Designing to Learn: 
Creating Effective MVP Experiments 
Melissa Perri 
@lissijean | #LeanUXFest
! 
Melissa Perri 
! 
ProdUX Labs 
melissaperri.com 
@lissijean
@lissijean
Traditional Product 
Development Cycle 
Define Design Develop Deploy 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Traditional Product 
Development Cycle 
Define Design Develop Deploy 
Some learning 
Very little learning 
Most learning 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
DO NOT WANT 
@lissijean
Traditional Product 
Development Cycle 
Define Design Develop Deploy 
Pivot 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
@lissijean
Risk 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean 
@lissijean
Build 
Learn 
Measure 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
#LeanUXFest MVP? 
@lissijean
@lissijean 
@lissijean
Traditional Process 
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@lissijean 
MVP Process 
@lissijean
Focus on problem 
not features. 
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LEARN 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Crappy products 
Crappy products everywhere 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean 
@lissijean
MVP 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
MVP 
= 
Experiment 
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VALUE @lissijean
Setting Up Experiments 
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What is our goal? 
What is your problem hypothesis? 
What do we want to learn? 
What’s the minimum we can build to learn? 
How do we measure success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
What is our goal? 
What is your problem hypothesis? 
What do we want to learn? 
What’s the minimum we can build to learn? 
How do we measure success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Increase traffic 
by 10%. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Increase sections 
visited by 40%. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
#LeanUXFest @@lliissssiijjeeaann
GOAL 
Increase existing customer 
engagement by 20%. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
GOAL 
Your goal is to increase 
conference attendee 
satisfaction by 25%. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
what’s your 
problem? 
@lissijean
What’s your biggest problems 
at conferences? 
FINDING THE 
PEOPLE I COULD 
HELP. 
@lissijean
Introduce yourself 
& your biggest 
problem. 
@lissijean
Dot vote on the problems. 
Each person gets 2 votes. 
FINDING THE 
PEOPLE I COULD 
HELP. 
@lissijean
What is our goal? 
What is your problem hypothesis? 
What do we want to learn? 
What’s the minimum we can build to learn? 
How do we measure success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Solving problems 
delivers value. 
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@lissijean
CUSTOMER 
Shoppers who visit the site 
at least twice a month but 
have not purchased. 
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PROBLEM 
{Customer}s want twitter-like 
messages in their feed. 
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Not a problem. 
Customers want twitter-like 
messages in their feed. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
PROBLEM 
{Customer}s aren’t engaging 
with our site because they think 
curators are not authentic. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Shoppers want to 
save their items to a 
wishlist so they can 
purchase them later. 
Shoppers who are not 
ready to buy yet want 
to save items so they 
can easily purchase 
them later. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
BAD GOOD 
Shoppers want to 
save their items to a 
wishlist so they can 
purchase them later. 
Shoppers who are not 
ready to buy yet want 
to save items so they 
can easily purchase 
them later. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
CUSTOMER PROBLEM 
Who is your 
customer? 
What is their 
problem? 
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Hypothesis 
We think that we can achieve 
GOAL 
if we solve 
PROBLEM CUSTOMER 
for 
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What is our goal? 
What is your problem hypothesis? 
What do we want to learn? 
What’s the minimum we can build to learn? 
How do we measure success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
There’s a reason 
why they’re called 
assumptions. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean 
@lissijean
What are the 
dependencies? 
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What do we want to learn? 
Will shoppers engage more 
if curators post authentic 
messages in the feed? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
LEARN 
What do you want 
to learn first? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
What is our goal? 
What is your problem hypothesis? 
What do we want to learn? 
What’s the minimum we can build to learn? 
How do we measure success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
There are many 
types of MVPs… 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
“Do customers 
have this problem?” 
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Interviews 
Get out of the building and talk to people. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
“Are customers 
interested in my 
solution?” 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Landing Page 
A pitch of your product, to gauge idea reception. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
#LeanUXFest @l@islsisisjeijeaann
“What do customers 
value in the solution?” 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Delivering a service manually. Concierge 
Concierge 
Delivering a service manually. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
#LeanUXFest @l@islsisisjeijeaann
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
“Will people pay for 
my solution?" 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Wizard of Oz 
Looks real, but manual on the back end. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
@lissijean 
@lissijean
@lissijean 
Subscription 
@lissijean
What is the minimum we can 
build to learn? 
Wizard of Oz 
Looks real to the customer, 
completely manual on the backend. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
@lissijean 
@lissijean
@lissijean 
@lissijean
Every time you start with a 
minimum feature set, a 
kitten dies. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean 
@lissijean
SMALLEST BUILD 
What is the smallest 
amount you can build 
to learn? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
What is our goal? 
What is your problem hypothesis? 
What do we want to learn? 
What’s the minimum we can build learn? 
How do we measure success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
What does 
success 
look like? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean 
@lissijean
How do we measure success? 
10% increase in adds 
to cart in A/B test. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
@lissijean 
@lissijean
SUCCESS METRIC 
How do you measure 
success? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Iterate. 
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0% change over 
other products. 
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GOAL 
Increase existing 
customer engagement. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
PROBLEM 
Customers aren’t engaging with 
our site because they think 
curators are not authentic. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
LEARN 
Will shoppers engage 
more if curators write 
personal stories in emails? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
What is the minimum we can 
build to test? 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
SUCCESS METRIC 
20% increase in 
purchases and CTR. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
Success! 
2x Open Rate 
3x Purchases 
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Effort Learning 
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It’s all about the process. 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean
“We should 
test that.” 
@lissijean
Melissa Perri 
! 
melissa@produxlabs.com 
! 
Lots more info on: 
melissaperri.com 
! 
! 
@lissijean 
#LeanUXFest @lissijean

Designing to Learn: Creating Successful MVP Experiments