The mom test

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Sandra Uddbäck from Tink told us to “go out of office” and interact with potential users in order to receive information about them. She did also give us a great advice, which I totally agree with, about how to get the right answers. Just like she explained, you should not go out and present your whole idea and ask them “Do you like it? Would you pay for this?” A lot of people might say yes but this is not equal to that they would actually pay for it when the idea is launched…

The book “The mom test” (by Rob Fitzpatrick) is a great source of how to deal with this situation and what the right questions are and how you evaluate the answers. Fitzpatrick explains how to save time and money while receiving reliable information that is not biased because someone is polite to you. Tink handle their marketing smart due to the fact that they do not have a lot of money. They have to get a lot of value for the money they spend and I think that is the right approach for most of today’s smaller businesses and start-ups. I mean, who does not want to be efficient?

Screen-Shot-2014-09-10-at-10.45.38-2

I have actually some good experience myself with interviewing people after reading “The mom test”. After reading the book you are not actually interviewing people but more having a casual conversation and receiving a ton of useful information. You and the person you are talking to will be more relaxed. Just like Sandra pointed out you do not want to have short answers on very specified questions. Instead you should ask open questions and let them tell you their story and how they deal with a certain issue. For example if you want to develop a toothbrush you should not ask if they would like a toothbrush that could decrease the time they spend brushing their teeth. You should instead ask them to walk you through their morning routine. If you find out that they are actually not in a hurry in the morning it might not exist a demand for your toothbrush idea. This can save you a lot of money and time when evaluating your idea and can give you good information about another need.

So I advice you to read “The mum test” if you want to get good information out of your users that really matters.

Just let me know if you are wondering anything about the book!

Sebastian

The Beginning

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So, now that the pitches are done and the venture groups have been formed it feels nice to start working for real.
We’ve decided on which of our different ideas we’re going to pursue.

My idea for this blog post was to recommend reading this article on Blue Ocean Strategy: https://hbr.org/2004/10/blue-ocean-strategy, which in short can be described as making your competition irrelevant by finding new uncontested market space.
Then i came across this (part of the recommended reading): http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-to-find-out-if-your-idea-is-actually-brilliant-2011-3?IR=T, saying that you should “avoid the blue ocean strategy and make something average and more affordable”. 

From an entrepreneurial standpoint i guess it’s easier to prove to potential investors how you can improve an exisiting product, rather than arguing for an idea/product/service that you believe would create a new uncontested market.
With that said I do think that there is a possibility of creating blue ocean, but if that is your plan you better be ready to back it up with more than just a vision.
 

Speaking of Trends…

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So todays lecture featured Terry Beaubois talking about the importance of knowing how a trend originated, to predict its future. I was particularly intrigued when he presented the different trends, which included the “smartphone” and “internet of things” trends. Though he only went into specifics about a couple others, I was reminded back to a lecture I had last year. Then, I heard an industry professional lecturing on how he sees the communication network expand in the ‘foreseeable’ future, up to 2030. Linking to Terry’s advice of looking into the past, he basically said that society has moved from connecting places (from the early 1900), to connecting people, and is now beginning to embark on connecting things. It went on to exponential graphs that showed the, seemingly, ever increasing demand for data capacity (mobile, mainly) as consumers, apparently, desire to be more and more connected with everything.

 

Now, I am reluctant to believe this. With lifestyles increasing in speed, and the consequent rise of stress levels (not lastly due to the trend of urbanisation and the subsequent exposure to being connected), I formulated a hypothesis of my own. It seems as if the common quality of life suffers under the excess of technology; specifically of being over-connected. Its that people are less and less capable of escape from being connected and the increasingly present technology, which drives me to believe that a compromise must be approaching. Obviously, the benefit in all this connectivity is that industry and economy on global scales works quicker and more lucratively – and that is the primary driver, which, vitally,  will keep the trend active and on-going. However, and as a natural balance to this increasingly connected business environment, it may be inevitable that consumers will distance themselves from “off-hours technology”. This opposes the trend of having a “networked society”. The basis to this presumption is that society will always seek to a better quality of life. That’s valid right? Anyways, food for thought …

/Hannes

Focus on the strategy, not the business plan

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http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242452

I came across this article on entrepreneur.com and felt that it had some astute points on strategy and business plan/model.

In my opinion, the article made some strong cases that entrepreneurs should focus more on their business strategy, product and their customers instead of their revenue model or business plan.

However, a business plan is not as redundant as the title suggests. A business plan is still essential in a start-up, though it is not the main focus. Later in the article, the author suggests a lean business model canvas that capture the succinct points of a business plan in a page.

I can’t agree more with the author. Start-ups should cut away the details of the business plan as plans change from time to time; nothing is predictable in a start up.

 

business-plan

The lean business model canvas allows customers or investors to easily understand the business plan and it allows easy transition to another business plan. I will definitely use this as a tool if I am starting something.

Yi Quan

Innovations for Everyone!

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For me, it’s very important with innovations which can help everyone. That is probably why I choose to study medical engineering. There are a lot of interesting innovations on the market at the moment and I think that there will be even more in the future as it becomes easier and cheaper to develop new technique.

I was looking around in order to find inspiration for my pitch, and I found a website called Not Impossible Now which is writing about technology that is helping the humanity. They are also crowdsourcing solutions in order to make sure that the solutions are reaching the market, with this they are also hoping to inspire more people to be innovative. If you have some time over you should really check them out and get inspired!

Innovating public transportation through information visualisation

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This week in class I presented you a business idea about public transportation. My inspiration was a real-life experiment conducted by ProRail and NS Dutch , and designed by Edenspiekermann, a Dutch design agency.

They created a “LED display which provides real-time information on carriage crowdedness and other details”. Then, they conducted a three-month pilot run at the train station of Den Bosch, a city in the south of The Netherlands. People really liked the concept and “gave NS a significantly higher evaluation at the end of the trial period”.

Edenspiekermann & ProRail

Their design process resulted in a physical display, but I thought that the initial concept can be further explored and expanded, and that’s how I came up with the idea of an integrated, smart system designed to enhance public transportation in big cities, with multiple functionalities.

If you know of any other interesting innovations in the field of transportation, give a shout in the comments.

Wanna be startin’ somethin’

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If you have chosen to take the course Technology-based Entrepreneurship, my guess is going to be that you have, at least to some extent, played around with the thought of starting a business of your own. I know I have. And I know that I chose to apply for the course because I was hoping that it might provide me with some useful tools should I ever come upon a business idea worth pursuing. Of course, part of it was also having a 7,5 credit hole in my schedule to fill. None the less, now that I am here I am determined to make the most out of it, and my first impressions of the course have been really good!

As I mentioned earlier, I think we are all “guilty” of entertaining the thought of starting something. Becoming the boss of something. To watch something grow from an idea to an enterprise. And by “all” I mean most of the able bodied/able minded people in society today. Because really, if you think about it, who really wants to work for someone else? If you are not pursuing your own dream, you are most likely a cog in the machine working towards realizing someone elses. So why is it not that more people try to start something of their own?

I think it has to do with the fact that it is very easy to find excuses! I believe it to be a very human trait to see obstacles instead of opportunities, to take the path of least resistance, if you like. That is why, for my first blog post here, I would like to share this article, explaining that there are NO good excuses. Go ahead, click the link and read it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-graphic-will-demolish-every-excuse-you-have-for-not-founding-a-startup-2015-2?utm_content=bufferc61eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&IR=T

So, now you know that all those excuses really are nothing more than your brain trolling itself.

All the best,

Niclas

Hello, tips and start-up meetings

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Howdy! Good evening!

This will be just a quick, pictureless, blog entry, to get this thing going. A lot of other things are happening right now in my life, so the blogging thing will need to be efficient to work out. Anyway, I’m going to dedicate this inaugural post to give some tips and head-ups of things worth looking at. Also, perhaps, a presentation of some sort could be adequate.

In short, I, Erik, am a 23 year old guy studying the Industrial Design Engineering Masters programme on KTH. I’ve been a journalist and illustrator (to some extent, besides the studies) since 2005, and been running my own business since 2008. In 2013 i started my second company, together with some friends, and as of today we’re just about to launch a Kickstarter campaign, independent to this course. (More on that later on.)

Anyway, I’d like to give some tips and head-ups on different things to have a look at the oncoming days. (And today, but that’s a bit late now, though…)

Earlier tonight, of interest to all you (at least remotely) into design, the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design (Svensk Form) held an evening event at Berns in Stockholm. The event was of a japanese type called PechaKucha, including a larger numer of short, 20 min, speeches. The speakers included Sara Lundkvist, designer, nominee Ung Svensk Form 2014/2015, Mathilda Tham, Professor in Design, Linnaeus University and Johan Molin, CEO Falu Rödfärg, to mention a few. There were also free beer, if that interest you more. 🙂

Also opening it’s gates today were the Swedish Furniture Fair at the Stockholm International Fairs and Congress Centre (Stockholmsmässan). The fair exhibits some great scandinavian design, which every so often is a great opportunity for start-up-business inspiration aswell, and will be open until saturday. I’ll try to swing by on friday or saturday.

On thursday, the fifth of February, the Moment fair (the labour market fair of the machine design section of KTH) is to be held in Nymble. The fair will, amongst other companies, include a stand from KTH Innovation, who act as a helping hand to many start-ups. (Also come by and say hi to me, as I will act as the company host for KTH Innovation, and thus have a limited time to attend that day’s lecture. 🙁 )

Next week, on wednesday the eleventh of February, a start-up meeting called Uppstart will be held in the castle of Uppsala (my hometown). Several of my friends (amongst others Fredrik, the chairman of Entrepreneurs Academy) will attend, and so will probably I. And why not some of you? The tickets are free of charge. The train ride, though, takes approximately one hour (one-way).

So, this became a bit longer than I expected. Duh. But nice to get things going at least. I’ll try to write the next entry shorter.

Erik