HOW MANUAL AUTOMATION GOT US FROM AN IDEA TO A WORKING PRODUCT IN 2 WEEKS. The Story behind

Transcription

1 HOW MANUAL AUTOMATION GOT US FROM AN IDEA TO A WORKING PRODUCT IN 2 WEEKS. The Story behind Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

2 QUICK REMINDER MANUAL AUTOMATION is a mindset. It means building the web products you have in mind, using manual methods at first. For the end user, it will work exactly the same as if it was fully automatic and developed in the traditional way. However, the process behind the scenes is extremely faster. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

3 WHAT HAVE WE HERE I. INTRO II. THE 10 STEPS III. THE GUIDE Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

4 PART I INTRO Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

5 / The story of how we started our startup, TAPDOG, is perhaps our favorite example of Manual Automation. Tapdog was a SaaS competitive intelligence platform, that delivered insights and actionable data. Manual Automation made it possible for us to have a product up and running in the hands of actual users, only 2 weeks after the idea came to be. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

6 / On April 2013, 5 Friends, who happened to also be co-founders of a startup, get on a plane from TLV to SF, to join the startup accelerator Upwest Labs. A couple of weeks into the program, we decide to pivot. We move to a field we are more passionate about. Our first love, competitive intelligence. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

7 / We want to build a tool that would aggregate tens of different data sources, to offer companies a high-level analysis of their competitors online presence. We re in love with the idea. The thing is, we re in the middle of a 3-month long program, expected to present a working product with actual clients in about a month. Desperate times call for Manual Automation. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

8 PART II TAPDOG S 10 STEPS FOR MANUAL AUTOMATION Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

9 1. MAKE A LIST We were trying to get in the business of aggregating data sources to reach actionable insights. For that, one first needs a wish list of data sources. Our initial list contained- 1. Social presence- Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, Pinterest 2. Team size- CrunchBase, Linkedin 3. Fundraising numbers- CrunchBase, Angellist 4. Press mentions- Mention.me 5. Traffic data- SimilarWeb, Alexa, QuantCast 6. SEO data- Alexa 7. Display Advertising- MixRank 8. Technologies used- BuiltWith 9. Site changes- based on our technology

10 2. DESIGN ONE PAGE We take our pretty list and design its future UI, to have something more concrete to help us get potential clients attention-

11 3. ATTACK FUTURE CLIENTS With only a JPG in hand, we approach potential clients. We tell them our vision, offer them to be in our Beta program and ask for feedback about the product which we re in the process of building. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

12 4. ITERATE ON DESIGN We gather the first user feedback, get the beta group going, tweak our design, and get to some actual work.

13 5. WRITING THE GUIDE We write a guide with MANUAL instructions of how to collect the data we need. For example, we want to present the # of employees a company has, so the instructions say something like: a. Go to crunchbase.com b. Search for the company name c. Find the # of employees written d. List it in an Excel file CHECK OUT the actual guide we wrote in part III Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

14 6. HIRING HELP With the written guide, we get busy hiring. We go to upwork.com (back then, Odesk), list a job for manual data entry, and with the help of 8 people from around the world, we re ready to go. Original job listing:

15 7. LAUNCING THE BETA We announce to our Beta clients that our platform is almost ready to go, and ask them to send us a list of the competitors they would like to analyze. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

16 8. LAUNCING THE BETA We forward the names of the competitors requested by the beta clients to our people overseas, who start sending us the data in Excel spreadsheets.

17 9. BASIC WEBSITE FIRST LINE OF CODE is written! We build a very basic website, with basically 3 pagesa. Homepage for marketing purposes b. Sign-up/Log-in page c. The main competitor analysis page It basically works like a building in a western movie set. We only build the front side of the building with nothing behind. A nice design that s only connected to a basic database table on the backend. No elaborate brains, no API connections. UI + table. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

18 Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

19 10. WORKING PRODUCT. With that, we have a WORKING PRODUCT. It s something clients are happy with, we begin getting traction and interest, and by the wonders of word of mouth we find ourselves with a waiting list with hundreds of potential clients. That gives us the needed boost and time to build the full product behind the design and grow our business at the same time. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

20 TO CONCLUDE These steps seem quite specific to our then product and needs, but the important takeaway here is the MINDSET. That s something we believe should be cross-products. For your own good. TapDog continued to grow and eventually became part of SimilarWeb, the company we currently work at. Was a great ride. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

21 PART III TAPDOG S MANUAL AUTOMATION GUIDE Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

22 EXPLANATION Below are examples slides, out of the 500 slides guide we wrote. The portion you ll see below shows the specific instructions we wrote for gathering different kinds of data about a website. Take a look, get the concept behind it, understand the level of granularity, go build something even better. Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com

23 1. How to get the site logo

24 Step 1: Go to h/p://images.google.com Example:

25 Step 2: Search for site name + logo Example: If site is search for fundly logo

26 Step 3: Within search results, look for an image of a logo and click on the version with the highest possible resolufon (the bigger the numbers next to it, the be/er) Example:

27 Step 4: Click on the bu/on view original image Example:

28 Step 5: Copy the URL and paste it into the row Site Logo in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the text h/p:// LogonoTagline.jpg

29 2. How to get the site descripfon

30 Step 1: Go to h/p://domaininternethosfng.com Example:

31 Step 2: Search for site s URL Example: If site is search for

32 Step 3: Scroll down to the category Meta Descrip>on of Site url Example:

33 Step 4: Copy the descripfon and paste it into the row Site DescripFon in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the text Our online fundraising pla^orm makes it easy for causes and non-profits to raise money and fundraise online. EffecFvely launch and grow your campaign fundraiser today on Fundly.

34 3. How to get the Who is details

35 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

36 Step 2: Search for site s URL Example: If site is search for

37 Step 3: Copy three paragraphs - Created on, Registrant, AdministraFve Contact - into the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example:

38 4. How to get the country details

39 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

40 Step 2: Search for site s URL Example: If site is search for

41 Step 3: Copy the country name that appears under the administrafve contact into the row LocaFon details in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the text United States

42 5. How to get the Global Ranking

43 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

44 Step 2: Search for site s URL Example: If site is search for

45 Step 3: Write the number next to the Ftle Alexa Traffic Rank in the row Global Ranking in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the number 72,644

46 6. How to get the external backlinks

47 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

48 Step 2: Search for site s URL Example: If site is search for

49 Step 3: Write the number next to the Ftle Sites Linking In in the row sites linking in in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the number 1,685

50 7. How to get the Page Rank

51 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

52 Step 2: Scroll down, insert the site s URL, the le/ers and numbers as they appear in the Captcha and click Check Example: In this case, for the text box domain name insert for the captcha insert 3sbw

53 Step 3: Write the single digit number next to the Ftle Google page rank for: fundly.com in the row Page Rank in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the number 5

54 8. How to get the funding details

55 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

56 Step 2: Search for site name Example: If site is search for fundly

57 Step 3: Scroll down to the Funding secfon. Copy the number next to the Ftle Total and paste it into the row funding in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the number $7.8M

58 9. How to get the Facebook Likes

59 Step 1: Go to h/p:// Example:

60 Step 2: Search for site name + facebook Example: If site is search for fundly facebook

61 Step 3: Find and click on the Site s Facebook page. It will usually be the top result in list. Example:

62 Step 4: Write the number above the Ftle Likes in the row Facebook Likes in the General Data table within the websites to track Excel document Example: In this case, copy the number 19,620

63 THANKS. Have any questions, comments or suggestions about MANUAL AUTOAMTION? Noam Schwartz & Alon Porat HackingRevenue.com