2. Ideation.
Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing and
communicating new ideas, where an idea is understood as the basic
element of thought that can be either visual, concrete or abstract.
3. An Idea.
Every idea has a source, it comes from somewhere - a pain or a
gain that results in an aha! moment. In this aha! moment you
think you have a solution.
4. Exercise 1: Let’s write it down
Now describe the problem in simple plain words.
You can use two formats:
I have an idea that eliminates the pain …
I have an idea that provides consumers a gain …
I have an idea that …
5. Exercise 1: The MECE List - The McKinsey Way
The idea is not that simple that it can be described
in one single line …
Break it down into a MECE list
Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive
What if ?
6. Exercise 2: Define the problem
A well written problem statement goes a long way in establishing a
valid idea as a customer focussed offering (Product, Solution or a
Service). A problem statement helps you understand the value
proposition of the idea for your customers.
A Problem Statement
7. An Elevator Pitch!
You need two elevator pitches - One for your idea and one for
yourself. We will tell you why shortly …
8. Exercise 3: Product Elevator Pitch
An Example:
TO parents, QuikShare.com is a content platform that they
can use to find community verified child-safe content,
reliably aggregated by parents themselves
9. Exercise 4: Founder Elevator Pitch
An Example:
I’m a communications professional with a knack for persuasive
storytelling. Considering my colleagues often complemented me for my
thoughtful and engaging presentations, I’m looking for insight as to
how I can best position myself for a role in production or videography
at social impact start-up. Because I’m inspired by documentaries, I
want to help companies express their missions in compelling and
relatable ways in the age of social media.
10. The Team
In a startup, the team members should have complementary
skills. If one person is a marketer, the other should be a
technologist, another a designer and someone with knowledge
of operations and finance. This varies with context but the
rationale remains the same.
11. Exercise 5: Define roles for your team
- List out the areas that you need to execute upon
from your problem statement
- From your product and founder elevator pitch, find
the things you can do yourself
- For the rest define roles for other members in your
potential team
12. Build vs Buy.
You don’t have to have all the skill sets in-house. You can get the
skill sets for cash or by sharing equity with professionals but
before you take a leap, think carefully if it is worth giving a
share now, or some of the skill set acquisition can be deferred.
15. Exercise 7: Define your Customers - Give them personas
John Doe wakes up at 6 AM and makes Doe. John is a baker
and makes bread with the doe. He has a school going kid, his
kid takes the bread every morning and gives it to school’s
cafeteria and the cafe owner gives him a cheque which he
promptly hands over to his dad when he is back from school.
Personas.
16. Features
A Product is a collection of features, not ideas. If the
features are useful to the customer, customer buys the
product and if not, you lose the customer.
Time to define the features.
17. Exercise 8: Define the User Journeys (Use Cases)
- Pick up the first Persona
- Write all User Journeys for the persona: A user journey is the
step by step outline of one thing that a customer accomplishes
with your product end to end, you can also call it a transaction.
- Repeat this process till you cover all the personas
18. Exercise 9: Define the Features
Once you have the user Journeys in place, next step is to create a
set of features. User Journeys are different from features. User
Journeys tell you what customers want to do with your product.
A feature defines how your system will help them achieve that
goal.
19. Exercise 10: The feature Scrub
Must Have
Should Have
Nice to Have
20. Exercise 10: The feature Scrub
You are the product thinker, you know your product the best. You
can prioritize your features based on value it brings to the
customer and what is the customer willing to pay for that value?
When you apply this logic, you will notice that the feature that
brings the most value to the customer are the ones that are
central to your basic idea.
