Minimum Viable Product Research Articles

Excelsior-Henderson motorcycles: Could lean start-up methodology have averted a $100-million Mistake?

This case applies the recently proposed lean start-up methodology to the failed Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycle Manufacturing Company. Company founder Dan Hanlon and his family pursued a dream to start a new American motorcycle company based largely on market leader Harley-Davidson’s inability to meet customer demand. Excelsior-Henderson’s founders followed a path of crafting and executing an elaborate business plan filled with goals and assumptions, with no customer discovery, validation, or iterative testing performed. The result was misjudging the complexities and financial demands of the motorcycle industry and an ultimate lack of customer response which led to a loss of US$100 million in capital and eventual bankruptcy. Students will learn to evaluate the challenges start-ups face through the lens of the lean start-up method, including customer discovery and the consideration of a minimum viable product (MVP).

Applying Tools From Human-Centered Design to Social Marketing Planning

In this “Tools From the Field” paper, we report our experiences using human-centered design (HCD), a process for using innovation as a means of developing more effective marketing offerings. The context for our use of HCD tools was a partnership with a new community committee. We combined elements of our previous social marketing frameworks -Community-Based Prevention Marketing (CBPM) for Program Development; CBPM for Policy Development–into a version better suited to address complex, dynamic problems that require a whole-systems perspective. Our product development work for this next iteration of the CBPM framework incorporated several HCD tools adapted from the prolific design firm, IDEO. The HCD process consists of three phases: inspiration (e.g., learning from those that one is designing for), ideation (e.g., brainstorming and prototyping), and implementation (e.g., building partnerships and launching a business model). In this paper, we describe “tools” for the application of HCD within the context of rapidly prototyping and testing CBPM framework activities for use with our community committee partners; we provide practical advice for the use of these tools (“process points”); and we present a real-world application from development of our new CBPM framework (“tools in action”). Overall, the HCD tools from IDEO helped us see new opportunities for our framework, transform insights into actionable ideas, and increase the speed of producing a minimum viable product and gathering feedback on it from our customers. We believe that HCD tools are worth exploring when it comes to the social marketing planning process.

Youth Codesign of a Mobile Phone App to Facilitate Self-Monitoring and Management of Mood Symptoms in Young People With Major Depression, Suicidal Ideation, and Self-Harm.

BackgroundEffective treatment of depression in young people is critical, given its prevalence, impacts, and link to suicide. Clinical practice guidelines point to the need for regular monitoring of depression symptom severity and the emergence of suicidal ideation to track treatment progress and guide intervention delivery. Yet, this is seldom integrated in clinical practice.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to address the gap between guidelines about monitoring and real-world practice by codesigning an app with young people that allows for self-monitoring of mood and communication of this monitoring with a clinician.MethodsWe engaged young people aged 18 to 25 years who had experienced depression, suicidal ideation including those who self-harm, as well as clinicians in a codesign process. We used a human-centered codesign design studio methodology where young people designed the features of the app first individually and then as a group. This resulted in a minimal viable product design, represented through low-fidelity hand-drawn wireframes. Clinicians were engaged throughout the process via focus groups.ResultsThe app incorporated a mood monitoring feature with innovative design aspects that allowed customization, and was named a “well-being tracker” in response to the need for a positive approach to this function. Brief personalized interventions designed to support young people in the intervals between face-to-face appointments were embedded in the app and were immediately available via pop-ups generated by a back-end algorithm within the well-being tracker. Issues regarding the safe incorporation of alerts generated by the app into face-to-face clinical services were raised by clinicians (ie, responding in a timely manner) and will need to be addressed during the full implementation of the app into clinical services.ConclusionsThe potential to improve outcomes for young people via technology-based enhancement to interventions is enormous. Enhancing communication between young people and their clinicians about symptoms and treatment progress and increasing access to timely and evidence-based interventions are desirable outcomes. To achieve positive outcomes for young people using technology- (app) based interventions, it is critical to understand and incorporate, in a meaningful way, the expectations and motivations of both young people and clinicians.

Seed accelerators and the speed of new venture creation

Technology startups need to launch, simultaneously and quickly, innovative products (or services) and organizations, but some are able to launch more quickly than others. This paper explores how some ventures start up very quickly, and the mechanisms by which accelerator programs assist nascent technology ventures to minimize startup time. Through four in-depth case studies of clean technology ventures that started up quickly, two with and two without the aid of accelerators, the rapid launch of startups is explored and accelerator mechanisms are clarified: survival (starting up quickly is a matter of survival), resource network (starting up quickly requires leveraging pre-existing networks) and catching up (accelerators fill gaps to allow inexperienced entrepreneurs to start up quickly). The three mechanisms speed up the launch process and organize scarcity management to motivate the top management team. The paper proposes to extend the minimum viable product concept to the minimum viable start-up as a consequence of acceleration. These three mechanisms for speeding up innovative venture launch are tied to increasing entrepreneurial orientation in the startup technology firm. The practical perspective assists managers of accelerator programs (university-based, economic development, non-profit or for-profit) to design and implement programs that will more effectively fill gaps to help ventures to start up more quickly.

Hybrid Labels Are the New Measure!

Developing minimum viable products (MVPs) is critical for start-up companies to hit the market fast with an accepted level of performance. The US Food and Drug Administration mandates additional nonfunctional requirements in healthcare systems, meaning that the MVP should provide the best availability, privacy, and security. This critical demand is motivating companies to further rely on analytics to optimize the development process. In a collaborative project with Brightsquid, the authors provided a decision-support system based on analogical reasoning to assist in effort estimation, scoping, and assignment of change requests. This experience report proposes a new metric, change request labels, for better prediction. Using different methods for textual-similarity analysis, the authors found that the combination of machine-learning techniques with experts’ manually added labels has the highest prediction accuracy. Better prediction of change impacts allows a company to optimize its resources and provide proper timing of releases to target MVPs. This article is part of a special issue on Actionable Analytics for Software Engineering.

Framework for the agile development of innovative Product-Service-Systems for existing physical rehabilitation systems

Smart Health means innovation of the health sector through digitization. This leads to many possibilities regarding to an effective home-based, self-managed physical rehabilitation. With an innovative Product-Service-System (PSS), patients will have a better access, availability, and affordability of physical rehabilitation. In this contribution we present generic approaches of upgrading existent systems from a technological perspective. Furthermore, we introduce a framework for the agile development of innovative PSS, which could be adapted to other fields. The initial situation is an existing PSS for physical rehabilitation. The framework covers four phases. The planning phase consists of methods from the value based idea creation to Systems Engineering (SE) approaches, which focus on the conception of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The second phase describes a fast prototyping of the previously defined MVP, which addresses the PSS concept and the business model. Based on that, the next phase consists of the validation of the developed prototype and business model by real customers. The result is analyzed in the fourth stage. The learnings are interpreted regarding to the real market demand for the developed PSS. The developed PSS will be improved or completely changed through multiple iterations.

МАРКЕТИНГ ПОСЕВНОЙ СТАДИИ СТАРТАПА ИННОВАЦИИ

The proposed material is a logical continuation of publications on the marketing of innovative startups. The article discusses the stage when innovative product is developing. Marketing of this stage is based on Minimum Viable Product develop, and on searching and researching the future consumers. The author proposes the name of this type of marketing - marketing of innovation. It is shown that the prepared product to launch must have limited functionality, and is not brought to perfection. But this product should be required to pass a variety of testing, from conceptual to actual use by consumers. Key element of this startup stage is product testing by future customers. Article`s attention is addressed to methods for finding and communicating with consumers.

Propuesta de integración del modelo para construcción de soluciones y el modelo de negocio Canvas para el desarrollo de sistemas telemáticos

This article is the result of a research. It proposes a reference framework for using the Canvas Business Model in conjunction with the Solutions Construction Model for the development of telematics systems. By using the CBM and its translation for the modeling of UML-based business and the Rational Unified Process (RUP) guidelines, understanding process of the organizational context where the solution will operate and dialogue between the interested parties becomes easier. Optionally, the use of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is proposed, as defined in the Lean Startup, as complement to the idea of operating the solution scenario before going forward to the construction stages. The reference framework was tested with the development of a telematics solution for the Scho ol of Health Sciences of Universidad del Cauca, showing its advantages and facilitating developers and customers a better understanding of the organizational context and the evolution and definition of the solution to be constructed.

Why Fintech Could Lead to More Financial Crime

Fintech startups aim to disrupt current practices and to do it fast. The emerging business model requires product managers find a buyer need, put out a minimum viable product, and iterate change in response to customer use. However, all this innovation—especially with entrepreneurs who have more tech savvy than experience in financial services—opens opportunities to defraud. Knowing what to look for can help investors and operations managers properly identify risk and reduce the vulnerability to financial crimes.

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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Describe (1) the features of the first release of Duke’s myRESEARCHhome portal for researchers, and 2) the methods and results of adoption strategies METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Through methods described previously (cite ACTS poster, 2016), the myRESEARCHhome portal team conducted a needs assessment to determine priorities for inclusion in the tool. Based on results of that assessment, the “minimal viable product” launched in June 2016 included the following features, organized into 9 distinct widgets: Access to all web-based research applications; ability to find and request research services; at-a-glance view of financial, protocol, and salary distribution information; access to financial and personnel reports; access to status of agreements and patents; access to CTSA-supported navigation services; visibility into required training and expiration dates; listing of announcements relevant to researchers; customized links area; ability to customize portal. The portal was developed using Ruby on Rails™, with a REACT grid framework. The development team, internal to Duke University, followed industry-standard best practices for development. After the initial release, the team employed several strategies to ensure awareness and adoption. Although written communications were an important factor for awareness, the presentations and hands-on studios proved most important. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Use of the portal was directly related to in-person outreach efforts. There were small spikes after written communications, but strategies such as presentations, hands-on demonstrations, training sessions, and faculty meetings garnered the steadiest adoption rates. As of early January, 2017, almost 3000 users have interacted with the portal, with numbers rising steadily. There are an estimated 10,000+ faculty, staff, and trainees engaged in research at Duke. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: To maintain high adoption rates with the research community, engagement strategies must be ongoing. In addition to frequent in-person demonstrations, updates via written communications, and attendance at events, the portal team will employ a key adopt strategy—engaging the researchers in ongoing needs assessments. By maintaining the portal’s relevance to the needs of the research community, the tool can better improve the efficiency of research at a large academic medical center.

PLANNING TECHNOLOGICAL BUSINESSES: A STUDY OF MARKET POSITIONING AND THE VALUE CHAIN

ABSTRACT Purpose: To evaluate the applicability, contributions, and adaptations required for a decision support model in the context of a business model's definition. The business model refers to 10 technological projects. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: The paper attempts to empirically validate the model proposed by Reis, Ladeira, and Fernandes (2015). In this regard, the paper facilitates the interpretation and application of concepts relevant to the business model's definition, thereby contributing to an estimation between theory and entrepreneurial practice. Key methodological aspects: The research is qualitative and adopts an action research methodology regarding 10 participating projects of the Incentive Program for Innovation held in the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. We conducted interviews with 38 professionals in order to understand the model's applicability in different contexts and to assess convergences and differences between each analyzed case. Summary of key results: The model's application proved to be relevant mainly for the early stages of business planning. The inclusion of the minimum viable product in the model helped with resource design and the development of a product with similar characteristics to market needs. It was suggested that the criteria used to assist the decision-making process were evaluated and selected by the team in accordance with the intended business strategy. Key considerations/conclusions: It is suggested that future research evaluates the inclusion of i) risk analysis and a contingency plan for the proposed business model and ii) the valuation of technology as an important step for projects that include the transfer of technology to established companies.

Development of prototype for user interface of information system

For intellectual activity in the time of information explosion, it is necessary to explore a lot of documents obtained from open sources of the Internet. The object of research is the interface and structure of the information system. This system allows to reduce the processed information flow by filtering documents. The filtration is based on the documents set clustering. This method is seldom used due to the complexity of the user interface.To solve this problem, it is proposed to use the mind map view for visualizing the clustering results. The cluster hierarchy automatically creates the initial graph of the map nodes. The binary graph of the clustering results will automatically transform to the n-ary graph tree. The n is no more than the Yngve-Miller's number and should be determined by the user. The user also controls the mapping of clusters to the mind map, using SQL-queries.The structure of the information system is determined. This system uses free software solutions as its integral parts. Neural network subsystem is required to adapt to the specific user needs.A prototype of the mind map user interface is developed. It is made in JavaScript and is represented as a web page. A list of the main use cases for implementation in the MVP (the minimum viable product) is given.

Startup Intelligence: New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs of the Digital Economy Through Knowledge-Based Market Decisions

This article examines to what extent entrepreneurs of the digital economy are in a position to take adequate decisions regarding their target market, what kind of information they need in order to achieve this objective and what challenges they face in the process. The findings of this article represent in essence a summary of the author’s doctoral thesis. The major challenges confronting startups of the digital economy in evaluating their target markets and taking the decisions required in this context center around the fact that these companies are forced to get by on a minimum of resources while at the same time having to cope with a high degree of uncertainty (information deficits). Nevertheless, venture capitalists and banks expect them to analyze their target markets comprehensively and to argue and act in accordance with the results of these analyses. This involves in particular: ✦ inference of the scaling potential of the market (TAM); ✦ inference of suitable revenue models; ✦ inference of indexed product features (mini-mum viable product); ✦ inference of market entry strategies; etc. This article briefly outlines the approach recommended to startups for properly analyzing their target markets, compares it to the approach startups actually take, and discusses what is feasible in real-world scenarios.

Technopreneurship as an outcomes-based education tool applied in some engineering and computing science programme

Batangas State University is a premier university in the CALABARZON Region in the Philippines. Last June 2015–May 2016, the highest number of enrollees was recorded at 45,860, but transition to the 13-year basic education (K-12), resulted in enrollment drop to 37,966. Fifteen per cent of the population are engineering majors. True to its motto of Leading Innovations, Transforming Lives, BatStateU established Center for Technopreneurship and Innovation (CTI) last Fiscal Year 2014–2015. Technopreneurship course was piloted in the Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology. The researchers aim to determine how technopreneurship contributes in honing the entrepreneurial and innovative skills of students. The researchers conducted survey assessment and evaluation among students of the course with a demo day as a culminating activity wherein participants pitch their Minimum Viable Products (MVP). After four semesters, 1260 students and 20 faculty facilitators were provided with hands-on skills in technopreneurship. From a traditional mindset, students were equipped with skills and courage to be employers of start-ups. Technopreneurship is an Outcomes-Based Education Assessment tool for the students’ ability to communicate effectively; ability to function on multidisciplinary teams; and ability to design and implement MVPs

Towards Automated Capturing and Processing of User Feedback for Optimizing Mobile Apps

Mobile devices are nowadays ubiquitous and are heavily used for business and private purposes. Millions of apps exist that support users in multiple ways, e.g., for car navigation, fitness purposes, or messaging in our private lives, but also for business planning purposes and even for controlling whole business processes. Failures in mobile business apps can lead to dramatic consequences in terms of lost revenue, but also in terms of lost trust or even threats for human beings, and thus quality plays a crucial role. On the other hand, as software is nowadays one of the main drivers for innovation, fast delivery of new apps, respectively new functionality, is necessary, i.e., the time to market must often be short. However, in order to understand whether the quality is sufficient, and whether the functionality of the app serves the needs of the users, lean development approaches are emerging and propose the deployment of apps as a minimal viable product (MVP). Here, the app is provided with acceptable quality, but not with every feature, just with the main functionality. Based on such an MVP, early feedback from users is to be collected, which may be related to the quality of the app, but also include wishes and requests for new functionality. In order to analyze and draw conclusions from user feedback, we first have to understand what kind of feedback exists and how it can be interpreted, respectively how valid such feedback is. In this publication, we provide a classification of user feedback for mobile apps, derive feedback channels, and sketch how this can be used in a continuous process to improve mobile apps.

Running Lean Startup in the Classroom: From Idea to Experiment in 1 Week

Entrepreneurship education is increasingly shifting from learning about entrepreneurship to developing entrepreneurial skills. One skill all entrepreneurship students need to develop is the ability to assess whether or not there is a market for their new product or service. Recent popular trade books like Eric Ries’s Lean Startup and Ash Maurya’s Running Lean provide insights into how to capture validated learning to determine what people really want. This experiential classroom exercise allows entrepreneurship students ranging from undergraduates to executive MBA candidates to go through an entire cycle of Ries’s build-measure-learn” framework that is central to the lean startup. This exercise consists of five modules—customer persona, value proposition canvas, experiment map, minimum viable product, and running the experiment—that can be completed over five lecture sessions. Students learn how to “run lean,” determine the market for a new product or service, and apply these skills later in new ventures or established firms.

(Invited) Industrialization Trial of a Biosensor Technology

Sensor network systems using mobile phones with several physical sensors can collect big data related to human health. The addition of low-cost chemical sensors to the sensor system increases the scientific prescription based on contemporary medicine. The authors examine the commercialization of a system based on the concept of physiological balance sensing. Individuals and animals possess biological barrier systems against various stressors. This study offers a system that constantly monitors biological barrier functions on the epithelial layers by using an ion sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) sensor and feedback recommendations and precipitations through a smart phone [1]. The initial business trial of the ISFET sensor was developed jointly with Horiba, Ltd. to provide a micro-pH meter with no reference electrodes. The sensor chip consisted of two ISFETs, namely a chip that detected the hydrogen ion concentration [H3O+] and another chip that was unaffected by [H3O+]. The differential signal between both the chips is converted to a pH value without using a reference electrode [2]. This holds tremendous potential from a research viewpoint. However, the expected market size did not meet the expectations of a large company. The next business trial involved establishing two approaches to commercialization. The first approach involved a public finance start-up with an existing large company. This approach is usually effective when a technological breakthrough is required. Universities were expected to play a key role in organizing a joint venture by combining several existing enterprises, and thus this was included in the objectives of the Radical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program (COI STREAM) of the Center of Innovation Science and Technology that was launched by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). A wireless multi-target ISFET system that detected, analyzed, and provided feedback on physiological substances in biological barriers was developed. This program involved a collaboration between the Waseda University and two private enterprises (Riken Genesis Co., Ltd. and Toppan Printing Co. Ltd). Certain key molecules for monitoring the balance sensing such as cortisol do not possess electric polarization. Hence, the role of aptamers that deformed to change the charge distribution within a Debye length was investigated for the detection of these non-polarized molecules by ISFET. This entailed a collaboration with another government program (the Adaptible and Seamless Technology transfer Program through target driven R&D (A-STEP)) to develop artificial nucleotides with NEC Solution Innovators, Ltd. and to develop the aptamers with high sensitivity and high selectivity with Gunma University. Another approach included a small startup from Waseda University in the Enhancing Development of Global Entrepreneur (EDGE) program of MEXT. The first trial of the startups was a pet business, which served a skin monitoring system by using an ISFET sensor for pets. A wireless ISFET system was developed for animal skin care and it included a simple and quick skin pH measurement method applicable to both humans and dogs. As part of the first stage in customer discovery, students interviewed several dog-owners and their pets who participated in a dog run at a big park by showing a prototype as the minimum viable product (MVP) [3]. None of the dog-owners were interested in the MVP, as all the pets were young and healthy. Since there were no true customers, alternative areas were explored. The next target entailed animal hospitals with unhealthy dogs. However, veterinary doctors did not want to purchase the products as they believed in the accuracies of their diagnoses. The next area explored was dog-grooming services. In these services, there were constant complaints that customers did not accept their suggestions despite being informed about symptoms of a cutaneous disease. Hence, the dog-grooming services could be the early adapters of the first product. At this stage, it is difficult to determine the approach that leads to industrialization success. Hence, further explorations are required in order to “embrace the struggle” [4].

Iterative development of Vegethon: a theory-based mobile app intervention to increase vegetable consumption.

BackgroundMobile technology may serve as a cost-effective and scalable tool for delivering behavioral nutrition interventions. This research sought to iteratively develop a theory-driven mobile app, Vegethon, to increase vegetable consumption.MethodsDevelopment of Vegethon followed phases outlined by the IDEAS framework: 1) empathize with users (qualitative interviews, n = 18); 2) specify target behavior; 3) ground in behavioral theory; 4) ideate implementation strategies; 5) prototype potential products; 6) gather user feedback (qualitative interviews, n = 14; questionnaire, n = 41); 7) build minimum viable product; and 8) pilot potential efficacy and usability (pilot RCT, n = 17). Findings from each phase informed subsequent phases. The target population that informed intervention development was 18–50 years of age, had BMIs of 28–40 kg/m2, and lived in the geographical area surrounding Stanford University. A full description of the final version of Vegethon is included in the paper.ResultsQualitative findings that shaped initial intervention conception were: participants’ interests in accountability without judgment; their desire for simple and efficient dietary self-monitoring; and the importance of planning meals in advance. Qualitative findings identified during intervention refinement were the need for a focus on vegetable self-monitoring; inclusion of vegetable challenges; simplification of features; advice and inspiration for eating vegetables; reminder notifications; and peer comparison. Pilot RCT findings suggested the initial efficacy, acceptance, and feasibility of the intervention. The final version of Vegethon enabled easy self-monitoring of vegetable consumption and included a range of features designed to engage the user (e.g., surprise challenges; leaderboard; weekly reports). Vegethon was coded for its inclusion of 18 behavior change techniques (BCTs) (e.g., goal setting; feedback; social comparison; prompts/cues; framing/reframing; identity).ConclusionsVegethon is a theory-based, user-informed mobile intervention that was systematically developed using the IDEAS framework. Vegethon targets increased vegetable consumption among overweight adults and is currently being evaluated in a randomized controlled efficacy trial.Trial registrationClinical Trials.gov: NCT01826591

Ongoing Threats to Emerging Financial Entities

In the twenty-first century the pace of technological advancement shows no signs of stopping. Old technologies are being discarded as obsolete or are transformed in ways that nobody could have foreseen even a half-decade ago. Along with these radical changes come vulnerabilities and threats to infrastructure, including informational and financial which must be considered and protected. This is not to say that basic security measures must continue to be neglected in favor of rapid development and deployment to provide a Minimum Viable Product to customers; basic security protocols become all the more important under these circumstances. Improving faster are attacks against the new infrastructure; technique and technology tend to change along generally accepted sets of rules while attackers follow no rules or guidelines. This fundamental asymmetry leaves defenders at a distinct advantage in several ways, including ethical concerns (“There are some lines we will not cross” versus “By any means necessary”), monetary considerations (“Return on investment” versus “The resources aren’t ours to begin with, so who cares”) and pragmatism (“We exist to make money to improve shareholder value” versus “Because it’s there”). That said, measurable, repeatable, and effective countermeasures exist which can be deployed on an enterprise-wide basis to help level the playing field by deterring attackers. This paper will discuss these threats along with active and passive countermeasures for same.

The RIGHT model for Continuous Experimentation

Abstract Context: Development of software-intensive products and services increasingly occurs by continuously deploying product or service increments, such as new features and enhancements, to customers. Product and service developers must continuously find out what customers want by direct customer feedback and usage behaviour observation. Objective: This paper examines the preconditions for setting up an experimentation system for continuous customer experiments. It describes the RIGHT model for Continuous Experimentation (Rapid Iterative value creation Gained through High-frequency Testing), illustrating the building blocks required for such a system. Method: An initial model for continuous experimentation is analytically derived from prior work. The model is matched against empirical case study findings from two startup companies and further developed. Results: Building blocks for a continuous experimentation system and infrastructure are presented. Conclusions: A suitable experimentation system requires at least the ability to release minimum viable products or features with suitable instrumentation, design and manage experiment plans, link experiment results with a product roadmap, and manage a flexible business strategy. The main challenges are proper, rapid design of experiments, advanced instrumentation of software to collect, analyse, and store relevant data, and the integration of experiment results in both the product development cycle and the software development process.