Gravity

Confessions of a serial intrapreneur

Harsh Jawharkar

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Before we begin…

The opinions expressed are solely my own based on lessons learned over the last 14 years across multiple industries and circumstances

Practical lessons learned, no theory, no prescriptions

Please share your own learnings and feedback – hjawharkar@gmail.com

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Serial ‘intrapreneur’ = launching new ventures (mostly unfunded) within the constraints of large organizations

Started out designing/launching new products at leading firms like IDEO, A.T. Kearney, Pfizer, and Sapient

Launched a social payments venture and built up the incubator at Wells Fargo; now that technology is being commercialized into the largest joint-venture personal payment network in the U.S.

Created a new type of ‘wallet’ at PayPal by commercializing an award-winning product platform; laid the foundation for the company to go after the multi-billion dollar global prepaid market

Current Role – Managing Director – Mobile and New Channel Development at Charles Schwab & Co.

T-shaped tool-box

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Channel Marketing

Launchin

g new ventures

and products

Design & Human Factors

Digital Advertising

Business Strategy & Operations

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Quick Poll – Major product innovation pain-points

“The matrix prevents innovation – responsibility without authority”

“Making do with the talent on board – some people are great, some people aren’t”

“Conducting ‘test and learn’ in a risk-averse consensus environment”

“Knowing when to let go and deviating from your vision”

“How can we be operationally efficient AND innovative?”

“Being ‘Agile’ in a waterfall environment”

“Difficulty prioritizing ‘bets’ and managing the pipeline”

“Finding the right speed for innovation – going too fast or too slow”

“Getting funded – how to pitch reputation conscious corporate sponsors”

“Competing with or cannibalizing entrenched products”

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Key Themes

Building the right team, getting people motivated, and establishing the right attitude

Solving the right problem, focusing on the minimum viable product, and boot-strapping your way to launch

Finding the right fit, adapting to your speed, pivoting, and measuring for success

Evangelizing, game-planning, and creating a coalition of support (internal and external)

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Building the right team

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Build a T-shaped team – quality over quantity

Thinking Linking Doing

Observing

Empathizing

Brainstorming

Cross-pollinating

Synthesizing

Facilitating

Executing

Implementing

Testing

Bottom Line•No delicate geniuses or divas; find tough people with thick skins

•Get to know your team’s strengths/weaknesses as early as possible

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You can’t teach attitude but you can teach skills

Prioritize quick learners over "domain experts”

The experts are nice-to-have; but all things equal, find the hungry people

You can’t teach attitude, so don’t overvalue aptitude The upstart The expert

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Listen to the skeptics but shed the deadweight

Negativity is contagious, everyone is impressionable

Cut out the virus before it spreads and affects the rest of your team

Two options:1) Step in to fill the gaps

and pick up the load2) Use it as a growth

opportunity for other team members

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Sometimes we forget about the sweat equity

Leave your titles and egos at the door to build team spirit

You may be the quarterback but you need to block and tackle to get people to buy into the vision

Create a ‘huddle’ to get people excited and make the ‘handoffs’ seamless

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You’re the pinch hitter, shortstop, handyman, and more…

Design Build Lead Monetize Evangelize

Design the minimum viable product

Document and drive feature development

Work across disciplines to drive creation of all artifacts necessary (e.g. use-cases, architecture, sitemap, wireframes, content, etc.)

Establish the product roadmap - Manage the flow of work; anticipate and trouble-shoot

Iterate and create repeatable and scalable practices to drive ease + efficiency

Own the business – every decision is framed by the cost of doing business and the value created

Measure engagement and obtain feedback for fast iteration to get to product-market fit and to create monetization options

Sell the vision – internally and externally – establish advocacy and develop champions

Be a scout – get in front to clear roadblocks and hurdles to make everyone’s jobs easier

Bring all disciplines

together (right place, right time) – to realize the business

strategy – from concept to execution - seamlessly

Bottom Line:There’s a difference between being a decisive leader and a passive ‘manager’

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Approaching the problem

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What ‘type’ is your challenge and what assets do you have?

Is it evolutionary? Is it more important to go after a quick win?

Or is it revolutionary? Are you solving something everyone else has failed at?

Are you going to build, buy, or integrate? What pieces do you have in place?

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Map the battlefield– they’re not gonna let you just build it

Operationalize

Build

Lynchpin

Budget/

P&L

Legal/Risk

Exec Spons

or Mgmt

PRD/MVP

Wireframes

Taskflow

Sitemap

Use-casesTest Scripts

Content

Schema

Prod Architecture

Cashflow

Progress Reports

Regulatory Compliance

Fraud Models

Cust Support

Svcing Infrastructure

Admin Site

Fin/Acctg Processes Analytics

System Admin Approach

Engg

Design/

Content

PM/Analy

st

QA

Identify roadblocks early, can you use influencers to open those gates?

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Focus on the minimum viable product, not ideal product

Customer

Problem Discover

y

Define Hypotheses + MVP

Test MVP

Measure+

Validate

Product-Market

Fit?

Exit

Scale + Monetize (as-is)

Pivot(s) + Scale + Monetize

References:1) Steve Blank2) Sean Ellis3) Eric Ries

Use Qualitative + Quantitative methods to test the MVP

Look for pivots across solution use-cases

Find the right set of problems to solve

Prioritize the problem you think you can solve

Build and launch the MVP to test hypotheses

Based on iterations, determine the product fits the market needs

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Pick depth of insights over breadth

There’s never enough time or money to do the ‘ideal’ amount of research

Use syndicated research to get breadth but pay for qualitative insights to get depth

Focus on the behaviors that will “make” your product – use that as a basis for your metrics

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Eat your own dog food and make it interesting

“Personality is the API for loyalty”

Find ways to live the product, regardless of your role on the team

Belief is important for the team; if you don’t believe no one else will

Sources: bigorangeslide.com, Fred Wilson’s A VC Blog

Fake it till you make it

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User enrolls

Log inEnter

Expenses

Algorithm

Send IOUs/Req

uest $

Make a Payment

Settlement Account

Route funds to

requester

Receive Money

Major Capability Gap

If there are show-stopping gaps…

Find a way to boot-strap to drive traction and hit critical mass

Sample User Flow Diagram

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Customizing the Process

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Find the path that fits your type of innovation

EvolutionSystematic innovation processes and portfolios managed at an enterprise level

RevolutionSmall group of intrapreneurs, skunkworks, or tiger teams looking for opportunities to fail fast

Socratic Scoring1. How attractive is the opportunity?2. What is the level of alignment with our strategic

objectives?3. How actionable is the opportunity?

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Buyer beware – shiny new processes need to be broken in

Iteration 0 Iteration 1 Iteration 2

8 weeksILLUSTRATIVE (Not to Scale)

CYCLE 1

CYCLE 2

• MVP and Vision is set• Base BRD = PRD +

Product/Business Strategy

• Core sitemap, high level task-flows created

• Technical architecture established and environment/stack is final

• Project plan (baseline) created and feature-set grouped across iterations

• Artifacts for Iter. 2 coding are prepared

• Includes – PRD Update, Wireframes, Use-cases, QA test scripts, etc.

• Code, test, and deploy Iter. 1 feature set

• Code, test, and deploy Iter. 2 feature set

• Artifact creation for Iter. 3

• Between specific iterations, conducted multiple ‘Listening Labs’ (usability) to ensure the MVP is still relevant and sound – using low-fidelity prototypes

• Established the overall QA/Alpha-testing strategy and recruited towards later milestone deployment dates to start uncovering bugs, loopholes, and edge cases

• Landing pages, FAQs, Demo/Videos were developed at a later stage based on progress

Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Iteration ‘n’

Agile (Scrum-based) Development

Agile = Co-location + fully dedicated resources + design/dev in synch

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If at first you don’t succeed… look for the pivot

Savings towards goals

Small Business

Consumers

Cust

omer

Att

ribut

es

More variety in use-cases

Prosumers

Less variety in use-cases

Lower $ volumes and transaction

Higher $ volumes and transactions

Similar

Similar

Lower need for robust reporting, tracking, and formal messaging

Greater need for robust reporting, tracking, and formal messaging

Similar

Less inclined to pay for premium features

More inclined to pay for premium features/services

Similar

Collecting gift $ (self)

Collecting towards

trip/event

Ad hoc social events

Pooling for group gift

Ongoing room-mate expenses

Collecting team, club, group dues

Simple IOU(Just-Pay-Me

URL)

Landlord collecting

tenant dues

Non-profit raising $ /

collecting dues

Micro-biz billing services

Micro-biz merchant account

Parent-child money

management

Individual raising $ for

charities

Consumer Plus

Consumer Pro

Consumer Basic

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Design for metrics with the ‘story’ in mind

What info do you need to tell the ‘best story’?

Measure often and early, rethink features that can’t be measured

Measurement is a feature, not an afterthought

Keep it simple – if you can’t explain it quickly then it’s not useful

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What would it look like if work stops now? Be Frugal

Be frugal where you allocate the money; luxuries come later

You’re going to need a buffer, something always goes wrong

If this was your last dollar, what would it look like if you had to launch now?

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Telling the Story

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Crafting your story is a journey, it requires constant (and somewhat obsessive) iteration

A story is better than a ‘pitch’ in consensus environments

Components Why does the problem even

matter? Why is the competition failing

or what are they missing? Why is your solution different

or better (and for whom)? Can you really get this done

and for how much? Who benefits inside the org

(aside from the customers)?

Be your own devil’s advocate – what’s the story against your story?

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Stay under the radar until you’re ready for primetime

Resist the temptation to surface with a half-baked story

First impression can make or break you; test with low-risk people

Play the long game – be patient and resist any instant-gratification urge for publicity

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When you’re ready, script your game-plan around your audience’s agenda

Everyone is interested in the same thing – WIIFM

Make a list of influencers for your roadshow – what’s their agenda?

It’s a numbers game – build a coalition of support (inside and outside the org)

Sources: johnlesko.biz

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Know your role in the game in order to perfect the message

What’s the bigger picture and where does your initiative fit?

What are the priorities for your organization?

The ideal story = high upside + low downside

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Thank You!

Harsh Jawharkar

http://www.linkedin.com/in/harsh

https://www.twitter.com/hjawharkar