I regularly speak with startups at Seedcamp, and elsewhere, about how to engage with customers in the early stages of defining your product. There are a number of tried-and-true techniques that I have written about previously, but one method that a lot of startups have been using lately is the Customer Council. Why is this […]
The Validation Backlog
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. A lot of what I have written is preparation for deciding what to actually build, and naturally you’re wondering, “Ok so when do I start designing and coding”? Once you’ve done your Vision Roadmap, and your Customer Journey, now you’ve got […]
Validate or Die!
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. This title isn’t entirely accurate I have to admit. It should be ‘Validate or Die Slowly!’. If you’re reading this, you’ve read The Lean Startup and other best practice, and you know that validating your ideas is critical to […]
You Assume…
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. Startups are bets. “Housemates would like to have an app that helps them track expenses in a shared household.” (Splittable is a great new Seedcamp startup) The realisation of your vision is actually a whole series of these bets or […]
Your Customer Journey
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. Probably the most powerful tool for early-stage Product thinking is the Customer Journey. Literally, every step your individual Customer must go through in order to create value for your business. By capturing, developing, and working with this framework, you will; […]
The Vision Roadmap
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. “I have the vision in my head, but I don’t know how to get it into the heads of my growing team so they can execute what and how I want them to” — Startup Founder I have heard this […]
Product Challenges for Startups
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. I was asked by Product Tank to talk about the main product challenges I see in startups. Fortunately, a few months working with Seedcamp cohorts showed me that similar questions were being asked by many of them. Founders won’t be hiring professional […]
Got Product?
This article was written by Taylor Wescoatt, one of Seedcamp’s Experts-in-Residence. Follow Taylor on Twitter @twescoatt. When I became an Expert-in-Residence at Seedcamp, I was asked to drive product thinking deeper into the portfolio. Makes sense, supporting your investments in the Product Market Fit challenge, but product can sometimes be a slippery concept to grasp. “You know it when […]
The Behavioural Roadmap for Startups
This article is written by Taylor Wescoatt, Expert in Residence at Seedcamp. Taylor’s background spans 20 years of Product and UX having held key positions at successful startups like Seatwave and CitySearch, and larger brands like eBay and Time Out. This is the second of two articles on Roadmaps for Startups – the first of which can be read […]
Avoiding Product Management Whiplash as a Founder
This guest post is written by Hemal Kuntawala from M&S Venture Labs. The Venture Lab uses lean startup techniques to experiment with new business models that evolve retail and ecommerce at M&S. I recently spent time with some technical and non-technical founders, and nearly all of them commented on how they found it difficult juggling […]