Posts Tagged customer development

Life in a startup: five lessons learned three weeks in

Posted by Darren in Marketing on July 30, 2010

1. Getting customers to try a product that hasn’t launched yet is harder than you think is exactly as hard as it sounds.

Got obstacles?

ZOMG stock photos are hilarious.

OpenCal is a fine product, and yet I knew getting customers would be difficult and yet, at the same time, I somehow believed it would magically be easier. You can always picture yourself with success at a later point, but to imagine all the little, difficult challenges you have to overcome to get to that successful point is either no fun or way too easy to overlook.

2. Create value now in order to reap rewards later.

This one is obvious, and should have been even more obvious to someone who considers himself a pretty good gardener, and yet because it feels like a race (as you approach the launch date) you always expect results to come in all the time. But like the seeds you set below the surface, sometimes it seems like nothing is happening at all. If you ignore the seeds you may never see the shoots. Likewise, if you stop creating value (because you haven’t seen any results), you will probably never see any positive results.

Similar to what I’ve learned using social media, there is no easy way to build a following. It is (in some ways) hard work and success is hard won. You only get to where you’re going by having faith that what you’re doing is the right thing to build an audience.

3. Make goals every day.

The morning meeting

I use the morning meeting for...hmmm, yes, planning sounds nicely innocuous...ha ha ha

Because life in a startup is hectic and everything has high priority and importance, it’s easy to get lost in information overload or stuck on something because it’s not perfect. To help combat this we have very short, daily morning meetings to get us on track and moving in the right direction. What will you do, what do you need to do, what are you thinking about doing. For me this turns into a short list of goals for that day. If they’re not actionable (ie. they do not constitute a discrete action) I break them down into things I can do next. Then I knock them off my list.

How do you stay productive? Do you have a system?

4. Create traditions.

Epic win

I will never not use awesome stock photos again

In my first week we set up beer o’clock Friday afternoons. If you had a good week we get these going a bit earlier. If not, we might try and get a couple extra things done. In any case, we take time to enjoy the feeling of the week being over, we discuss what we did that was great and where we’re going. It’s a take stock moment that we don’t have to take too seriously. It makes Friday a great day and I already begin to look forward to the next week.

What are your traditions?

5. Celebrate your wins, no matter how small.

These keep you going.

Shout outs:

A big shout out to Darryl Ohrt of Brand Flakes for Breakfast fame and Bill Green of Make the Logo Bigger – I believe you both put me in touch with the awesome stock photos I have been digging via Awkward Stock Photos.

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New job!

Posted by Darren in Marketing on July 5, 2010

My search for a new position is, happily, over. I’m very excited to be working at a startup called OpenCal as the Director of Marketing and Sales. I’ll be working on a daily basis with the founders (who have a great eye for design) in an apartment-turned-office. OpenCal is an online booking solution for service-based businesses. From what I’ve seen of it so far, it’s super slick and will be a great addition to many businesses such as massage therapy clinics and beauty salons. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be writing more about it in the future.

It’s all very exciting. We’re about (fingers crossed) 6 weeks away from launch at which point I will hopefully have helped to set us up for success. For now it’s all about getting beta customers trying out the product and gathering their feedback to make it even better. More than that it’s about getting people talking about it on and offline. I’ve never been in a position to help take a product from zero users to wherever we get, but it’s an exciting time for me. Hopefully Steve Blank’s The Four Steps to the Epiphanydoesn’t fail me. Very very happy I had the foresight to take a class called The Customer Development Process back in the MBA (thanks Iain!)

Update: in the meantime, if you’re interested in the product, please take a sneak peak and sign up for more information!

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  • About me

    My name is Darren Negraeff - I'm the Marketing Director for Zafin Labs - we create pricing and billing innovations for banks and financial institutions. When I'm not at work you can find me throwing a disc for my dog Sally or staring in wonder at my tomato plants. Or poring over a book - I love to read. These days I read mostly non-fiction, but I have an extensive library of fiction as well.

    I'm interested in theory of the mind and cognitive science, how ideas spread through society, behavioural economics, advertising, internet marketing, and the rise of microcredit. I will try to keep to these topics, though wandering is inevitable.

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    email: darren(dot)negraeff(at)gmail(dot)com

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