Everybody knows all about lean startup, MVP, customer development and product/market fit (or at least, we hope everybody does). The key tenets make total sense: MVP as the smallest possible thing you can build to complete a build-measure-learn cycle; the need for speed; charge from day one if you can and so on. A software startup can easily go through two or three build-measure-learn cycle in a couple of months. But what if your startup is creating a hardware product, where it takes 6 months or more to manufacture the smallest possible thing you can test with? In this talk we will explore creative ways to apply key tenets of lean startup and customer development to hardware startups (ranging from consumer electronics to industrial products), where each product development and manufacturing cycle can run 6 months or longer. With minor tweaks, the same principles that help build great software startups quickly can be used to avoid capital expenditure mistakes in hardware startups. Join the conversation.

1. © 2014 ConceptSpring
Elaine Chen
September 2014
Lean Startup – Hardware Edition

2. 2

4. “Minimum Viable Product”
“Build-Measure-Learn”
“Product-market fit”
“Pivot”
“Value versus waste”

5. “Get out of the building!”

6. MEASURE
BUILDLEARN
ProductData
Ideas

7. “Minimum Viable Product”
“The MVP is that version of the product that
enables a full turn of the Build-Measure-Learn
loop with a minimum amount of effort and the
least amount of development time.
- Ries, Eric (2011-09-13). The Lean Startup (p.
77), Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

8. MVP Example 1
Quotable quote:
“You don’t need code to test an MVP.”
– Ash Maurya, serial entrepreneur, author of “Running Lean”

10. Days, not weeks or months.
Charge from Day 1.
You don’t need a lot of users to learn.
Just a few good customers.
Position your MVP as the prize.
Do a concierge MVP if it makes sense.

11. MVP Example 2

13. Specs at launch (June 29, 2007):
• Samsung 32 bit ARM processor
- underclocked to 412 MHz
• 128 MB Memory
• 320 x 480 pixels
• Up to 8GB storage
• Multitouch screen
• 3 axis accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor
• WiFi
• EDGE (2.5g)
• 2MP camera (SE had 3.2MP)
• 5h talk browsing time
• No cut and paste
• No MMS
• No third party apps
• No exchange support
• No real push email
• Exclusive to AT&T
Just for laughs

14. Specs at launch (June 29, 2007):
• Samsung 32 bit ARM processor
- underclocked to 412 MHz
• 128 MB Memory
• 320 x 480 pixels
• Up to 8GB storage
• Multitouch screen
• 3 axis accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor
• WiFi
• EDGE (2.5g)
• 2MP camera
• 5h talk browsing time
• No cut and paste
• No MMS
• No third party apps
• No exchange support
• No real push email
• Exclusive to AT&T
Arguably defeatured…

15. Specs at launch (June 29, 2007):
• Samsung 32 bit ARM processor
- underclocked to 412 MHz
• 128 MB Memory
• 320 x 480 pixels
• Up to 8GB storage
• Multitouch screen
• 3 axis accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light sensor
• WiFi
• EDGE (2.5g)
• 2MP camera (SE had 3.2MP)
• 5h talk browsing time
• No cut and paste
• No MMS
• No third party apps
• No exchange support
• No real push email
• Exclusive to AT&T
...but totally nails the vision…

16. Excel at core use cases – the rest can wait

17. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
iOS 1.2b1
iOS2.2
iOS3.0
iOS 2.0
iOS4.0
iOS2.2.1
iOS2.1
iOS3.1
iOS3.2
iOS4.1
iOS4.2
iOS4.3
iOS5.0
iOS5.1
iOS6
Realize the full product vision over time

18. 6.1M iPhone original
318M+ iphones sold by Q1 2013
The first product release is just the
beginning

19. Minimum Viable Product

20. “Minimum”
“If you aren’t embarrassed by your
first product, you have launched too
late.”
Chris Dixon, Founder Collective, Hunch
“Don’t wait until you are proud of your product.”
Ajay Kulkarni and Andy Cheung, Sensobi
“Quality over quantity.”
Andy Smith – DailyBurn

21. “Viable”

22. Emails sent
Click through
Signed up for trial
Began using product
Converted to paid
subscriber
Free Beta 30 day trial to paid subscription
A cautionary tale

23. A Software “Product” can be a PDF

24. Alas! Hardware is different

25. Prototype

26. Product

27. Prototype

28. Product

29. Prototype

30. Product

31. Speed bump #1: Regulatory Compliance

32. Speed bump #2: Tooling

33. Despite advances in RP, quality and
cost still nonviable for mass production
Photo source: Makerbot.com

34. Low volume manufacturing solutions
are emerging – things will improve

35. Speed bump #3: Durability requirements

36. No such thing as a low-fidelity
hardware MVP

37. “Do it right, or do it over”

38. MEASURE
BUILDLEARN
ProductData
Ideas

39. Primary market research is your friend

40. What to test before tooling

41. MEASURE
BUILDLEARN
ProductData
Ideas

46. What to test after tooling, but
before first customer ship

47. Gratis
or paid
Beta
MEASURE
BUILDLEARN
ProductData
Ideas

50. What to test after first
customer ship

51. MEASURE
BUILDLEARN
ProductData
Ideas
Biz
model

53. Fried, Jason; Heinemeier Hansson, David (2010-03-
02). Rework (p. 70). Crown Business. Kindle Edition.

54. Minimum Viable Product

55. Image credit: http://aht.seriouseats.com/
What if the product is undercooked?

56. Image credit: http://www.cuisineonline.pk
Find early evangelists

57. Image credit: http://idaconcpts.com
Don’t make overreaching claims

58. Do a concierge MVP

59. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
iOS 1.2b1
iOS2.2
iOS3.0
iOS 2.0
iOS4.0
iOS2.2.1
iOS2.1
iOS3.1
iOS3.2
iOS4.1
iOS4.2
iOS4.3
iOS5.0
iOS5.1
iOS6
Refresh the product with sw updates

60. Viability is in the eye of the beholder

61. Lean Startup - Reprise
• Minimize waste: build-measure-learn
• Get out of the building for maximum learning
• Build the smallest possible thing (concepts,
prototypes) and start testing the product
• Ship the smallest possible thing (MVP) and start
testing the market
• Pivot on new learnings
• Don’t scale until product/market fit
• Quality is the key difference (don’t flub it!)

62. @chenelaine blog.conceptspring.com
Thank you