MVPP: one slogan per shirt
When I was at AND 1 my job was to understand the customer and build product that he would love (and buy). In my role at First Round, I get to meet tons of smart people who are doing the same thing. I was making t-shirts, shorts and shoes and they are building technology, but at the end of the day, understanding what the consumer will love (and buy) is the essence of the work.
A popular framework for product development is MVP, minimum viable product as championed by Eric Ries. Iterative development is great because knowing your consumer is hard and it is tempting to cheat by throwing every feature you can think of into the product. At AND 1, when I was not sure what a consumer would love, I would add features to make the product “better.” A buyer at Footlocker taught AND 1 the real cost of this approach and introduced us to what I call MVPP, minimum viable product purchase.
When AND 1 started, there were 5 trash talk slogans and shirts were printed in a Philly basement. The slogans are still great and I try to work them into my game as much as possible
- Your game’s as ugly as your girl
- Wear a collar, you just got dogged
- I’m the bus driver, I take everyone to school
- You have NO game
- I saw your game on a milk carton (it’s missing)
Early on, AND 1 got the opportunity to meet with Footlocker for the first time and it felt like a “make or break” moment for the brand. The team spent a ton of time putting together samples to show the buyer and went up to New York with 5 sample shirts. Black, Blue, Red, White and Grey. Each one had the AND 1 logo on the front and all five trash talk slogans on the back. If one slogan is good, 5 must be better, right?
The meeting went really well, but the buyer made a critical product suggestion: Why not put one slogan on each shirt instead of five slogans on one shirt? He thought kids would buy two or three shirts each, and that by recognizing the minimum viable product required to get our customer to buy, we could double or triple our market.
If the shirt was changed, he said he would take 5 of each in each of the five colors. Doing the quick math, that was 125 shirts and made Footlocker AND 1’s largest single customer. Later it became clear that he was ordering in thousands and AND 1 was one step closer to becoming the number one basketball company in the world.
The product suggestion, focus on MVPP, changed the trajectory of the company very early in its life. Now, when I learn about new products and technologies, I always wonder if we could grow the total opportunity by offering less. In the effort to build the best launch product or to discover product/market fit, are we iterating into offering much more than the consumer requires to make a purchase decision? Does our launch offering set expectations for the consumer that will make it harder for the company to grow in the future? Rather than killing features, could we save them for later?
Elegant design achieved through killing features and discovery of product/market fit informed by iterative development are frequently discussed and I would love to get your take on this extension of MVP to MVPP in the comments.
#1 by sarah merion on March 17, 2010 - 11:52 am
Thank goodness for that critical suggestion from Footlocker. I'm totally into your statement “I always wonder if we could grow the total opportunity by offering less”. It's often overlooked that in general, consumers want solutions and simplicity rather than complexity and a headache. Kudos on this great story and business lesson.
#2 by phineasb on March 17, 2010 - 12:11 pm
Thanks Sarah. Simplicity and solutions to real problems should be a focus in any product dev effort and perspective on doing enough to drive a purchase, create passion and get a wow out of the customer but so much that you limit you ability to monetize is critical.
Phineas Barnes
Principal, First Round Capital
http://www.frc.vc/phin
http://www.sneakerheadVC.com
http://www.twitter.com/phineasb
#3 by brett1211 on March 17, 2010 - 3:38 pm
well said. This is especially true for mobile applications. With even less real estate to work with, packing in more features only makes things less usable. The best mobile apps usually perform one task but do it very well – all the games, shazam, pandora, etc. Good feature rich apps like facebook are the exception, not the rule.
Startups should never try to complete with “more” of anything – be it features, data, users, whatever. I am instantly wary of business plans that talk about their competitors “incomplete solutions.” Startups should aim creating the “new” – data, features. A little know fact is that when people show me a product comparison matrix, I don't want to see how your product is going to check off all of the boxes. much preferable would be to see that your product is checking off a bunch of valuable boxes that no one else knows customers want.
#4 by blake41 on March 17, 2010 - 4:06 pm
Totally agree. That said, I'm truly impressed by products that can do it all. The iphone redefined the market when it allowed one to make phone calls, play all your music, and really use the web all on a mobile device. Similarly, the facebook app replicates all the essential features of the website, in an incredibly easy to use mobile app.
#5 by brett1211 on March 17, 2010 - 4:52 pm
Truth. But even with the iphone, much of Apple's success stems from its
willingness to curtail functionality to achieve greater usability.
Microsoft OS phones had been around for a while but they never took off
because (beware, assumptions coming) they tried to cram a PC into a phone.
Apple understands pareto principle. I sometimes hate them for it (the only
reason we can't multitask is because steve jobs doesn't trust us to manage
our own battery life) but it seems to work for most people (that can afford
apple products!).
ps. I'm going to try to hit Bryant park at 3pm if at all possible.
#6 by Justin S on April 19, 2010 - 11:21 pm
I'm so late to this, but I love the topic, so here goes. This strikes me as really important to anyone with a free or freemium offering. When people lay out $$$ for an iPhone, they'll take time to learn to use it (even without the contract lock-in). When trying out a free webapp, there's no investment, so it gets 3-5 minutes to prove its value. For me, if 5 minutes in I'm still setting up or listening to a tutorial, I'm probably outta there. Point is, the less expensive your product is try, the less time it has to prove its value to the customer, and the more crucial it is to find that MVPP.
#7 by phineasb on April 19, 2010 - 11:26 pm
Inverse correlation of price to time to prove value, or maybe the
higher price items begin the process of “proving value” in the
marketing campaigns that come along with the pre-launch hype?
Phin Barnes
Principal, First Round Capital
215.327.0849
#8 by Justin S on April 19, 2010 - 11:38 pm
Both factor, I'm sure, with some expectation setting issues thrown in for good measure (but maybe that's what you mean about marketing campaigns)
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