We may earn an affiliate commission when you visit our partners.
Course image
Evan Kimbrell

Learn how to take ideas, validate them, and prototype them in one day, without learning how to code. Become a better entrepreneur, product manager, marketer, manager, or small business owner. Learn how experienced entrepreneurs come up with killer ideas and launch them with minimum time invested and with $0 upfront.

Read more

Learn how to take ideas, validate them, and prototype them in one day, without learning how to code. Become a better entrepreneur, product manager, marketer, manager, or small business owner. Learn how experienced entrepreneurs come up with killer ideas and launch them with minimum time invested and with $0 upfront.

Are you ready to take the plunge and finally pursue the business idea of your dreams? Are you sure you have the skills and the time to be successful? Have you heard of the Lean Startup, the product framework that is revolutionizing startups all over the world? This course will teach you the skills that are essential to being a successful entrepreneur.

About the instructor

  • Top-rated Udemy Instructor with over 30,000 five star reviews and over 500,000 students enrolled.

  • Teaches 11 different courses on Entrepreneurship.

  • Startup founder for 5+ years, raised three rounds of capital worth several millions of dollars.

  • Worked as a VC and was in charge of deal flow in Silicon Valley. 

  • Oversaw investments in large companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Tesla.

  • Owns Sprintkick, an agency that builds web & mobile apps for 20+ Fortune 500 companies. 

  • Created and launched over 100+ apps in the last four years.

Enroll now

Here's a deal for you

We found an offer that may be relevant to this course.
Save money when you learn. All coupon codes, vouchers, and discounts are applied automatically unless otherwise noted.

What's inside

Learning objectives

  • Rapidly validate product and project ideas before spending money and resources on pursuing them
  • Understand how to run pitch experiments and lean models of idea validation
  • Gather and interpret offline feedback for ideas
  • Spy on potential competitors to assess their strengths / weaknesses / areas left open for opportunity
  • Drill down with advanced search to find adjacent and hidden competitors
  • Quickly setup basic pitch experiments with launchrock landing pages
  • Create more complicated landing pages with unbounce
  • Run basic a/b tests with your idea and landing page
  • Setup and interpret conversion goals for your page
  • Capture the right customers for your potential product with dynamic text
  • Add payment buttons to your page and email for the ultimate validation experiment
  • Setup basic ad campaigns with google and facebook
  • Interpret the results of your experiment to determine if your idea is killer
  • Understand the benefits and correct usages of prototypes
  • Understand the basic terminology used in web and design speak
  • Efficiently create and articulate a strategy for your product
  • Outline the scope and specifications of your potential product
  • Show more
  • Show less

Syllabus

Introduction - Getting lean (37 minutes)

Welcome to the course!

I created this course for a number of reasons:

#1: I'm constantly asked these same two questions: "How do I get started being an Entrepreneur?" and "How do I know if my idea is any good?" For years my response has been, "Have you built an MVP?" which has always been followed with some form of silence, glossy-eyed stare, or that noise you hear when the room is too quiet...

#2: When I first started business school (aka walked around in suits and pretended to be busy), I was only vaguely aware of what "The Lean Startup" was. It was being used and referenced by anyone with a mouth, but it was impossible to nail down exactly what it was and meant. Back then, there were no resources for how you would go out, be lean, and run a full "napkin idea to working MVP" experiment. And guess what? There still isn't.

Enter 1 Day MVP. You're going to learn the Lean Framework, how to design experiments, how to find customers, build test pages, and actually build a codeless MVP. This isn't BS, we are actually going to do all of these things.

What the course is like:

If you've taken any of my other courses, you know that I teach things a little differently. Sure, you'll get a healthy dose of theory, but I don't think anything is complete (or even valuable) without following along and doing what we just learned. You'll also find that there are activities to help you follow along either with an idea of your own or one you can borrow (just bring it back before midnight) . There is also plenty of advice from my personal experience being in the startup trenches sprinkled throughout the lectures.

"Do I have to do everything?"

I strongly suggest you start from the beginning, complete the activities, watch the follow along lectures, and try to apply these techniques yourself. 

Ready? Let's get started.

Read more
Join our community on Slack!
Lean in five minutes
The Lean Mindset

Before we can continue, it’s vital that you understand exactly what an MVP is and what it is not. That’s what this lecture is about. We’ll start off by looking at some common misconceptions that people have about MVPs (there are a lot of those out there) and at what an MVP actually is.

You’d really be amazed at the amount of people talking about “The Lean Startup” without understanding its core concept. But knowing the definition isn’t enough. It has to be used properly. In this lecture we'll also take a quick first look at the “MVP Mountain” framework, which will follow us through the rest of the course (but more on that later).

At the end of this lecture you’ll fully understand the MVP and its place in the lean startup. You’ll also be familiar with the basic process that will lead you to a fully functioning MVP that you know will deliver.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Some common misconceptions
  • What IS an MVP, exactly?
  • What isn’t an MVP?
  • Practical applications and examples to help you better understand the concept

In this lecture we explore the process of building an MVP.

A great way to visualize and to map out this process is with the “MVP Mountain” which I mentioned in the previous lecture. It’s a framework that’ll help get you from an idea to a working MVP that people want and that people will actually want to buy.

Apart from being awesome, the MVP Mountain will be the structural layout of this whole course. This is definitely an important lecture.

After this lecture you’ll be familiar with the stages of the MVP building process (the Mountain) and you’ll know where the course will continue on from here.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The details of the MVP Mountain framework and how to apply them.
  • Why running an MVP experiment is like playing shoots & ladders.
  • Setting up a plan for idea validation.
  • The steps we’re going to follow in this course.

This is the last lecture of the first section, congrats. This is just a real short video where I explain the exercise for the end of this section. I’ll also talk a little bit about the next section of this course and what to watch out for.

PRACTICE: How would you MVP?
Section 1 Review Material
QUIZ: Do you understand the basics of Lean?
Review sheets, resources, activities - all in one PDF!
Getting even leaner (optional) (39 minutes)
Should I watch this section? *WATCH ME*
Fakin' it on the Serengeti

We’re still out in the wild, but this time we’re going to look at some bigger animals.

This lecture will cover MVPs that are moving away from fakin’ it and towards makin’ it. They’re a bit more complex and take a bit more effort to implement, but you’ll see why that might be necessary. Again we’ll throw in some real life examples, because seeing how they were applied by successful businesses will really illustrate the concepts.

At the end of this lecture you’ll have a good understanding of all 6 types of MVP's. You’ll know the benefits and drawbacks of the different types, and you’ll have a general idea of when to apply which ones.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The final 3 types of MVPs.
  • The pros and cons of “fancy” MVP types vs. the ones that “fake it."
  • Some more real life examples of the MVP's of successful companies.

Just by looking at the name “The Lean Startup” you can already tell that lean-ness is kind of a big deal here.

Lean-ness and the “minimum” part of MVP go hand-in-hand, which is why we’re going to take a closer look at what it actually means. It’s a question that comes up again and again: how minimum can I go?

People keep asking about how minimal they can make their MVP without scaring away potential customers – in this lecture we’ll take a look at why you don’t really need to worry about that.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why (super) minimum is okay.
  • The Product-Innovation Curve.
  • Who we try to target with an MVP.
  • Why it’s okay that most people won’t like your MVP.

How do MVPs fail? Why do they fail? How can we try to avoid it?

There are a few strategies you can use to improve the success rates of your MVP's and in this lecture you’ll learn what they are. Some ideas are inherently better suited for running an MVP experiment than others, and it’s vital that you know what they are so you don’t end up wasting your time.

In this lecture we’ll also go over some common mistakes that people make when trying to run an MVP experiment and how you can avoid them.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why do MVP's fail? The main problems that you’ll run into.
  • Two strategies to correctly run MVP experiments and how to know when to use them.
  • How (and why) you need to choose a target market.
  • The types of problems you need to solve.
Section 2 Review Material
Test your knowledge of MVPs and MVP strategies
Setting up your experiment (70 minutes)

This is where it gets real! (Well, realer than it’s been so far.)

In this lecture we’ll introduce the two projects that we’ll use to follow along for the rest of the course.

There’s no better way to learn than by doing, but the second best way would definitely be by watching someone else “do." You’ll see everything we’re talking about getting applied to actual MVP experiments, and we’ll (hopefully) end up watching them succeed.

This is the first step of climbing the MVP Mountain. I was going to say think about it like the Everest basecamp, but in reality, it’s more like the part where you check all your gear before heading out.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, and if you’re anything like me, you’ve got more than you could ever try testing. And that’s great – the more ideas you have the more likely it is that at least one of them could succeed. But the tricky bit is separating the good from the bad.

At the end of this lecture you’ll know what constitutes a “good” idea and how to pick the ones that are most likely to succeed. This will save you time, energy, and money.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why some ideas are inherently more likely to succeed than others.
  • What makes some ideas more suited for MVP testing?
  • A tried-and-tested framework to help you rank and choose ideas.

Welcome to the first follow along lecture. We’re going to take what we've learned in the previous lecture and put it into action. We’ll figure out how Airbasket smells by using the 5-point smell test framework and we’ll see if this is an idea that that we should continue with.

(Spoiler: it smells good.)

It will give you a better idea of how to apply the framework to your own ideas so that you can get going.

PRACTICE: Sniff test your ideas

Like any good experiment, you need a hypothesis.

Now, this isn’t a real science (I thought I was done with that in high school...), but the idea is very similar. Your hypothesis isn’t going to be set in stone, but it will guide you through the whole process and it will make sure your experiment stays focused.

However, the way we write a hypothesis for an MVP experiment is a bit different than what you learned in school and this video will show you why. Like I said, this isn’t physics or chemistry, but we are testing something so you can’t ignore this step.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How to structure your MVP hypothesis.
  • Why your MVP experiment can’t do without one.
  • What defines a good hypothesis?
  • What you should avoid in your hypothesis.

Now we’re going to try it out and write a hypothesis for Airbasket.

We’ve already talked about Airbasket; we know what it’s about, we know who we want to target, and we know why it’s a great idea. But that’s not a hypothesis that we can test.

In this lecture we’re going to put exactly what we expect to happen in writing, which will help us design a structured MVP experiment with a clear focus.

PRACTICE: Craft hypotheses for real companies

We all make assumptions, all the time, about everything and everyone. Even today I assumed that: 1) People would be really be excited about an idea I had. 2) My family is ignoring me because they don't respond to text messages.

It’s just a part of being human, but people blindly trusting their assumptions has sunk many MVP experiments over the years (and relationships, but that’s for another time).

At the end of this lecture you’ll be familiar with common types of assumptions and why it’s really important to keep them in mind. You’ll know how to identify them and your MVP will be made stronger because of it.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why it’s important to think about your assumptions.
  • Common types of assumptions you’ll probably make.
  • A handy template you can use to identify your MVP assumptions.
  • Why some assumptions are more dangerous than others.

It’s follow along time again.

This time around we’ll use the technique from the last lecture and try to identify the assumptions that we’re bringing to Airbasket. First we identify all of them and then we try to figure out which assumptions are the riskiest.

PRACTICE: Can you pick the riskiest assumption?

The success or failure of your MVP experiment can be surprisingly ambiguous.

100 people gave me their email address so… are we good now?

You need to define success (and failure) from the beginning. Since this isn’t a hard science, there’s no concrete answer as to what that is so it’s largely up to you.

At the end of this lecture you’ll be familiar with some tried-and-tested metrics for defining success and failure. We’ll also cover a few handy calculations and I’ll show you what I think the best solution for defining success is.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Different minimum criteria for success.
  • Two different ways to think about success (and failure).
  • How to calculate gross profit and the lifetime value of a customer.
  • How to use your minimum criteria for success to evaluate your experiment.

If you found the calculations in the last lecture a bit confusing, this video is for you.

I’ll show you how to calculate the gross profit and the expected lifetime value of Airbasket’s customers and products. The result will show us exactly what the experiment needs to achieve in order for it to be a viable business idea.

Section 3 Review Material
Assembling the perfect experiment
Identifying your target market (63 minutes)

We’re done with the planning phase of our experiment (congrats). Now it’s time to get going (really). We need to find subjects who will be our guinea pigs.

In this step we try to think of any types of customer groups that may be interested in what we’re offering. This will be the first step of finding our target customers and building user personas (but more on that later).

At the end of this lecture you’ll be able to figure out which customer groups to look for and you’ll be acquainted with a nifty little system to help you out with that.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Problem vs. benefit business types.
  • How to use the Does-Solves-Who System to find customer groups.
  • Peripheral customers: who they are and why they’re important.

So who would be interested in Airbasket? Let’s find out.

Using the Does-Solves-Who system we’ll end up with a couple of customer groups who would potentially like the idea of ordering Airbnb gift baskets online. Hopefully everything will be clear at the end of this and you’ll get a better idea of how to find potential target groups for your own business idea.

“If you focus on doing a hundred things at once, you’ll do all of them badly; if you focus on ten customer groups, you won’t satisfy any of them.” - A great quote, by… me

In the previous lecture we learned how to find all potentially interested groups of customers. Now the next step is choosing your target groups. 

Your MVP experiment needs to be focused. You don’t only want to measure reactions, you want to know exactly whose reactions you’re measuring.

In this lecture we’ll talk about cutting down your list of potential customer groups and why it will help you conduct your experiment.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why it’s beneficial to only focus on a few customer groups.
  • How “Tier 1 Problems” can help you choose a customer group.
  • Additional important criteria for picking your target groups.

So what are the three most important customer groups for Airbasket? Let’s try to find out.

We’ll start with all of the customer groups we can think of and then we’ll cut it down to three. Those will be the targets of our MVP experiment. We’ll have a “first choice” target group and can always pivot to the others if need be.

In this lecture we’ll learn how to analyze each of the three customer groups. It’s part of a process called customer segmentation. We’re going to try to figure out who they are, what they like, and what they do. This is really the core of our customer analysis and will provide the foundation for the final step in the next lecture - creating user personas.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why it’s really important to segment each of your target groups.
  • How to analyze customer groups on three distinct levels.

So how do we segment our potential Airbasket customers?

In this Follow Along video we’ll analyze the three customer groups we chose earlier: Airbnb hosts, homeaway/VRBO hosts, and traditional BnB owners.

And now the fun part...

In the last few lectures we’ve spent a really long time looking at our customers. Here’s where it all comes together. Basically, we’re going to make up some imaginary people. That’s kind of fun, right? I think it’s fun.

In order to focus on what your customers truly value you need to know who they are. In this lecture I’ll teach you how to craft user personas. Always having a targeted user persona in your back pocket is an amazingly useful tool for MVP building.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Exactly what user personas are.
  • How to build useful user personas.
  • How user personas help your MVP experiment.

So, what type of person would pay for Airbasket?

Meet Barbara and John – two people who would absolutely love Airbasket (hopefully… and if not, that’s also okay).

PRACTICE: Create some user personas
Section 4 Review Material
The basics of identifying your customers
Competitive analysis (73 minutes)

Welcome to the next stage of the MVP Mountain.

Put on your hiking boots, we’re really climbing now – it’s time for the competitive analysis. This video is just a short little introduction on the topic and the rest of this section (but it’s still important).

Time is money... does that mean money is time? Anyway, the point is that we probably don’t have enough of either so we’ve got to be frugal. The competitive analysis is the first part where we actually go out and actively look for information. This leads to a problem I’ve seen crop up again and again - MVP experiments are not just meant to be lean on costs, but also on time, and lots of people end up spending way longer on this than they need to.

At the end of this lecture we’ll cover three rules that will help you stay on track by doing your competitive analysis efficiently, but in a way that it still stays relevant and useful.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The three rules of competitive analysis.

So the first step in analyzing your competitors is figuring out who they are. This is one of our longest lectures because it’s actually a lot trickier than it sounds. Your whole competitive analysis depends on you being able to search for competitors and find the ones relevant to your MVP. Here you’ll learn how to efficiently and successfully conduct thorough competitor searches online.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Professional tips and tricks for competitor analysis.
  • The three types of competitors you should look at.
  • A systematic approach to competitor analysis.
  • How to get the most out of Google search.
Using Alerts to keep tabs on competitors

In this video we’re going to apply what we learned in the last lecture to Airbasket. How does the market look? Is there a lot of competition? Is someone out there doing the exact same thing? Let’s find out.

So you’ve done your research and ended up with a big list of competitors (or a small one, if you’re lucky) – what now? Well now you have to start with your analysis, but you can’t just dive into it without a plan of action.

In this lecture we’ll talk about the questions that you need to try to answer. You have to be very careful during this step: misjudging a competitor now could lead to a huge waste of time and energy later on.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How to know if you should worry about competitors.
  • Qualitative and quantitative data and why you need both.
  • Seven criteria for judging your competitors.

What are your competitors up to? Well, you could spend a few hours every day stalking them to try and figure that out, or you could use the helpful stalking tool that I’ll introduce in this video. A tool that stalks websites, just to be clear.

Say hello to SEMRush. It’s a great tool for collecting quantitative data on what your competitors are up to, and it helps you see how that’s working out for them.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Why SEMRush is useful for analyzing competitors and how to use it.
  • The sort of information it’s good for.
  • What metrics and data you can ignore.

There’s no doubt that SEMRush, introduced in the last lecture, is an awesomely useful tool. But it’s not the only tool you should be using for your competitive analysis.

In this lecture we’ll take a look at some additional competitive analysis tools that provide several different analytics and metrics. Sure, they’re all really cool and useful, but they complement each other and are best used together.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How to use SpyFu in your competitive analysis.
  • What information you can find on Angelist.
  • Why (and when) using Wikipedia is okay.

So now we know a lot of stuff about our competitors – who they are, what marketing strategy they use, and if they’ve received funding. Is that enough? Nope – there’s still empty space in our spreadsheet.

A company could attract tons of visitors to their website, have a great looking marketing plan, and be backed by that sweet investor cash – but if everyone thinks they’re kind of crappy you still have a shot.

In this lecture we’ll learn how to figure out what their customers think about them. This is a lot more qualitative so you’ll have to use a fair amount of your own subjective judgement. This lecture will show you what to base that judgment on.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How (and why) to use Twitter’s advanced search.
  • How to explore customer sentiment on Google.
  • Rules of thumb for assessing professionalism and size of your competitors.

Pat yourself on the back, the competitor research part is over. The next step is analyzing all this data we collected to build a narrative for each of the competitors. This video is a quick little wrap up of the research part and an intro for the final part of the competitive analysis.

Red oceans and blue oceans
Approve/Deny - Competitive analysis
Section 5 Review Material
The tenants of good competitor stalking
Lean customer development (158 minutes)

Hi there, MVP Mountaineers. In this section we’re going to climb one step higher on our way to the top.

We’ve looked at our competitors, we’ve segmented the market, and we’ve chosen what groups to target. This section is all about researching our (potential) customers and hearing what they have to say.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • What customer development interviews are.
  • An introduction to a simple three-step customer interview process.

What’s the first step of running customer development interviews? You guessed it - finding people to interview. Piece of cake, right? Well... it will be after you watch this video.

At the end of this lecture you’ll know how to start preparing your customer development interviews. You’ll know where to look for interviewees and who to ask.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Different types of potential customers for interviewing.
  • How the Drill Down System can help you find leads and get them talking.
  • What to do if your product is B2B.

When looking for people to contact for interviews, having a pipeline (often used in sales) is really helpful. If you don’t really know what I mean by “pipeline" that’s what this video is for. And even if you do, you should still watch it. I know, I know – I always say that. But it’s still true. Watch it.

The main point of this lecture is to help you keep your customer interview process organized and focused. It will show you how to build and manage an efficient and simple process for running customer development interviews.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How to prepare your interview process.
  • A general system to help you keep track of all your interview leads.
  • An introduction to Streak: using Gmail to build your hit list.
  • An alternative to using Gmail for your hit list.

So now that we got organized we’re ready to get going. Our first target is right at the top of our hit list. (It sounds so sinister…) It’s the "same problem" people! Those people who are struggling with the same problem we’re trying to solve. 

But you probably still have some questions. Where can I find these people? What the hell do I do once I’ve found one of them? How does this work with my hit list from the last video?

This lecture is about finding "same problem" people and making a big list of leads to interview. It’ll answer all those questions, and more.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How to search for, and find, "same problem" people.
  • Some other places to search than Google (yes, they exist).
  • What makes someone a viable lead?
  • How to input your leads to grow your hit list with Streak.

In this lecture we’re going to learn how to search for - and how to find - the second targets on our hit list: influencers and our competitors’ customers. It’s a bit more difficult than searching for "same problem" people, but if you know what to look for it’ll be a walk in the park.

At the end of this lecture you’ll know how to further grow your interview lead list. Size matters... But so does quality, so pay attention.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • What defines an influencer and why their opinions matter.
  • The type of influencer we’re looking for.
  • Some niche websites to help your search for influencers and competitors’ customers.

This is the final step for building our hit list. We’re now going to look for forums about our topic with the goal of interviewing the users. In addition, we’ll try to contact those people who comment on the bottom of relevant articles or blog posts. I know, I know – your average internet comment isn’t worth much (to put it lightly). But on the plus side, people who comment online just looove giving their opinion.

This lecture will teach you how to find the last batch of relevant people for your lead list. After this you’ll be ready to start interviewing.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The final step of compiling your hit list.
  • A selection of the best forum sites to use in your search.
  • What the point of contacting these people is.

Did the last few videos in this section sound like a lot of effort? Would you rather just spend a few bucks to save some time? Maybe you’re just feeling lazy. This video is for you. Yes, I’m talking to the couch potatoes out there. You know who you are.

In this lecture I’ll show you cheap and efficient ways to advertise in order to attract people to interview. It has pro’s and con’s (like anything else) but might be what some of you are looking for.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Using Craigslist (or something similar) to attract leads.
  • Mechanical Turk – what it is and how you can use it.
  • When this approach is useful, and what the downsides are.
  • Hiding your phone number with Google Voice and Burner.

This video will show you how I went about getting interviews with people for Airbasket. I managed to find a handful of people willing to interview (I’ll post the interviews shortly). This video will show you where I looked, the messages I used to contact people, and what I offered them in return.

So now you’re sitting there with your big list of leads. If you’re anything like I was in the beginning you’re probably wondering, “Why the hell would anyone respond to me, some random guy from the internet?”

That’s what this lecture will cover: getting responses to your messages and getting them to give up their valuable time to answer your questions. It may seem like a daunting task at first, but it’s surprisingly simple. This lecture will show you how to successfully reach out to strangers and it will teach you various tips and tricks for increasing your success rate.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Three characteristics of an email that strangers will respond to.
  • A simple template you can use for writing cold emails.
  • How to get strangers to like you (by email).

In this lecture I’ll show you how to send mass emails using the Streak extension for Gmail. If you’re doing your customer interviews properly and have a large list of leads then emailing each of them separately would take forever. That’s why having a process to help you with this is a necessity. If you’re not using Gmail or Streak, feel free to skip this video.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • A technique for messaging all your leads at once, with Streak.
  • Streak’s Mass Mail Merge.
  • Message writing tips.
  • How to email people without having their email address. (Magic, I know.)

Ten videos into this section and it’s finally time to talk about conducting customer interviews. (Hey, as my grandma always said, preparation is key the key to success.) Customer development interviews are going to be new ground for a lot of you, and it’s pretty easy to mess them up.

In this lecture we’ll take a look at some important guidelines for conducting these interviews and at some common mistakes that crop up again and again. I’ve uploaded a customer interview template you can use as well, but this video should give you a good idea of what it is that you’re trying to do here.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The difference in focusing on their needs vs. their wants.
  • The three big rules of customer development interviews.
  • Common mistakes and pitfalls.
My customer interview template

After conducting all those customer development interviews, you probably have a ton of information to sift through. (And if you don’t, get back out there.) Sure, you might have a general idea of how people feel, but it’s really important that you systematically analyze the notes (or recordings) you took.

This lecture will cover what to do after you’re finished with the customer interviews. It will show you ways to organize and analyze all that information you gathered in order to learn as much as you can from it.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • A proven system for organizing and analyzing your interviews.
  • Why post-it notes are great for this.
  • The types of answers you should focus on and what to watch out for.
  • Why to keep your target groups in mind.

Hopefully your customer interviews answered a lot of your questions and maybe they gave you a few new ones to think about. Either way, you now have an important decision to make. Did you’re MVP pass the customer interviews? Or did it fail? Answering this can be pretty ambiguous. In this short video I’ll introduce the two indicators that I use to help me with this decision.

In this Follow Along video I’ll analyze the first customer interview for Airbasket. Did it go perfectly? Nope. Was he the exact type of potential customer I was looking to interview? Nope. But did I still learn a lot? Definitely.

Let’s take a look at the key takeaways. He made some interesting points, and I think some of the issues he brought up could be pretty universal. This is also a great opportunity to look back and think about how you can improve your interviewing method for next time.

FOLLOW ALONG: Airbasket interview #2

Let’s take a look at our second customer interview for Airbasket. Yes, we built customer personas earlier, but the vast majority of people will not fit that description perfectly. Each interview (and each interviewee) comes with their own unique upsides and downsides, which makes it tricky to decide what information to focus on and to what degree it’s relevant.

Section 6 Review Material
Can you run a Lean interview?
Creating your pitch experiment (89 minutes)

We’ve done our research, and if your idea has made it this far, it’s finally time – time to prepare the pitch experiment. This video will refresh your mind on what a pitch experiment is and why they’re so damn useful. It also acts as a great intro for this whole section (if I may say so myself).

Landing pages are at the core of pitch experiments. In order to successfully run an MVP experiment you need to have your landing pages down. They are the first thing potential customers get to see. Your product can be as good as gold, but if your landing page is bad, your experiment could still fail.

In this lecture we’ll cover all the basics of landing pages. You’ll know what they are, why they’re important, and how to successfully use one.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The difference between landing pages and squeeze pages (with examples).
  • What makes them so essential.
  • How to make an efficient landing page.
  • The three critical aspects of a landing page.

Learn How to Write Amazing Headlines in Only 8 Minutes!

This lecture is all about preventing people who find your landing page from leaving straight away. You need to be able to write a headline with a captivating hook in order to grab their attention.

At the end of this video you’ll have a good understanding of how to do just that. Writing catchy headlines takes practice, but simply knowing the underlying mechanics and some key guidelines will already put you ahead of the pack.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • How to write eye-catching headlines and captivating hooks.
  • Real life examples from successful companies.
  • How to quantify success: bounce rates.
  • The psychology behind headlines.

This short video introduces a (sort of) template for writing headlines, for those of you who are stuck. It might be a little generic, but it’s a fool-proof headline format that has been used successfully again and again and again.

Let’s talk about the “call to action" - another key component of our landing page. You don’t just want people to look at your page, you want them to actually do something. The purpose is in the name: “call to action” - call your website visitors to an action - “Sign up here!”

In this lecture we’ll learn about “calls to action” and why your landing page needs a big freaking button. They’re one of the main ingredients to getting conversions, and you’d be surprised how often people manage to mess them up.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • What “calls to action” are and how they’re used.
  • What defines a successful “call to action”?
  • Real life examples to illustrate the point.
  • The three most common mistakes people make.

We’ve covered headlines and we’ve covered “calls to action”. Now we’re going to cover the last aspect of landing pages: the description of your product’s key features and benefits. 

Your headline will get you a foot in the door, buying you a few more precious seconds of the reader’s time - at least it will if you paid attention to the lecture on hooks. The next step is actually persuading them, getting them to click on your expertly designed call to action.

At the end of this lecture you will know how to write about your features and benefits in a way that leads to conversions. You’ll know what to keep in mind and you’ll know what pitfalls to avoid.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • The difference between features and benefits.
  • How to turn features and benefits into conversions.
  • My two main tips for writing successful descriptions.

In this lecture we’re going to cover one of the most important questions of the MVP process (and of life, but that’s an entirely different course) – how to define success. There are three levels of validation that you should use for the simple MVP experiment. After this video, you’ll know what they are and what to aim for with your experiments.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • Three levels of MVP experiment validation.
  • How to move from one level to the next.
  • How the experiments for each level differ.

We’re approaching the end of this section. We’ve got all the landing page theory down; now it’s time to get at the nitty-gritty details. This is a technical lecture. It will show you how to build a launch page using Launchrock, and at the end you’ll be able to actually build a simple (and nice) page.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • What Launchrock is, and how it can help your MVP.
  • How to create a pitch experiment with Launchrock.
  • The benefits of “Coming Soon."

This lecture is for those of you who want to stick out from the crowd. It’s for the people who want to customize their Launchrock pages more. (If that’s not you, feel free to skip it. I’ll see you later.)

Canva is a graphic design tool that can help you make interesting and unique images for your launch page. Heck, it’s useful for more than just launch pages, so take a look.

In this lecture we’re going to cover:

  • What parts of your Launchrock page Canva can improve.
  • A quick feature guide to make the most out of Canva.
  • A few helpful tips and tricks.

It's Follow Along time, watch this video if you want to see me create a Launchrock page for Airbasket. (I know you do!) I’ll apply what we learned in the last two lectures and we’ll go through all the steps of creating a Launchrock page one by one.

Subjective vs. objective and the importance of both
Section 7 Review Material
Landing pages, copywriting, CSPs, and more
Pitching to soft targets (49 minutes)

Duct tape marketing – sounds fancy, right? Nah, it doesn’t. But it’s a diamond in the rough and can be extremely useful. So what is it? Watch this video and find out.

At some point, you’ll probably be tempted to message the people you know about your MVP idea. I know it may look convenient, but trust me, it’s a bad idea. There are many reasons for this, and here are the biggest ones.

The first half of the section (more or less) will cover how to get your 100. Since we can’t ask our friends, we need to look for different places where we can share our launch page link. This video works as a short introduction before we dive further into this topic.

Good to know

Know what's good
, what to watch for
, and possible dealbreakers
Develops a systematic approach to building ideas
Teaches the Lean Startup Framework
Provides practical applications and examples to help learners understand the concept of MVPs
Helps learners choose the right MVP type for their idea
Teaches learners how to set up and interpret conversion goals for their page
Provides step-by-step instructions on how to run pitch experiments with Launchrock

Save this course

Save 1 day MVP 2.0 | Go from idea to MVP in just 1 day to your list so you can find it easily later:
Save

Reviews summary

Excellent course for building an mvp

According to students, this course is great and very useful. It gets straight to the point and provides practical information for building a minimum viable product (MVP) in one day.
No fluff, just practical info
"Excellent! Right to the point."
"Extremely useful information."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in 1 day MVP 2.0 | Go from idea to MVP in just 1 day with these activities:
Create a study guide or cheat sheet
Summarizes key concepts and materials from the course, making it easy to review and prepare for assessments.
Browse courses on Study Guide
Show steps
  • Gather materials from the course.
  • Organize the materials into a logical order.
  • Create a study guide or cheat sheet.
Review basic marketing principles
Ensures you have a solid understanding of the basics of marketing, which will be essential for promoting your MVP.
Browse courses on Marketing
Show steps
  • Read articles and blog posts about marketing.
  • Watch videos about marketing.
  • Take a marketing course or workshop.
Review basic financial modeling concepts
Gives you the knowledge and skills needed to create a financial plan for your MVP.
Browse courses on Financial Modeling
Show steps
  • Read articles and blog posts about financial modeling.
  • Watch videos about financial modeling.
  • Create a financial model for your MVP.
Five other activities
Expand to see all activities and additional details
Show all eight activities
Attend industry events and meetups
Provides opportunities to connect with potential mentors, investors, and customers.
Browse courses on Networking
Show steps
  • Research industry events and meetups.
  • Attend the events and meet new people.
  • Follow up with the people you meet.
Practice conducting customer development interviews
Helps you develop the skills and confidence needed to gather valuable feedback from potential customers.
Browse courses on Customer Interviews
Show steps
  • Create a list of interview questions.
  • Find people to interview.
  • Conduct the interviews.
  • Analyze the interview data.
Read 'Lean Customer Development' by Cindy Alvarez
Outlines a proven framework for validating your MVP ideas through customer development interviews.
Show steps
  • Purchase and read the book.
  • Take notes on the key concepts.
  • Apply the concepts to your own MVP idea.
Create a pitch deck for your MVP idea
A valuable tool for communicating your MVP idea to potential investors and customers.
Browse courses on Pitching
Show steps
  • Outline the key elements of your MVP idea.
  • Create a visually appealing presentation.
  • Practice your pitch.
Build a simple prototype of your MVP idea
Provides you with a working model of your idea that can be used for testing and feedback.
Browse courses on Prototyping
Show steps
  • Choose a prototyping tool.
  • Create a wireframe or design.
  • Develop the prototype.
  • Test the prototype with users.

Career center

Learners who complete 1 day MVP 2.0 | Go from idea to MVP in just 1 day will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:
Career Counselor
Career Counselors help people explore career options, make career decisions, and develop job-search strategies. They may work with individuals, groups, or organizations. Career Counselors who have taken this course will be able to provide their clients with the most up-to-date information on career trends and job opportunities, and they will be able to help clients develop the skills they need to succeed in the job market.
Human Resources Specialist
Human Resources Specialists plan, develop, and implement policies and programs for employee compensation, benefits, and training. They may also recruit and hire new employees, and they may help to resolve employee disputes. Human Resources Specialists who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in human resources management, and they will be able to develop and implement effective HR policies and programs.
Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor
Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors help people with disabilities find and keep jobs. They may assess clients' needs, develop rehabilitation plans, and provide job training and placement services. Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors who have taken this course will be able to understand the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the workplace, and they will be able to develop and implement effective rehabilitation plans.
Career Coach
Career Coaches help people identify their career goals, develop their skills, and find jobs. They may work with individuals or groups, and they may provide a variety of services, such as resume writing, interview preparation, and job search strategies. Career Coaches who have taken this course will be able to provide their clients with the most up-to-date information on career trends and job opportunities, and they will be able to help clients develop the skills they need to succeed in the job market.
Job Developer
Job Developers help people with disabilities find and keep jobs. They may work with employers to identify job openings and develop job training programs, and they may provide job placement and support services to people with disabilities. Job Developers who have taken this course will be able to understand the challenges faced by people with disabilities in the workplace, and they will be able to develop and implement effective job development programs.
Outplacement Counselor
Outplacement Counselors help people who have lost their jobs find new jobs. They may provide resume writing, interview preparation, and job search strategies, and they may also help clients to develop new skills and explore new career options. Outplacement Counselors who have taken this course will be able to provide their clients with the most up-to-date information on career trends and job opportunities, and they will be able to help clients develop the skills they need to succeed in the job market.
Recruiter
Recruiters find and hire new employees for companies and organizations. They may screen resumes, conduct interviews, and make hiring decisions. Recruiters who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in recruiting and hiring, and they will be able to develop and implement effective recruiting strategies.
Labor Relations Specialist
Labor Relations Specialists handle labor relations issues for companies and organizations. They may negotiate contracts with unions, resolve employee grievances, and develop and implement labor relations policies. Labor Relations Specialists who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in labor relations, and they will be able to develop and implement effective labor relations policies.
Compensation and Benefits Manager
Compensation and Benefits Managers plan, develop, and implement employee compensation and benefits programs. They may also conduct salary surveys, negotiate with unions, and develop and implement HR policies. Compensation and Benefits Managers who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in compensation and benefits management, and they will be able to develop and implement effective compensation and benefits programs.
Training and Development Manager
Training and Development Managers plan, develop, and implement employee training and development programs. They may also assess training needs, develop training materials, and provide training to employees. Training and Development Managers who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in training and development, and they will be able to develop and implement effective training and development programs.
Organizational Development Specialist
Organizational Development Specialists help organizations to improve their performance. They may conduct organizational assessments, develop and implement organizational change programs, and provide training and development to employees. Organizational Development Specialists who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in organizational development, and they will be able to develop and implement effective organizational development programs.
Diversity and Inclusion Manager
Diversity and Inclusion Managers develop and implement diversity and inclusion programs for companies and organizations. They may also conduct diversity and inclusion training, and they may help to create a more inclusive workplace. Diversity and Inclusion Managers who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in diversity and inclusion, and they will be able to develop and implement effective diversity and inclusion programs.
Employee Relations Manager
Employee Relations Managers handle employee relations issues for companies and organizations. They may resolve employee grievances, develop and implement employee relations policies, and provide training and development to employees. Employee Relations Managers who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in employee relations, and they will be able to develop and implement effective employee relations policies.
Performance Management Specialist
Performance Management Specialists develop and implement performance management systems for companies and organizations. They may also conduct performance appraisals, and they may help to develop and implement employee development programs. Performance Management Specialists who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in performance management, and they will be able to develop and implement effective performance management systems.
Talent Management Specialist
Talent Management Specialists develop and implement talent management programs for companies and organizations. They may also conduct talent assessments, and they may help to recruit and hire new employees. Talent Management Specialists who have taken this course will be able to understand the legal and ethical issues involved in talent management, and they will be able to develop and implement effective talent management programs.

Reading list

We've selected 13 books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in 1 day MVP 2.0 | Go from idea to MVP in just 1 day.
Is about how to build a successful startup. It provides a step-by-step guide to the Lean Startup methodology, which process for quickly and efficiently testing new ideas and products.
Is about why successful companies fail. It argues that companies often fail because they are too slow to innovate. It provides a framework for understanding how innovation happens and how companies can stay ahead of the competition.
Is about how to develop a good strategy. It provides a simple framework for understanding what makes a good strategy and how to develop one for your own company.
Is about the challenges of being a CEO. It provides practical advice on how to deal with the difficult decisions and challenges that come with running a company.
Is about how to build a successful technology company. It argues that the only way to create a successful technology company is to build something that is truly new and different.
Is about how to market and sell to mainstream customers. It provides a framework for understanding the different stages of the technology adoption lifecycle and how to develop marketing and sales strategies for each stage.
Practical guide to the Lean Startup methodology. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to apply the Lean Startup methodology to your own product development process.
Is about how to get traction for your startup. It provides a framework for understanding the different channels of traction and how to use them to grow your business.
Classic work on political philosophy. It provides insights into the nature of power and how to acquire and maintain it.
Is about how to create disruptive innovations. It provides a framework for understanding how disruptive innovations happen and how companies can create them.
Is about the characteristics of successful innovators. It provides a framework for understanding what makes innovators successful and how companies can create an environment that fosters innovation.
Guide to customer development for startups. It provides step-by-step instructions on how to conduct customer interviews and how to use the insights from those interviews to improve your product or service.

Share

Help others find this course page by sharing it with your friends and followers:

Similar courses

Here are nine courses similar to 1 day MVP 2.0 | Go from idea to MVP in just 1 day.
Validating Your Startup Idea with MVP Experiment Canvas
Most relevant
One Day Startup for Kids & Absolute Beginners
Most relevant
Innovation Strategy with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women
Entrepreneurship 2: Launching your Start-Up
Building a Lean Startup
Entrepreneurship 1: Developing the Opportunity
Establishing Product-Market Fit
Day 1 Keynote
Outsource your idea | Launch your business for 1/4 the...
Our mission

OpenCourser helps millions of learners each year. People visit us to learn workspace skills, ace their exams, and nurture their curiosity.

Our extensive catalog contains over 50,000 courses and twice as many books. Browse by search, by topic, or even by career interests. We'll match you to the right resources quickly.

Find this site helpful? Tell a friend about us.

Affiliate disclosure

We're supported by our community of learners. When you purchase or subscribe to courses and programs or purchase books, we may earn a commission from our partners.

Your purchases help us maintain our catalog and keep our servers humming without ads.

Thank you for supporting OpenCourser.

© 2016 - 2024 OpenCourser