Step 6. Shortcut to the user
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 7:11 am
Step 3. Assemble your starting team
People make or break innovation. The better your team, the better the ideas. Research shows that creative intelligence is a requirement for developing and rolling out a product, proposition or service. This refers to the ability to think differently: more associatively and less linearly. In addition to this creative intelligence, perseverance, results-orientedness, the ability to deal with uncertainty, the ability to work together and empathy are also seen as essential skills for innovation.
Hustler, hipster and hacker
Investors, founders and innovation managers indicate that for an effective minimum viable team you only need three people: a hustler , a hipster and a hacker . These three roles are essential to cover the most important knowledge areas.
The hustler has a clear vision, sees opportunities in markets, solutions and possibilities. He brings in new business and inspires the rest.
The hipster makes the ideas tangible and palpable. He focuses on the user experience and can also execute it and challenge the rest of the group in terms of creativity.
The hacker gives advice on choices from the technical side and realizes the product. Spotting new technological developments and translating them is also part of this.
Skills and experience are important when putting together a team, but ultimately it is much more important that all people really fit your organization, your culture and your core values. Having a clear corporate culture with associated core values ensures that you also distinguish yourself in recruiting the right talent and immediately create a consistent image for your customers.
Step 4. Discover the problems of your target group
Don't focus on what you think is a gap in the market, but immerse yourself in your customer, in his need, his biggest task. Clayton Christensen introduced the theory of jobs to be done . Customers don't buy products and services: they want to get ahead in their lives and use certain products and services to do so. So it's about identifying the tasks for which people hire your product or service.
With observations and interviews you can find out the jobs to be done of your customers and convert them into ideas. With observations you observe behavior to discover what the underlying jobs are. With interviews you ask people about their experience with a certain action or decision. The book provides an extensive six-step plan to help you with this, so that you can approach the interviews in a structured way.
Also read: Help, My Startup Is Failing! 3 Essential Steps to Succeed
Step 5. From insight to prototype
To give your innovation a flying start, this step uses design thinking and the design sprint . Design thinking does not focus on the technology, but on the end user. His or her wishes, needs, problems and challenges form the starting points for an iterative journey of discovery to make your customer's life even more beautiful, better or nicer. Design thinking is therefore primarily a way of looking at problems and solutions. The book refers to the design thinking process based on the Double Diamond of the Design Council .
A design sprint can help you find and make ideas concrete. The design sprint was developed by Google Ventures and takes you from an idea to a user-tested prototype in one week. The book proposes an alternative method, the Innovation Sprint, in which you work towards a comparable result in three days with a number of days in between for reflection. Day 1 is about discovering the needs of the user (discover/define). Day 2 focuses on coming up with and developing solutions (develop/create). Day 3 is used to test the prototype with the target group.
Very important in lean innovation is the continuous testing of prototypes. You validate your ideas quickly and after each step you decide: do we continue or not? A desirability test helps you to determine which idea is strong enough to invest in and realize. You test the desirability of the product and the desirability of the underlying business model, even before you start executing.
When we have an idea for a new feature, we don’t build anything, just a fake button on our site. When people press it, nothing happens, but it does give us an indication of interest. – Daan Weddepohl from Peerby
In short: sell your vision and see what happens.
The authors have developed the interactive canada mobile number list prototype test, consisting of individual assignments for potential customers with a prototype, followed by a group discussion to share experiences. The test consists of five steps:

Define hypotheses to test your assumptions
Choosing the test format and writing a test script
Recruiting respondents from the target group
Carrying out the test while you watch in a separate room
Interpreting the test results
Step 7. Find and win your first customer
The first and most important customer is presented as an early evangelist : people who believe in your story and idea. The AARRR model helps you to pull users through your sales funnel. The model consists of five phases of the customer lifecycle .
People make or break innovation. The better your team, the better the ideas. Research shows that creative intelligence is a requirement for developing and rolling out a product, proposition or service. This refers to the ability to think differently: more associatively and less linearly. In addition to this creative intelligence, perseverance, results-orientedness, the ability to deal with uncertainty, the ability to work together and empathy are also seen as essential skills for innovation.
Hustler, hipster and hacker
Investors, founders and innovation managers indicate that for an effective minimum viable team you only need three people: a hustler , a hipster and a hacker . These three roles are essential to cover the most important knowledge areas.
The hustler has a clear vision, sees opportunities in markets, solutions and possibilities. He brings in new business and inspires the rest.
The hipster makes the ideas tangible and palpable. He focuses on the user experience and can also execute it and challenge the rest of the group in terms of creativity.
The hacker gives advice on choices from the technical side and realizes the product. Spotting new technological developments and translating them is also part of this.
Skills and experience are important when putting together a team, but ultimately it is much more important that all people really fit your organization, your culture and your core values. Having a clear corporate culture with associated core values ensures that you also distinguish yourself in recruiting the right talent and immediately create a consistent image for your customers.
Step 4. Discover the problems of your target group
Don't focus on what you think is a gap in the market, but immerse yourself in your customer, in his need, his biggest task. Clayton Christensen introduced the theory of jobs to be done . Customers don't buy products and services: they want to get ahead in their lives and use certain products and services to do so. So it's about identifying the tasks for which people hire your product or service.
With observations and interviews you can find out the jobs to be done of your customers and convert them into ideas. With observations you observe behavior to discover what the underlying jobs are. With interviews you ask people about their experience with a certain action or decision. The book provides an extensive six-step plan to help you with this, so that you can approach the interviews in a structured way.
Also read: Help, My Startup Is Failing! 3 Essential Steps to Succeed
Step 5. From insight to prototype
To give your innovation a flying start, this step uses design thinking and the design sprint . Design thinking does not focus on the technology, but on the end user. His or her wishes, needs, problems and challenges form the starting points for an iterative journey of discovery to make your customer's life even more beautiful, better or nicer. Design thinking is therefore primarily a way of looking at problems and solutions. The book refers to the design thinking process based on the Double Diamond of the Design Council .
A design sprint can help you find and make ideas concrete. The design sprint was developed by Google Ventures and takes you from an idea to a user-tested prototype in one week. The book proposes an alternative method, the Innovation Sprint, in which you work towards a comparable result in three days with a number of days in between for reflection. Day 1 is about discovering the needs of the user (discover/define). Day 2 focuses on coming up with and developing solutions (develop/create). Day 3 is used to test the prototype with the target group.
Very important in lean innovation is the continuous testing of prototypes. You validate your ideas quickly and after each step you decide: do we continue or not? A desirability test helps you to determine which idea is strong enough to invest in and realize. You test the desirability of the product and the desirability of the underlying business model, even before you start executing.
When we have an idea for a new feature, we don’t build anything, just a fake button on our site. When people press it, nothing happens, but it does give us an indication of interest. – Daan Weddepohl from Peerby
In short: sell your vision and see what happens.
The authors have developed the interactive canada mobile number list prototype test, consisting of individual assignments for potential customers with a prototype, followed by a group discussion to share experiences. The test consists of five steps:

Define hypotheses to test your assumptions
Choosing the test format and writing a test script
Recruiting respondents from the target group
Carrying out the test while you watch in a separate room
Interpreting the test results
Step 7. Find and win your first customer
The first and most important customer is presented as an early evangelist : people who believe in your story and idea. The AARRR model helps you to pull users through your sales funnel. The model consists of five phases of the customer lifecycle .