45-Day Demand Validation Program
Get traction with a compelling offer without a product
45-Day DV program teaches you to prioritize customer problems worth solving, design a compelling solution and assemble/deliver a no-brainer offer.
Customers don’t buy products, they buy a promise of something better
- Think back to a new product launch, like the iPhone.
- Buying the first iPhone required a leap of faith because there was nothing remotely like it. If you were one of the early adopters who stood in line to buy the first iPhone, you didn’t get to first test-drive the iPhone. You probably saw Steve Jobs’ demo the phone on stage, fell in love with the promise of the product, and decided to buy the product.
- It follows then that what customers buy isn't really a product, but a promise of something better. You don’t need a working product to promise something better, you need an offer.
- If you've ever backed a crowd-funding campaign, you bought an offer, not a finished product.
- Selling an offer vs a finished product isn't just relegated to smaller purchases. Tesla sold their initial cars using an offer which required a $5,000 down payment and a $45,000 wire transfer within 10 days to reserve the car.
- Selling an offer isn't just relegated to B2C products either. As much as you'd like to close a big B2B deal immediately, the more complex the sale, the more complex the sales process. You have to first sell the UVP, then the demo to multiple parties, and finally have a pricing discussion with the right buyer. This can take several weeks to several months. If you don't manage to sell the offer, your product never makes it to the pilot stage.
- Contrary to popular belief, you never need a finished product to close a sale with an early adopter Depending on your product’s level of technical risk (feasibility), you _may_ sometimes need a working prototype for your demo, but don’t assume this unless your customers specifically ask.
- This is the basic premise of the DEMO-SELL-BUILD vs. BUILD-DEMO-SELL process we teach in this workshop.
How to make a promise of better
There are a number of different ways you can assemble and test offers. I’ve listed some of the most commonly used offer campaign recipes below:
- Most people prefer picking one of the more scalable campaigns, like building a landing page or launching a crowd-funding campaign, but this is often a mistake. Why is that?
- First, because you only get one-shot at making an impression. Most initial offers fall flat and you don't want to burn your entire list with a bad offer. More importanly, when you pitch a product en masse and online, it's hard to idenity what to fix -- your headline, demo, price, copy, colors, etc. Optimizing offers is a multi-variate problem and without the right customer feedback, this can be a sub-optimial approach.
- It is for these reasons that we advocate deceleration vs. acceleration with your initial offer testing. The initial goal is establishing repeatability, not scalability. And the mafia offer campaign fits the bill perfectly.
- Here's how we do this:
- Building a mafia offer can be broken down into 3 basic skills: problem prioritization, solution design, and offer delivery.
- We teach you step-by-step techniques for executing each skill which you'll get to practice using simulations we've designed.
- Once you've acquired a skill, you'll get to hone it further through real-world practice i.e. assembling and delivering a mafia offer.
Who is this program for ?
- Students and working professionals aspiring to be entrepreneurs.
- Early-stage founders still searching for repeatable and scalable business models.
- Corporate innovators mandated to find new market opportunities.
- Product managers looking to launch new products or find additional revenue streams.
- Consultants and coaches working with new product development and digital transformation teams.
What will you learn?
Deconstruct your initial ideas(s) into one or more possible business models.
Prioritize the riskiest assaumptions to tackle first.
Avoid the most common pitfalls that trip early-stage products.
Stress-test your business model(s) for desirability, viability, and feasibility, before investing any significant resources.
Test whether your business model represents a big-enough problem worth solving.
Communicate your idea clearly and concisely to others (co-founders, advisors, investors) so they buy in.
Program Structure
In 45-Day DV, you learn by doing. The program is delivered over four online workshops (2 hours each) that run over 6 weeks. These workshops teach you the skills you need to acquire to build a mafia offer your customers cannot refuse.
In between workshop sessions, you'll get to apply everything you learn using a battle-tested curriculum, online tools, and activities.
Program Agenda
WEEK 1:
The Customer Forces Model
In this workshop, you'll learn the behavioral science of how customers buy and use products. We'll build on this model in subsequent workshops.
WEEK 2:
Running a Problem Discovery Sprint
This workshop breaks down the 3 steps for running effective customer interviews.
WEEK 3:
Unpacking Insights
We'll cover how to post-process your raw interview notes into actionable insights.
WEEK 4:
Stress Test Your Idea For Feasibility
In this workshop, you'll learn how to formulate a stage-based product launch and validation strategy using battle-tested recipes.
WEEK 4:
Advanced Tactics
Interviewing is a skill that gets better with more practice. We'll discuss more advanced techniques for running interviews.
Program Overview
Delivered 100% online in multiple time.
Attend from anywhere.
4 weekly workshops.
2 hours each.
Learn by doing.
Design your business model.
Online tools.
Put your learnings to practice.
Community support.
Discussions and private forums.
Private coaching.
Get feedback on your business model.
Still, have questions? Request a FREE demo
If you have requested the DV program demo, it will be delivered to you shortly.
In the meanwhile, get started with our free resources
Includes:
Courses:
1) Innovation Foundations &
2) Business Model Design
Tools:
1) Lean Canvas (Business Modeling Tool)
2) Traction Roadmap
Bonus:
Live interactive workshop on making the best use of the FREE resources
