Building valuable products by using customer proof as your decision-making compass

What if I told you about a media company that, seven years ago, made the bold decision to stop its presses and step into an uncertain digital future?

Now, imagine this: in the years that followed, it achieved an astonishing 200% growth in reader reach, saw a 25% increase in both ad and reader revenue, and added a whopping $2 million each year from innovative new digital ad products.

And here’s the kicker—it accomplished all of this without losing a single member of its newsroom. That’s right, its 250 reporters remained steadfast, continuing to deliver the quality journalism that built their legacy.

What’s their secret?

A single, extraordinary skill that transformed their trajectory.

Would you like to know what that skill—or story—is?

Presentation made at the Lead-to-cash-bash 4 in Orlando, November 2024. Special thank to Christopher Prinos for the invitation.

Transcript

1. BUILDING VALUABLE PRODUCTS JEAN-MARC DE JONGHE • LA PRESSE LEAD TO CASH BASH 4 • ORLANDO NOV. 2024 BY USING CUSTOMER PROOF AS YOUR DECISION-MAKING COMPASS
3. What if I told you about a media company that, seven years ago, made the bold decision to stop its presses and step into an uncertain digital future? Now, imagine this: in the years that followed, it achieved an astonishing 200% growth in reader reach, saw a 25% increase in both ad and reader revenue, and added a whopping $2 million each year from innovative new digital ad products. And here’s the kicker—it accomplished all of this without losing a single member of its newsroom. That’s right, its 250 reporters remained steadfast, continuing to deliver the quality journalism that built their legacy. What’s their secret? A single, extraordinary skill that transformed their trajectory. Would you like to know what that skill—or story—is?
4. @madmac 4 • Medias — 1995 • La Presse — 2003 • VP Digital Product & Strategy — 2010 • Led La Presse’s digital transformation, creation of La Presse+ and our award wining Mobile App Jean-Marc De Jonghe VP Digital Product & Strategy • La Presse, founded in 1884, is an independent 100% digital french media whose mission is to offer quality, free and accessible information for all. • La Presse reach each month 4 million readers with Impactful content that fuel the important debates of our society. La Presse Montreal, QC, Canada
5. @madmac 5 HIGH-LEVEL LOOK AT OUR RECENT STORY
6. 6 From good printers 1955
7. 7 2003 To great printers
8. 8 2004 To amazing printers
9. 9 2004 To amazing printers
10. 10 2010 To disrupted printers
11. 11 2013 To disruptors
12. 12 Tablet App
13. 13 Tablet App
15. 15 Toaster Continue reading Cards Success Mobile App
16. 16 Today A story of a radical transformation
17. 17 News media are the canary in the mine Impact of changes Analog PC Computer 1884 1990 Internet 2000 2010 2020 Social AI https://www.digitaltransformationbook.com/the-speed-of-change-4-waves-of-digital-acceleration/ Mobile <- +100 yrs -> Cloud & big data
18. 18 Résultats / performance Temps Atomic Habits, James Clear Speed and impacts of change
19. 19 La Presse — 1955-2003 La Presse — Today A radical transformation
20. 20 Traditional organization Digital & innovative organization There is a durable and reproducible recipe There is no sustainable recipe except adaptability and agility New World Old World A radical transformation
21. IMPERMANENCE The state or the fact of lasting only for a limited period of time Lesson learned
22. IMPERMANENCE The state or the fact of lasting only for a limited period of time There is a sustainable recipe and reproducible STANDARDIZATION There is no sustainable recipe otherwise that adaptability and agility ADAPTATION & EXPERIMENT
23. Time spent per day Total stories read per month Sessions? Page views? People, Readers, Customers, Human beings! Cookies? Devices? AARPU per product Subs Revenue? Ad Revenue? Real people & real reading habits THEN value captured Beware of the vanity metrics! Daily usage! Total editions open per month Subs? Circulation?
24. Market Organisation Products Value created Value captured How do we capture as much value as we create? To survive we need to create and capture value
25. Market Organisation Products Value created Value captured Great idea! But does it help to create or to capture value? More news stories read More edition opened Building news rituals and habits Relevance More ad revenue More readers revenue More data about product usage Ef fi ciency & sustainability To survive we need to create and capture value
26. Market Organisation Products Value created Value captured Where are they? What are they doing? Why should they care? Focus on the users/readers POV 👀 BEGIN FROM HERE
27. The "Right Stu ff " 27 A business goal, a product goal a « destination », a clear « why » and outcomes to measure progress toward success Biz goal / outcomes Real empathy for our customers, an interest and an understanding of their context of use, their problems, their needs Empathy We build with empathy for our readers
28. 4,6 ★★★★★ 77k review No 6 - news and magazines 350k/day 760k/month 275k/day 500k/month 4,6 ★★★★★ +100k review No 1 - news and magazines AMAZING RESULTS
29. 29 Daily Audience 2002 2012 2022 0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 375,000 275,000 470,000 350,000 30,000 230,000 255,000 Newsprint* Web** La Presse+ Mobile App *Newsprint base on weekly average — 2000 *Web ComScore READER’S GROWTH
30. While in our industry...
31. 31 Readers and advertiser’s revenue REVENUE GROWTH +50% Digital Ad $
32. 3,56M 762K 426K 58M 56M 551M 17% 18% 65% 4x 6x AARPU Reach - MAUs Pages view/ month Yearly revenue 3 AMAZING PRODUCTS
33. WITH A SINGLE, EXTRAORDINARY SKILL ?
34. WE NEED TONS OF IDEAS 34
36. "Ideas never come out completely formed, they only become clearer as and when you work on them. Just start. ” - M A R K Z U C K E R B E R G
37. 37 Most of the ideas are shit! Crazy success Positive impact Negative impact Great disaster Neutral impact Impact of my ideas since the beginning of my career Quantity
38. 38 " The vast majority of [ideas] fail when we experiment with them, and even experts often misjudge which ones will pay off. At Google and Bing, only 10 to 20% of experiments generate positive results. At Microsoft as a whole, a third is effective, a third has neutral results and a third has negative results. " La plupart des idées sont mauvaises! – Ron Kohavi and Stefan Thomke Harvard Business Review
39. 39 La plupart des idées sont mauvaises!
40. 40 La plupart des idées sont mauvaises! • They are based on a misunderstanding of the domain. • They are technically unfeasible. • They contradicts a well-established consensus. • Thy do not take into account the context of the user or the real need of the customer. • They lacks details necessary for implementation. This does not mean that an idea is fundamentally imperfect, but its proposition does not answer the questions that need to be answered before it can be properly evaluated. • They creates more problems than it solves. • They do not solve the targeted problem or does not achieve a desired result. • The problem targeted by those ideas is not really a problem, etc.
41. 41 "If you want to have good ideas, You must have a lot of ideas. Most of them will be bad, and what you need to learn is which ones to throw away. ” Solution? More ideas! – Linus Pauling One of the five people who won more than one Nobel Prize
42. More ideas please!
43. 43 Most of the ideas are shit! Crazy success Positive impact Negative impact Great disaster Neutral impact Impact of my ideas since the beginning of my career Quantity What if we were able to Identify them quickly?
44. OK NOW WE’RE AT IT! ?
45. CUSTOMER PROOFING FAST TO BUILD CONFIDENCE ? OR DISCARD IDEAS
46. BEING GREAT AT TESTING LOT OF IDEAS! 46
47. 47 Testing ideas with customers
48. @madmac 48 Ou basic workflow Release Experiment Simulation and testing Fact fi nding Assessment
49. @madmac 49 Ou basic workflow Risk or Opportunity Context & challenge de fi nition Tons of ideas Low fi delity prototype or layout Do we have a business ? Beta + Test with lucky few + data Launch MVP & improve Release Experiment Simulation and testing Fact fi nding Assessment
50. @madmac 50 Risk or Opportunity Context & challenge de fi nition Tons of ideas Low fi delity prototype or layout Do we have a business ? Improve, pivot or abandon Beta + Test with lucky few + data Launch MVP & improve Quickly show to customers, get inputs Goal? Metric of success Our secret sauce Release Experiment Simulation and testing Fact fi nding Assessment
51. @madmac 51 Our secret power Selection: 1 tool and 3 metrics Fast Risk or Opportunity Context & challenge de fi nition Tons of ideas Low fi delity prototype or layout Do we have a business ? Improve, pivot or abandon Beta + Test with lucky few + data Launch MVP & improve Quickly show to customers, get inputs Goal? Metric of success
52. Impact Potential of moving the needle on our desired results 🏋 Ease to develop, integrate, launch, operate and "maintain" the initiative, the idea, the solution Confidence It will be a success, it will be desired and used by our target customers 😎 3 simple metrics
53. 53 🏋 Ease e 1 to 10 Impact i 1 to 10 Confidence 😎 c 1 to 10 3 simple metrics
54. 54 Impact •If this idea is very successful - for the best reasonable scenario - to what extent will it have a positive impact on the desired result/goal/metric of success? De fi nition Suggested scale
55. 55 Ease •Ease of implementation is an estimate of the effort and resources required to implement this idea. •It is usually the opposite of effort (person-week) •A lower effort means greater ease. De fi nition Suggested scale
56. 56 But how do you measure confidence?
57. Niveau de con fi ance Level of con fi dence N ear-Zero Very Low Low Med-Low Medium High 0,01 0,03 0,1 0,2 0,5 1 3 7 10 Source: itamargilad.com 57 We need a new tool
58. Niveau de con fi ance Level of con fi dence N ear-Zero Very Low Low Med-Low Medium High 0,01 0,03 0,1 0,2 0,5 1 3 7 10 Source: itamargilad.com 58 The confidence compass
59. 59 Con fi dence building Enabling innovation Moving fast Test results User/Customer Evidence Market data Launch data Financial model, estimates & plans Niveau de con fi ance Level of con fi dence N ear-Zero Very Low Low Med-Low Medium High 0,01 0,03 0,1 0,2 0,5 1 3 7 10 The confidence compass
60. Launch data Self Conviction Pitch deck Great Powerpoint slides Thematic support Aligns with: vision/strategy, current trends/buzzword, outside research, macro trends, product methodology Other's opinion The team / management / external expert / investor / my friend / press think it's a good idea Estimates & plans Back of the envelope calculations Eng / UX feasibility evaluation, Business model. Project timeline, Anecdotal Evidence Support by a few product data points, top sales request, 1-3 interested customers, one competitor has it ... Market Data Supported by surveys, smoke tests, all competitors have it... User/Customer Evidence Supported by: lots of product data, top user request, interviews with 20+ users, usability study, MVP Test Results Supported by longitudinal user studies, large-scale MVP, alpha/beta, A/B experiments... Niveau de con fi ance Level of con fi dence N ear-Zero Very Low Low Med-Low Medium High 0,01 0,03 0,1 0,2 0,5 1 3 7 10 Source: itamargilad.com 60 The confidence compass
61. 61 Impact Ease Confidence i c e Ice score = i x c x e Example : 7 x 7 x 2 = 98 ICE points One tool, 3 metrics
62. 62 Now we’re cooking with gas ! Tons of ideas ICE Score Goal A Goal B Goal C
63. 63 Tons of ideas ICE Ideas or tactics Impact [ 0-10] Con fi dence [ 0-10] Ease [ 0-10] ICE score [ I x C x F ] Idea or tactic A 1 3 6 18 Idea or tactic B 3 5 5 75 Idea or tactic C 8 2 1 16 Idea or tactic D 6 0,5 1 6 ICE score = Impact x Con fi dence x Ease Objective or targeted Result Now we’re cooking with gas !
64. 64 Examples of tests to build confidence •Surveys, polls and research •Corridor studies – random ad hoc survey •Interviews with customers – with models or others •Smoke tests - The product or service does not yet exist but an primer simulates it to probe interests •Wizard of Oz tests - The product or service does not exist yet but someone "in the back" simulates it •Concierge tests - The product or service does not yet exist but a small team "in the back" simulates it manually •"Fishfood" and "Dogfood" - The team or employees use the product or service •UX tests, user tests - We observe users performing tasks with the product or service, etc. •Etc
65. 65 Idea validation: methods and process Goal alignment Business modelling ICE Analysis Assumption mapping Stakeholder review Release Experiment Simulation and testing Fact fi nding Assessment Data analysis Surveys Competitive analysis Customer or user interviews Field research Smoke test Wizard of Oz Concierge test Usability test Early Adopters Alpha Longitudinal user study « fi shfood » Labs Beta Preview Dogfood Multivariates A/B/n tests A/B tests Post launch Hold back progressive % rollout Types of validation Validation methods
66. @madmac 66 T i m e Elevator pitch Smoke test Survey and customer’s interview Conceptual prototype or model User testing Concierge Test Working prototype Dog Food Lucky few Beta Launch Build -> Show -> Learn -> Iterate Test ideas with customers to build confidence C o n f i d e n c e Field research
67. @madmac 67 Typical process ICE 0 75 150 225 300 Guessnates Assesment Survey/Interview Usability test Concierge Test Idea 1 Idea 2 Evidence Confidence Investment
68. COMMUNICATING PROGRESS 68
69. Visibility : outcome roadmap 69 Done Now Next Consideration Pipeline
70. @madmac 70
71. CONCLUSION 71
72. The market Our beautiful products, services, processes, principles and our business model Impermanence
73. 73 1. Goal with metric 2. Tons of ideas 3. Quick action & fast testing 4. Customer evidence 5. Build con fi dence and go! 6. Rinse and repeat Behavioral change How do you plan?
74. @madmac 74 BUILDING VALUABLE NEWS PRODUCTS Us (Still running) The market Disruptions Agile
75. @madmac 75 Jean-Marc De Jonghe ca.linkedin.com/in/dejonghe speakerdeck.com/jdejongh Thank you Connect with me Give me feedback