 Groupon. Zappo's founder, Nick Swinmurn, didn't start by stocking up big amounts of shoes and investing in an e-commerce backend. Instead, he went to local shoe shops. He would ask the owner's permission to take photos of shoes and put them online. Once the orders started flowing in, he went to the shop, bought the pair that was ordered, shipped it, handled payments, returns, all of it by himself and by hand. Drew Houston, Dropbox founder, used an ultra-low fidelity explainer video to test interest in file sharing and the Dropbox solution. The screencast was enough to give early adopters a hint of the product experience. It was enough to get many smart people to give them the same feedback as if putting the product in their hands. The new version of the video had the waiting list of emails jump from 5,000 to 75,000 in one single day. The explainer video served them so well that it is almost the only thing still featured on their landing page.
SUPER JULIE: Part of launching a product is testing. When I was at Bath and Bodyworks, many years ago, we had 3 test stores. In those 3 stores, we tried everything for 1-2 weeks before we looked at the results. Based upon those 3 stores, we built the first 30, and then 100, then 2,400 before I left the company. It's all about defining a group or location and try, try, try. Bill, how do you test your products?
BILL: Create the lowest fidelity representation of your product possible and test it with potential customers. Do you remember Franklin Mint Coins? They'd do full page ads selling their commemorative coins. The ads looked great and the coins looked real. The ads asked people submitting orders to allow for 6-8 weeks before delivery. The ad was Franklin Mint's MVP to test the market and they built only enough coins to satisfy demand. Overtime they learned the interests of the market. Dropbox was drawn out, and re-drawn several times, and fully tested with customers before any code was written.
ZEF: How much money are you spending on the testing?
BILL: Zero. Use sites like KickOffLabs to create free landing pages and push traffic using social media and email.
SUPER JULIE: Our entire business is about testing and trying and we are still continuing to improve and learn everyday. I can't put a hard number on it because it's ingrained in our entire business.
﻿"Super Julie Braun is the Co-founder of SuperInterns.com and she has worked with hundreds of employers and schools, and thousands of virtual interns all across the country. As a thought leader in working virtually, Super Julie has helped companies and organization transform their “brick and mortar” thinking to “online” thinking and having the opportunity to work any time and from any place in the world with interns."
"Bill Kenney is the founder of Test My Pitch, an online platform that helps business accelerators and incubators harness and exploit the potential energy in their community."
Join us for more post-show conversations and interactions in our Google + community!
Get help - especially hands-on guidance from people who have done what you are looking to do, which can save time and sleepless nights!
Get your ideas out there! Testing is a great idea, get feedback, learn, change, and then launch!
Don't be afraid to fail! If something doesn't work, tweak it, change it, or throw it away and start over.
Ask for the truth. If all you want to hear is how awesome you are, then your company won't really be able to grow. You should encourage people to tell you what needs to change or to be honest in the problems they experience so that you can fix it and come up with alternative plans.
Limit your tests to a few so you can actually see a difference, like a "control group"
The best rule is to keep it simple. Steering potential customers to a nice looking landing page with your offering is a great way to start. Simply ask visitors to leave their email address if they're interested in more information or if they'd like to be beta customers. This is also a great way to find your early adopters.
Don't fall in love with your idea! Use your testing to inform you about the marketability of your idea. Evolve your idea as customers share their feedback.
Make your testing as independent as possible. Be aware that your personal biases will affect the process. Design a process that minimizes tester bias.
Be okay with failure. Failure is a critical part of the learning process; take Thomas Edison for example. When asked by a report about his more than 1,000 failed attempts to invent the light bulb, Thomas Edison said that those weren't failures; he proved 1,000 ways not to make a light bulb.
In his book, Eric Ries provides a scientific approach to new product development. The book teaches entrepreneurs different principles of the "lean startup" theory, such as how to eliminate uncertainty, how to work smarter, not harder, how to develop an MVP, as well as how to validate learning.The Two Solitudes Derby is one of the most exciting rivalries in Major League Soccer. Today we take an in-depth look at what was, for many, the day it truly became so thrilling.
Patrice Bernier and Hassoun Camara weren’t selected for the player profile solely for their passion. They also played a big role in one particularly important Two Solitudes Derby game.
The date was October 18th, 2014, at BMO Field. Toronto had two games remaining in the season, and needed to win both to even have a shot at making the playoffs. With their very first postseason berth on the line, and their biggest rival in town, you can imagine the stakes were high for Toronto FC in this game.
Montreal, on the other hand, were just looking at this match as a consolation prize. They had already all but assured their dead-last finish in the league by this point - #frankklopas - but had stolen the Voyageurs Cup from Toronto on an away goal, coming in a 1-1 draw at BMO Field in June. It would have been a satisfying end to a disappointing season to kick Toronto while they were down, so the Impact, too, were out for blood.
THE CANADIAN IN ME WANTS A CANADIAN TEAM TO QUALIFY [FOR THE PLAYOFFS]. 
Still, if you asked fans that morning if there was a strong, fiery rivalry between the two teams, they probably would have said no.
Camara was given an early yellow card after just four minutes of play for a rough tackle against Toronto DP Gilberto. This was Camara’s tenth yellow on the season, and he drew 7 the year before, which earned him a reputation.
Fifteen minutes later, Warren Creavalle opened the scoring for Toronto, with Camara and Bush sharing the blame for it. Both misread a deflected ball that went high into the air inside the 18 yard box and were not in place to defend Creavalle’s shot.
For a moment, Toronto’s playoff dream seemed like it wasn’t quite dead. Then, in the thirty ninth minute, Bernier and Andres Romero combined to set up Felipe Martins for the equalizer. Bernier’s perfect long ball from midfield to the 18 was highlight reel material, up there Calum Mallace’s ball for Cameron Porter in the CCL semifinals.
The half finished without much incident, and the second half started similarly. Matteo Ferrari earned a yellow card in the 55th minute for a tackle that looked a lot like Camara’s early shenanigans, but it was generally your standard rivalry game fare until the last ten minutes of play.
At that point, the game descended into complete madness.
Heath Pearce tackled then-Toronto FC player Dominic Oduro and got a straight red with 8 minutes left of regulation time. Players from both teams were shoving each other in the aftermath, and the referree could barely contain them.
In the 86th minute, after struggling to clear the ball away from both Oduro and Doneil Henry, Montreal turned over one too many times and Dwayne De Rosario got a clear shot on net. Luckily for the Impact, he shot it high over the goal.
Just after that, Jackson was given a yellow for what can really only be described as a body check against Eric Miller. Again, both teams swarmed the ref and shoved each other.
Evan Bush was given a yellow card for time wasting in the 90th minute.
After a half-hearted Toronto attempt at goal, Issey Nakajima-Farran and Marco Di Vaio nearly put one away in the 93rd minute on a Montreal counterattack, but were thwarted by TFC ‘keeper Joe Bendik, and that’s when all hell broke loose.
On the resulting corner, Jonathan Osorio tackled Felipe. In his classic style, Felipe embellished, and Osorio and was given a straight red card. Bendik shouted at the ref, and then picked Felipe up off the ground to prove he was faking.
Bendik took a yellow for his actions (in the books as “dissent”), and with tensions high, De Rosario and Camara both picked up a yellow in the 95th and final minute of the game after tripping one another during a TFC attacking run. Camara’s second yellow saw him off the field, and the game ended in chaotic disaster, fitting after both teams’ disappointing seasons.
Toronto