Tag Archives: Startups

Why a Student Wished He Had Taken Femgineer’s Ship It Course Sooner

by in Education, Entrepreneurship, Product Development, Startups, , 0 Comments

By Poornima Vijayashanker

A few weeks ago one of the students who is currently in our Ship It Course, Nathan, told me the following:

“I don’t know if you remember, for my product idea I wanted to contract out to a development company and get it done! But I did not follow some of the major steps.

I wish I would have taken this course a year earlier. I recently ended the contract with them (due to some communication issues and the cost). Most importantly, since I’m starting over, I want to complete some interviews and usability tests with early adopters. (I did create some tests before but never asked anyone’s opinion to improve the product!)

I’m so glad that I took this course and I’m taking a step back to do things in the proper way!”

It was wonderful to hear Nathan’s feedback, but more importantly I was thrilled that he wasn’t afraid to take a step back, and try a new approach.

If you’re a innovator like Nathan, you probably also have a million questions running through your head!

  • “Should I hire a full time developer or a development shop?”
  • “Should I build a mobile product first? Or just a web app?”
  • “Where should I be looking for early adopters?”
  • “How should I approach them?”
  • “When is it too soon to be marketing?”
  • “How do I price my product?”
  • “I’ve launched my product but I just hear crickets, what do I do next? Help!!”

 

You wish that you could easily find advisors, mentors, or anyone who has done this before, and has the time to help you out consistently!

I know I’ve struggled through this period as I was building products for Mint, BizeeBee, and Femgineer. It has taken me many years (8+), a lot of books, and talking to literally hundreds of people to pieces all this information together.

I don’t think everyone else should have to go through this lengthy struggle. That is the primary reason why I created the Ship It Course.

I want to give entrepreneurs, engineers, product managers, and product marketers like YOU, the answers you are looking for from instructors who have successfully build, launched, and made money from products!

Now there are a LOT of great courses and resources out there, and I want you to find the one that is right for YOU.

So if you’re wondering what you’ll GET from Femgineer’s Ship It Course then here it is:

  • High touch. You are not a number to us! We limit our class size to 50 students, so that we can focus on providing each student individualized attention. We give you feedback on all your homework assignments. We also provide online office hours weekly, and if you want 1-1 coaching from an instructor you can book an appointment at a time that works for you.

  • Easy access. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world! We’ve had students from France, Germany, UK, UAE, and India participate in our course. Having it online means you can take part from anywhere! It also means that we know there are cultural nuances but our approach works across markets.

  • Materials. We distill information from the best books and resources, but also give them to you as part of the course, if you’d like to dig a little deeper. You’ll also learn what has worked from our experiences. You’ll have access to all the lectures through recordings, so if you miss something you can go back and re-watch it later.

  • Ongoing support. We know products take sometime to get off the ground, and you might have more questions or needs later on. So we stay in touch even after the 8-weeks, and we want you to come back and visit us!

So yes there are other resources available to you, but ask yourself the following:

  • Who is going to give you step-by-step directions that are easy to follow?

  • Who is going to give you feedback that applies to your product and is actionable?

  • Who is willing to sit down when it’s convenient for you, to talk about your idea, or get you out of a slump if you’re stuck?

Let your answers guide you to the course you’re looking for.

Learn more about the course here. Applications are due this Friday February 12, 2016!

Lesson 5: How to Create a Concierge MVP

by in Entrepreneurship, Product Development, Startups, Tutorials, , , 0 Comments

This is the fifth lesson in the series: How Non-Technical Founders Can Bring a Product to Market.

By Poornima Vijayashanker

Welcome back! In my previous lesson I cited a few examples of successful startups that began with the Concierge MVP: AirBnB and Zappos.

By this point you understand what a concierge MVP is, the importance of starting with it whether you’re a technical or non-technical founder, and you have some examples of companies that began as a concierge MVP. So now you’re probably wondering how you can get started?

To begin, you will need to decide what your value proposition is i.e. what are you offering as a benefit to potential users. For example, when I started offering my first course at Femgineer, my value proposition was for people to learn product development, in 8-weeks, online, and from a reputable practitioner, me!

Remember you can test out various value propositions.

Next you need to come up with a theory for who you think your early adopter might be, and make sure to put the value proposition in the context of the early adopter.

Going back to my example, I did this by saying the course was for product managers, software engineers, and startup founders, who wanted to build tech products. I intentionally limited the types of people and the products they would want to build, because I wanted to be clear, and have a focus.

Finally, you need to provide a brief description of the experience someone will go through. You can be as detailed as you’d like to be at this stage.

Once you’ve completed those three steps you’ll have to go out into the world and advertise it!

You can start by reaching out to your network if you think there maybe early adopter there. If not, then you’ll need to think about where your type of early adopter hangs out and advertise on those mediums with a call to action to either sign up, enter an email address, or give you a call. You want someway to communicate with people.

In my case, a lot of my early adopters were my Twitter followers, and blog readers. They signed up by filling out an application.

Hopefully, you will get someone who responds to your ad. Once you do, you need to follow up with each to get some feedback.

In the next and final lesson, I’ll explain what feedback you should be looking for, and how to measure the success of your Concierge MVP.

Did you enjoy this lesson? Got any questions for me on it? Please let it the comments below and I’ll be happy to answer it!

Checkout out the previous lessons:

Already built an MVP and ready to attract customers and generate revenue? Then check out our upcoming GROW IT Course here.

Lesson 4: How Successful Companies Started with a Concierge MVP

by in Entrepreneurship, Product Development, Startups, Tutorials, , , 0 Comments

This is the fourth lesson in the series: How Non-Technical Founders Can Bring a Product to Market.

By Poornima Vijayashanker

Welcome back! In my previous lesson I mentioned that both technical and non-technical founders should start with a Concierge MVP rather than jumping into building a product. The reason I encourage this step is because it forces founders to identify the key pain points that customers are experiencing, and figure out ways of resolving them. The resolution of the pains are the benefits that customers want to buy. Hence, it doesn’t matter what specific features you’re building, the focus should be on the benefits. The benefits are after all the value proposition that customers are buying into.

Now you might still be skeptical. So in this lesson I want to showcase a few successful companies that began as a Concierge MVP. You might even be shocked to know that one of these has become a billion dollar company!

Case Study 1: Zappos

The founder of Zappos, Nick, loved shoes, and had a theory that other people probably loved shoes just as much as he did. He also had a theory that people might be open to buying shoes online. But he wasn’t a 100% sure. So the first thing he did was walk into a shoe store in San Francisco. He asked the shoe store owner about current inventory. Then he struck up a deal saying that every time someone bought a shoe on his website, he’d come over and purchase the shoe from the store owner. The store owner agreed to the deal. Nick went home and setup a pretty simple site listing the inventory that was in the shoe store.

Guess what happened next? Nick sold his first pair of shoes, then his second, and so one.

By pursuing a Concierge MVP Nick validated his theory that people will buy shoes online. The value proposition was clear to early adopters: it was convenient to search through an inventory of shoes and purchase online.

Only after Nick had validated his business model through his Concierge MVP did he approach Tony Hsieh for funds.

Case Study 2: AirBnB

Many people have experienced the rise of AirBnB prevalence, and how easy it is to find and book a rental online. However, before AirBnB became what it is today, it started off as a simple side project for the 3 founders, and is probably one of the most classic examples of a Concierge MVP.

Days before the Democratic National Convention the 3 founders knew that people wouldn’t be able to find a place to stay. So they piled up air beds (hence AirBnB) into their small apartment, and put up a simple ad about renting an air bed. Guess what? People actually rented an air bed!

Once again the value proposition was clear, people who wanted to go to this highly sold out event couldn’t find a place to stay in traditional places such as hotels and B&Bs. So the 3 AirBnB founders were able to offer them a place, and their early adopter were willing to pay and sleep on an air beds!

In both of these cases, Zappos and AirBnB eventually had to do a lot to scale their business to become million dollar and billion dollar revenue generators. But by starting with a Concierge MVP they were able to test out their first hypothesis without making a huge investment in terms of time and resources being spent building a full product. They were able to prove that people would buy the experience.

Even in the case of my own startup Femgineer, my Concierge MVP was a single page ad on my blog about an 8-week online course on product development. I didn’t bother creating actual curriculum for the full 8-weeks until I had a set of students who had pre-paid for the course! This pre-sales tactic took a lot of the risk out for me spending my time developing curriculum, and it also made it clear what value proposition students were willing to pay for: an online course with me on product development!

OK so hopefully by this point you are starting to see the value in creating a Concierge MVP. But you’re probably wondering how to get started? In the next lecture, I will walk you through the getting started phase!

Did you enjoy this lesson? Got any questions for me on it? Please let it the comments below and I’ll be happy to answer it!

Checkout out the previous lessons: