Status Updates From The Startup Owner's Manual:...

473: CHECKLIST: PRODUCT VISION
474: CHECKLIST: PRODUCT FEATURES & BENEFITS
509: CHECKLIST: SALES ACTION CHANNEL PLAN

...When you get negative feedback, first respond, then tell all your customers that you've listened and made the improvements your customers suggested.
3. Loyalty program: does the program create an incentive for the behaviour you want, whether more active site use or more frequent purchasing?

397: Optimizing keep programs - optimize results
1. User outreach programs: what do customers say when you email, tweet, or call them about their use of/satisfaction with the product?
2. If customers are responding in small numbers, add an incentive to stimulate response, such as 'tell your opinion and get a free month's service just for speaking up'.

386: People visit the site but don't click (no activation)
Implement optimization tactics:
1. Find the page where most users abandon ship. Start testing stronger calls to action & improved navigation on this page fast
6. Conduct usability testing where you watch actual customers review your homepage

382: Which 'get' program:
3. gives you the best customers? If, for example, an email campaign gets you customers who buy faster, spend more, or visit more often and stay longer, you obviously want more of those folks. So prioritize the plan to optimize that program.

378: 'Understanding why your customers said no is more important than understanding why they said yes. Understand where in the process turndowns happen to help refine the sales roadmap.'

376: 'If enough customers ask for the same set of 'custom' features, they're not custom at all, since customers are suggesting the 'real' product requirements.'

375: 'Anyone can give away or deeply discount a product to get an order, but that doesn't test true buying intentions...
Customer enthusiasm is best-tested when the product is sold for as close to full price as you can get. In fact, you want to label access to the product as the 'early access program' and have customers fight to be a part of it.'

374: Users are known to spend as little as a few seconds scanning a page to find something of interest. Visitors focus on headlines, highlighted words and bulleted lists but scan the text. Few visitors read all or even many of the words.

343: A dashboard where the business goals are increase page views, referrals and email delivery
(example of a simple dashboard)
everyone should have one

321: Landing page should always:
-Explain what problem the product solves and why it's important to users & worthy of their attention
-Communicate ease of use and installation for the product
-Clearly explain how the product works
-Provide fast proof it works (user quotes, demos, competitive analysis, etc.)

321: Homepage/Landing Content
-Tell me how I got here! Don't assume they know where they've landed. Welcome them & explain the site to avoid fast abandonment (e.g. 'Welcome to the no. 1 online gaming portal')
-Reinforce the 'scent of the email, ad or tool that drove the customer to the page'. Use similar verbiage to increase confidence the viewer has come to the right place
-Issue a clear call-to-action...

318: Most activation occurs on the home/landing page, where you're trying to engage them--get them to click, sign up, post a comment, or buy.
'The home page is 'where the action is' for activation'

317: Wherever the customer arrives, they know little about where they've landed. Example of what goes through the visitor's mind:
WHY am I here? (They want me to buy X)
HOW do I know it's any good? (Here's a demo, list of endorsements, etc.)
WHERE do I get more info? (I see buttons pointing to free trials, more info, etc.)
NEXT? (What does the company want me to do? oh, click here to try/buy/sign up)

'Mobiledough is for busy executives who travel a lot
who want/need to do expense reports accurately as fast as possible
Mobiledough is an easy to use tool for receipt tracking and expense tabulation
that provides a detailed weekly expense report in under 10 minutes
unlike expense report packages, Mobiledough scans, sorts and totals receipts and presents a near-final report draft'

294: Product positioning statement
1. For [target end user]
2. Who wants/needs [compelling reason to buy]
3. The [product name] is a [product category]
4. That provides [key benefit]
5. Unlike [main competitor]
6. The [product name] [key differentiation]

270: Pivot or Proceed? Summary questions
-Have we identified a problem lots of customers will eagerly pay to have solved?
-Does our product solve these needs distinctively, cost-effectively and profitably?
-If so, do we have a sizable market and a viable, scalable and profitable business model?
-Can we draw a day in the life of our customers before and after purchase of our product?

269: Key questions
-Have you translated market and market share findings into potential unit sales & revenue?
-Have you validated your pricing model with customers?
-Are volume, demand and purchase-frequency hypotheses validated?

Get to the bottom of these questions, both from activators and non-activators. What led the activators to sign up?'
(2/2)

262: Bad solution fit
'Customer feedback is vital. See what the customers feel about product/site, what they liked and didn't like. Did the product not deliver on message (e.g. 'lose 20 pounds tomorrow') that got them to the site in the first place? Was it their lack of confidence in the product, or lack of evidence (claims, testimonials, demos), or poor messaging?

203: Problem Presentation
'Problem presentation is designed to elicit information from customers. The presentation summarizes your hypotheses about customers' problems & how they're solving the problem today. It also offers some potential solutions.'

161: retention test

'We haven't seen you visit in 2 weeks, is everything okay?
I've noticed you've had a few problems. How can we help?
Have you seen some of the new features on our site?
Here are five 'power user' ideas for getting more out of XYZ.com'

151-152: Customer Acquisition
Earned/free tactics:
-Public relations: generate small amounts of news/coverage about the problem (not product itself) on websites. Don't publicize the product yet.

-Pay-per-click advertising
-Affiliate marketing

151: Get Customers advice
-Participate in communities your customers are part of. Answer questions, provide feedback, offer tips, and gently invite people to explore your product
-Create content people want to link to. Whether it's helpful tips, cartoons or fun videos, make your content the kind of content your customers want to share with friends. The result extends your invitation to those friends more often

124: "What's strongest about each competitor's product? What do current customers like most about those current products? What would customers change about them?
What is a customer's 'reason to buy' or use the product or site? And which competitors will they abandon to do so, and why?"

'Winners understand why customers buy'

A vision: they have an idea for solving the problem and have cobbled together a home-grown solution, but are prepared to pay for a better one."
(2/2)

85: Use a problem-recognition scale. Customers will express:
"A latent problem: they have a problem but don't know it.
A passive problem: they know of the problem but aren't motivated or aware of the opportunity to change.
An active or urgent problem: they recognize a problem or passion and are searching for a solution but haven't done any serious work to solve the problem.
(1/2)

78: Product Features/Benefits- Value Proposition
"Product features list is a one page document consisting of 1-2 sentence summaries of the top 10 (or fewer) features of the complete product vision."

74: "Any easy way to gauge the 'size' of a web market involves... brainstorm all the keywords that prospective customers might use to find your product or site--'multiplayer monster games', 'computer games with monsters, 'online games', so on and so on. The Google keyword tool summarizes how many people are searching for each keyword. This is another way to develop an estimate of market size."