Startup Commons

  • Startup Commons
    • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Our Customers
    • Our Digital Solutions
    • Contact Us
    • Partner With Us
    • Startup Ecosystem Scouts
    • Podcast
    • Request For Speakers
    • Job Opportunities
  • For Business Creators
    • About Business Creators
    • Creating Businesses
    • What Is A Startup
    • Startup Development Phases
    • Founders Shareholders' Agreement and Team Building Webinar
    • Submit For App Challenge
  • For Support Providers
    • About Support Providers
    • Providing Support Functions
    • Startup Entrepreneurship Training Curriculum
    • Become Growth Academy Operator
    • Business Plan Tool
    • Submit For App Challenge
  • For App Developers
    • About Application Developers
    • Ecosystem OS
    • Applications Marketplace
    • Submit Ecosystem Application
  • For Ecosystem Developers
    • About Ecosystem Developers
    • What Is Startup Ecosystem
    • Ecosystem Development
    • Startup Ecosystem Maturity
    • Management Applications
    • Case Studies
    • Services And Pricing >
      • Become Ecosystem Operator
    • Submit Marketplace App Challenge
  • Ecosystem Operators
    • About Ecosystem Operators
    • Apply To Become Ecosystem Operator
    • Ecosystem OS
    • Digital Ecosystem Applications
    • Circle Pass User Accounts
    • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • Startup Commons
    • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Our Customers
    • Our Digital Solutions
    • Contact Us
    • Partner With Us
    • Startup Ecosystem Scouts
    • Podcast
    • Request For Speakers
    • Job Opportunities
  • For Business Creators
    • About Business Creators
    • Creating Businesses
    • What Is A Startup
    • Startup Development Phases
    • Founders Shareholders' Agreement and Team Building Webinar
    • Submit For App Challenge
  • For Support Providers
    • About Support Providers
    • Providing Support Functions
    • Startup Entrepreneurship Training Curriculum
    • Become Growth Academy Operator
    • Business Plan Tool
    • Submit For App Challenge
  • For App Developers
    • About Application Developers
    • Ecosystem OS
    • Applications Marketplace
    • Submit Ecosystem Application
  • For Ecosystem Developers
    • About Ecosystem Developers
    • What Is Startup Ecosystem
    • Ecosystem Development
    • Startup Ecosystem Maturity
    • Management Applications
    • Case Studies
    • Services And Pricing >
      • Become Ecosystem Operator
    • Submit Marketplace App Challenge
  • Ecosystem Operators
    • About Ecosystem Operators
    • Apply To Become Ecosystem Operator
    • Ecosystem OS
    • Digital Ecosystem Applications
    • Circle Pass User Accounts
    • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

How To Pitch Your Minimum Viable Product

16/12/2014

Comments

 
Key to minimum viable product - your value proposition. It is about more than iterating your product on customer feedback. It is very much the big idea you'd use to guide your grand vision and ambitious long-term plan.

Because in new (ambitious) markets there are few or no other products that users can compare you to. It's simply too early for users to understand how you are different. Hence, your value proposition should communicate a vision for what could be.

Importantly, your 'maximum' value proposition is not finite. The best value propositions dare to be incomplete. They leave room for imagination. They focus on the bigger picture; problem, purpose, passion, love.

Still, your value proposition brief is probably the earliest and minimum-ist viable product you'd develop as a lean startup.

Ranging from an one-liner to a couple of paragraphs, it is the messaging you attach to whatever medium—it be an email, a news article, a website, a poster, a Google ad—that serves your minimum viable product strategy (that version of your product which allows for maximum amount of validated learning with the least effort).

Here are three steps to get you going on your maximum value proposition.

1. Understand the job your customer want's to get done

HBS-professor Clayton Christensen argues that a successful customer value proposition begins with genuinely understanding the customer's jobs-to-be-done -- the higher purpose for which customers buy your product. Out of the functional, social, and emotional types of jobs, the latter might be the most powerful one. Inform your user research accordingly.

2. Start With Why

Simon Sinek developed his very own movement by teaching us how to create movements through inspiration. His key argument is, “people don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.” When starting at your value proposition copy, start with why.

3. Create a sentimental bond

Don Draper of Mad Men famously said; "Technology is a glittering lure. But there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product." In delivering your pitch, have the courage to touch upon feelings.

What these steps have in common is, they want you to tell a story that emotionally connects with your audience. You'd want to know who your audience really are, and what moves them. You'd want the story to be about them, not about you.

And the minimal viable product is here to help you learn. Because, early on, you don't know what your customers want. Even your customers might not know what they want.

Whether on website copy, advertisements, slide decks or in good old fashioned elevator pitches, remember, minimum viable product is not just about the product. It is an approach to finding product-market fit. For that you'd want a value proposition for what could be - a reason to exist.

Make sure to check out the 7 proven templates and examples for writing value propositions
__________________________________________________________________________________________
This is an edited version of a post originally posted at http://torgronsund.com/, by Tor Gronsund, Founder, Lingo Labs. Entrepreneurship lecturer, the University of Oslo and BI Norwegian Business School. Say hello  at @tor. You are free to re-edit and repost this in your own blog or other use under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License terms, by giving credit with a link to www.startupcommons.org and the original post.


Comments
    Our Services
    Supporting startup ecosystem development, from entrepreneurship education, to consulting to digital infrastructure for connecting, measuring and international benchmarking.
    Picture
    ​Subscribe for updates
    Startup ecosystem development updates with news, tips and case studies from cities around the world. 
    Subscribe

    Join Us?

    Are you interested to join our global venture to help develop startup ecosystems around the world? 
    Learn more...
    ​

    Archives

    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    July 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Accelerator
    Africa
    Asia
    Australia
    Commitment
    Concepting
    Design
    Digital
    Ecosystem
    Establishing
    Europe
    Event
    Growth
    Incubator
    Infrastructure
    Innovation
    Investment
    Leadership
    Lean Startup
    Mentor
    North America
    Report
    Scaling
    Startups
    Team
    Validation
    Vietnam
    Vision

    RSS Feed

Ecosystem Knowledge

Business
​Creators

Startup Development Phases Framework
Business Creation Knowledge

​​Support
​Providers

Supporting Startups
​
From Technology Transfer to Open IPR
Support Providers Knowledge Center

​​Ecosystem
​Developers

What is Startup Ecosystem?
​From Innovation Ecosystems to Startup Ecosystems
Startup Ecosystem Development
Startup Ecosystem Maturity
Ecosystem Developers Knowledge Center

Digital
​Teams

Digital Ecosystem Team Setup​
​Digital Ecosystem Applications

EcosystemOS​

ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
​FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION

Picture
Subscribe to our mailing list
Entrepreneurship, innovation and startup ecosystem development updates, with news, tips and results from cities and organizations around the world.  #startupecosystem
Subscribe
Partners  -  Join Us  -  Resources  -  Blog -  Sharing Policy
​© 2018 Startup Commons some rights reserved
Picture
✕