Lean startup in eHealth 5/2015 Pauliina Smeds, Forum Virium Helsinki Jaakko Ikävalko, Forum Virium Helsinki
The lean startup model aims at increasing the odds for success for startups, by reducing the market risks
The key methods of lean startup philosophy are
• business-hypothesis-experimentation
• iterative product releases
• validated learning
The objective for experimentations, iterations & learning is to
guide new ventures to only launch products that customers actually want
In the lean startup approach, a startup is viewed as
an experiment within the context of massive uncertainty
a startup doesn’t know who is the customer or what is the business model
Extreme uncertainty: in the beginning both the problem and the solution are unknown. Thus, in the beginning,
The primary goal is to
discover a business model that works before running out of money & time. And then scale it.
The business model or the scaling of a business should not be based on assumptions but instead be
built on tested hypotheses and validated learning
In the search for a sustainable business model, it’s crucial that before running out of money, the startup has the ability to either
pivot or persevere
Pivoting is productive failure for a startup. Pivoting signifies learning something useful.
Pivoting means staying grounded in the initial vision, but changing one dimension of the business at a time.
Most startups are drawn apart by two approaches of building a product when maximizing the chances for success
building the most perfect product or
releasing early, releasing often
Most startups consider an MVP too big: including too many features.
MVP should contain only critical features
Customer feedback loops during product development help to eliminate features or products that the market doesn’t want.
Customer Discovery
Problem- Solution fit
Proposed MVP
Proposed Funnel(s)
Customer Validation
Product Market Fit
Business Model
Sales & Marketing Roadmap
Customer Creation
Scale Execution
Company Building
Scale Organization
Scale Operations
Customer Development
Source: Steve Blank`s Customer Development by Brant Cooper; custdev.com
Pivot
Experimenting means testing the ideas against reality.
experimenting is NOT about asking the customers
Setting up the metrics requires also
identifying what is crucial in order to establish a sustainable business model
Questioning the assumptions • Is the problem worth solving? • Who’s problem is being solved? • Does anyone care about the solution? • Will the customers buy the solution? • How are the target customers solving the problem now? • How will the startup grow? • What is the unit cost model? • What is the unit revenue model? • What are the acquisition costs per customer? • What channels will be used to get to customers? • What is the startup’s unfair advantage that cannot
be easily copied or bought?
Product - market fit: the point at which the startup can scale profitably
• The customer is willing to pay for the product
• The unit of cost per customer is smaller than the unit revenue per customer
• There is sufficient evidence indicating the market is large enough to support the business
• The sales model is repeatable and scalable
Unit of progress: validated learning
Problem: unknown
Lean Startup
Solution: unknown
Hypothesses, Experiments, Insights
Data, Feedback, Insights
Customer Development
Agile Development
Customer Discovery
Customer Validation
Customer Creation
Scale Company
User stories
Architectual Spike Release Planning
Iteration Acceptance Tests
Small Releases
Spike
Requirements Bugs
Latest Version
Next Iteration
Key Partners Key Activities
Key Resources
Value Proposition
Customer Relationship
Channels
Customer Segments
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
Canvas tools, one example
Source: Strategyzer.com
The focus is on
• business model, not on business plan
• fast learning loops: build-measure-learn
• avoiding investing in a bad idea: a quick death is a good death
What Lean Startups Do Differently
Lean start-ups don’t begin with business plan but with the search for a business model. Quick rounds of experimentation & feedback reveal a model that works. Then, lean startups focus on execution.
Lean Traditional
Strategy
Business Model Hypothesis-driven Business Plan Implementation-driven
New-Product Process
Customer Development. Get out of the office and test hypotheses
Product Management. Prepare offering for market following a linear, step-by-step plan
Engineering
Agile Development. Build the product iteratively and incrementally
Agile of Waterfall Development. Build the product iteratively, or fully specify the product before building it
Lean Traditional
Financial Reporting
Metrics That Matter. Customer acquisition cost, lifetime customer value, churn, viralness
Accounting, income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement
Failure
Expected. Fix by iterating on ideas and pivoting away from ones that don´t work
Expection Fix by firing executives
Speed
Rapid Operates on good enough data
Measured Operates on complate data
Organization
Customer and agile development teams hire for learning, nimbleness, and speed
Departments by function Hire for experience and ability to execute
eHealth related aspects
• lots of regulation
• getting to product/market fit potentially expensive: even MVPs have usually to meet certain standards and often need approval from administrators & regulators
• important stakeholders can be hard to reach
• health providers can be conservative & reluctant to try new things, resulting in slow adoption
• often complex ecosystems & value chains
Regulative aspects in eHealth
Within eHealth, there are requirements & directives for • Privacy, security, language support • SW development process • Quality management system • Risk management process • Clinical investigation • Validation • Registration • Placing on the market • Incident reporting • Suitability for the intended use • Performance and reliability
When commercializing an eHealth innovation
if regulation concerns your product, think for ways to avoid regulation
An example: Case Owlet avoiding regulation in an eHealth startup
See video on the case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS6fHW9pRek