In the last couple of months, I’ve got several requests from top-notch product companies in India, asking me to facilitate a hands-on workshop on decision making using Lean-Startup’s hypothesis validation techniques for their Executive and Senior Management. I’m thrilled to know that companies are seriously exploring these options.

Following is a 1-Day workshop which I’ve successfully ran a few times:

Experimentation Driven Decision Making Workshop

Large number of products/services fail today, not because they cannot be built and delivered, but because the entrepreneurs building those products/services are disconnected from the people consuming them. This disconnect, leads to early assumptions about consumer’s behavior and motivations. To one’s surprise, these decisions can turn out to be based on stupid (read as: deadly and risky) assumptions.

Traditionally, entrepreneurs believed that the only way to test their product/service hypothesis was to build the best product/service in that category, launch it, and then observe user behavior. And of course the big bucks spent on marketing campaigns. Surprise! Surprise! This can be a very time consuming & expensive process; not to mention the huge opportunity cost.

(src: Kent Beck)

Luckily today, we know that many entrepreneurs are using Lean-Startup methodology’s Customer Development practices to help them make important product/service decisions (cheaply) based on Validated Learning.

This workshop will give you a hands-on experience to formulate and quickly test out your value and growth hypothesis.

Process/Mechanics

This is a group activity and the participants have to work in small groups.

In the first one hour of the workshop, each group has to come up a product/service idea, which they believe will really succeed. Then they craft out the elevator pitch about the product/service and put together a basic business model. Post that, the group has to clearly highlight what are their value and growth hypothesis.

The rest of the workshop is dedicated to the participants trying to validate their hypothesis. They can use phone and/or Internet to do their research and validation. The best results, of course, are got when the participants meet real people face-to-face to validate your hypothesis. I’ve seen participants wait outside restaurants, cafes, health-clubs, malls, etc. to run their tests. Some participants also get really creative and build some paper prototypes or fake products to validate their hypothesis. Using a fake credit card swiping machine to see if people will really pay is one of my favorite validation techniques so far.

It always amazes me how creative people can get during this process. Also it’s very fulfilling to see the “Aha moment” on the participant’s face. I can’t describe in words, the shocked look on their faces, when they spend the day validating their hypothesis and discover various hidden assumptions about their target user’s behavior.

Learning Outcome

• Learn how to decide which assumptions you MUST absolutely test.
• Understand why just marketing metrics won’t help you make a better product/service.
• Master the art of leveraging the Minimum Viable Product to create maximum validated learning for minimum cost.
• Learn how to systematically decide when to Pivot to a new strategy.

Workshop style

Interactive dialogues, case studies, hands-on group activities, and on-field exercise.

This is an introductory presentation on the essence of Being Agile vs. Following Agile. And why being Agile is important? I’ve also tried to show an evolution of Agile methods over the last 11 years and the future of Agile. Also take a sneak preview into what challenges an organizations may face when trying to be agile?

Many product companies struggle with a big challenge: how to identify a Minimal Viable Product that will let them quickly validate their product hypothesis?

Teams that share the product vision and agree on priorities for features are able to move faster and more effectively.

During this workshop, we’ll take a hypothetical product and coach you on how to effectively come up with an evolutionary roadmap for your product.

This day long workshop teaches you how to collaborate on the vision of the product and create a Product Backlog, a User Story map and a pragmatic Release Plan.

Detailed Activity Breakup

1. PART 1: UNDERSTAND PRODUCT CONTEXT
   • Introduction
   • Define Product Vision
   • Identify Users That Matter
   • Create User Personas
   • Define User Goals
   • A Day-In-Life Of Each Persona
2. PART 2: BUILD INITIAL STORY MAP FROM ACTIVITY MODEL
   • Prioritize Personas
   • Break Down Activities And Tasks From User Goals
   • Lay Out Goals Activities And Tasks
   • Walk Through And Refine Activity Model
3. PART 3: CREATE FIRST-CUT PRODUCT ROAD MAP
   • Prioritize High Level Tasks
   • Define Themes
   • Refine Tasks
   • Define Minimum Viable Product
   • Identify Internal And External Release Milestones
4. PART 4: WRITE USER STORIES FOR THE FIRST RELEASE
   • Define User Task Level Acceptance Criteria
   • Break Down User Tasks To User Stories Based On Acceptance Criteria
   • Refine Acceptance Criteria For Each Story
   • Find Ways To Further Thin-Slice User Stories
   • Capture Assumptions And Non-Functional Requirements
5. PART 5: REFINE FIRST INTERNAL RELEASE BASED ON ESTIMATES
   • Define Relative Size Of User Stories
   • Refine Internal Release Milestones For First-Release Based On Estimates
   • Define Goals For Each Release
   • Refine Product And Project Risks
   • Present And Commit To The Plan
6. PART 6: RETROSPECTIVE
   • Each part will take roughly 30 mins.

I’ve facilitated this workshop for many organizations (small-startups to large enterprises.)

More details: Product Discovery Workshop from Industrial Logic

Techniques

Focused Break-Out Sessions, Group Activities, Interactive Dialogues, Presentations, Heated Debates/Discussions and Some Fun Games

Target Audience

• Product Owner
• Release/Project Manager
• Subject Matter Expert, Domain Expert, or Business Analyst
• User Experience team
• Architect/Tech Lead
• Core Development Team (including developers, testers, DBAs, etc.)

This tutorial can take max 30 people. (3 teams of 10 people each.)

Workshop Prerequisites

Required: working knowledge of Agile (iterative and incremental software delivery models) Required: working knowledge of personas, users stories, backlogs, acceptance criteria, etc.

Testimonials

“I come away from this workshop having learned a great deal about the process and equally about many strategies and nuances of facilitating it. Invaluable!

Naresh Jain clearly has extensive experience with the Product Discovery Workshop. He conveyed the principles and practices underlying the process very well, with examples from past experience and application to the actual project addressed in the workshop. His ability to quickly relate to the project and team members, and to focus on the specific details for the decomposition of this project at the various levels (goals/roles, activities, tasks), is remarkable and a good example for those learning to facilitate the workshop.

Key take-aways for me include the technique of acceptance criteria driven decomposition, and the point that it is useful to map existing software to provide a baseline framework for future additions.”

Doug Brophy, Agile Expert, GE Energy

Learning outcomes

• Understand the thought process and steps involved during a typical product discovery and release planning session
• Using various User-Centered Design techniques, learn how to create a User Story Map to help you visualize your product
• Understand various prioritization techniques that work at the Business-Goal and User-Persona Level
• Learn how to decompose User Activities into User Tasks and then into User Stories
• Apply an Acceptance Criteria-Driven Discovery approach to flush out thin slices of functionality that cut across the system
• Identify various techniques to narrow the scope of your releases, without reducing the value delivered to the users
• Improve confidence and collaboration between the business and engineering teams
• Practice key techniques to work in short cycles to get rapid feedback and reduce risk