Creating A Minimal Viable Product Part 3: A Look At Thrive Hive

In the series, “Creating A Cupcake: Instead of the Whole Cake”, I’m taking at look at how to create a smaller version of your digital product before going all out with the full version. This approach, known as a minimal viable product, allows you to focus on delivering a very specific feature without all the bells and whistles and build on it as you incorporate feedback and learn.

I see it as the K.I.S.S approach to product development (keep it short and simple) and can be applied to pretty much anything. For example- starting out with social media? Instead of trying to DO IT ALL- start small, join a few key platforms and then take it from there!

In this post, we will look at an example of a minimal viable product and the tools that were used to create it.

As a techy who loves to try every tool out there, I definitely have to reign myself in more often than not!

Creating A Minimal Viable Product

For instance, when launching Thrive Hive, an online community for women entrepreneurs, we could have chosen anyone of the following options:

($ no to low cost, $$ moderate, $$$ high)

Option 1: Set up a custom white-label network using Ning which starts at $25/month not to mention the setup time involved. $$
Option 2: Set up a new WordPress site with a membership plugin- costs: hosting, domain, membership plugin, development time $$$
Option 3: Use our existing websites + private Facebook or Google+ group $

Choosing The Tech

Cost was not the only deciding factor when we decided to go the direction we did (which was option 3) but rather what was it that we were trying to accomplish and who were we trying to serve.

We could have easily spent months developing a custom site and then promote it and share it with our communities. This would mean more time developing and less time learning what worked and what didn’t work. It also meant getting people in the habit of spending time on yet another site.

Removing Barriers To Increase Engagement

The same would apply to using Ning, while the development cost would be less we would still have to encourage people to spend time on another site.

However, our target market is already on Facebook (sorry, Google+) and spending tons of time there. Did we really want to add the barrier of having to go somewhere else to engage? Probably not.

Our goal is to connect women entrepreneurs in different stages in their business, share each other’s content and organize online events such as chats and hangouts.

After surveying our audience and getting clear on what was missing in the groups they were currently participating in, we were able to narrow in on our focus and priorities.

Now that’s not to say we would never consider the other options and we could re-evalulate if we outgrew the existing setup, but it was out of scope for our minimal viable product.

Thrive Hive: A Look At The Solution

Sales page: Landing pages on existing sites Amp and Pivot and SidekickPM.

Payment: Paypal recurring payments for subscriptions

Community: Private Facebook group

Communication: Google group for social media posts + Aweber (for sign up + autoresponders)

Group activities: Twitter chats (#thrivechat) and Google Hangouts

Because we used our existing websites and free platforms we were able to keep the actual cost down and the only expense was our time.

Time to development: From idea to launch we were able to execute on this in only 4 weeks (between 2 businesses).

As you can see, when creating your minimal viable product, it helps to look at what solutions already exist but to choose based on what you are trying to accomplish. And as you learn and grow, you can make changes to the technology that you are using.

In the comments below, I’d like to hear what you are launching and if you are considering the “cupcake” approach!

In the final post in this series, we’ll look at some tools you can use to easily create and launch your first digital product.

I like to practice what I preach..check out the new live online-workshop I am running in beta on August 30th.

Sign up below to get the entire series delivered in ebook format (for free*).

Yes, please!

*does not include cupcakes

{Q&A} Should I Use A Social Media Management System?

I got asked this question at a recent talk I gave about the importance of community to help you leap, launch and grow and of course, social media came up! I figured that there are may be others with this burning question so thought I would share:

My answer, a resounding-HELL YEAH!

Seriously, I could not survive* without my social media management system (SMS) of choice, Hootsuite (*yes, total #socialmediafirstworldproblems) and am a big advocate of using these types of tools to manage your social media presence.

Why?

Let me count the ways:

1. Method to the Madness

Twitter.com can be full on chaotic when you first start out. Especially if you’ve gone and followed hundreds of people. The stream moves fast, there are a bajillion conversations happening and you. have . no . idea.

How a management system helps?

With a tool like Hootsuite (which I might add has a free-plan), you can import/create Twitter lists and ~~stalk~~ follow conversations much more closely than you can on Twitter.com. You don’t have to follow your home feed but rather zoom in on the conversations that are more relevant/interesting to you.

2. Manage your multiple personalities from one place

Got multiple identities? You know where you have a profile for your personal use and one for where you want to be a little more business-y? SMS’s have you covered. From your dashboard you can manage your multiple Twitter identities from one place and decide what to post and where. Bonus: you can also add other social networks

3. Actually Join The Conversation

Because of course you want to be able to chime in when people talk about you or share your content. Yep. Instead of scratching your head and wondering what’s going on, management tools have got you covered- you can create different streams that allow you to easily follow keywords related to your brand. For instance, I have a stream with “sidekickpm” that pulls in any blog posts that may have been shared even when my twitter handle @SandySidhu has not been included.

4. Scheduling!

Yep. I said it. And it’s not a bad thing. You can’t be on social media all the time. You just can’t. But your business can be with the help of scheduling. This topic could be a post in itself, but essentially, social media management systems allow you to plan out your social media content ahead of time, something you can’t do directly on Twitter.

Promoting a new service? Schedule out content throughout the week.
Launching a new product? Schedule out teasers before, during and after your launch.
Blogging? Schedule your post to go out at different times of the week to reach different audiences.

5. Keywords, Hashtags and all that

Last but not least, one of my favorite uses of Hootsuite, is to follow keywords/keyword phrases and hashtags. These might be related to questions that I could/want to answer or chats that I want to participate in.

So, are you convinced yet? Let me know in the comments how you plan on using one!

Have a question that you want answered? Submit it here and it just may be the next Q&A featured!

How To Create Your First Online Product Part 2

In the last post, I talked about getting started with your online product and compared the process to creating a cupcake vs the whole cake.

Now we’ll look at how to decide which product to develop (because you have tons of ideas, right?)

To be successful, your product really only needs three things:

Solve a problem

People who want it

A way to get paid

Before we get into the actual tools that you can use to develop your minimal viable product, it’s important to figure out who you’ve created this product for. So how do you figure that out?

Step 1: Identify The Problem

What areas do people generally ask you questions about?
What pain-point can you solve for people?

Think in terms of problem and solution

Step 2: Who has this problem?

Talk to people: Both online (in Facebook/LinkedIn and Google+ groups) and offline at networking events

Pick up the phone and talk to key customers- it helps to have structured questions to start the conversation and to let them know how much of their time you will need.

Survey your audience using a poll on Facebook, or using a survey tool like Survey Monkey or by creating a Google form.

Use tools like Google Keyword Search to see how people are searching for problems that you are hoping to solve

STEP 2 is critical. It’s better to start with an interest list then creating a product that no one wants. And by surveying customers and talking to your audience you will get additional insights as to what problems your ideal customer is struggling with.

In the next post, we’ll start looking at easy low-cost ways to produce and deliver your online product.

Your turn:
Start investigating and figuring out who you would create your first online product for…Leave me a comment below and share the results of a survey you’ve done / or share a link to your survey!