 We will hope that doesn't fall on the computer. Can you guys hear me? Okay? I tend to move a little bit. So I will try to move this up All right, so one of my favorite TV shows is the West Wing. Has anybody not seen the West Wing? Okay, a few of you. All right, so The West Wing chronicles the life of a lot of senior officials in the White House along with the president Because I originally had this is like a 45 minute Presentation I'm gonna skip over a intro video. They just kind of talked a little bit about them and introduce you to the cast So this is the cast. I'm sure you've recognized some of these these folks in various Other other things that they've played but I want to introduce you to them now So right here is the president. That's Josiah President Josiah Bartlett Or Jed for short He's the president. We all know what the president does although these days We might not know what he does, but we'll we'll forego this this current administration for a while This guy right here. That is the chief of staff Leo McGarry So Leo's main job is to staff the president on a daily basis. So He's essentially the right-hand man. You have to go through him in order to get to the president Ah Back behind everybody is Josh Lyman This is also the character that a few of my friends say that that's who I would be if I was Making friends out of this group He is the deputy chief of staff and what Josh's is responsibility is for is to staff the president when Leo's out And isn't around but also to have one of the most senior advisors on a number of key policy issues And so so he is he is always making decisions In in throughout the season And throughout the series rather of of different issues that they take on Kind of in front in the middle is Sam Seaborn. He is the deputy communications director like Sam. He has a boss That's Toby over here. We'll touch on him in a second Sam's responsibility mainly is speech writing. So all the state of the union addresses election Speeches things like that. That's what Sam really took pride in and that's what he wrote He also does do some some issues and and takes point on some of the issues We'll go to Toby next. Toby is the communications director. He is responsible for Putting forth the message of of the administration Um CJ Craig or Claudia Jean Craig is the press secretary She's responsibility is to talk to the public and and be kind of the public face of the administration. We're going to skip Her she's no nowhere near relevant in this picture But everybody else in the story has something so that's why When you try to find it she was only in the one season. She was a ex-girlfriend Of uh, josh lineman and she was on the campaign. So she she's like kind of started out the season and then They kicked her off promptly after season one so, um So the rest of the time what I want to do is I want to spend, um, uh A little bit of time talking about an issue that they had Started to to to talk about while they were in the middle of re-electing The president and how that relates to us as we think about Excuse me building products So before I get started I kind of have to kind of set the stage so um, excuse me. I'm also coming down with a cold I guess, uh, so At this point in time, um, let me let me skip back to these guys. So one thing that we didn't Learn until a little bit into the series is that the president actually has multiple sclerosis and he hit it from The Electora he hit it from everybody right and he got elected and now all of a sudden He had just came out letting everybody know. Hey, I have multiple sclerosis I wasn't trying to hide it. I was just I just never told anybody And so so there's a whirlwind of of you know, betrayal distrust all sorts of things going on in the administration but also inside of of the Country right that you know yet your the top person has just told everybody that he's lied to them for For several years So we fast forward a little bit and they they hit their state of the union address with a bang And we'll talk about that state of the union address a little bit at the end if we have some time and then and then Where our story picks up is If you want to follow along and actually go watch the story because these are all on netflix. It's season four during the reelection campaign and so um The president gets checked every day for blood pressure And and depending on his day of blood pressure And what what it's at will depend on if toby can actually be near him And so they're out in indiana rural indiana giving a speech giving one of one of the many campaign speeches you give and The scene enters toby frantically just Walking back and forth right he's pacing because the president's out there giving a an address a speech that he wrote and He can't be anywhere near the president It's a bad day for him to be near the president and so he's out here doing that and and meanwhile josh is out talking to the land or landowner's daughter about some renewable energy options um and and some some car that they built that works on corn and in oil corn oil and so As as uh this kind of thing goes on for a little bit you get out to a point where dana um who who's not pictured up here um is josh's secretary and she says hey guys we got to go um the the president's wrapping up And as they they start to walk through this area they look at the podium And there's no president to be found Not just the fact that there's no president. There's also no motorcade The motorcade's their ride Right and and they they are like hey, where's the motorcade right? They see these people walking back and they're asking where where's the motorcade and they they turn around After somebody points and out in a distance over a field You see the road and the motorcade just going away And now they're like wait, how we got to get back to dc and we're in rural india and how are we going to get back there? um They didn't leave it. They didn't leave an extra car. So they don't have another way to get back. So they are lost for for All sake, uh, they are lost and not able to catch up with who they need to be with so This is over two episodes and it goes fast. Um Where our story picks up though um and how it relates to products is um, they've they finally got a plane and they are in a hotel they have a few hours um to just kind of kill and so they're they're talking amongst the the three josh, uh toby and dana about you know, what they're going to do when they get back to dc and Toby decides he's going to go get another drink from the bar and so as he gets up to to up there he meets this guy matt kelly and matt kelly is is on a trip uh to visit Notre Dame with his daughter His daughter um is going to school next year and that was one of the options that she wanted to go to and and so they're they're having this conversation of of mutual funds and of um How the market did and and unfortunately matt had lost A lot of a significant amount of money On his mutual funds in the market that day and so he's he's really distraught and trying to figure out How is he going to pay for college? For his daughter. He makes 55 thousand dollars a year His wife brings in another 25 and and roughly um education at that time was like 34 thousand dollars a year So he really doesn't know how he's going to be able to afford to send his daughter to school But he wants to he wants to be able to afford this and and and toby you can see in the scene toby has a Like a light bulb above his head And and as you they they pan out all of a sudden you see uh josh on the other side He was also getting a drink and they they asked to talk um, that's really the first point of of building products is Is an idea right it starts with an idea the idea that toby had was how can we make education cheaper? How can we get it cheaper so that? You know that that anybody could afford it that's that's the idea that they have and all of our ideas Start out that the same way right? We encounter a problem and we think how can we what can we do to fix it? and so The the next part and I don't I don't spend a lot of time talking about that idea other than to to paint the picture of the back backside of Our our west wing story Is after you've created your idea before you go and build it before you go and build the solution What does that end state look like or what does that value proposition look like? Um, and so we we're going to continue our story with the west wing so so they they get back into DC they have a few hours off and As they're getting back into the office you see toby and josh talking and and they're really passionately talking about this this idea and and they come Uh josh comes out and says something about uh ceo's getting bonuses and those bonuses are tax deductible and so In in large corporate america. They're they're getting tax deduct Deducted bonuses that that we could do something about to to to offer some sort of a tax break for everybody else and uh toby pulls out his paper That he was reading on his way in and he said hey, I was going to talk to you about the same thing And it is make education cheaper right and so they've they've developed this idea They've they've they've said hey, we want to figure out a way to make Make education in america cheaper and so as we think about products We we have that that problem right and so we once we've identified that problem Um We we start to talk about it right and we start to talk about it to other people Hey, do you have that problem too? Are you encountering this problem to see is it is there some? valid peace there so In thinking about value proposition, we're going to go into value proposition now Steve jobs had a quote once that I think is is is uh spot on here That's too small on here. So uh people think Focus means saying yes to all the things you've got to focus on But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other ideas that are out there You have to pick carefully I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done Innovation is saying no to a thousand things. I think that that really speaks as we look at When we when we have an idea an idea may be good But does it does it actually require us building something and producing something some sort of a product? Um, and so that's where where it fits in terms of our value proposition as we think about our value proposition Um, does anybody know actually does anybody not know what a value proposition is? Okay, so we'll cover that really quick. So a value proposition is Um, it's a headline right. It's some sort of an attention grabber It's a short sentence. It could mention the product. Maybe it doesn't um, there's there's two to three Sentences in a sub headline or maybe a paragraph And a three bullets and a visual doesn't always have to have all of four of those things but but somewhere along there It's going to um So let's let's look at examples of of good value proposition Because I think that that'll help us understand what that looks like. Uh, so here is There it goes. Uh, here's campaign monitor Um And their their value proposition is send email Uh, your customers can't ignore easy to use professional grade email marketing and automation for today's fast growing businesses And in the background the this gif is way too fast, but you can start to see Um, some things now when you're looking and you're determining what makes a good value proposition I really have four, uh questions For for you to think about And and we can do it right through this one is is what is uh your product? Or service that the company is selling so we've identified the company. I've given that to you as campaign monitor Um, does anybody anybody get what they're selling from here? email, okay Um, I I like to to look at it as It's kind of harder to read here, but it's professional grade email marketing That's easy that's easy to use that that's kind of where I think of that The end benefit uh is my second question and that's really the easy to use piece Um The third is is uh, who is your target customer for? Um for this product or service and as you're thinking about this Um I noticed the videos in the background and I apologize. It's too fast. Um, it seems to be anybody right there There's there was a person walking Um with headphones. There was a another guy that was kind of scrolling through something right here Um, and and it highlights at the end. It says today's fast growing businesses And that's that's really what that means to me is that the target audience is somebody that's got a business and that they're trying to grow in today Now what makes their uh Offering unique or different is my my fourth question. Um And and I go back to the the top one is send email your customers can't ignore I think that's that's their kind of differentiator and what makes them unique Um, so let's look at one that's that's applicable to um Our space a little bit Wp 101. So it's it's learned wordpress the easy way Who's got time to waste on boring tech books tired of homemade videos Filled with ooze and ums Or confusing tech jargon ready to finally learn how to use wordpress to create your own website today So if we look at those four questions today, what's the product or service? They're selling some sort of videos I picked out professional videos because they they said homemade videos I can also see in the background that there's a small computer right here and people kind of all around looking at it Their end benefit is is learn wordpress the easy way. So apparently there must be a hard way Because they're they're claiming to have an easy way Your target audience is is really any way that doesn't know wordpress. So That's cool because there's a lot of people out there that don't know wordpress And what makes their offering unique and different? It it's really I I go back to the homemade videos with ooms and us and Confusing check tech jargon. Excuse me. I think of that as as okay So they're going to have some sort of a professional video now I know Sean behind Wp 101 and they are very professional And so they're they're great for clients to have Due to time I'm going to skip over opt-in monster, but the the same idea right is you can look at um Their piece They're their their value prop here and then they have some sort of a supporting video All right, so the next step in our story. We're going to go back to the West Wing for a second is Josh and Toby still have this idea that and they've they formed some of some value proposition their value proposition We're using is is make education cheaper um They start talking to leo and cj and sam and even dana trying to figure out. Hey You know is is there is there what do we need to consider as we're we're looking at this and so The the this phase or this point of of the the story ends with Them going to the president leo leo took it to the president leo said You know, hey, this is what they want to do We want to make this a big thing as part of our our reelection campaign Are we good and at that point the president says yep Let's ship it out to the treasury and a few other areas in the government And and what this this part or this piece of the story highlights is what we call a minimum viable product um a minimum viable product is first and foremost the Um What I like to call the race to deliver customer value first as you're as you're developing a product You don't want to spend a lot of time on it Because you want to get it out in the hands of of customers that are going to look at buying it and then see if it's got any merit um The like official Title of of a minimum viable product or definition rather is a minimum viable product is the version Of a new product that allows your team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about your customers With the least amount of effort. So so that doesn't necessarily mean hey Um, I can I can cut some code quality or I can cut some testing in your code You still want to have good quality code. You still want to have Um, you know, you're whatever process that you have there if you're writing code or if you're building a Course you still want to take the time to make it Look good and and and be well received, but you also want to get it there as quick as possible um so I'm going to skip over This guy because I want to talk about um A a software example for us because the the west wing example is great, but what does that look like in terms of software? so How many people have used? Unsplash Okay, so unsplash For those that that don't know what it is is it's a free photography site What what they decided was Or what problem they were trying to face was I stock photography adobe photos Any other place that you can get stock photography was expensive and it typically was low quality Meaning it was very generic and and wasn't As as nice and so what they they kind of came up with was hey We don't like that and we bet other people don't like that either So let's try to figure out a way to to build something So rather than spending weeks or months Creating a website that that could be a flop They went the cheapest route possible And by cheapest route possible they started on tumblr. Uh, so it's the tumblers free, right? It's kind of like this micro blogging Service they paid for a $20 theme And they Had uploaded and worked with a local designer Sorry a local photographer to take 10 high res photos They literally went to a coffee shop took 10 photos And and said we're going to upload these and and we're going to see what happens And so what they came up with was These 10 photos so the there's one photo in the background, but that they're they're Those were the photos they came up with and they said okay, we're going to upload these photos and we're going to See what happens, right? So if we if we look at that that m that mvp though Here's the important things to take away from it, right? They they took Three hours to build their mvp. They didn't they didn't spend an enormous amount of time They didn't go and spin up a wordpress site. They didn't go and find a wordpress theme They didn't go find a hosting they went to tumblr, right and and they said hey, let's just see if it works They even uploaded the photos to their Dropbox account And and i'll tell you about their Dropbox account in a little bit But but they were like hey, this is something that we think that we can solve Let's work with our local photographer friends see what we can do So they did that and What they what they found was they actually posted this over to hacker news They within the first few hours up. They had 20,000 photos downloaded. So so each one of The previous photos were downloaded 20,000 times that broke their Dropbox account People weren't able to to download them anymore But but they felt that that was validated right and if you if you look at unsplash today Over two million photos are downloaded a month and there's there's tons of photos Most of the photos and the rest of the deck are from unsplash simply because they're free. They're widely available And it was easy to download and incorporate So knowing what to build right when you when you think about that mvp of your product is that you want to know what to build So real quick when I look at at knowing what to build I think of These three things keep it simple Keep it small Keep iterating because you're going to eventually solve for the bigger problem that you have but but what is the the smallest amount of Of features in in your product in your course in your ebook that you can you can do to validate That that this is a problem worth solving and then constantly communicate to the the people that are buying your product to Say hey, here's the vision of our product. This is where we're going to go. We're not there yet But but we're we're getting there each and every way So so the president has has been reelected And they start working with congress to to get it passed to get the They actually have to make tax code changes to get it passed And what we see in in our video is josh and toby working separately with with different organizations and different people and They were told don't promise anything to anybody don't say hey, we'll give you this for that because in the government It's it's you know, you scratch my back. I scratch yours. And so what they what they end up doing is they come together and they say hey I had to promise this To these this group and and toby's over here saying hey josh I can't promise that because I promise this and and and so they're in a in a mess And that's and that's really what product fit is about and so product fit is our third Stage when we think about building products and that's that's where if you ever hear anybody say Oh, you're seeing exponential growth or you're seeing hockey stick growth that that is when you've found You've you found what works and you and you you you see kind of a stagnant upward line and all of a sudden you go way up Right. That's that's product market fit And I'm gonna Touch on this So mark anderson is is the guy that kind of coined product market fit and it simply means being in a good market With a product that can satisfy that market. So you've you've identified all your customer needs and your issues And and you've you've found that and you're always going to You're gonna do something and then you're gonna come back to to product market fit This isn't a a step one step two step three Process right these are all iterative Um So so i'm gonna to to skip this one and go to the last section which is which is getting customer feedback Once you've shipped out your your mvp and you you've kind of found some sort of a product market fit The next thing that you want to do is you want to find some sort of customer feedback. So there's five ways To get customer feedback Surveys feedback boxes reaching out directly User activity and usability tests How many people have used surveys to like survey your audience or your products or that kind of stuff? Okay, so i'm gonna skip those. I think we all understand those using survey monkey things like that The the next one is feedback boxes. So has anybody used feedback boxes Few okay, so if you haven't used feedback boxes, it looks like this guy on a website So I just took a small screenshot of it, but what these are allowing you to do is as somebody is is viewing your site Or or your product If they notice something maybe they notice a word that was misspelled or Something wasn't clear to them if they see this feedback box They can click it they can fill out a form and they can give you feedback Chances are they're going to give you that feedback Because they see this if they're not going to go to your support team They're not going to go and find any official way To give you feedback because it's just little nuances that that they're seeing and so feedback boxes are a great way to do that The the third way is reaching out directly This is the way that I think about the most and that's that's finding Your customers so if you have a customer database you can go through it If you're going to be in an area or they're local to you ask them to go to dinner ask them to Get on a phone call, but reach out directly because customers love to give you feedback and and I am on at least a customer call a week Getting feedback from from our customers Another way which is the fourth way is user activity from your analytics. So if you're uh, if your Product is web based so somebody's going to your website to access it You already have google analytics installed so you can start to look through those analytics. I prefer heap analytics. It gives you um a much better Configuration upfront and then you can ask questions later because it's just going to grab a bunch of data and then it's going to say Um, you know three months later. I want to know about something I didn't have to set it up google analytics requires you to set up all the things at the beginning Where heap is just like here. Just give us the data and you can ask your questions later So you can use your analytics. You can find trends. You can find groups and segments of people and then you can then you can further Work with them, right? You could send out a survey You could reach out to that group because you're working on a specific feature or a specific solution to to a problem And and I left already with that one so the last one is usability tests Has anybody ever been like contacted either from from the web or in an email to to run a usability test? No, okay, so usability tests are actually the the like least popular Especially in the wordpress space But the the the wordpress design team is is doing more and more usability tests. They did they ran some at wu-comf Back in october and then they ran some at wordcamp us back in december, but For a long time usability tests would require you to go and hire outside people And have them pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars to put together these tests to watch your users Work on your website hit hit something You know download your product do do specific tasks and today we can use something called user testing.com And it's like 39 bucks and we can have them We give them a step-by-step process of what we want them to do so do this do this do that And and go complete. So if you're if you're doing a checkout process or you're building a sign-up process You could you could run usability tests on that the great thing about usability tests that the other four options Of getting customer feedback Are going to help you with is it gets you to to like Look right over the shoulder of a customer And have them or or even a visitor and have Exactly what's going on they're they're going to talk through each step. Okay. Well, I think I should click on this Let me click on that. Oh that didn't work. Let me go back, right? These are the types of things that you only get when you have a chance to sit down with your customer So so usability tests are are extremely helpful. I've got like two minutes left so I just want to wrap it up with with this Once once something gets passed and the education stuff did get passed president Bartlett would always end everything with a What's next what what is next for you? Hopefully this has has given you a framework To go back and and take your idea from idea to product Thank you. I'm aj Product manager. You can follow me at aj morris Thanks, I'm on the button I think we have one one time for one question Nope, okay