6. Product Design

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Goal: building a product customers want

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

But how to find out what customers want?

Flickr:CLSB

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Thirty thousand new consumer products are launched each year. But over 90% of them fail— and that’s after marketing professionals have spent massive amounts of money trying to understand what their customers want.

Christensen et al.Marketing Malpractice The Cause and the CureHarv. Bus Rev. 2005 Dec;83(12):74-83, 152.

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

Henry Ford

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

If there's one thing every junior consultant needs to have injected into their head with a heavy duty 2500 RPM DeWalt Drill, it's this: Customers Don't Know What They Want. Stop Expecting Customers to Know What They Want. It's just never going to happen. Get over it.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000356.html

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Communicating with customers

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup Hold the Mayo

Ask people what they don't wantMost software surveys and research questions are centered around what people want in a product. "What feature do you think is missing?" "If you could add just one thing, what would it be?" "What would make this product more useful for you?"

What about the other side of the coin? Why not ask people what they don't want? "If you could remove one feature, what would it be?" "What don't you use?" "What gets in your way the most?"

More isn't the answer. Sometimes the biggest favor you can do for customers is to leave something out.

Innovation Comes From Saying No

[Innovation] comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.

—Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple (from The Seed of Apple's Innovation

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

So, what to do then?

1) Build something you like

2) Ask customers - the right way

3) Measure

4) Iterate

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

1) Build something you like

You are the domain expert, others

- can’t imagine where (Vision) technology will lead to- can’t discriminate what’s feasible, what’s not

Building something you like

- is a good start- is a pre-condition to be successful (?)

Resource: Make Opinionated Softwarehttp://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

2) Ask customers - the right way

Approaches that seem to work

A) Asking for desired outcome

B) Integrating a product feedback loop

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Asking for desired outcome

What job does the user/customer want

to get done?

purpose brand

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3fGwsrXuZw

Hiring a milk shake do get a job doneClayton Christensen

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Purpose Brand Example

Until 1960’s one single product

observational research showed:some customers have creative uses for the product

- adding the product to laundry detergent- mixing it into toothpaste- sprinkling it on the carpet- others placing open boxes in the refrigerator

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Purpose Brand ExampleJob focus may grow product categories

A purpose brand for each “job”

These products make now more than 90% of Arm & Hammers revenuesChristensen et al., Marketing Malpractice The Cause and the Cure, Harv. Bus Rev. 2005 Dec;83(12):74-83, 152.

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

2) Ask customers - the right way

Two approaches that seem to work

A) Asking for desired outcome

B) Product feedback loop

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

3) MeasureHal R. Varian Keynote at IJCAI 2009

http://videolectures.net/ijcai09_varian_cmt/

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

3) MeasureTimothy Ferriss at LeWeb 2009

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-than-10000/

What is special about Vision?In Terms of Product Design

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

Special challenges for Vision Startups

Technological limits (e.g. object class recognition)

Novel usage concepts -> user education

High costs for product development

How we did it

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

How we did it: Paperboy Purpose Brand

Direct application of job-based product design

Before After

kooaba Visual Search

Job 1/ Product 1

Job 2 / Product 2

Job 3 / Product 3

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

How we did it: Paperboy Purpose Brand

PaperboyDelivers digital extras for print

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtCF8deqnFw

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

How we did it:

polarrose.comusability tests with video recordings

user feedback

customer dialogues (packaging of technology)

Q & A

Lear

ning

s fr

om fo

undi

ng a

Com

pute

r Vis

ion

Star

tup

ResourcesJoel on Software: Customers

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000356.html

37 signals getting real http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

Getting real: make opinionated Softwarehttp://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php

Clayton Christensen: Milk Shake Job http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3fGwsrXuZw

Kathy Sierra: letting users get better at sthhttp://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2010/05/kathy-sierra-at-business-of-software-2009.html

User Voice www.uservoice.com

Get Satisfaction www.getsatisfaction.com

Hal Varian at IJCAI 2009 http://videolectures.net/ijcai09_varian_cmt/

Timothy Ferris at LeWeb 2009http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/12/13/

how-to-create-a-global-phenomenon-for-less-than-10000/