The Lemonade Stall: How to Test and Validate Ideas

94 Pages·2021·8.808 MB·English

by  David Lowe

PRAISE FOR THE LEMONADE STALL
The Lemonade stall is a great book that uses a fun and relatable story to teach us all about the
benefits of outcome-focused user testing. It's all too easy to get fixated on one’s great idea
without understanding what our customers really need and David's book contains ideas and
exercises that can help prevent that bias. I enjoyed reading the story and in particular appreciated
the focus on carefully designed, minimum viable tests, multiple rounds of testing and a focus on
outcomes in order to really understand customer needs.
STEPHEN JANAWAY, VP ENGINEERING AT BLOOM & WILD
David manages to cleverly use a story on a lemonade stand to teach the basics of
entrepreneurship in a fun, compelling way. Highly recommended read.
JONATHAN SUN, ENTREPRENEUR
A truly enjoyable read that emphasises the importance of challenging your own bias through
customer feedback in order to produce more inclusive products. A must read for any customer-
centric business.
ESHA BAKSHI, MOONPIG
A really fun and approachable way of learning about the scientific method — including both its
relevance and necessity in the world of complex product development, and how to actually apply
it to increase your chances of success. It's an easy and enjoyable read, and you'll likely learn a
few things along the way. Great stuff!
NEIL KILLICK, AUTHOR, SPEAKER AND PIONEER OF #NOESTIMATES
THE LEMONADE STALL
HOW TO TEST AND VALIDATE IDEAS - A STORY AND WORKBOOK
DAVID LOWE
Copyright © 2021 by David Lowe
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
For Amelia, Isabella, Helen, Mum and Dad
CONTENTS
Preface
How to use this book
Part I
1. The discovery
2. Interviewing the neighbours
3. Testing, testing
4. The scientific method bombshell
5. The first question
6. The hypothesis
7. Round one
8. Round Two
9. Round Three
10. The fun run
11. The future
Part II
The essay
Part III
The exercises
The answers
Want printed exercises?
A summary of the scientific method
Get some free stuff
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by David Lowe
Also by David Lowe
PREFACE
WARNING: This story may sound very familiar!
Not only does The Lemonade Stall contain many of the same characters from The Innovation
Revelation, but it also takes place simultaneously (apparently the official term for this is a
‘paraquel’).
Those of you familiar with the previous book will remember that it was centred around the antics
of Charlie Blades, manager of online sales (womenswear) at Nuttinghams department store, who
was struggling to survive in a faltering retail industry ... until his children inadvertently showed
him an alternative way of working when planning a lemonade stall for a local fun run.
The Lemonade Stall follows the children’s adventure as they discover their business empire is a
failure before it even begins, then try to adapt their dreams using an approach from a school
science lesson.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book contains three sections:
Part 1 is the story described above. It uses a memorable story to explain how you can use
the scientific method to test and validate ideas.
Part 2 is a short essay for those people who would like to think about how this applies to
their environment. It may be taken to support your understanding and to explain to others why
they should follow this approach.
Part 3 is a collection of exercises for you to use alone or with friends and colleagues. The
intention is for you to question your current ways of thinking and discover new possibilities.
For maximum benefit, I would recommend reading them in order, but no harm will come if
you read them out of sequence (there are only a few elements which refer to an earlier part which
you can skip over and come back to at a later time).
PART 1
1 THE DISCOVERY
‘It isn’t about earning money, it’s about us being part of the community,’ Pen states with an
earnest expression, shoving the village newsletter towards her friend.
‘Right,’ Scarlett responds with an equally serious look. She takes the pamphlet and studies it
closer, wrinkling her nose a little at the words. ‘Run 5k. Hmmm, what are you thinking we could
do?’
‘Well, I’m not thinking we should enter the race!’
The girls descend into a fit of laughter.
‘What about a lemonade stall?’ proposes Pen. ‘Like the one we did on the front lawn that
time.’
They both know that this wasn’t a success even by a nine-year-old girl’s standards. They’d
had two customers and both were related to them. But a fun run is different; their houses are in a
cul-de-sac with no passing trade, whereas a fun run has a captive audience.
‘Sounds good,’ her friend replies.
The bell rings to get to class.
‘Let’s plan it later, right?’ shouts Scarlett as she reluctantly enters school.
After a lesson on algebra, Scarlett, Pen and another friend play at ponies, running around,
going on camping trips and hiding under the large chestnut tree when the pretend thunder starts.
The ordeal of lunch soon follows. Scarlett sneaks the disgusting shepherd’s pie into the food
waste bin and shares Pen’s packed lunch. School lunches are a bit of a gamble: sometimes grim
but other times inedible. But Scarlett doesn’t want to burden her already busy mum with making
a packed lunch on a daily basis, so she weathers it.
The post-lunch game pretends that evil year sixers have taken over the school and the girls
have to make a survival plan.
Thursday afternoon is English followed by art. Both girls’ favourite lessons. The day
culminates with the task of making a collage of their favourite things. For the girls, this means:
ponies, unicorns, cuddly toys of various forms, pizza and dough balls, spaghetti carbonara and a
few Disney films.
Finally, the bell rings, freeing the girls from their scholastic captivity.
The walk home seems shorter than ever before, with the girls explaining the golden
opportunity to Pen’s younger sister, Emily.
It’s a lovely warm summer afternoon. The kind of day that encourages lazy lounging with ice