🐙 How To Find Your Next Profitable Offer with the Lean Startup Model
without burning through your savings
The AI Solopreneur
October 18, 2023
Read time: 6 minutes | Sponsor this newsletter
Greet from the deep,
Ole here.
Today, the AI Solopreneur crossed $260,000 in revenue and we’re closing in on 25,000 subscribers.
Kinda crazy…
…considering that I originally saw the AI Solopreneur as a 2-3 month test project.
Test project?!
Yes. It wouldn’t have existed unless there would’ve been so much signal.
Which brings me to today’s topic:
How to use the Build-Measure-Learn method from Eric Ries’ to find your next profitable business idea.
I will uncover:
A proven process for building a profitable product
Why Minimum-Viable-Products (MVPs) are so powerful
How to use the Build-Measure-Learn framework to build MVPs and profitable products
How to use the “1-Hour No-Bucks Brainstorm Buzzer” to build an MVP and turn it into a profitable product
At the end of this newsletter, you will be able to test, build, and improve great products using these principles.
Ready yet?
Let’s d-d-d-d-dive in! 🤿
I just built the ultimate free course for how to streamline your business with AI.
The AI systems inside were key in helping me scale to $275K+ revenue within 6 months.
I called it the AI Business Operator.
A proven process for building a profitable product
“The Lean Startup” is perhaps the most talked-about book of startup founders.
Back in 2018, I couldn’t scroll motivation-business-hustle Instagram once without getting the book recommended at least once.
So…
I didn’t have the patience to read it.
But I read a summary. To learn the basics.
And here’s the idea:
A lean startup is a data-driven startup which focuses only on the necessary features for its users and cuts away everything else.
It’s kind of like Mustafa’s Gemüsekebap:
100% focus on the product features that matter (making a good Kebap), 0% time wasted on the stuff that doesn’t (e.g. fancy store).
(sorry for plugging this Kebap 2 editions in a row, but turns out it’s a great analogy for several business models)
In either case…
Because the resulting product is so lean, the profit margins are generally high.
In other words:
If you can create lean products, you can create profitable products.
You create lean products by:
1) Testing many mini-products (MVPs)
2) Getting rapid feedback on them
3) Adjusting the highest-signal product to fit your customers’ needs
This may sound complicated, but there’s essentially 2 parts to this approach:
1) Building minimum-viable-products (MVP)
2) Testing several MVPs and doubling down on the winners.
Let’s dig into both:
Why Minimum-Viable-Products (MVPs) are so powerful
A minimum-viable-product (MVP) is the most basic version of a product you want to build/sell.
MVPs are so powerful because they allow you to get feedback on a BIG product idea without having to build out the entire product.
For example, Dropbox’s MVP was just a video demonstrating how the product would work:
They really focused only on the most basic features, and the design is ugly as f*ck…
…yet this simple demo turned into a $8.82 billion company.
Think about MVPs as micro-testing Ideas:
Instead of launching a “done” product, test micro versions of the idea.
This allows you to test many ideas fast, double down on what works, and cut your losses early if your idea isn’t popular.
Examples:
If you're writing an e-book, release a single chapter first to see if there’s interest.
If you’re launching a newsletter, start by building a Twitter account. (this is what I did with the AI Solopreneur)
Don’t worry, I’ll show you how to use ChatGPT to build MVPs in a second…
…but before that, let’s look at the other essential framework for building lean products:
How to use the Build-Measure-Learn framework to build MVPs and profitable products
The Build-Measure-Learn framework is a about start small, get feedback, refine, and repeat.
Instead of taking huge risks, you're making tiny bets based on real-world feedback.
It consists of 3 parts:
1) Build: Creating the MVP
2) Measure: Measuring the success of the product
3) Learn: Re-iterate your product based on the feedback from measurements
I love the framework as a mindset for building products, because it flips the goal from:
“let’s building a great product on the first try” (very hard)
to:
“let’s build a product fast, test what people think about it, and improve it UNTIL it’s great” (easier)
The secret sauce behind building great products is to put them through this cycle as many times as possible, as fast as possible.
As a solopreneur, you have the great advantage of being the only builder of the product, so you can move faster than anyone else.
This is your competitive advantage.
Now, let’s dive into how you can use ChatGPT to speed up the entire process of building profitable products:
How to use the “1-Hour No-Bucks Brainstorm Buzzer” to build an MVP and turn it into a profitable product
Based on your lean product idea, this prompt gives you:
10 zero-cost ideas on how can you can construct a low-cost MVP for your idea
Ideas on how you can Measure success of the MVP
Ideas on how you can get customer feedback for this MVP
10 ideas you can test with my audience on how you can add more value to the core concept based on your audience
Here it is:
I need your help with startup advice.
I am working on an idea which involves [YOUR LEAN PRODUCT IDEA].
For context,[INSERT CONTEXT]
My audience consists of [AUDIENCE CONTEXT]
Now, please answer me the following things:
1) Come up with 10 ideas on how can I construct a low-cost MVP for this
Constraints:
- Costs $0 to build
- Takes less than 1 hours to build
- Can be built without code
2) Ideas on how I can Measure success of the MVP
Guiding questions:
- What's the OMTM (one metric that matters) of this MVP?
- How can I measure user engagement
- What outcomes could mark a successful vs unsuccessful test? (Draw a line in the sand)
3) Ideas on how I can get customer feedback for this MVP
4) Come up with 10 ideas I can test with my audience on how I can add more value to the core concept based on my audience
HOW TO USE THE [NAME] PROMPT:
Fill in the [YOUR LEAN PRODUCT IDEA] placeholder with your lean product idea
For example:
“Productivity coaching for overwhelmed solopreneurs”
Fill in the [INSERT CONTEXT] placeholder with context about yourself and who you are. (If you’ve done the AI Audience Accelerator, write /context to use your pre-written context)
Fill in the [AUDIENCE CONTEXT] placeholder with context about your audience. The more, the better. (If you’ve done the AI Audience Accelerator, write /audience to use your pre-written context)
Example:
“My audience consists of solopreneurs interested in AI”
Here’s an example of it’s output:
Wrap up
WHAT YOU LEARNED TODAY
A proven process for building a profitable product
Why Minimum-Viable-Products (MVPs) are so powerful
How to use the Build-Measure-Learn framework to build MVPs and profitable products
How to use the “3-Hour No-Bucks Brainstorm Buzzer” to build an MVP and turn it into a profitable product
This wouldn’t be an AIS Newsletter if it didn’t end on a random (food-based)
note from me.
It’s dragon fruit season right now in Cyprus and I got myself a whole bag of them.
I used to think dragon fruits are lame, but now I’m officially hooked.
Dragenfruits are beautiful and refreshing.
It now entered my Top 10 fruits a the #4 spot.
What do you think about it, smash that reply button.
Keep diving,
Ole
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