The document discusses the importance of testing minimum viable products (MVPs) and prototypes in order to validate business hypotheses and learn about customer needs before fully developing a product or service. It provides examples of different types of MVPs and prototypes that can be used, such as concierge-style delivery or landing pages. The key lessons are that MVPs and prototypes should be rough, rapid, and focus on collecting user feedback to inform an iterative development process. The overall goal is to fail quickly and cheaply in order to learn and succeed sooner.

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Startup School:
Testing your MVPs and
Prototypes
Lindsey Gray
Senior Director, NYU Entrepreneurial Institute
Adjunct Faculty, Tandon School of Engineering
Instructor, NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps)
October 18, 2016

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“Starting a startup is
something you !
can only learn !
intrinsically by !
doing it. What you !
need to learn is !
the needs of your !
own users.”

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Need to do this before
finishing designing and/or
building your product/service

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Your job is not to validate
your product…
Your job is not to validate
your product…
It’s to validate the
problem, who has it and
then how best to solve it?

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Prototypes and MVPs
are tools to help you
test your hypotheses.

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What is a prototype?
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A model of a product or service built
to demonstrate or test the feasibility
of a concept.

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What is a prototype?
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u Rough
u Rapid
u Right

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What is an MVP?
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MVP = Minimally Viable Product

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What is an MVP?
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“The version of a new product which
allows a team to collect the
maximum amount of validated
learning about customers with the
least effort.”
-Eric Reis

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What is an MVP?
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Minimal
Nobody wants
to use it
Viable
Products build by companies
that have no financial limitations
MVP
Minimum feature set

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What is an MVP?
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u Typically distributed to customers
u Can be used with larger test groups
u Enough functionality for customer to
use on their own

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What is an MVP?
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Prototype vs. MVP?
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Prototypes à test product/service design.
MVPs à test business hypotheses.
Bothà learn about customer wants & needs.

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Prototype
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A model of a product or service built
to demonstrate or test the feasibility
of a concept.

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Prototypes can be…
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u Sketches on paper
u Digital mock-ups
u Handmade constructions
u 3D prints
u Videos
u Simulated experiences
u Virtual models
u …

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Types of prototypes:
Physical form

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Types of prototypes:
“Works-like”
vimeo.com/39845871

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Types of prototypes:
“Looks-like”

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Types of prototypes:
“Works-like” & “Looks-like”

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Types of prototypes:
Experience/Service

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“Selecting the focus of a prototype is the
art of identifying the most important
open design questions.”
-Houde and Hill

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“The IKEA Effect”: When you build
something yourself you value it
way more than you should.
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-Norton, Mochon, Ariely

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Why prototype?
Fail safely…and quickly

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Tom Kelly, IDEO
“Fail often
so you can
succeed
sooner.”

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Why prototype?
Learn what we don’t know

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Why prototype?
Co-design & collaborate

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Why prototype?
Get user feedback
Innosight
LLC

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Why prototype?
Align people…teammates,
partners, potential customers…
bit.ly/elmosdanceparty

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“If a picture is worth a
thousand words, a prototype is
worth a thousand meetings. “
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-IDEO

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Prototyping Stages

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Prototyping Best Practices
1. Think with your hands
Build to think
2. Test early
Fail often to succeed sooner
3. Collect user feedback
Be ready to be surprised
4. Avoid emotional attachment
Don’t invest in an idea too long
before testing it
5. Rough, Rapid, Right
Quick, dirty, and ugly is ok
6. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
Build often to evolve

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What is an MVP?
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“The version of a new product which
allows a team to collect the
maximum amount of validated
learning about customers with the
least effort.”
-Eric Reis

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Using an MVP to test
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1. Define customer and problem
2. Identify key assumption to test
3. Design a test
4. Execute the test (utilize high-fidelity prototype?)
5. Measure test outcomes (customer behavior)
6. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t
7. Pivot or persevere
Melissa Perri
@lissijean

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Testing Method:
Concierge
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Delivering the product/service manually
@lissijean
Pros:
• Close to the customer,
easy to learn
• Easy to adjust based on
feedback and learning
• Easy and cheap to get
started
Cons:
• Not scalable
• Time-consuming to run

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Testing Method:
Concierge
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Testing Method:
Wizard of Oz
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Looks real but manual in the back end
@lissijean
Pros:
• Looks real to customer
• Customer is responding to
what experience would be
if you built it
Cons:
• Hard to get started, higher
fidelity required
• Not as close to the
customer, may not know
WHY behind behavior

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Testing Method:
Wizard of Oz
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Testing Method:
Landing Page+…
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A pitch of your product to gauge idea
reception
@lissijean
Pros:
• Don’t need complete
concept to get started
• Can launch in minutes
• Really cheap
Cons:
• You still need to get
people to your page!...see
last week’s lecture

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Testing Method:
Landing Page +…
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Testing Method:
Video
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Demo what your product can do by hacking
it together for a video
@lissijean
Pros:
• Can demo complicated
things
• Show a prototype before
producing them all
Cons:
• Harder to put together
• Some parts may have to
be done to include in the
video

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Testing Method:
Video
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Where do I start?

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“The best way
to start, is to
start.”
- Ryan Jacoby, MACHINE

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“It’s only by saying no
that you can
concentrate on the
things that are really
important.”

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The process
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1. Define customer and problem
2. Identify key assumption to test
3. Design a test
4. Execute the test (utilize high-fidelity prototype?)
5. Measure test outcomes (customer behavior)
6. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t
7. Pivot or persevere
Melissa Perri
@lissijean

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An example
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bit.ly/steveblankdrone

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“I have not failed, I have just
found 10,000 ways that won’t
work.“
- Thomas Edison

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Helping startups start up

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Questions?
entrepreneur@nyu.edu
@nyuentrepreneur
entrepreneur.nyu.edu
16 Washington Place
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