My new book is coming out this Fall! The book is a practical guide for accelerating the journey from idea to your first ten customers.
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What is the book about?
This book is a practical guide for leading innovation of enterprise software products. It gives you a step-by-step framework to navigate the six early stages of the innovation journey to go from idea to your first ten customers. The six stages are:
- Strategic alignment
- Market discovery
- User discovery
- Solution planning
- Prototyping
- Early adopter
Who is this book for?
This book is for technology and business leaders responsible for bringing new enterprise software products to market. The title and background of B2B leaders accountable for innovation vary widely, including leaders from Product, Design, Technology, Marketing, Business Development, Strategy, Finance, and Program Management, to name a few. But regardless of your title, industry, or company size, if you are Founder, Corporate Innovator, or a Leader within your organization responsible for bringing enterprise software products to market, then this book is for you.
Table of Contents (preliminary)
Introduction
- What is this book about?
- What this book is not
- What do I mean by “enterprise software”
- Who is this book for?
- About Daniel Elizalde (or why I am a relevant source of advice)
- About the real-world stories included in the book
- Download the companion workbook and other book resources
Chapter 1 – Navigating the innovation journey
- The difficulty of understanding enterprise customers
- The innovation journey stages to go from idea to your first ten customers
- Strategic alignment
- Market discovery
- User discovery
- Solution planning
- Prototyping
- Early adopter
- Putting it all together
- Download the companion workbook
- Real-world story: Failure to understand our customers
Chapter 2 – Strategic alignment stage
- You shouldn’t rely 100% on your Executive team to create strategic alignment
- How to get agreement on the customer’s business outcome to explore
- Create an advisory board
- Assemble your innovation team
- Create an advisory board
- Agree on progress metrics
- Real-world story: Lack of strategic alignment leads to innovation theater
Chapter 3 – Market discovery stage
- 1. Selecting your target market
- 2. Researching the size of your market
- 3. Getting a deep understanding of your Champion’s pains
- 4. Agreeing with your company on your target market
- Getting buy-in on your next steps
- Real-world story: An eye-opening on-site visit
- To learn more
Chapter 4 – User discovery stage
- 1. Discovering all the users in your ecosystem
- 2. Researching the pains and opportunities of your user ecosystem
- Putting it all together: Looking for opportunities
- Alignment and next steps
Chapter 5 – Solution planning stage
- 1. Prioritize the users to focus on first
- 2. Create a solution diagram
- 3. Create an experiment roadmap
- Getting alignment and buy-in from your stakeholders
- Real-world story: What are we building again? Solution diagrams and smart vending machines
Chapter 6 – Prototyping stage
- How to test for commercial desirability
- How to test for technical feasibility
- How to test for financial viability
- A few recommendations I learned the hard way
- Getting alignment before moving to the Early adopter stage
- Real-world story: Testing desirability, feasibility, and viability on the manufacturing floor
Chapter 7 – Early adopter stage
- Why B2B customers require pilot programs
- Seven principles of successful pilot programs
- Four techniques to move fast, build less, and learn more
- Seven areas you should NOT compromise on, even at a pilot stage
- Planning for next steps
- Real-world story: Accelerating success with a Wizard of Oz prototype
Chapter 8 – The next stage in your innovation journey
- 1. Going back to a previous stage of the innovation journey
- 2. Iterating within the Early adopter stage
- 3. Move into Limited Availability
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