“Fasten your seatbelt. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
Originating from 1950s “All about Eve”, this is the quote Pooja Ahluwalia chose to describe her startup-mentality. Out of context this might have sounded weird, but these words are coming from someone that loves working with startups.
“More than anything what excites me most is to see the commitment and love they have for building something unique and innovative.”
This mentality of not only sharing knowledge but also learning so much about the industries and their respective challenges is what made Pooja a vital part of Vienna’s startup community: She works as a Growth Marketer at TheVentury, Mentor for TheGrowthbase as well as a lecturer at FH St.Pölten. Now she recently helped our ELEVATE teams with solving a really important problem:
Who is your customer?
Following Valentina’s workshop on “What problem is being solved” Pooja asked our teams a significant question: “Whose problem is being solved?”. Clearly identifiy and articulate your User Personas. If you don’t know whom the product is tailored for, how do you know who to ask for feedback? How do you know who to target in your marketing efforts?
That’s why Pooja’s workshop was centered around creating specific user personas: Exemplary customers to represent and visualise their challenges. What problem do they need solving, what is their motivation? How would they get to know your company? What values do they associate with? Pooja helped the teams with creating two personas each, even going as far as naming them and finding a representative look.
Without understanding why a specific user would use your product, you will not be able to approach the right people.
Pooja’s “secret” tip
Her number one tip to give to startups is to not start working on marketing once you think your product is ready. Instead seek feedback and validation through all channels – Always involve your customer in product development. And, of course:
Stick to the lean approach – work with hypothesis driven tests from day one.
