Incubation Guide€¦ · Messaging Traction Channels Iterate Pretotype Develop Pretotype 02. Is the problem (or innovation challenge) so compelling that each team member would be

IncubationGuideFinding Product-Market Fit

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02

Ideation P

haseInnovation Journey Map

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01.Motivation Compelling Problem Avoiding Duplication Team

Interviews Early Adopters Segmentation Opportunity Size

Time

SponsorElevator PitchAssumptionsThink Different

Competitors& Alternatives

Develop PretotypeIterate PretotypeTraction ChannelsMessaging

02.

Is the problem (or innovation challenge) so compelling that each team member would be willing to spend the next 1 - 2 years working to solve it?

03.

Has at least 5 hours of research been conducted to prove your organisation is not already exploring the same idea or has been able to learn from previous efforts?

04.

Have you formed a suitably sized and well-balanced corporate start-up team with strong intrapreneurial personalities?

05.

Has each team member received their manager's approval to be able to invest the necessary (10% or 20%) time to begin their journey?

10.

Did the team design non biased interview questions, select interview channels and conduct 60 - 100 B2C interviews or 20 - 40 B2B interviews across 3-5 customer segments?

11.

Did the team identify a group of customers who were already experiencing the problem and were actively trying to solve it?

12.

Did the team run 1 - 3 (Fake Door) experiments to help segment and prioritise which customer segment to focus on?

13.

Gate 02

Your Average Score

06.

Gate 01Idea & Team

Formation

07.

Can the team clearly articulate their aligned problem,

customer, tentative solution idea and proposed ‘secret

sauce’ in a one sentence pitch?

08.

Has the team prioritised over 10 initial assumptions related to the problem, the customer

or the business model (not about the solution)?

09.

Did the team use either 1 - 2 focus groups, an enthnographic

or customer observation exercise, netnography, or convergent / divergent techniques to think

differently about their idea?

14.

Has the team uniquely positioned their value

proposition in relation to more than 10 competitors or

alternative offerings?

16.

Has the team observed customers interacting with

the pretotype and iterated / improved it at least 2-3 times?

15.

Has the team developed a pretotype (not prototype)

based on non-scalable killer features to demo their idea to

customers?

17.

Has the team received ‘currency’, e.g. personal data, time, money, and compared

their traction across 2 or more channels (using pretotypes)?

18.

Did the team test different messaging that communicates their value proposition to their

target audience?

Discov

ery

Pha

se

Your Average Score

03 afce.co

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19. 20.

Can the team walk through the 9 building blocks of the Business Model Canvas highlighting critical validation from numerous experiments of the ‘front end’ (5 building blocks)?

21.

Is the team still driven by at least 2 of the founding team members from gates 1-2 and are new members being on-boarded / caught up around lean startup methodology?

22.

Did the team test their most critical feature assumption with 2-3 iterations, with 5-20 early adopters using either Concierge, Basic Clickable Prototype or Wizard of Oz experiments?

27.

Did the team add 1-2 more key features to the MVP and prove customers want / use them (perhaps by using a High Bar experiment)?

26.

Did the team win a further 5 - 20 paying customers (or prove very strong intent to purchase)?

28.

Has at least 1 customer returned and kept using the MVP or are they one-off users? Either way, does the team understand why?

29.

Has at least 1 customer shown intent to refer the solution to another potential customer?

35.

Has the team tested most critical assumptions around the back end of the business model (resources, activitie, partners and cost structure) to ensure a feasible business model?

36.

Has the team evolved to include relevant business unit leaders who can bring the solution to market as per the tested business model?

37.

Are 2 original founding team members involved to guide the launch team through gates 4 - 7 for one or more new market segments or geographic regions to support go to market and launch?

Gate 07Established Base line AARRR Metrics

23.

Can the team clearly highlight at least 2 critical feature

improvements required to the developer team ready for minimum viable product

(MVP) development?

Gate 04Developed & Tested

Most Critical Feature

24.25.

32. 31.

Has the team shown improved activation metrics, by improving

the initial customer experience with the MVP solution?

30.

Has the team shown improved acquisition metrics

(200%-500%) by testing 2-3 different channels?

33.34.

Has the team won passionate customers whom

make referrals (1 - 10% have made a referral)?

Start-up Financials

WinningFurther Customers

Business Model Business Unit Expand & Repeat

Further Features Repeat Customer Referral

Increase AcquisitionIncrease ActivationIncrease RetentionStart-up FinancialsIncrease Referrals

Business Model Founder Continuation

Minimum ViableProduct (MVP)

Winning1st Customer

Critical Feature�Improvement

Critical Feature

Incubation P

hase

Launch P

hase

Gate 08

Gate 05Launch of MVP to

BETA Users

Your Average Score

Gate 03Proven Problem-Solution Fit

Gate 06Increased # Customers & # Features

Your Average ScoreYour Average Score

Your Average Score

Your Average Score Your Average Score

04

Content

Academy for Corporate EntrepreneurshipReady?Structure your 6hrs per week01. Your Tutorials + Assignments02. Weekly Team Calls03. Mentor Check-In Calls04. Lean Development05. SprintsTools we useHow you are evaluatedBefore continuing

Moving into Incubation

The Incubation Phase: Gate 04The Next Innovation PhaseWhat to expect from your Kick Off Event21. Founder Continuation22. Critical Feature23. Critical Feature ImprovementReviewing Gate 04: Developed & Tested Most Critical Feature

The Incubation Phase: Gate 0524. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)24a. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) revised24b. Kano Model25. Winning 1st Customer25a. Customer Journey25b. Building TrustReviewing Gate 05: Launch of MVP to BETA Users

0607080910111214161718

19

20212223242829

3031313334343536

05

The Incubation Phase: Gate 0626. Winning Further Customers27. Further Features28. Repeat Customer29. ReferralReviewing Gate 06: Increased # Customers & # Features

The Incubation Phase: Gate 0730. Increase Acquisition30a. Customer Journey (continued)30b. Pirate Metrics (AARRR)31. Increase Activation32. Increase Retention33. Start-up Financials34. Increase Referrals35. Business ModelReviewing Gate 07: Established Baseline AARRR Metrics

How to move your project into the Launch Phase

Playbook of a Product OwnerUnderstanding the role of a Product Owner (PO)Sprint 0, Set up Sprint, Inception SprintProduct Owner reportOngoing SprintsSprint Acceptance ProcessMigration

Appendix

The Ideation Phase: Gate 01 The Discovery Phase: Gate 02The Discovery Phase: Gate 03

Bonus Material

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41424243444444454647

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49505152535758

60

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Academy for Corporate Entrepreneurship (AfCE)

While 84% of executives recognise that innovation is fundamental to their growth strategy, and more than half of Fortune 500 companies have some kind of accelerator or incubator, 90% of corporate innovation initiatives are destined to fail. More than half of organisations struggle to bridge the gap between innovation strategy and overarching business goals, and more than one third of companies fail to formally incentivise innovation. However for many organisations, it simply comes down to not knowing what innovation really means.

The Academy for Corporate Entrepreneurship (AfCE) redresses the balance. Its global network of experienced mentors are changing the face of corporate culture and helping companies achieve a more entrepreneurial approach to innovation. Our programs help businesses identify and solve problems quickly and more effectively – from specific customer or market needs through to the world’s most pressing and challenging concerns.

Founded in 2014, AfCE is proven to increase the success rate of innovation programs by 200% and drive customer revenue and growth. Its network of mentors have already created more than $35 billion worth of innovation projects worldwide.

Founder and CEO Jan Kennedy has experienced first-hand how belief in intrapreneurship could unlock huge value for organisations – he unlocked USD 1 billion for Intel as an Intrapreneur. Born in Germany and brought up in the UK , Jan has lived and worked in Silicon Valley, Vienna, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Munich. He can be found on stage at intrapreneurship or innovation conferences or down in the trenches with corporate start-up teams, testing and validating critical assumptions. Jan also runs an investment fund focused on start-ups and crypto currencies.

Helping corporates de-risk their innovation journey.

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07

Ready?

This guide can be treated like a handbook which you can continuously refer to along your journey. This guide covers the Incubation Phase. To refer back to the specifics of earlier steps please refer back to the Corporate Start-up Accelerator guide which covers the Ideation and Discovery Phase. Below you will see the graphical representation of the phases along with the AfCE offerings you may have (had) access to. A typical journey starting in Ideation would be to complete the De-risking Innovation Course and then attend a Kick Off Event with a real idea and team. The Kick Off Event is the first part of the Corporate Start-up Accelerator after which some viable projects, including yours, receive further funding to enter the Incubation Phase. Once your team successfully completes this phase your project might be moved to the Launch Phase.

In this guide, simply refer to the steps that are currently relevant for you.

Understanding where you are starting from.

See www.afce.co for more information on all our offerings.

Intrapreneur DNA Test Corporate Start-up Accelerators Corporate Incubation Programs Go To Market (GTM) Pilots

De-risking Innovation Course Prototype Fund Incubation Development Fund

08

Structure your 6 hrs* per week.

Each participant learns streamlined theory via AfCE tutorials and applies the theory to develop their idea and entrepreneurial mindset.

Mentor(s) lead live video sessions per team schedule and are plugged into the team messaging app for ongoing contact.

To discuss the assignments, development and user testing

Teams run experiments and user tests leveraging their

Development Fund. They record results to report to their mentor

ready for the next cycle.

01. Tutorials & Assignments

0.5 hrs

1 hr

1.5 hrs

3 hrs

03. Mentor Check In

02. Internal Team Meetings & Reviews

04. Experimenting / User testing

* How many hours you spend on the project will differ per week over the course of your innovation project. This is what a typical week might look like.

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Below you can find a list of tutorials and assignments you will complete throughout the program.

The topics listed below typically consists of 2 tutorials and 1 assignment.

The tutorials are generally between 8 and 12 minutes. Per topic there will be one tutorial explaining what we will be doing and why this is important. After this you will be asked to complete a mini test. The next tutorial discusses how your team will complete the assignment in the provided template.

Your team has to watch the tutorials and complete the assignments before the relevant mentor call.

Working Agile

Explanation of Agile

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Explained

How to Plan Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

The ‘Agile Glossary’: https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/

Lean Start-up

The Kano Model Explained

How to Use The Kano Model

Passion Drivers for Customer Growth Explained

How to Use Passion Drivers for Customer Growth

Sales & Marketing

The Customer Journey Explained

How to Map a Customer Journey

Building Trust with New Customers Explained

How to Build Trust with New Customers

The engagement and comprehension levels can be tracked and accessed so that reporting can be provided at the end of the program. If your mentor asked you to skip certain tutorials, this will be accounted for in your final scoring and evaluations.

01. Your Tutorials + AssignmentsLearning and applying the theory to develop your idea.

Tutorials

www.afce.co/login with your email address and default password being “password” for your first time login.

Assignments

The assignments are located in the templates that have been provided to you.

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It is important that you have a fixed weekly team all so you can debrief each other and further discuss your learnings. We recommend you to do this 1 or 2 days before the mentor check in call so you are all up to date and aligned when going into that call. Feel free to use the same Zoom link.

During the Kick Off Event or directly after your team should have set up specific team roles for this project. It is up to you as to how long you think your call should be, but we recommend a good 60 - 90 mins. Here are some hints on how to use those team roles and what you need to get out of it.

Covering the points above will help you keep pace with the program and to be well prepared for your next mentor call. Feel free to communicate such topics and updates in your team messaging app as well, throughout the week.

Don’t forget to apply these common best practices for joining these calls:

Join using working video and a big smile

Avoid locations that will have disruptive background noise

Use a headset

Join via laptop so you can easily view and share documents

Scheduling Lead: Include Zoom link in recurring calendar invites. Ensure everyone has joined, moderate the call and share screen with the assignment template open. Announce any changes to the proposed schedule of team calls or mentor calls. Note any key questions or topics that need to be raised in the next mentor call.

Incubation Process Lead: ensure you know at what step the team is in the innovation journey map, keep the team on track.

(Usability) testing and validation Lead: Update everyone on the progress of active experiments. Try to close your last loop in filling in the Incubation Map (results and learnings) Draft a new loop in the Usability Experiment Map.

Product Owner: Work directly with the Agile Project Manager to help determine the features that need to be built. Work with JIRA software to track and manage the user stories, user acceptance testing as well as the process the developers adhere to when building a product. For a Mentor In Training (if assigned), this will be the most important role to master.

02. Weekly Team CallsKeep your team aligned and on track.

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You will be regularly checking in with one of your mentors. These check ins are where most of your learning will take place and where mentors observe and build an impression of your performance. These are not your standard “conference calls” where you get to listen in or only make minor contributions. They require everyone in the core team to be actively engaged and to demonstrate the entrepreneurial mindset you have been picking up on. It is hopefully the most impactful and valuable call you will have all week! The call is typically structured as follows:

As you can see, it is no good to just turn up to the call without having done your homework and being prepared. If you did not complete the assignments or user testing, then there is nothing for the mentor to give you feedback on. If you have not shared the results of your last experiment and updated the Usability Experiment Map, then you won’t have much to present and you’ll just be scrambling in the call. Thus, making it very hard for the mentor to guide you on your next steps.

Mentors will be monitoring your attendance and will also be making notes as to your levels of engagement and mindset. They try to take a full perspective, but it is obviously from these calls where the mentor learns the most about your contributions to the team etc.

03. Mentor Check-In Calls“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen and a push in the right direction” - John Crosby

Don’t forget to apply these common best practices for joining these calls:

Join using working video and a big smile

Avoid locations that will have disruptive background noise

Use a headset

Join via laptop so you can easily view and share documents

review of last week’s tasks

designing workflows/task division to get work done

prioritising most important tasks for coming weeks

30 min

30 min

30 min

* The exact timing might vary, but these are the typical elements included in mentor calls.

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There is a glossary at the end of this guide for common incubation terms

To help you build your (first version) of your solution you will generally have the support of an Incubation Development Fund. This means that during this phase of your innovation journey you will be working with a developer team. To do so we will be using sprint methodology, this will be explained on the next few pages, but before we do so it is important to understand the roles of your team, mentor and the development team respectively.

04. Lean DevelopmentWorking with a developer team.

Your mentor will continue to guide you through the Incubation Phase. This means that they’ll ensure the team is applying the MVP method and is continuously designing, testing and learning. They will also focus on ensuring that the team’s way of working is agile and that the team is using the Usability Experiment map to document their experiments.

What is different in this incubation stage however, is that the mentor will also take on a second role: that of Product Owner. A Product Owner is the middleman between the development team and the stakeholders. They help determine the product features and development roadmap, oversee the development of the user stories and prioritise the backlog based on their understanding of the business problem. Their job is to keep the end-user perspective in mind, understand the product from their perspective as well as understand the business context around the project. The mentor will also be the one that accepts releases based on user acceptance testing. The mentor will be playing this role as they have the technical knowledge that is required to move the project forward.

Important: Even though it is the mentor who is communicating with the developer team and will be the one driving the development it is your team’s responsibility to drive the innovation project as a whole by all agreeing on the development roadmap. As a team you are still responsible for the final outcome. As the project progresses, if a team member feels comfortable being the Product Owner, this can be discussed with the mentor.

Mentor (+ Product Owner)

Product Owner Scrum Master Developer Team

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The Scrum Master, or Lean Project Manager, is the one overseeing the development from the development team side. They are in close communication with the Product Owner to ensure that the development objectives are met. They manage the process and tools used by the development team and are the ‘owner of the process’ (on the development side). Typical responsibilities of a Scrum Master include facilitating stand-ups, iteration / sprint planning meetings, sprint reviews and helping the team eliminate external blockers and internal roadblocks through process or workflow improvements.

Scrum Master / Lean Project Manager

The Development Team consists of developers, designers and any other type of role that is needed to achieve the development that is needed for your specific team. You would not typically communicate with the individual team members directly, rather the Scrum Master oversees the Development Team and communicates on behalf of the team, while the Product Owner does the same on behalf of the innovation team.

Development Team

04. Lean DevelopmentWorking with a developer team.

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05. SprintsBreaking up the race into bite sized chunks.

Incubation moves us through a series of ‘Product Sprints’ to iteratively build and test product features.

A Sprint is a set period of time (typically roughly 10 days) in which specific work needs to be completed and made ready for review. Sprints break down development projects into bite-sized pieces.

At the end of each sprint (roughly 3 days prior), the Product Owner sits down with the team and together they determine what and how much work can be completed in the next sprint. This collaboration activity is termed as Backlog Refinement which primarily aims at refining the product backlog (features) for the next sprint. It’s the developer teams responsibility to only take onboard work that the team can commit to completing. And it’s the Product Owner’s responsibility to specify what the grounds are for accepting the work as completed at the end of the sprint.

The number of sprints available to you will depend on the scope of your program and number of purchased sprints.

Remember: How much work can fit into a sprint will be determined by the developer team. Detailed sprint planning will be done on a rolling basis together with the project manager.

What are Sprints?

Sprint planning is about the prioritising of work.

Throughout the process, trade offs will need to be made taking into account the finite development resources and a set time period to get the work completed. It’s important to stay flexible because unforeseen circumstances can arise.

The next page will break down the steps that a sprint typically consists off. Depending on your teams’ specific project some steps might be changed, eliminated or added to create the most effective workflow as related to your specific development needs.

Remember:

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Each sprint covers 5 essential steps:

01. Define (1 day)• Describe the features that need to be built and hand them over to UX

• Translate these designs into user stories on JIRA

• Define the analytics that needs to be measured on the product as user stories

• Define Usability Test script or testing metrics

02. Plan and Design (2 - 3 days)• UX Designer translates the concept into visual design or design prototype OR

• The user stories that will be developed are agreed upon

• The designer will only cover what’s needed for the next Sprint (next 2 weeks)

• Conduct quick comprehension test with mock ups as needed

03. Build Phase (5 days)• Developers build functioning feature and test quality

• Quality Assurance tests the feature and logs any issues

• Team conduct an hour or two of testing for any glitches and report the issues / bugs in JIRA

• Developers fix the issues/bugs and send it back for testing

• Developers fix any bugs and make improvements from the previous sprint

05. Analysis• Complete Usability Experiment Map, note any improvements and report back

to developer team with fixes

04. Launch / Release / Test (5 - 10 days depending on testing methods)• Go live and collect data on behaviour for experiment outcome

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Tools we useGreat Intrapreneurs need great tools!

Your mentor (the Product Owner) will oversee the work done by the developer team in Jira. This is a project management tool used to structure how the developers work. If you are the team member that is working toward assuming (part of) the Product Owner role you will also be asked to work in Jira too. Access: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Some of the tools you might be using:

Working with Jira

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How you are evaluated:We evaluate you based on 5 criteria with different weightings that contribute to an overall score.

We evaluate the engagement of each participant in the mentoring sessions as well as from assignments, running experiments and conducting user testing and their level of team communication in MS Teams / Slack / etc.

Engagement (30%)

A scientific prediction of suitability for Intrapreneurship as per personality preferences and attitudes (you have either completed this during the Discovery phase or when you joined the team as a new team member in Incubation).

DNA Test Score (5%)

Attendance during the mentoring sessions and workshops within theProgram.

Attendance (30%)

We track the completeness of your modules as well as the scores fromthe end of module tests (you have either completed this during the Discovery phase or when you joined the team as a new team member in Incubation).

Intrapreneurship E-Learning Score (5%)

We are teaching an entrepreneurial mindset which is closely tied to the Lean Start-up and agile methodology of testing assumptions as well as MVP methodology. Are participants adopting this entrepreneurial mindset and new way of working or do they rebel against it? Do they appreciate its value? Are they likely to pass it on to others?

Mindset (30%)

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Before continuing

Before we continue into the official Incubation Phase, make sure you revisit step 1 - 20 of the Innovation Journey Map internally with your team. This is especially important if you have any new team members joining the team. Revisit your scores for these past steps and see if any of them require updating. Then, step by step, walk new team members through your team’s innovation journey so far (tip: make sure you not only describe assets that have been created by your prototype fund or experiments, but walk them through the experiment map and show them any assets that were created).

At the end of this session / conversation you should have achieved the following:

The team can score itself for step 1-20 using the pages in the appendix before moving onto the Incubation Phase curriculum. If you do not have 2 of the original founding team members you will need to connect with the ‘old’ team to have them do this exercise with you.

All scores in your innovation journey map are up to date

Any ‘gaps’ that are left from previous phases are identified – is there anything you have to focus on before you can start focusing on product - solution fit? (Any step that is scored 1 or below is a gap in the journey)

Any new team members are clear on the journey that the team has undertaken so far and what the focus is on moving forward

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Moving into IncubationReady? Let’s start!

20

Gate 04Developed & Tested

Most Critical Feature

22.21.Critical FeaturesFounder Continuation

23.Critical Feature ImprovementDid the team test their most

critical feature assumption with 2-3 iterations, with 5-20 early adopters using either Concierge, Basic Clickable Prototype or Wizard of Oz experiments?

Is the team still driven by at least 2 of the founding team members from gates 1-2 and are new members being on-boarded / caught up around lean start-up methodology?

Can the team clearly highlight at least 2 critical feature improvements required to the developer team ready for minimum viable product (MVP) development?

The Incubation PhaseScore yourself against these steps.

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The Next Innovation Phase

In the Discovery Phase, the goal is to find the ‘problem-solution fit’ by proving that an intended solution solves the problem identified. In other words, making sure we will build the right ‘it’ before we start building it. During Incubation, the goal is to build the ‘it’ in a way that is iterative and incremental and focuses on delivering value from the first release through to Launch Phase. The goal is to find the ‘product-market’ fit. So the market and your initial users will be much more involved in this phase than ever before.

Typically, in the EU, tech start-up teams entering an Incubation Phase receive series A funding of around €250,000 - €300,000¹ to build a product ready to launch. We aim to get similar (if not better) results with fewer resources by merging our mentoring processes with lean product development processes represented by the Incubation Development Fund.

Incubation usually lasts between 4 - 8 months (depending on number of sprints required) and requires significantly more manpower than Discovery as you will be: • Building a working prototype • Testing the usability • Making changes • Getting the solution ready for launch and sales traction

The Incubation Phase is supported by mentors who have experience with being Product Owners, with Incubation strategy, marketing and / or data analysis expertise. To get the job done, mentors will work with a cross-functional team of Intrapreneurs and a developer team including:• UX & graphic design• Front end & back end development• DevOps• Digital campaigns execution • And project management

At the Kick Off event you will get to work with your AfCE mentor(s) who will guide you there and throughout the rest of your program. We believe in mentoring over consulting. We are not industry experts coming in to advise you about your idea (although our mentors do have extensive product development experience). We are accomplished Intrapreneurs, Entrepreneurs and Innovators (often all three) coming to help guide you along your journey so that you can maximise your time and resources, helping you to avoid mistakes. If you engage and follow the process, our mentors will transfer their entrepreneurial skill and mindset to you, and will often go the extra mile to help you!

¹ source: Founder Institute & Deutsche Telekom’s Hubraum Incubator

The Incubation Phase.

Your Kick Off Event.

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What to expect from your Kick Off EventThe fun starts here!

The Kick Off Event is for many participants the most memorable part of the program. You will be guided on how to work on building your solution in an agile way, working with a developer team, planning sprints and usability testing. Your mentor will guide your team throughout the 1 or 2 days and work with you (and the developer team) to set up a plan you will be using throughout your innovation project.

Most of the time you will be working hands-on in your team, but we will disperse the 1 or 2 days with interesting intro talks around key innovation concepts that each lead you into the next activity such as:

During the Kick Off the team will also have a PM/UX designer call with the developer team (typically at the end of day 1) your mentor will schedule this on the team’s behalf

Agile ways of working

Pirate Metrics

Working with a developer team

Sprint/development mapping

User stories

The innovation journey map

Experiments

Usability testing

Incubation tools

Product Ownership

Make sure you bring the following to your Kick Off Event:

Laptop with power cable & internet access

Smartphone with headset

Smart/Casual comfortable clothes and shoes (you may be walking around a bit)

Your full core team with an entrepreneurial attitude :-)

What to bring:

Ensure you complete this during your Kick Off:

Assign team roles

Confirm your team Zoom conferencing account and ensure you can join the calls via video

Set up team messaging app and invite mentors & AfCE project manager

Review the Usability Experiment Map

Plan high level metrics

Create the overall project timeline

The exact agenda of a Kick Off Event may vary from engagement to engagement.

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21.Founder ContinuationIs the team still driven by at least 2 of the founding team members from gate 1-2 and are new members being on-boarded / caught up around Lean Start-up methodology?

Notes:

Scheduling Lead:

Who will be:

Incubation Process Lead:

(Usability) testing and validation Lead:

Product Owner:

Have any new team members: completed all of the following from the previous Ideation and Discovery Phases?

Completed the De-Risking Innovation E-Learning Course

Watched all Discovery Assignment tutorials

Read / listened to all the interviews

Reviewed the completed experiments

Studied and fully understand the team Business Model Canvas

Completed the Intrapreneur DNA test

Does the team have at least 2 of the founding team members from gate 1-2?:

Yes.

No.

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22.Critical FeatureDid the team test their most critical feature assumptions with 2-3 iterations, with 5-20 early adopters using either Concierge, Basic Clickable Prototype or Wizard of Oz experiments?

To test your critical feature(s) you will be usability testing. Usability testing will primarily be used during step 22-25 on the Innovation Journey Map. Usability Testing answers these questions:• Why are people not using my solution?• What part of using the solution is frustrating?• Can the solution be optimized and made easier?• Where do people get stuck in the navigation?• Is what we are trying to do clear and intuitive, every step of the way?• Is our high churn rate due to low usability?

Bad Usability is one of the top reasons people stop using your product. Usability Testing is a method of evaluating how easy it is for your customer to use your solution. By testing the usability of your product or website with a representative group of users of Beta Testers, you determine if actual users can easily and intuitively use your product or website. Usability testing is usually carried out at each stage of product development and release. Identifying and fixing problems early saves time, money and helps ensure a successful product launch.

• Make an inventory of any beta-testing group and plan how you will approach them. If you don’t have a group of beta testers, define how you will be testing amongst your early adopters. Be as specific as possible.

• Assign roles and responsibilities for Usability Testing. See Usability Testing scripts and logistical planning (who, what, where).

The Usability Testing Process will be explained on the next two pages.

Before you start Usability Testing

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The Usability Testing Process

During your usability study, the moderator has to remain neutral, carefully guiding the participants through the tasks while following the script. Whoever on your team is best at staying neutral, not giving in to social pressure, and making participants feel comfortable while pushing them to complete the tasks should be your moderator. Designate a good note taker!

05. Delegate roles

Do you have any pressing questions about how your users will interact with certain parts of your design, like a particular interaction or workflow? Or are you wondering what users will do first when they land on your product page? Gather your thoughts about your product or website’s pros, cons, and areas of improvement, so you can create a solid hypothesis for your study.

01. Set your Learning Goal: Decide which part of your product or website you want to test

Once you know what to test and how to test it, make sure to set clear criteria to determine success for each task. Setting this success criterion for each task lets you determine if your product’s user experience is intuitive enough or not (example: 80% of the users will not have to click the back button to go from task beginning to task end).

03. Set out your Minimum Success Metric

Your tasks should be your user’s most common goals when they interact with your product or website, like making a purchase or entering data for an assessment.

02. Design your Experiment: Pick your study’s tasks

At the beginning of your script, you should include the purpose of the study, some background on the product or website, questions to learn about the participants’ current knowledge of the product or website, and, finally, their tasks. To make your study consistent, unbiased, and scientific, you should follow the same script in each user session. See a sample script in the appendix.

04. Write a study plan and script

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Your participants should also closely resemble your actual user base. Often, teams will have a list of potential beta testers who can be usability testers. You can conduct:• Hallway Tests with people. So set up in an area with lots of foot traffic. This allows you to ask

randomly-selected people what they think• Moderated Usability Testing is where you interact with participants in person or through a video

call and lets you ask them to elaborate on their comments if you don’t understand them. You’ll also be able to help your users understand the task and keep them on track if your instructions don’t initially register with them

If you have trouble finding beta testers you can always incentivise them to participate with a gift card or another monetary reward.

06. Find your participants

During the actual study, ask your participants to complete one task at a time without help or guidance. If the participant asks you how to do something, don’t say anything. You want to see how long it takes users to figure out your interface.

Asking participants to ‘think out loud’ is also an effective tactic, you’ll know what’s going through a user’s head when they interact with your product or website.

After they complete each task, ask for their feedback, if they expected to see what they just saw, if they would’ve completed the task if it wasn’t a test, if they would recommend your product to a friend, and what they would change about it. This qualitative data can pinpoint more pros and cons of your design.

07. Conduct the study

When you analyse your data, make sure to pay attention to both the users’ performance and their feelings about the product. It’s not unusual for a participant to quickly and successfully achieve your goal but still, feel negative about the product experience.

08. Analyse your data

Report the main takeaways and layout the next steps for improving your product or website’s design and the enhancements you expect to see during the next round of testing.

09. Document your results and insights

Notes:

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What are we testing? Usability? Feature improvement? Comprehension? Overall satisfaction?

1. WHAT ARE WE TESTING

List the test audience and expected numbers if possible. Are they Alpha testers, Early Adopter, Beta testers, has it been released yet?

2. WHO ARE WE TESTING WITH

Observations, survery post usage, google analytics?

3. TESTING METHOD

Commit to a metric that you consider high enough to get you excited that you don’t need to make any pivots in usabiity or design.

4. MINIMUM SUCCESS METRIC

How long will you allow testing to continue?

5. TIME BOX/TESTING WINDOW

Did we meet our Minimum Success Metric? What was the numeric result?

6. RESULTS

What new information did you learn? Any surprises?

7. INSIGHTS & LEARNING

Usability Experiment Map01 02 03 04

Conduct Test

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23.Critical Feature ImprovementCan the team clearly highlight at least 2 critical feature improvements required to the developer team ready for minimum viable product (MVP) development?

When working on feature improvement you want to ensure you do so in an agile manner.

Agile is a set of values and principles codified in 1991 to help govern software development projects. These values and principles have become the bedrock of tech start-up methodology and agile values principles are widely being adopted by teams and organisations who want to increase the speed by which they achieve and output.Fundamentally ‘agile’:• Is incremental, iterative and evolutionary, much like the Lean Start-up principles we used during

Discovery• Focuses on delivering value to the customer from the first release• Values efficient and face-to-face communication• Has short feedback loops and adaptation cycles• Is focused on quality and ongoing reassessment of a product

What is Agile?

When you receive a new release from the development team, you should internally review it first and list any issues in an issue log. Everyone in the team should input into the issue log. Once the team has done this, the PO reviews the log and decided which issues are most important to have addressed in that particular sprint. See the Issues Tracking Sheet below.

Keeping track of issues when reviewing apps / websites

[ Your team name goes here ]

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Gate 04Developed & Tested Most Critical Feature

Incubation: Proceed to Gate 05

Revisit your scores for step 21 to 23. Have they changed?

How do you feel about the Incubation Phase and the Innovation Journey so far?

1 52 63 7 94 8 10

Complete before Gate 05:Score 2 or higher on every step so far.

Passing through Gate 04

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25.24.Winning 1st CustomerMinimum Viable

Product (MVP) Does the team have evidence of securing their first real customer (as a result of the MVP) by receiving strong intent to purchase or other value metric?

Can the team demonstrate a working MVP which fulfilled the basic “job to be done” for 5 - 20 early adopters?

The Incubation PhaseScore yourself against these steps.

Gate 05Launch of MVP to BETA Users

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Refer back to step 15 of the innovation journey map, here you created a pretotype of your idea. Remember, a pretotype helps you test if you are building the right ‘it’ while a prototype helps you determine whether you are building ‘it’ right. Watch the MVP tutorial to refresh your memory and examine the assets the prototype fund created for you – what can you use to continue developing your MVP?

The difference between the top and bottom approach of MVP development is that in the bottom approach the product delivers the benefit from day 1, and over time it keeps improving until you have the final product.

24.Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

24a.Minimum Viable Product (MVP) revised

Can the team demonstrate a working MVP which fulfilled the basic “job to be done” for 5-20 early adopters?

Continue working on your MVP

Yes. No.

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The MVP technique focuses on phasing the releases of the product and starts with releasing your product with the absolute minimum feature set required to satisfy your early adopters instead of building all of the features at once.

Once you get that right, more features are added and optimised. The final complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering the feedback from the product’s initial users.

After this, your product should be ready to launch for a larger audience. What’s challenging about this technique is agreeing with the team what the core value driving features are and what the development roadmap should be. It’s important that the team aligns on this so everyone is focused on the same priorities throughout the process. Teams building digital solutions and not familiar with the MVP technique often start with building the ‘sign-up and registration’ feature because it’s one of the first steps in the customer journey. While this is important, it’s probably not what’s driving the value of the solution. This is equally true for the ‘profile and settings’ feature, which are also important, but are generally considered hygiene features and can be added or improved later. Don’t waste developer time and resources on non-critical features before moving on to the features that deliver the value.

If you focus on delivering value right from the start, your early adopters will be more forgiving of features that might not be there or might not yet be optimised.

MVP Development in the Incubation Phase

Notes:

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24b.Kano ModelWhich features offer satisfaction vs passion?

Complete the assignment.

Complete mini test.

Watch the two tutorials.

Learn how to categorise the needs of customers into 3 distinct groups which your features should address: basic, performance and excitement. This assignment can help you to further clarify your MVP whilst also understanding which features could help you gain more passionate customers rather than just satisfied customers.

Remember:• Individually log in to the online portal to complete the tutorials, allowing videos to play fully

until the end.• One or more people working together can complete the assignment. Use the relevant tab in

the Assignment Template and share in your team to make improvements.

Notes:

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25.Winning 1st Customer

25a.Customer Journey

Does the team have evidence of securing their first real customer (as a result of the MVP) by receiving strong intent to purchase or other value metric?

The emotional states of your customer

Yes. No.

This assignment is critical to help you understand the emotions and behaviours your customer faces when becoming aware of, intrigued, trusting and even hopeful for your offering, before they become an actual customer. And then how your customer may become satisfied and passionate about your offering after purchasing or using it. Important: only complete the assignment up to (and including) convinced at this step.


Complete mini test.





Notes:

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25b.Building TrustWe only buy and use from those we trust


Complete mini test.


Building trust is a key part of the customer journey and converting customers. As such we prompt you to understand how other benchmark solutions build trust and what you can apply to your own idea. This sets you up to start testing what does and does not help to convert new customers and optimise your funnel.




Notes:

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Gate 05Launch of MVP to BETA Users




1 52 63 7 94 8 10



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Gate 06Increased # Customers &

# Features

27.26.Further FeaturesWinning Further

Customers

28.Repeat Customer

29.Referral

Did the team add 1-2 more key features to the MVP and prove customers want / use them (perhaps by using a High Bar experiment)?

Did the team win a further 5 - 20 paying customers (or prove very strong intent to purchase)?



The Incubation Phase

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26.Winning Further CustomersDid the team win a further 5 - 20 paying customers (or prove very strong intent to purchase?)

Complete the assignment up to (and including) convinced.

Complete mini test.


Passionate customers is the best source of growth.

First you will identify the passion drivers of other solutions, i.e. what makes their customers passionate about their offering – beyond just features and good product. You’ll learn how passion drivers can be used in acquiring, retaining and upselling customers. Then, in the same way, add assumptions around what your drivers are / could be.




Notes:

Yes. No.

Passion Drivers

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27.Further Features

28.Repeat Customer

29.Referral

Did the team add 1-2 more key features to the MVP and prove customers want / use them (perhaps by using a High Bar experiment?



Yes. No.

Yes. No.

Yes. No.

Notes:

Notes:

Notes:

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Gate 06Increased # Customers & # Features




1 52 63 7 94 8 10



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31.30.Increase ActivationIncrease Acquisition

32.Increase Retention

33.35. 34.Start-up FinancialsBusiness Model Increase Referrals

Has the team shown improved activation metrics, by improving the initial customer experience with the MVP solution?

Has the team shown improved acquisition metrics (200%-500%) by testing 2-3 different channels?

Has the team shown improved customer retention metrics meaning more customers are now coming back and reusing the solution after their first experience?

Are they key financial indicators (revenue / impact costs, COCA,

unit economics, LTV etc) showing a clear path to viability

deemed acceptable for the organisation?

Has the team tested most critical assumptions around the back end of the business model

(resources, activities, partners and cost structure) to ensure a

feasible business model?)

Has the team won passionate customers who make new

referrals (1 - 10% have made a referral?)

The Incubation Phase

Gate 07Established Baseline AARRR Metrics

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30.Increase Acquisition

30a.Customer Journey (continued)

Has the team shown improved acquisition metrics (200%-500%) by testing 2-3 different channels?

The emotional states of your customer

Yes. No.

Return to your customer journey template. Do step 1-4 need updating based on what your team has learned through (usability testing? Talking with customers?) Revise the first part of the customer journey as needed and complete the final three steps.


Rewatch the tutorials if needed




Notes:

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30b.Pirate Metrics (AARRR)Metrics to create Start-up growth

AARRR stands for Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral and Revenue and is widely accepted as the five most important metrics for a start-up to focus on because these metrics effectively measure your solution while at the same time being simple and actionable.

Resource:Here’s a great article to read on AARRR metrics.https://medium.com/@ms.mbalke/aarrr-framework-metrics-that-let-your-start-up-sound-like-a-pirate-ship-e91d4082994b

You will continue working on these AARRR metrics in step 31, 32 and 34.

Notes:

How do I set AARRR metrics?

Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics for Start-Up Growth

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31.Increase Activation

32.Increase Retention

33.Start-up Financials

Has the team shown improved activation metrics by improving the initial customer experience with the MVP solution?

Has the team shown improved customer retention metrics meaning more customers are now coming back and re-using the solution after their first experience?

Are the key financial indicators (revenue / impact, costs, COCA, unit economics, LTV etc) showing a clear path to viability deemed acceptable for the organisation?

Yes. No.

Yes. No.

Yes. No.

Notes:

Notes:

Are people downloading or visiting and then not taking action? Try and uncover why they don’t take that next step. It could be because the process is too complicated or they don’t see the value in what they are being promised as a reward for taking the next step. You could try to define your ‘activation event’. This is the first activity they need to complete after downloading the app and focus on making this a more rewarding experience. For example: the activation event could be defined as ‘completing the simple registration and using one of the features’. The point is to captitalise on a person’s initial enthusiasm and encourage them to immediately start interacting with the product / service so they start seeing the value of what’s offered.

How do I Increase Activation?

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34.Increase ReferralsHas the team won passionate customers who make referrals (1 - 10%) have made a referral)?

Having a high amount of customers who will refer you will cut marketing costs.

How do I increase Referrals?

The best way to increase referrals is to make sure you provide high value to your current customers. Some easy ways to ensure you provide high value to them:

Thank customers for their business.

Stay in touch with regular customers.

Make your customer experience your competitive edge.

Once you are confident that you are providing a valuable service you can increase referrals by:

Asking your customers for referrals at the right moment in the customer journey

Providing a referral incentive

Pursuing the referred individuals with special offers or a targeted campaign

Notes:

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35.Business ModelHas the team tested most critical assumptions around the back end of the business model (resources, activites, partners and cost structure) to ensure a feasible business model?

Revise your business model


How much were you able to validate?

During the Discovery phase you focused primarily on validating assumptions around the “front-end” (boxes 1-5) of your business model. During incubation the focus is on the “back-end” (boxes 6-9). Rewatch the business model tutorials and revise your business model (specifically focusing on the boxes on the left hand side).




Notes:

Yes. No.

Business Model Back-End

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Gate 07Established Baseline AARRR Metrics

Launch: Proceed to Gate 08



1 52 63 7 94 8 10



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How to move your project into the Launch Phase.

Besides completing the steps that belong to the Incubation Phase, your team also has to work towards getting further funding and move your project into the Launch Phase. To do this you need to focus on the following two topics:

Stakeholder AlignmentHalfway through the Incubation Phase, make sure you understand the organisational success metrics to ensure you can move to the Launch Phase of the project. Start to identify the stakeholders who can support the next steps of the incubation project early on and keep them informed on a regular basis. Don’t be afraid to talk about the setbacks the team might experience or the surprising results you uncover during user testing.

IT InfrastructureOnce the project moves into the Launch Phase, it’s best to migrate the beta version onto dedicated infrastructure. Towards the end of the Incubation Phase, make sure you have the appropriate environments set up to migrate any code or assets to a company owned platform if this is required.

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Playbookof a Product Owner

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Understanding the role of the Product Owner (PO)

As Product Owner you have a variety of responsibilities. These differ depending on in which stage the project is and will be described in more detail on the following pages. Below you can find a number of videos which will help you understand the role of Product Owner better.

Product Owners, Mentors in Training and team members working towards the role of Product Owner should ensure they watch these videos. For all other team members it is recommended (to gain more understanding of the development process) but not mandatory.

Tools to help you become a better Product Owner:

a. Defining Problem, Customer and Solution for Developers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGR_xcjxupU

b. How to Define an MVP for Developers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUVrFyNYWM

c. Defining your User Story for Developers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu-_MXiUHnc

d. How to Slice a User Story for Developers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-GYtTD-ubU

e. How to do Basic Hand Sketch Prototypes for Developers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxG5tQ7PlfA

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Sprint 0, Set up Sprint, Inception Sprint

IntroductionOn Agile projects, project preparation activities are often known as ‘iteration zero’, ‘sprint 0’, or ‘inception sprint’. At AfCE we typically start Sprint 0 with the Kick Off workshop where the mentors work with the team as well as the development team to create a sprint plan (roadmap) to proceed with.

The innovation team’s role in Sprint 0The team’s role is to provide clarity around the innovation project. What is the aim? What is the context the project is situated in? The team will play a crucial role in ‘onboarding’ the Product Owner as well as the Scrum Master. Other than that you will contribute to the sprint plan, which is lead by the Product Owner and scrum master

Why it is importantProjects that start without a sprint 0 are at risk of getting delayed, or in the worst case, cancelled. Sprint 0 sets up the project for a good start

When does it take placeSprint 0 takes place at least 1-2 weeks before the start of Sprint 1

Make sure you have achieved this at the end of Sprint 0The objective of Sprint 0 is to:• Align all resources (developers and other team members) that are required for the execution

and delivery of the project. Broadly explain the project as well as the expected outcome. • Sets up ways of communication and Roles & responsibilities throughout the project • Sets up ways in which the progress of the development will be tracked

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At the end of each sprint the Product Owner will receive the following report

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Ongoing sprintsBacklog Refinement

IntroductionA product backlog is a list of new features, changes to existing features, bugs that need fixing, infrastructure that needs changing and all other things that needs to be delivered to achieve a specific outcome.

Backlog refinement happens to ensure that the right things are included in the backlog and that they are prioritised in terms of their importance so the next sprint can start based on this list. All what ifs and acceptance criteria have to be defined and the UI design has to be approved for each User Story by the Product Owner before the Backlog Refinement meeting.

The innovation team’s role in Backlog RefinementThe team has to decide what is important to them in terms of features that need to be developed (this happens under the leadership of the PO).

When does it take placeBacklog refinement takes place at least 3 days before the start of the next sprint.

Make sure you have this after doing the backlog refinement• To have a clear backlog for the next and further upcoming sprints• A high level goal • A basic User Story (including a use case, acceptance criteria and a pre-condition

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Ongoing sprintsBacklog Refinement

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Ongoing sprintsSprint Planning

IntroductionSprint planning is when it is decided which backlog items the development team will work on during the upcoming sprint as well as the initial plan for completing the product backlog items.

During sprint planning:

The Product Owner identifies which backlog items are important to be worked on, how important they are relative to each other and proposes an overall sprint goal.

The Development Team Members determine how many of the backlog items they think they will be able to complete and determine how they will deliver the backlog items.

The Scrum Master / Agile Project Manager facilitates the sprint planning to ensure the discussion is effective and that all agree on the goal on the sprint and that all important product backlog items are included in the sprint backlog.

The innovation team’s role in Sprint PlanningFor the most part, the wider team does not get involved in the sprint planning process. Team members can be invited, but it’s the role of the Product Owner to participate in the sprint planning process.

When does it take place1 day before the start of the new sprint or on day 1 of the new sprint

Make sure you have this after planning the sprint1. A short written summary of what the team is planning to accomplish during the sprint2. A list of user stories and sprint backlog items the development team has agreed to work on in

the next sprint (sprint backlog)

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Ongoing sprintsSprint Demo Process: User Acceptance Testing

IntroductionDuring the Sprint Demo Process the development team shares what has been created during the last sprint with the innovation team. The ultimate goal of the Demo Process is for the development team to get approval and sign off on what has been created during the last sprint, in order to move to the next one. This Sprint Demo Process is also called User Acceptance Testing. The Acceptance Criteria for the sprint is determined by the user stories. In other words, the sprint is accepted if the app follows all of the requirements set out in the User Story.

The innovation team’s role in the Sprint Demo ProcessThe team is invited to the sprint demo meeting to review the changes made or built.

When does it take placeAt the end of the sprint

Make sure you do this before signing off on a sprintHave the user stories at hand when going through User Acceptance testing. Do not add more requirements to the functionality at this stage. If new functionality not specified in the User Story surfaces, it becomes a new User Story.

Please refer to the image on the next page to familiarise yourself with the acceptance process.

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PO to provide Demo Feedback/UAT feedback on spreadsheet

Product Owner (PO) actions

Lean Apps Agile PM to review the feedback and classify the items if bug or change

Lean Apps Agile PM to create an Epic on JIRA

<<Sprint# Feedback>>

Lean Apps Agile PM to move all the feedback items to the Sprint backlog

Lean Apps Agile PM to prioritise the feedback items with PO for implementation

in Backlog Refinement Meeting

Lean Apps Agile PM to move the item for implementation in next Sprint

Verify the agreed feedback items in Sprint Demo

Approved?

Feedback item closed on JIRA as Done

YES

YES

NO

NO

Implement the feedback items agreed

Feedback item to be implemented in next Sprint?

Sprint Acceptance Process

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Migration

IntroductionMigration means that the application code is migrated onto the clients servers. During the initial stages of incubation, the applications or sites will be built in a staging environment in order for us to rapidly build, test and learn. Once the sprints have been completed, at whatever stage you are in the incubation process, the code needs to be transferred to the clients servers.

When does it take placeOnce all of the development sprints have been consumed and no new sprints will be added migration will take place. Before migration takes place the Product Owner has to agree that this is taking place.

The innovation team’s role in MigrationDuring the Kick Off meeting the team will receive a migration checklist from the development team. The team should ensure this gets filled out closer to the end of the project to ensure migration can happen.

Identify internal IT support who can lead the migration from your company’s side.

Make sure you check this to ensure migration has happened correctly• The Product Owner should check that migration has happened successfully. • Chances are high that you will need to involve an IT specialist from your company to ensure

the migration happens smoothly and is completed on time. • Note that if the migration check-list is filled in completely, migration should happen

seamlessly.

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A few terms we might be using for migration:

Alpha releaseThis testing is generally performed by the intended business users or key end users, who were involved while ideating the solution. It is intended for internal/external users if they are recruited for testing purposes or initial feedback. The Alpha will be released on the Lean Apps environment, meaning the Alpha release is done before the migration of the software to your organisation’s environment.The Alpha release relates to step 21-24 of the innovation journey map.

Beta releaseEngage the real customers (early adopters) to install the application and give feedback which might be deal breakers for new users. This is intended for external users only.The Beta release relates to step 25-29 of the innovation journey map.

Live releasePublishing the app on the Google and App store so it becomes accessible to the public.The Live release relates to step 30-35 of the innovation journey map.

Lean Apps and AFCE shall provide the support for 2 weeks after Go-Live. All the critical bugs which might hamper the functionality of the software during the support period will be fixed as part of this contract.

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Appendix

User Story: A User Story is a small, self-contained unit of development work designed to accomplish a specific goal within a product. A User Story is usually written to capture a description of a software feature from an end-user perspective and follows the format:- “As [a user persona], I want [to perform this action] so that [I can accomplish this goal].”- Pre-condition- Acceptance Criteria- UI Design (Optional provided the feature has an User Interface to view/interact)

Pre-condition: The preconditions is an enabler that include the state a system and its environment must be before the acceptance criteria can be tested. In other words, preconditions specify the setup needed for a test case to be executed successfully. There are many ways, but primarily includes:The previously executed step to perfrom the next step.The preiously existing data to accomplish the task.The result of some step to perform the next step.

Acceptance criteria: Acceptance Criteria are a set of statements, each with a clear pass/fail result, that specify both functional and non-functional requirements applicable to the respective Feature/User Story.

Bug: A bug is an error, flaw or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. When a feature/User Story is expected to behave in a certain way and it fails to meet that result, it’s a bug.

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Enhancement/Change: Enhancement/Change is an addition/changing existing functionality in a way that makes the software application more efficient, faster, more usable, more useful, and/or more desirable. (Makes the application subjectively and/or objectively “better”) or alternatively deviates from the agreed functional/non-functional requirement in the User Story.

Ceremony: Ceremony (also events/meetings) term is generally used in SCRUM, especially in the Agile framework and it refers to directly to meetings viz. Backlog Refinement, Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Demo & Sprint Retrospective.

Backlog refinement: The goal of Product Backlog refinement is to work with the Development Team and stakeholders (when relevant), to get Product Backlog items in a ‘ready state’. - Clear enough, so they understand what stakeholders are asking for and why they are asking for it.- Small enough, so the items should be small enough to get done within a sprint (typically a few days of work) to comply with the definition of done.Refer to the Backlog Refinement process for more details.

Sprint Planning: The main purpose of sprint planning is to enable the Agile Team to start a new sprint with a shared understanding of what can be delivered in the sprint. Sprint Planning answers the following:- What can be delivered in the Increment resulting from the upcoming Sprint?- How will the work needed to deliver the Increment be achieved?Refer to the Sprint Planning process for more details.

Sprint Demo: The Sprint demo primarily targets to demonstrate the Sprint Goal keeping the PO and stakeholders up to speed with the progress of project and giving the team a sense of achievement.In addition, the demo enables the team to obtain sign-off on the User Stories of the Sprint Goal and move forward with the incremental development cycle picking the backlog items.Refer to the Sprint Demo process for more details.

Sprint 0: On Agile projects, project pre-development activities are often known as “iteration zero,” “sprint zero,” or “inception sprint.” The objective of Sprint Zero is to:- Make provision of all the Resources that are required to execute and deliver your project effectively- Enable all the resources to communicate and collaborate effectively- Monitor and control the health of your project progressively including but not limited to cost, schedule and scope.Refer to the Sprint 0 process for more details.

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06.Sponsor

Gate 01Idea & Team Formation

05.Time

01.Motivations

04.Team

02.Compelling Problem

03.Avoiding Duplication

Has the team secured a business or program sponsor who believes enough in the strategic fit of the project to fund the next 14 steps of your journey?

Has each team member received their manager’s

approval to be able to invest the necessary (10% or 20%) time to

begin their journey?

Has each team member identified 3 personal reasons as to why they would like to begin this tough journey of innovation for your organisation?

Have you formed a suitably sized and well-balanced corporate start-up team

with strong intrapreneurial personalities?

Is the problem (or innovation challenge) so compelling that each team member would be willing to spend the next 1 - 2 years working to solve it?

Has at least 5 hours of research been conducted to prove your

organisation is not already exploring the same idea or

has been able to learn from previous efforts?

The Ideation PhaseScore yourself against these steps.

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13.Opportunity Size

Gate 02Identified a Problem worth Solving

12.Segmentation

08.07.AssumptionsElevator Pitch

11.Early Adopters

09.Think Different

10.Interviews

Has the team performed tops down & bottoms up TAM calculations and calibrated this with 3 experts to prove that the opportunity (market) is significant enough to pursue?

Did the team run 1 - 3 (Fake Door) experiments to help

segment and prioritise which customer segment to focus on?

Has the team prioritised over 10 initial assumptions related to the problem, the customer or the business model (not about the solution)?

Can the team clearly articulate their aligned problem, customer, tentative solution idea and proposed ‘secret sauce’ in a one sentence pitch?

Did the team identify a group of customers who were already experiencing the problem and were actively trying to solve it?

Did the team use either 1 - 2 focus groups, an enthnographic or customer observation exercise, netnography, or convergent / divergent techniques to think differently about their idea?

Did the team design non biased interview questions, select

interview channels and conduct 60 - 100 B2C interviews or 20

- 40 B2B interviews across 3-5 customer segments?

The Discovery PhaseScore yourself against these steps.

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20.Business Model

Gate 03Proven Problem-Solution Fit

19.Start-up Financials

15.14.Develop PretotypeCompetitors

& Alternatives

18.Messaging

16.Iterate Pretotype

17.Traction Channels

Can the team walk through the 9 building blocks of the Business Model Canvas highlighting critical validation from numerous experiments of the ‘front end’ (5 building blocks)?

Did the team AB test pricing of their solution and determine

key financial model variables (i.e. Unit Economics, COCA, LTV)?

Has the team developed a pretotype (not prototype) based on non-scalable killer features to demo their idea to customers?

Has the team uniquely positioned their value proposition in relation to more than 10 competitors or alternative offerings?

Did the team test different messaging that communicates

their value proposition to their target audience?

Has the team observed customers interacting with the pretotype and iterated / improved it at least 2-3 times?

Has the team received ‘currency’, e.g. personal data, time, money, and compared

their traction across 2 or more channels (using pretotypes)?

The Discovery Phase

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Bonus Material

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01. Tips for designing a good app:

02. Usability Test Script Sample:

The difference between a good app and a bad app is usually the quality of its User Experience (UX). A good UX is often what separates successful apps from unsuccessful ones.

People expect a lot from their apps. If you want your app to be successful, you must consider UX not to be just a minor aspect of design, but an essential component of product strategy.

Here’s a practical article about what to pay attention to when thinking about making a great user experience: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/comprehensive-guide-to-mobile-app-design/

And here’s a good article from Adobe on the do’s and don’t of design with some very practical design tips:https://theblog.adobe.com/10-dos-donts-mobile-ux-design/

Interview: Introduction Call to download the App together / open it for the 1st timeAudience: specialistsTime: 20 minutes only

Share our ambition:• We learned that you (vets) are sometimes frustrated by observing inadequate care for calves

and no interest of the farm owner in calf health.• And you know that by paying a little more attention to calves when they are young results in

much better cows and milk production in the long run.• Plus, you know that if farmers take a little extra care now, the impact on costs can be

enormous.• We’re here to support your relationship with the farmer to run optimized calf health

assessments and to ultimately improve calf well-being.

There are 2 main functions:• A quick check that with input from you and the farmer, will quickly tell you how many extra

costs a farmer is making according to the current status of his herd of calves.• An in-depth farm assessment tool that helps you define what objectives a farm should focus

on to improve calf health. It will also allow you to track and report how the farm is doing overtime at meeting the improvement objectives.

So let’s download the App.[Do the Testers need to register? Is this function already turned on?]• Please register with your email address and your password is: password.• Please open it and look around.• In which situation do you see yourself using this app? Please explain why?

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We will now take you through the main features:[Quick check tool walkthrough and info gathering]• Please open the quick check tool.• Think of a ‘test farm’.• Please input the data that you are asked to provide.• Now you have a result. Please give us your first impressions of the quick check.• On a scale of 1 - 10, how easy was it for you to fill in the data and get a result?• What would you do to improve the overall experience of the quick-check tool?

Farm Assessment Tool:[Inputting Farm Data]• Please open the Farm Assessment tool.• Think of a test farm.• Input the required data for the test farm.• You’ve now created a record for one of the farms you visit.• What would you do to improve the experience of filling in the data?

Setting Objectives:• Go to your test farm and select ‘Set new Objective’.• Select the improvement objective for your test farm. You can choose more than one.• Input the desired KPI for that improvement objective.

Completing a spot Assessment:• Find your test farm.• Navigate to the page where you can conduct a new assessment for your improvement

objective.• Carry out a spot assessment.• On a scale of 1 - 10 how easy was it to carry out a spot assessment of an improvement

objective?• What would you improve about that experience.

Accessing Reports:• Please navigate to the reports you’ve created.• On a scale of 1 - 10 how easy was it to navigate to the reports?

Please take a look at the rest of the app.• Is there anything you are missing? Why?• Is there anything you think you will not need?• Name the top 3 things we can do to improve anything about this app.

To get in touch with us, please contact your

project manager, mentor or AfCE representative.

@[email protected]

www.afce.co+49 (0) 152 2301 8392

Copyright 2020 © Academy for Corporate Entrepreneurship

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