Diagramming Product-Market Fit at Lean Startup

Continual iteration is a fundamental principle in agile thinking as well as in startup methodologies such as Customer Development and Lean Startup. Basically, its premise is that a startup will mitigate risk and uncertainty by shortening product and customer learning loops, and adjust its product-market fit accordingly.

A startup achieves product-market fit when it masters the balance of building a solution, or product that acts on a customer’s problem, or vice versa. Both product development and customer development each has its own iterative loop structure. I believe that the two should be reciprocally acting and proceed in parallel towards the goal of product-market fit and that this makes a multiple-loop system. This invokes an ambidextrous challenge to early-stage ventures.

Building on my former post on Disciplined Creativity with Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s Flow diagram, I would add to the Lean Startup model.

The diagram above shows product-market flow as a result of efforts in parallel iteration between agile product development (at the y-axis) and customer development (at the x-axis). In order to achieve a product-market flow state, that is product-market fit, a balance must be struck between customer development and product development. If a startup is drifting too far along one of the axis without iterating, flow cannot occur.

I believe that iteration beyond the product-market flow zone could be considered pivoting – that is when you change a fundamental part of your business model in regards to products and customers. To successfully iterate between product and customers and achieve product-market fit, you would develop a minimum viable product offering that enables you to learn about your customers needs and wants.

At startup you must pay close attention not only to the iterative tasks within customer development and agile product development separately, but also to the feedback loops in between the two. However, time is limited, and you should be aware of trade-offs in achieving flow in a Lean Startup. This is where continual iteration and validated learning allows for greater risk reduction under extreme uncertainty.

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9 Minimum Viable Product WordPress Themes

The Minimum Viable Product is one key tenet of the Lean Startup and Customer Development methodology. According to Eric Ries “the Minimum Viable Product is that product which has just those features (and no more) that allows you to ship a product that resonates with early adopters; some of whom will pay you money or give you feedback.”

With the raise of cloud computing and SaaS, the website often makes the product itself. Nevertheless, commoditization of Amazon-ish hosing services, search marketing, free and open source software such as the LAMP stack and publishing systems like WordPress – allows startups to build and market their products at a lower cost. This is a simple overview of – cut to the chase – minimum viable WordPress themes.

1. Optimize by WooThemes is a product and feature-centric theme that emphasizes a clear value statement and sense of call to action.

2.iPhone App theme by Templatic. The name speaks for itself. The theme is designed for, but not limited to marketing of iPhone apps. The call to action button is nicely positioned in the mid of the screen. Although the blue area/the header is static, I’m sure that this can be changed with ease.

3. Feature Pitch by WooThemes is an out of the box theme suitable for marketing that one compelling product of yours. Also take a notice of that lighting orange tab at the upper right. Good thinking.

4. eBook theme by Templatic. Although the name implies a focus on eBooks, its message can easily be changed to work for any product.  It comes with widgets for testimonials and newsletter sign-up right out of the box.

5. Coffee Break by WooThemes has unlike the others put the call to action buttons at the leftmost side. It is clean and clearly built with usability in mind. The slider can easily be disabled.

6. iProduct Theme by Templatic. Yes it is a product-centric theme. Its layout differs from the others as its download buttons are centered underneath the product image. iProduct comes with a pricing plan module, as well as a testimonials and customer service widget by default.

7. Eminent is a simple company-product hybrid. It provides call to action along with Twitter aggregation and client list features.

8. Ignite is one dead simple theme. It is primarily a landing page, but it might make a good basis for starting the design of a minimum viable product site.

9. GetBusiness is a Web2.0-style theme more focused on company profiling. However, with slight modifications it would work as well as a minimum viable product theme. The call to action button and value proposition is at the heart of the front page.

The themes have in common the emphasis on minimum viable product techniques. Their design is built around the product rather than the other way around. There is a clear slogan and value proposition, as well as product feature listings. Call to action buttons, along with testimonials and customer service widgets are at the center of the templates. Perhaps the most important, the minimum viable theme should organize for customer feedback and simple testing of ideas.

You may have noticed that WooThemes and Templatic themes dominate the list. I believe that this is not by accident. If you have a look at their respective sites, you’ll see that they make good examples of how to design a compelling reason to buy.

Stay tuned for more minimum viable product themes to come.

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6 Essential Startup Decks

Among the great many startup 101s’ that are out there, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Here is an overview of the most essential startup decks that I have taken notes of. The list is merely a snapshot of hands-on startup methods and tools but a complete list of entrepreneurship literature.

Mint.com Pre-Launch Pitch Deck makes a great example of a startup pitch. For more on pitching  it is definitively worth looking into Pitching Hacks: How to pitch investors from Nivi and Naval at VentureHacks (PDF and free sample) to be used in companion with Dave McClure’s Startup Viagra: How to Pitch a VC.

Mint Founder Institute Accounting, this time by Mint founder Aaron Patzer, is a must read on how to draw your business case together and getting the numbers right.

Startup Metrics for Pirates by Dave McClure is the nuts and bolts of how to formalize traction and accountable metrics for your startup, including methods from the Lean Startup.

No One Cares About Your Stupid Little Startup by Xobni founder Matt Brezina takes us through its phases and tactics for building critical mass.

The Lean Startup methodology by Eric Ries combines the best from the agile development paradigm with Steven Blank’s Customer Development methodology (which might as well have been included) into a low-burn startup methodology.

Drop the business plan?! The Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder, is an one-slide template and systematic approach to analyze, brainstorm and sketch out your business model. If you are not familiar with the framework you might want to start with the Business Model Generation book, the lean startup business model pattern and Steve Blank’s post on how to process it.

There sure are several interesting startup decks, and no such list goes without mentioning Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start and Garage‘s Perfecting your Pitch. I will read SEO Moz’s Venture Capital Process again. Not to forget Getting Real and Rework – the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals’ (see aslo Eric Santos’ summary). Neverthless, keep up to date with Lean Startup news.

Do you know of other essential startup decks, we would love to know about them.

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