My first lecture on 'Products & Startups' at IIT, Mumbai

It was 4.20 pm, I was 10 minutes away from giving my first lecture to a class of budding engineers in one of the finest institutes in India. I was invited as a guest lecturer there today. A little nervous I entered this lecture hall with around 30-35 students sitting bored after a series of such lectures. This was supposedly, their last lecture of the day. I was between them and their dorm rooms, their cups of tea and a lot more. 

Well, nonetheless I went ahead with what ever I came in with. 

"Guys, we will talk about 'Products & Startups' today!" Not much of a celebration from the crowd as they heard that. "Are here people who are looking to move into Digital space post engineering?" I asked, three times! Nobody said anything, except a couple of them who negated the question by moving their head sideways.

"Well, that's new! We will anyway go ahead with this, since I have reached here now" I quipped. So, I started with the "lecture"(literally, now). I introduced myself initially and then these were some of the points I covered:

• What is a Product?
  Well, anything & everything that solves a problem. It can be a hammer, an eCommerce website, an Uber app, an eBook, a video tutorial & so on.
• What are the elements of a digital product?
  
  
• What is an MVP?
  An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is that version of the actual product that can provide maximum learnings from the market with minimum effort & cost.
• Life cycle of a product?
  - Current market gap & needs
  - Target customer segment
  - Product proposition & USPs
  - Market landscape
  - Product validation
  - Development
  - Product launch
  - Product iteration
• How to measure the success of a product & how to optimize it in the future?
  There are numerous ways to do that. At the same time, this MUST be done on a continual basis. Here are few ways:
  - Analytics
  
  
  - Heat maps
  
  
  - AB Testing
  
  
  - Talking to users
  - Session recording
• What is product market fit? Why it is super important for start ups?

These were some of the topics I covered in the discussion and this is where I asked "Any questions?" 1,2,3...10 seconds.."I will take it as a N..." and suddenly one of the students raised his hand.

"How to know that we have reached a stage of an MVP?"
Well, it depends on the kind of product you are looking to build. If its a physical product, lets say a medical device that has 3-4 different USPs than any other existing products in the market. In such a case, MVP can be exemplified with the help of same or different POCs (Proof of Concepts) that are good enough to illustrate those product differentiations. Obviously, these POCs must be showcased to the specific audience base. In case of medical device example, the base can be doctors, professors, practitioners etc.

Others followed...

"Why is this lean methodology or the MVP concept important?
Well, its not just important but sort of mandatory. For instance, if you have an idea to build an awesome mobile app for salon owners with which they can manage their business like never before. You start building the mobile app with loads of features such as services listings, booking options, chatting facility, e-commerce integration, service ratings, social media integration, click to call feature and what not. You lock yourself up for 6 months with few of your interested coder friends and come out with this awesome app. Then you go out and start talking to salons, spas and beauty parlors only to realize later that:

• Salon owners don't really have the know how or time to spend on their own mobile app. They might not even have enough marketing budget or understanding to spread the word about it.
• Salons don't have time to chat with customers or even manage emails for that matter.
• They don't want a mobile app but would prefer a mobile website.
• They actually want to list themselves on a marketplace that needs minimum of fuss from their end.

So basically, you will be a lot surprised (read, shocked!) once you start talking to your potential consumer base. But at this point, you have actually built a product  and in a sense wasted a lot of time, effort & definitely money. And that is why my dear friend, MVP is mandatory, especially in a start-up. With an MVP approach, you could basically built a prototype and got back to the market to understand if it works for your potential user base. If yes, what else they look for in such a solution. If not, how can you improvise. Basically, you learn quickly and move ahead with that approach.

"When we build an MVP, the manufacturer can also copy your product. How do we ensure safety of the idea?"
Yes, that can definitely happen. So you must make sure that you patent your ideas and differentiation. Also, you must get necessary legal documentation done before sharing it with somebody who has the capacity to produce/manufacture that concept.

"What do you mean by USPs?"
Oh, I forgot to mention. Some people call it Ultra selling points, others call it Unique selling propositions. It means the same though. Basically, how do you differentiate yourself from the rest.

"What is the difference between User Interface, Usability & User experience?"
Well, user interface is straightforward. The product's look and feel is its user interface. Very few people understand the subtle difference between Usability & user experience specially. Usability is all about the way you make your product's entities usable for your end consumers. If you have a web form and there are 20 fields you need to ask from the user, how you make sure that you actually end up asking only 8 questions that help you understand the answer to all the points will make the usability of your form high. User experience on the other hand, is a combination of usability and a lot of other factors as mentioned earlier. Driving a Mercedes benz is the customer's user experience and designing the car in such a way that user needs to make minimalist effort to drive is its usability. 

Uber is a great example of "user experience done superbly well". You go to the app and get to see so many options of car types to choose from and then in seconds, you make a transaction (subconsciously). Once you are done booking, you get to see your car model, its registered number, its distance from your location, the time the car is going to take to reach you, driver's photo, his name, his ratings from the past and that too in a very subtle, non-cluttered way. That's what we call user experience. 

"How to validate the idea?"
Millions of way to do that. Talk to prospective customers, industry experts, do surveys, hold talks, set up focus groups, send emailers, take feedback etc etc. 
But this is something that can be used as an iterative step. Getting the idea validated is definitely mandatory once you are building an MVP in a lead methodology but can be applied across phases of product development.

A lot of other questions followed and this continued for a while.

At 6 pm, we concluded the "lecture". Well, I enjoyed the time and I was told the next day, that students found it very "knowledgeable". Teaching can be fun, I thought. Well, that is what I recall from my first experience. Lots of firsts happen in our lives, this particular one will stay as a memory for long. :) 

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