In the previous post, we learnt how to systematically validate our hypotheses about persona and problem scenarios. Now, we need to make sure we have a proper value proposition to address our persona problems, needs or desires. And the questions is: Are we providing a better alternative to what the user currently has? Will they be motivated enough to abandon other alternatives and join us?

The evangelist Guy Kawasaki once told a story about Sony and its experience with the yellow walkman. You can check it out here.
The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t present your potential customer with a solution and ask them about their opinion. They will almost always give you an affirmative reply! They will always say “yes” for a feature or product but they might not mean it. Instead, you need to observe your user behavior and response, and measure them against your value proposition, assumptions and metrics.

In this post, I will take a scientific approach to innovation that is motivated by the lean startup principles. In this context, we mainly think of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) as a Wizard of Oz or Concierge experiment.

Wizard of Oz Experiment

A quick prototype is built with minimal effort and without building the actual product.

Example 1: In a social platform that posts user updates to different social channels (Facebook, Twitter.. etc), there are humans who are doing the actual job for the user instead of automating the workflow using a software.

Example 2: A signup landing page with a compelling cartoon demo video.

Concierge Experiment

A team member interacts with the user to deliver the service manually using a pen and paper with no software involved. It can happen over the phone or in situ.

Example: Offer personal style advice to fashion shoppers at a mall to understand their behavior and what they are looking for.

Notice how we use Wizard of Oz for testing a specific solution hypothesis while Concierge for generating ideas and observing the user behavior in their environment.

We are now ready to identify a core value proposition item and break it down into testable assumptions that will be delivered to the user using one of the above MVPs.

Value Proposition Design Sprint

We will run the experiment over 5 day sprint as follows:

Day 1

Prepare for the experiment.

1- Core Value Proposition

If we provide Roland the junior manager with a tool (facebook messenger bot) to recommend destinations and places to visit, then he will subscribe to it, use it and it will save his time and effort reading websites, online reviews and tourist blogs!

2- Key Child Assumptions

We break our core value proposition into child assumptions and order them from most to least priority. We might need to pivot the whole product idea if we can’t prove our top priority assumption correct! However, the figures and metrics in each assumption are not cast in stone and can be tuned as we learn about our customers and within the viable range to our product.