Founder Fridays No. 38
Founder Fridays No. 38
Helping founders scale smarter.
Happy Friday. This week’s briefing is focused on product development.
Before we dive into the briefing, I need your opinion. Founder Fridays is a little over a year old and the readership has grown rapidly. We’re now a community of over 30,000 savvy founders and operators. But I don’t feel like I know you at all.
Can you take 2 minutes to give me some advice?
I’d love to get to know you a bit better and get your perspective on what’s working and how I can make the briefing better for you. Click here to give me feedback.
Design Sprint
The sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping and testing ideas with customers. Developed at GV (formerly Google Ventures), it’s a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking and more — packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use. Working together in a sprint, you can shortcut the endless-debate cycle and compress months of time into a single week. Instead of waiting to launch a minimal product to understand if an idea is any good, you’ll get clear data from a realistic prototype. The sprint gives you a superpower: You can fast-forward into the future to see your finished product and customer reactions before making any expensive commitments. GV (8 minutes)
Behavioral Economics and Product Design
Kristen Berman is the CEO and co-founder of Irrational Labs, where she helps companies such as Google, Airbnb, PayPal, Microsoft and LinkedIn improve their products and services through behavioral design research. She is also the co-founder of Common Cents Lab, a Duke University initiative dedicated to improving the financial well-being of low- to middle-class Americans. In this interview, Kristen shares the 3B Framework of Behavioral Design and uses real-life examples to illustrate what influences behavior change and the common biases that get in the way of building successful products. She also explains how to keep users engaged and how you can implement behavioral design research to drive innovation and growth. YouTube (56 minutes)
Knowing What It’s Not
Defining the negative space is a unique technique in product management that involves defining what a product should not be or what it fails to deliver. When there are too many options at hand, it becomes difficult to make a decision. In such situations, going in the opposite direction can be a cheat code. For instance, during World War II, a statistician named Abraham Wald analyzed the damage distribution of returning bombers and suggested strengthening the parts that showed no damage instead of adding armor to the places where returning planes had the most damage. In product management, defining what a product is not can help in understanding what the user wants and dislikes about the product. This technique can also help in writing a clear product vision and defining what a product has to offer. The more detailed the negative image, the better, like the shape of a mold/cast. Highlighting the negative space of something can shine new light on the actual thing itself. UX Collective (9 minutes)
Founder FAQ: What are the different types of startup investors?
Startup investors come in various forms, including venture capitalists who usually invest large sums of money and angel investors who invest smaller amounts of money for a smaller stake in the company. Friends and family may also provide funding through small checks for a small stake in the company. Crowdfunding platforms allow startups to raise money from large groups of individual investors. Incubators and accelerators can provide resources and mentorships to early-stage startups in exchange for a small stake. Each type of investor has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to carefully consider which type is best suited to your company’s goals. Westaway (7 minutes)
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term by term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Move Fast. Don’t Break Things.
Hi! I’mKyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for aflat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm.Click here to schedule a 1-on-1 call with me.