What kind of experience do you want to create? A revolutionary technology, a well executed product and a profitable business should not be ends in themselves. Focus on the ultimate experience and let everything else fall in line. Having an answer to this question -- a concrete representation of where your product is headed -- can help you validate your ideas, impress investors, build a team and keep everyone in alignment. Drawing from my experience applying methods learned at Adaptive Path to my own startup, Foodspotting, I'll share concrete tools you can use to create a big vision, communicate it to others and validate it, even before you start developing anything.

1. The Vision-Driven Startup
How & why you should share your ideas
i
A lexa Andrzejewsk odspotting
Foun der & CEO, Fo @foodspotting
Follow @ladylexy and

3. Woke up one morning
with a great idea...

4. I help companies imagine
great products!

5. The only problem is...
*I can’t actually build things*

6. I needed to find a Cofounder.
Team. Investors. Users.
Where to start?

7. How did I do it?
I shared my idea with everyone
who would listen!

9. By sharing this vision,
I found an awesome cofounder...

10. And when I did find a cofounder,
we could hit the ground running.

11. Behind each of our
greatest successes was a
shared vision.

12. “What if you could see the nearest
places Anthony Bourdain has
eaten wherever you go?”

13. “We’re looking for a
Tristan”

14. “It will be like
Pandora for Food”

15. If I can picture something,
it will happen.

16. If I don’t bother,
it won’t.

17. Sharing your vision
is the most important
thing a founder can do.

18. A shared vision can
help you avoid common
mistakes startups make

19. Mistake 1:
Building something people don’t
really want or need

20. Sharing your vision
helps you:
Validate your ideas

21. Mistake 2:
Thinking too small

22. Sharing your vision
helps you:
Impress investors

23. Mistake 3:
Moving too slowly

24. Sharing your vision helps you:
Make decisions and
align your team

25. So how can you share
your vision effectively?

26. There are many ways you
can share your vision!

27. Your shared vision should:
1. Capture the imagination
2. Be easy to share
3. Get people excited

28. Simple, unexpected, credible:
“Put a man on the moon and return
him safely by the end of the decade.”
(From the book “Ideas That Stick”)

29. “A star to sail your ship by.”
-Jesse James Garrett

30. You have an idea.
What next?

31. Expanding your vision

35. Communicating your
vision

39. Validating your vision

43. Visualize your ideas.
Share them with everyone who
will listen. Refine & repeat!

44. bit.ly/uxvision
P.S. We’re hiring UX-Minded
Rails & iPhone Developers!
Alexa Andrzejewski
, Foodspotting
Founder & CEO and @foodspotting
Fo llow @ladylexy