A Lean Alternative to a Business Plan: Documenting Your Product/Market Fit Hypotheses

"the most efficient way to operate during the earliest phases of a startup lies in between a formal business plan and unstructured iteration... documenting your initial product/market fit hypotheses, systematically validating each of the most uncertain hypotheses, and continually iterating on and updating [them] ... through customer validation, MVP launches, and future product iterations"

1) clear, very specific, core target audience: product user v. decisionmaker: specific industries: company sizes?

2) the problem being solved: understand all previously tried solutions; be a painkiller, not just vitamin, for your target audience; be worth the switching cost.

3) define your specific value proposition, "phrased in the customer's terms in how it will address the problem you're solving as well as improve their lives or business": limit yourself to 3;

4) define your "strategic differentiation ... unique assets or capabilities ... to make ... [your solution] superior"

5) ID competitors

6) "Acquisition strategy ... [how you'll] drive awareness, interest, desire, and adoption": includes acquisition cost per channel

7) Monetisation strategy, incl. "price points ... willingness to pay ... understanding the value you are creating for the customer ... or comparing existing solutions"

8) KPIs: define as "early as possible ... prevents you from "seeing what you want to see". Define benchmarks