Getting rid of the dampness of a startup (project) using Persona, Concept Map and Customer Journey Map
- Tutorial
Most recently, I completed the first iteration of documenting and prototyping a startup, the idea of which was initially described by a 68-page document, which (it’s easy to guess) had little chance of becoming punchy.
A startup consists of creating an interactive solution and an entire ecosystem around it, affecting development, privacy, the legal field, promoting commercial content, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, creating not only specialized software, but also hardware, etc.
The main task was to create a system that would allow
1) to integrate disparate facts about individual pieces of the ecosystem;
2) collect adaptive (to the public, allotted time, environment) pitch;
3) have a feedback loop for calibrating the pitch (and ideas in general) as the number of presentation contacts with venture capitalists grows.
The task has much in common with what I work with as part of Customer Experience (CX) design. The following deliverables were created: Persona , Concept Map , Customer Journey Map , Card Sorting was used at almost every stage.
I will tell you very briefly about each stage, I suggest asking clarifying questions in the comments - if the topic continues, then I will dwell on each with details.
We began to analyze the audience with which business meetings are coming, sort and organize future interlocutors, paying attention to the following things: age, gender, education (whether technical was separately noted), self-presentation elements (quotes, statements in interviews / blogs, assessments of what is happening in the startup world ), branches of the economy, recent investments (volumes by branches), speech patterns, communication channels (from the question - how many handshakes between us - to which e-mail client on which device does it use, i.e. how many first with messages will be visible on the first contact), etc.
The main thing is to single out the clusters, the initial 4 (built on the form of the proposed investments) were as follows:
1) those who invest material values;
2) those who invest intangible assets (disseminate information);
3) those who, having become interested in the idea of a startup, will actualize in communication with their colleagues a problem that is close to the one with which our ecosystem is in contact (it will spread itching);
4) all the rest
In the future, the criteria for clustering will change. The value of each criterion - clusters are allocated, for each of which you should create your own special version of the pitch / presentation / prototype.
Having an elemental pitch on hand, we began to make a systematic one out of it, removing redundancy and revealing where there are gaps and incompleteness of knowledge. All phenomena were combed using the visual code of Dan Roem. The elemental description was split up and arranged on the shelves: Who / What, How much, Where, When, How, Why. Then everything that appeared on the Who / What shelf (objects) was summarized in the mind map. With the help of card sorting (card = top in the mind map) we managed to achieve optimization - the objects were arranged in a hierarchy: the most generalized ones came out from the central topic of the mind map (consumers, technological environment, market, contractors, finances, ...), then in the second and in the following circles from the central topic, they became more and more refined until they reached the “leaves” like controller X, financial document of form N, etc.
Already at this stage, it is possible to form pitches varying in degree of detail (coverage of circles from the central topic) - designed for different presentation times. The tops of the mind map Who / What is overgrown with details from the remaining shelves (How many, where, ...).
Having a mind map, we can build a diagram of how its individual vertices interact with each other: we build a table with 8 columns: P, action (control), Q, how much, where, when, how, why, and begin to fill it with the following rule: we take all possible pairs of objects (P, Q) from one circle of the mind map and find out which main action unites them (for example: P = end user, Q = technological environment, action = interacts, we get a line - the end user interacts with technological Wednesday), in the remaining columns we will add the detail and interaction (how much, where, when, how, why). Thus, we will collect all kinds of connections of objects from one circle with each other. Then we visualize all these connections. For example, the fact
The venture capitalist is seen as the buyer of the idea, we present his acquaintance with the idea as a walk, and we will collect episodes of this walk in the so-called Customer Journey Map. To do this, determine what will make him go for a walk along our route (general interest, recommendation from an authoritative source, triggers in the description of the idea) - 3-4 factors that will put him at the starting point of our route. At the same time, we will take into account the context from which he comes before the walk and into what context he will leave it. We will formulate each episode, noting the following points:
1) the scene,
2) the act / action,
3) what is used / what the interaction is with,
4) thoughts (what the venture capitalist is supposedly thinking about),
5) emotional response, a choice of three options - :): | :(,
6) opportunities / growth points,
7) reasons for the failure (of this episode) / thin spots where it breaks,
8) communication channels,
9) (missing) artifacts
We use the concept map to describe the contents of episodes (scenes), filling in the columns Customer Journey Map. In the future, communicating with venture capitalists, we will use this tool that describes walk episodes (acquaintance with parts of the ecosystem), and to collect feedback - which episodes were impassable, which caused a negative emotional response, in which there is a grain for entering new episodes what additional artifacts to reveal the essence you need to create.
The format of the documents in the illustrations and links to examples of artifacts should answer some questions that have arisen, I am ready to answer all the others in the comments.
A startup consists of creating an interactive solution and an entire ecosystem around it, affecting development, privacy, the legal field, promoting commercial content, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, creating not only specialized software, but also hardware, etc.
The main task was to create a system that would allow
1) to integrate disparate facts about individual pieces of the ecosystem;
2) collect adaptive (to the public, allotted time, environment) pitch;
3) have a feedback loop for calibrating the pitch (and ideas in general) as the number of presentation contacts with venture capitalists grows.
The task has much in common with what I work with as part of Customer Experience (CX) design. The following deliverables were created: Persona , Concept Map , Customer Journey Map , Card Sorting was used at almost every stage.
I will tell you very briefly about each stage, I suggest asking clarifying questions in the comments - if the topic continues, then I will dwell on each with details.
1. Persona.
We began to analyze the audience with which business meetings are coming, sort and organize future interlocutors, paying attention to the following things: age, gender, education (whether technical was separately noted), self-presentation elements (quotes, statements in interviews / blogs, assessments of what is happening in the startup world ), branches of the economy, recent investments (volumes by branches), speech patterns, communication channels (from the question - how many handshakes between us - to which e-mail client on which device does it use, i.e. how many first with messages will be visible on the first contact), etc.
The main thing is to single out the clusters, the initial 4 (built on the form of the proposed investments) were as follows:
1) those who invest material values;
2) those who invest intangible assets (disseminate information);
3) those who, having become interested in the idea of a startup, will actualize in communication with their colleagues a problem that is close to the one with which our ecosystem is in contact (it will spread itching);
4) all the rest
In the future, the criteria for clustering will change. The value of each criterion - clusters are allocated, for each of which you should create your own special version of the pitch / presentation / prototype.
2. Concept Map.
Having an elemental pitch on hand, we began to make a systematic one out of it, removing redundancy and revealing where there are gaps and incompleteness of knowledge. All phenomena were combed using the visual code of Dan Roem. The elemental description was split up and arranged on the shelves: Who / What, How much, Where, When, How, Why. Then everything that appeared on the Who / What shelf (objects) was summarized in the mind map. With the help of card sorting (card = top in the mind map) we managed to achieve optimization - the objects were arranged in a hierarchy: the most generalized ones came out from the central topic of the mind map (consumers, technological environment, market, contractors, finances, ...), then in the second and in the following circles from the central topic, they became more and more refined until they reached the “leaves” like controller X, financial document of form N, etc.
Already at this stage, it is possible to form pitches varying in degree of detail (coverage of circles from the central topic) - designed for different presentation times. The tops of the mind map Who / What is overgrown with details from the remaining shelves (How many, where, ...).
Having a mind map, we can build a diagram of how its individual vertices interact with each other: we build a table with 8 columns: P, action (control), Q, how much, where, when, how, why, and begin to fill it with the following rule: we take all possible pairs of objects (P, Q) from one circle of the mind map and find out which main action unites them (for example: P = end user, Q = technological environment, action = interacts, we get a line - the end user interacts with technological Wednesday), in the remaining columns we will add the detail and interaction (how much, where, when, how, why). Thus, we will collect all kinds of connections of objects from one circle with each other. Then we visualize all these connections. For example, the fact
3. Customer Journey Map.
The venture capitalist is seen as the buyer of the idea, we present his acquaintance with the idea as a walk, and we will collect episodes of this walk in the so-called Customer Journey Map. To do this, determine what will make him go for a walk along our route (general interest, recommendation from an authoritative source, triggers in the description of the idea) - 3-4 factors that will put him at the starting point of our route. At the same time, we will take into account the context from which he comes before the walk and into what context he will leave it. We will formulate each episode, noting the following points:
1) the scene,
2) the act / action,
3) what is used / what the interaction is with,
4) thoughts (what the venture capitalist is supposedly thinking about),
5) emotional response, a choice of three options - :): | :(,
6) opportunities / growth points,
7) reasons for the failure (of this episode) / thin spots where it breaks,
8) communication channels,
9) (missing) artifacts
We use the concept map to describe the contents of episodes (scenes), filling in the columns Customer Journey Map. In the future, communicating with venture capitalists, we will use this tool that describes walk episodes (acquaintance with parts of the ecosystem), and to collect feedback - which episodes were impassable, which caused a negative emotional response, in which there is a grain for entering new episodes what additional artifacts to reveal the essence you need to create.
The format of the documents in the illustrations and links to examples of artifacts should answer some questions that have arisen, I am ready to answer all the others in the comments.