I mean business
Some of this can apply to personal projects,
but I’m talking about business
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Let’s talk about
ideas
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What problem are you trying to solve?
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What problem are you trying to solve?
➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance
provider
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What problem are you trying to solve?
➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers
don’t trust their insurance
provider
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What problem are you trying to solve?
➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance
provider
➤ Insurers don’t invest money into their technology. 74% of
insurers see technological innovation as a challenge
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Meh
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What problem are you trying to solve?
➤ Lack of trust. 73% of consumers don’t trust their insurance
provider
➤ Insurers don’t invest money into their technology. 74% of
insurers see technological innovation as a challenge
➤ 2 out of 3 customers are dissatisfied with their customer journey
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A digital insurance platform
with great design and
technology
(And really good customer service)
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No content
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The original post-it note
when dreaming up
With Jack
December 2013
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August, 2016
Launch to a mailing list of 120+ people
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Why?
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Shiny object syndrome
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“
“After a while you realise how much
your habit’s costing. You let a few go
with pangs of regret and doubt but
clutch on to others.”
- Someone on Twitter
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“
“Only dulled when you realise 6
months later you’ve yet to do a thing
with them.”
- Someone on Twitter
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Ideas need commitment to become great
projects
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Ruthless prioritisation is where the magic
happens
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Pick one idea. Commit to it, give it the
resources it needs to become a great
project. Cull the rest
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Idea validation
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What did With Jack’s validation look like ?
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Will people pay you money for it?
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No content
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What did my MVP look like?
➤ Signed up as an affiliate
➤ Didn’t need to convince
insurers to give me their
products to sell
➤ Didn’t need to become
authorised by the Financial
Conduct Authority
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I had zero control over the design
and technology
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I had no relationship with my
customers
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What did validation look like?
➤ People still gave Insurance
by Jack their money
➤ 55 paying customers
➤ £14,000
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Good job: The brand effectively
communicated my vision
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Idea validation
➤ Are people paying you money for it?
➤ Can you profitably acquire new customers every month?
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Build
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Forecast your misery
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The various stages of building something
➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this
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The various stages of building something
➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this
➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this
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The various stages of building something
➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this
➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this
➤ This totally sucks
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The various stages of building something
➤ This is a good idea. I’m so going to do this
➤ Huh, this is kind of hard. I’m not so sure about this
➤ This totally sucks
➤ I suck
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No content
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The final 20% of any project is the hardest
to complete
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“
…It gets harder and less fun,
until it hits a low point - really
hard, really not fun.
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What did The Dip look like for With
Jack?
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What did The Dip look like for With Jack
➤ Regulation was a barrier to entry
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What did The Dip look like for With Jack
➤ Regulation was a barrier to entry
➤ Insurers didn’t want to work with me
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It felt like I was putting in a ton of
work in exchange for nothing
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The Dip is when successful people
don’t quit
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Use The Dip to measure how
serious you are
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Embracing
transparency with
the build process
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How did I do this?
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Email. Is. Powerful.
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120+ sign-ups
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Many beta tested With Jack
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Benefit #1: It builds community
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Benefit #2: It’s how I got my first customer 3
weeks before I launched
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Benefit #3: Get ideas from a range of
people
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Launch
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Expectations
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Expectations
➤ A suite of insurance products
➤ A dashboard to manage your insurance
➤ Instant quotes and cover
➤ Referral program
➤ Polished customer journey
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Reality
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Reality
➤ One product—professional indemnity
➤ Support for 4 professions
➤ Manual quotes
➤ No dashboard
➤ Unpolished customer journey
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Reality
➤ One product—professional indemnity
➤ Support for 4 professions
➤ Manual quotes
➤ No dashboard
➤ Unpolished customer journey
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Why was my launch successful?
➤ Involved people in the build process
➤ Was transparent about the journey
➤ Focused on doing one thing well
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Shipping Anxiety
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No content
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Shipping anxiety
➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that
nobody will buy
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Shipping anxiety
➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that
nobody will buy
➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well)
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Shipping anxiety
➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that
nobody will buy
➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well)
➤ It doesn’t matter when you launch—it’s always going to feel
incomplete
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Shipping anxiety
➤ Avoid spending time and money on pixel perfect products that
nobody will buy
➤ Launch with one, useful feature (do one thing well)
➤ It doesn’t matter when you launch—it’s always going to feel
incomplete
➤ Set an arbitrary date and ship it
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What happens
after you ship?
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You’ll discover problems
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What problems did I discover?
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What happens
after you ship?
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No content
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There is no overnight success
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➤ Idea to $20,000 MRR in 5 months
➤ How we got 300,000 users in 24 hours
➤ How I made $70,000 in 48 hours from self-publishing my book
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➤ Idea to $20,000 MRR in 5 months
➤ How we got 300,000 users in 24 hours
➤ How I made $70,000 in 48 hours from self-publishing my book
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AirBnb launched with 6 listings. Only 2
of them became bookings
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(And one of those bookings was from
the co-founder)
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Post-launch
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Everything is a hypothesis
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Get in the trenches with your customers
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August, 2016
With Jack launched with just one
product—professional indemnity
insurance
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February, 2017
Rolled out two new products—public
liability and contents insurance
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April, 2017
Improved onboarding based on
feedback. The biggest friction were the
risk questions.
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June, 2017
Added support for more professions.
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Coming Soon
Instant quotes and cover.
Coming Soon
Dashboard to manage your insurance.
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Have your customers tell you what they want
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Customer
Development
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“
Customer development has been the
most valuable thing we’ve done when it
comes to moving our product and
company forward, and I wish we
would’ve done more of it in our early
days.
- Groove
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The
Mom
Test
How to talk to
customers
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My assumptions
➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards
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“
It devalues the brand and cheapens
the service. Also, the rewards don’t fit
my business.
- With Jack Customers
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My assumptions
➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards
➤ Freelancers buy insurance because it’s contractually required
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Job security
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Peace of mind
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Professional image
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My assumptions
➤ More people will buy insurance if we offer them rewards
➤ Freelancers buy insurance because it’s contractually required
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Know your customer
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Your first 100
customers
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Your first 100
customers
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Your first 10
customers that aren’t
your friends or family
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Where do your first customers come from when you have no money
➤ Email list. 120+ people
➤ Go to where your audience is (Twitter’s worked well for With
Jack)
➤ Designer News and Product Hunt (made it to Top 5 on Product
Hunt)
➤ Content marketing
➤ Useful tools
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Pro tip: Your launch strategy shouldn’t live
or die by Product Hunt
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Where do your first customers come from when you have no money
➤ Email list. 120+ people
➤ Go to where your audience is (Twitter’s worked well for With
Jack)
➤ Designer News and Product Hunt (made it to Top 5 on Product
Hunt)
➤ Content marketing
➤ Useful tools
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No content
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Where do your first customers come from when you have no money
➤ Email list. 120+ people
➤ Go to where your audience is (Twitter’s worked well for With
Jack)
➤ Designer News and Product Hunt (made it to Top 5 on Product
Hunt)
➤ Content marketing
➤ Useful tools
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“
Real entrepreneurship is launching
something that solves a problem for
people, getting paid to do it again.
- A podcast I listened to
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Incremental wins compound over time
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Actual stuff for
you to do
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Actual stuff for you to do
➤ Pick one idea and give it the resources it needs to become a
great project
➤ Forecast your misery. Do you love what you’re building enough
to get through The Dip?
➤ Focus on building one feature well, set a date and ship it
➤ Do your customer development. Sign up to IterateHQ.com and
test your assumptions