EESTEC Magazine Vol 33 2013/2 | Page 53

So you have a business idea? DON’T just do it! Text: Matic Jesenovec LC Ljubljana Photographs: Web 20 years ago rockstars ruled the world and if you were in a band you were the coolest kid in the block. Today it seems that entrepreneurs are the new rockstars and instead of a band you have a startup. However, the word startup often seems to be misunderstood. It’s not just about having a business or being your own boss. It’s really about having an idea. An idea that no one else had before. By the de?nition of Steve Blank, the father of the lean startup methodology, a startup is a temporary organization in search of a scalable, repeatable, pro?table business model. Does that make sense? Every app is not quite yet a startup. A hairdressing salon is also usually not a startup. Startup means you’re starting something new, something no one has tried before. And you have to make a business out of it. Are we a bit more clear about what a startup is now? And you still want to do it? Great, then stay with me and we’ll go through the ?rst steps you should make. What happens very often to us, engineers, is that we become extremely excited about our techy idea. We plan to ?nish it in a month, actually ?nish it in 5 months, we show it to a friend who thinks it’s amazing but it lacks a few features, we close ourself in the room 53 for another 3 months, implement all the features and, bam, we’re done before you could say… oh, wait, no, we just spent almost a year to build something no one wants to use. Yes, it’s a very common problem - the idea seems brilliant to you, but in this admiration you might be - forever alone. Now let’s look at the right way to build a product. Before you do ANY coding, go stand in front of a whiteboard for a while and think it through, draw some mockups, sketch some diagrams, think who your potential customers are, etc. As your idea is getting more clear, open Google and search the web. Find if there’s anything similar on the market, ?nd out why your idea is better. Next comes the scariest part, but since we’re EESTECers, this shouldn’t be a problem - by now you should have a general idea about who your ideal customers would be, now get out of your dark room and talk to them! But be careful, give them as little info about your idea as possible. People are nice, therefore they will lie to you because they won’t tell you in your face that your idea sucks. Ask them questions that, when answered, could kill or completely change your idea. Never seek for approval and ignore compliments. Don’t talk about opinions and ideas, talk about their life as it is, try to ?gure out how they’re currently solving the problem that your product will solve. I strongly suggest you to read The mom test by Rob Fitzpatrick. It’s a short book and it explains in details how not to screw up your customer interviews. Now you understand your customers and their problems, so it’s ?nally time to start building, right? Yep! But not the product yet. What you should do now is to put up a landing page and