At Cultivate we were lucky to visit a new biotech company making waves. It inspired me to write about our theory of Validated Design and why it’s so important. Walking through their lab got me thinking about experimentation in the traditional sense - a process that is carried out to support or refute a hypothesis. A process that begins with an educated guess or thought that requires it to be challenged, tested, and measured.
Good product design isn’t just about how beautiful you can make something look or about how functional it can be. It encompasses so much more than that. Validated design works on the principle that every product is made up of a series of interrelated areas and processes that work together, and that the success of the product depends on the ability to validate and understand those areas deeply. It works on the basis and mindset of applying rigorous scepticism to everything you do.
There are three key areas to understand in order to improve the effectiveness of a new product: desirability, feasibility, and viability. It doesn't matter what your product is, how complex it is, or what industry you’re in, we are all trying to answer the same questions. Will they use it, will it work, and can I make money from it?
American engineer, statistician, and professor Dr W. Edwards Deming first derived the philosophy and method that allowed individuals and organisations to plan and continually improve themselves, their relationships, processes, products and services. His philosophy is one of continual improvement; avoiding blame and redefining mistakes as opportunities to learn and improve.
“The ultimate purpose of collecting data is to provide a basis or recommendation for action.”
Data played an essential part in his decisions and aided in the continual improvement of results. Data was used to measure the impact of experiments in order to further improve the process.
When we create new products we typically make hundreds of assumptions. An educated guess or thought. By defining the assumptions that form our ideas, we can start to recognise and act on those areas that need to be challenged. For some, these areas go untested for far too long and are only questioned once heavy investment has been put into building a product. As time progresses, problems begin to compound and ultimately a lack of early and continuous validation can lead to a product’s demise.
You should begin to unpack the three key areas of desirability, feasibility, and viability by reframing your thoughts and assumptions encompassing these three areas into 100s of questions. By applying experimentation methods to challenge them, they should present themselves as opportunities to learn that are grounded in reality. It gives you insight into the exact nature of the problem to be solved and how you should be solving it.
“You should measure the numbers that drive action, it’s only then will you know what to do next.”
Unless your name is Elon and you are sending rockets to Mars, asking yourself “Can I build it?” is often not your first question, especially if you have the right team or you are a well-funded corporation. Asking the question “Do customers want this?” is usually the hardest step and often the most overlooked. Start with simple questions first as these will lead to more complex questions as you learn more over time.
Let’s stay within the context of biotech and take the example of a micro sampler device and define a few starting assumptions. Again, ensuring we keep things simple in the beginning.
- We believe we can extract a sample without introducing inflammation or blood [feasibility]
- We believe we can design a tamper-proof single-use device [feasibility]
- We believe that the payee (doctor/government/insurer) will pay at least $250 per test [viability]
- We believe doctors are willing to choose this method over current methods such as MRI [desirability]
- We believe patients are willing to use this device on themselves [desirability]
- We believe we can manufacture a device for a unit cost of $54 including lab sample processing costs, storage, and logistics [viability]
- We believe we can design a device that requires no cold storage [feasibility]
We use 100s of unique methods to rigorously test these three areas and the questions that arise within them as quickly as possible. We call them MTPs. A ‘Minimum Testable Product’. Concepts, assumptions, and ideas are tested with customers as soon as they are defined enough to be demonstrated.
The key is to develop just enough of the product to determine whether it sticks true to your original assumption or hypothesis. If not, ask yourself what did we learn and what can we change to test this again? Using MTP methodology allows us to significantly reduce our effort to engage a particular audience, test desirability, design, function, or even understand investor appetite, but most importantly learn something new.
Taking a Validated Design approach shows us how best to adapt our products based on what we have learned and adjust incrementally. It's so important to challenge your thinking and take a validated approach to designing new products so that you can make informed decisions. It will help you reduce uncertainty and risk while allowing you to gain traction, fidelity, data, market insights, assets, and even new customers. It allows you to build momentum and iteratively push your product or idea in the right direction.
At Cultivate, we talk a lot about data and experimentation. We believe in Validated Design through data-driven decisions. It helps us design better products and allows us to focus our time, energy, and resources in the right direction.
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