of innovation

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EvolutionSystematicinnovationprocesses andportfolios managedat an enterprise level

RevolutionSmall group ofintrapreneurs,skunkworks, or tigerteams looking foropportunities to fail fast

Socratic Scoring1. How attractive is the opportunity?2. What is the level of alignment with our strategic objectives?3. How actionable is the opportunity?


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Buyer beware shiny new processes need to be broken in

Iteration 0 Iteration 1 Iteration 2

8 weeksILLUSTRATIVE (Not to Scale)

CYCLE 1

CYCLE 2

MVP and Vision is set

Base BRD = PRD +

Product/BusinessStrategy

Core sitemap, high leveltask-flows created

Technical architectureestablished andenvironment/stack is final

Project plan (baseline)created and feature-setgrouped across iterations

Artifacts for Iter. 2coding are prepared

Includes PRDUpdate,Wireframes, Use-cases, QA testscripts, etc.

Code, test, anddeploy Iter. 1feature set

Code, test, anddeploy Iter. 2feature set

Artifact creation forIter. 3

Between specific iterations, conducted multiple Listening Labs(usability) to ensure the MVP is still relevant and sound using low-

fidelity prototypes

Established the overall QA/Alpha-testing strategy and recruitedtowards later milestone deployment dates to start uncovering bugs,loopholes, and edge cases

Landing pages, FAQs, Demo/Videos were developed at a laterstage based on progress

Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Iteration n

Agile (Scrum-based)Development

22Agile = Co-location + fully dedicated resources +


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If at first you dont succeed look for the pivot

Savings towardsgoals

Small BusinessConsumers

CustomerAttributes

More variety in use-cases

Prosumers

Less variety in use-cases

Lower $ volumes andtransaction

Higher $ volumes andtransactions

Similar

Similar

Lower need for robust

reporting, tracking, andformal messaging

Greater need for robust

reporting, tracking, andformal messaging

Similar

Less inclined to pay forpremium features

More inclined to pay forpremium features/services

Similar

Collecting gift $

(self)

Collectingtowards trip/event

Ad hoc socialevents

Pooling for group

gift

Ongoing room-mate expenses

Collecting team,club, group dues

Simple IOU(Just-Pay-Me

URL)

Landlordcollecting tenant

dues

Non-profit raising$ / collecting dues

Micro-biz billingservices

Micro-bizmerchant account

Parent-childmoney

management

Individual raising

$ for charities

ConsumerPlus

ConsumerPro

ConsumerBasic

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Design for metrics with the story in mind

What info do you needto tell the best story?

Measure often andearly, rethink featuresthat cant be

measured

Measurement is afeature, not an

afterthought

Keep it simple if youcant explain it quickly

then its not useful

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Simple

Easy to understand

Credible

Accepted in theorganization

Actionable

Provides apath forward


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What would it look like if work stops now? Be Frugal

Be frugal where youallocate the money;luxuries come later

Youre going to need a

buffer, something alwaysgoes wrong

If this was your last dollar,what would it look like if

you had to launch now? 25


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Telling the Story

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Crafting your story is a journey, it requires constant (andsomewhat obsessive) iteration

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A story is better than a pitch inconsensus environments

Components

Why does the problem evenmatter?

Why is the competition failingor what are they missing?

Why is your solution differentor better (and for whom)?

Can you really get this done

and for how much? Who benefits inside the org

(aside from the customers)?

Be your own devils advocate

whats the story against yourstory?


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Stay under the radar until youre ready for primetime

Resist the temptationto surface with ahalf-baked story

First impression canmake or break you;test with low-riskpeople

Play the long gamebe patient and resistany instant-gratification urge for 28


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When youre ready, script your game-plan around youraudiences agenda

Everyone is interested inthe same thing WIIFM

Make a list of influencersfor your roadshowwhats their agenda?

Its a numbers game build a coalition ofsupport (inside and

outside the org) 29Sources: johnlesko.biz


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Know your role in the game in order to perfect themessage

Whats the bigger

picture and wheredoes your initiativefit?

What are thepriorities for yourorganization?

The ideal story =high upside + low 30


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Thank You!

Harsh Jawharkar http://www.linkedin.com/in/harsh

https://www.twitter.com/hjawharkar

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http://www.linkedin.com/in/harshhttps://www.twitter.com/hjawharkarhttps://www.twitter.com/hjawharkarhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/harsh

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Gravity - Lessons Learned from Intrapreneurship