Summary: Some of my fastest progress has resulted from looking at the whole Lean Canvas, identifying the biggest areas of risk first, and attacking them.
You know those “back of the mind” problems - the ones that keep you up at night? I slept better when I called them out and vetted them right away. In a few cases it took very little time.
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Like how I think? You’ll enjoy working with me on ClaimAway.
Summary: Discovering the right channel to customers completely changed my canvas. I’m glad I started looking for it early - one of the key recommendations in Running Lean.
Content marketing wasn’t working well for ClaimAway. People just are not searching the Internet for information about reconciling medical bills and insurance - they just want the problems to go away.
Once I started talking to associations and advocacy organizations I instantly found a good prospective channel. The resulting conversations changed how I thought about my Lean Canvas.
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Are you a developer or designer in the DC Metro region interested in Lean Startups? Contact me about ClaimAway.
Summary: Following Ash’s Running Lean process linearly from Problem->Solution didn’t work as well as a Problem/Solution discussion.
Running Lean currently advocates for a linear process of focusing on the Problem before proceeding to the solution. This didn’t work that well for me in ClaimAway.
Health care is really complex and most people don’t understand it - they are just mad as heck and looking to vent. So unfortunately “what’s the problem” discussions didn’t provide a lot of insight.
I made better progress with ClaimAway when I started having problem-solution discussions and showing people concepts. This brought focus to the dialog and people quickly told me what did and didn’t interest them.
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Have a child with special needs? Want to join a startup helping people like you?
Summary:
1. Start with face-to-face discussions.
2. Once you identify a target customer segment reach them anyway possible even if your conversation is limited to phone calls.
A key tactic in Running Lean is the power of structured, face-to-face interviews about a problem or solution. I agree with Ash on this - NOTHING beats person-to-person discussion.
However, setting up dozens of in-person meetings took me a lot of time with ClaimAway - driving around sprawling DC is a nightmare. Moreover, my sample set was automatically limited by people within the Washington DC Metro region. In the case of a topic like health care, this meant I was meeting a lot of people with military or federal health plans - people who will not be earlyvangelists for ClaimAway.
Once I started seeing the right customer segment emerge - parents of children with special needs or people with chronic illnesses - engaging with that segment in ANY fashion - phone, email, chat, or smoke signals - beat any general face-to-face discussion.
Looking for a technical co-founder? Adviser? Investor?
Join the club. Entrepreneurs like us know that progress requires building an ecosystem of advocates.
Unfortunately progress can sometimes be hard to demonstrate in a Lean Startup. ”Validated Learning About a Market” can look like no progress at all to many people who are used to measuring progress by tangible activities like products, sales, or partnerships.
The Lean Canvas has helped me keep continuity between discussions and demonstrate tangible progress.
Example:
I initially thought people who care for aging parents would be most interested in ClaimAway. After dozens of interviews I noticed that parents of children with special needs expressed the most enthusiasm.
Before I started using Lean Canvas, it was hard for people to see relevance of key insights like this. Conversations invariably drifted to the “realm of the possible.” When I started pointing them to specific blocks on the Canvas, people could see the service starting to take shape.
My “catch up over lunch” conversations have become more focused and people are starting to get excited about what I’m doing.
What great advice at last weeks dc leanstartup meetup from max ventilla of aardvark (google).
Working from a mindset that I am
It helps clarify next steps and relieve my anxiety. Instead of “sprinting” in all directions and working like maniac I’m focusing on methodically eliminating the highest risks and learning.
And taking time to enjoy life.
In the course of my initial problem interviews I’m discovering that I haven’t been specific enough. I’m working on a redefinition.
Old:
1.Health Care Financial Information is confusing and not centrally organized in a way that lets us make sense of it.
2.Tracking and reconciling bills, errors, between providers and insurance is tedious.
3.Insurance information is not prioritized and we are forced to open every EOB.
New:
1. Health insurance EOBs, bills, and web sites are overwhelming and confusing.
2. Reconciling bills against EOBs is tedious and time consuming.
3. It is hard to organize notes, conversations, and letters when troubleshooting problems or questions.
As always, advice appreciated
How the Business Model Canvas provides continuity of discussions.
When I’m trying to start something new I find myself having ongoing, often disconnected conversations between potential investors, customers, parters, co-founders, etc. over a period of months or years.
I’ve often struggled with ways to keep the continuity of discussion going about my new startup, and ClaimAway is no exception.
I find that the Canvas is very useful in that regard. It allows me to refer to “what we discussed last time” and related it to my challenges of the day.
Call it “Flintstoning”, “Manualating (opposite of automating”), or simply “do it by hand first”, it is one of my favorite leanstartup tactics.
Instead of: skinny controller, fat model
Think: skinny controller, no model
Unlike my previous startups where I decided to build crazy complex business logic before even knowing I had a problem, with ClaimAway I’m only building business logic when I absolutely need it.
I try to do whatever I can by hand first and gradually add automation when it gets too complex to manage.
Today was a great example. I was able to “launch” a new feature for one of my customers almost instantly. They manualating part of it will take only a few minutes a week, no big deal since I’m so early with the product.
Of course the ultimate manualating ninjas are the guys from Food On the Table.
Now that my canvas and dashboard are drafted, next step is to start recruiting Problem Advisers and Solution Advisers - people with whom I can do a monthly quick review of my assumptions for feedback and advise.
I’m hoping this strategy helps me start building an ecosystem around ClaimAway of potential customers, strategic advisers, co-founders, and employees.
In the best case it will give them insight into what I’m doing and let them see the company evolve with little time commitment on their part.
