Method category: Generative product research

How to Use This in GLIDR

Analog/Digital is selling a physical version of the product before building a digital version, in the case where it's easier to create a physical one first.

In GLIDR, first plan out why and how you want to make a physical product. Then, start Research and describe this plan. Connect ideas about your product and what you expect to learn from this analog test. In the Run phase, create and distribute your product to the users who are testing it out. Add Evidence - Other with the feedback and data that you gather. Finally, in the Analyze phase, figure out how the things you learned from this analog product will help you build a digital one.

Learn more about each of those aspects of GLIDR:

Article excerpted from The Real Startup Book
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This technique helps decouple the risks around physical delivery of a product from a digital component of the product. You can sell a physical version of the product or service, even if your final product will be digital. Selling the physical form first may be easier, riskier, or more complicated. As a technique this works best for software and information or data-based products that historically have had a physical component. Alternatively, it works well if you want the end product to be decoupled from a computer or smartphone.

Many industries have seen a convergence of their existing products with a digital component. Information or software add extra value to an existing product type. In his Harvard Business Review article, Mark Bonchek says, "Digital business models are a bit of a misnomer. It’s not digital technology that defines them; it’s their ability to create exponential value. The music and video industries, for example, weren’t redefined by converting analog to digital formats. Just ask Sony about Minidisc players and Netflix about their DVD business." Founders who want to de-risk assumptions around using a particular delivery vehicle for a product or service will be well-served with this technique.

While it can be used in different areas, here are a few examples of when/where it is best applied:

The benefits of taking this approach are:

This is a common pattern in enterprise lean startups, particularly with bigger companies having a lot of legacy processes.

Note: This is not the same as Randy Komisar's analog/antilog thought experiment for formulating a value proposition or identifying a problem. The goal here is to gather actual user feedback, based on something physical that approximates the final form of the product.

Can vary widely. It depends on how long both the physical and digital forms of the product will take to build, and what exactly you are trying to test.

Digital is not good for its own sake. Make sure that you are adding useful features and benefits, as you add to the product's complexity.

Over-engineering/gold-plating: Sometimes a good physical product feature will solve the problem better than fancy software and engineering.

Over-focusing on technology: If the tech is proven or low risk, test the business model first (especially customer needs).