DAVID J. BLAND
Corporate Innovator
David J. Bland helps companies test business ideas. He takes people through a process he created which will ultimately uncover whether or not someone has a legitimate business. He helps them navigate the risks involved with the idea by conducting a series of tests to ensure customers have identified the problem that they're trying to solve, or a pain or a gain they're looking for.
Not many people do what David J. Bland does. He created his own niche which grew from his 11 years working at startups. One was successful, the other two were not, but he started to see some patterns emerge from the two that didn’t succeed. They were ignoring the customers’ problems. They were building “stuff” because they thought they were right. After the last failure… he decided to get into coaching and consulting. David and his family moved to the Northern California and started using everything he’d learned to help people NOT make the same mistakes he had done.
PROBLEM SOLVER
David J. Bland has a three-step process:
1
Extracting your assumptions.
Desirability assumptions, viability assumptions, feasibility assumptions for the idea that you have.
2
Mapping out those assumptions.
Map those assumptions and then focus on the things that are most important, where you have the least amount of evidence.
3
Running experiments.
Experimentation is critical in order to address the riskiest assumptions and then feed that back into the process.
THE BOOK – TESTING BUSINESS IDEAS
A Guide to Efficient Testing of Business Models
70% of new products fall short of expectations, but Testing Business Ideas aims to reverse this trend. Inspired by Alex Osterwalder's globally renowned Business Model Generation, this practical guide provides a range of hands-on techniques for quickly testing new business ideas.
The book demonstrates how systematic testing of business ideas can significantly reduce risks and enhance the likelihood of success for any business venture or project. It expands upon the widely used Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas by incorporating Assumptions Mapping and other effective lean startup-style experimentation methods.
Testing Business Ideas presents its content through an appealing 4-color format to:
- Enhance the chances of success and minimize the risk of resources, time and money being wasted on poor ideas.
- Narrow the knowledge gap between strategy and experimentation/validation.
- Assess and verify key business assumptions using the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas.
This comprehensive manual to testing business models offers practical advice on making critical decisions based on facts, not intuition. It teaches leaders how to foster an experimental mentality in their organization and make experimentation a continuous, repeatable process.
Available On
WORK WITH DAVID
Steps Leaders Can Take
Don’t be that company that hires David after years of frustration and say; “I wish I had brought him in years ago.” Many companies have felt the pain of building something that nobody wanted and spent a lot of time, resources and money doing so. They want to prevent that from happening again, which is where David comes in. Not every test is going to be successful, but each test will ensure that companies are making really smart investment decisions based on evidence. David was shocked to learn how many decisions are based solely on intuition. Some great ideas are formed this way but many, many more fail than succeed so why not check it against reality? That’s what David J. Bland will do for your organization. He will gather quantitative, qualitative data that can be used to support or refute what's being worked on.
“It was over holiday break and I didn't have a pipeline of clients. I had to borrow money from my retirement to get the business off the ground, but then I worked through the Christmas holiday by conducting retail experimentation for a large company. Shortly after that I signed another client and then another client. Fast forward to today, and I have all these stories from many of the biggest companies in the world that I have helped test their ideas.”
David J. Bland
David has been working in this space since 2010 and has worked with many different agencies. He’s learned a lot through his work with teams and executives. He got to the point in his life where he knew he needed to open up his own firm.
David frequenly leads workshops and is invited to speak at numerous large conferences. He wrote a bestselling book Testing Business Ideas.
What Clients Say About Us
David is skilled at weaving complementary thinking tools together to meet your needs. He draws inspiration from lean startup, design thinking, agile, business model innovation and more. When David combines these with your domain experience, he creates an engaging experience where you learn by doing while also achieving your goals at the same time.
“David advises corporations on how to design business models and value propositions. Work with him to test yours before it’s too late!”
Alexander Osterwalder - Strategyzer
“David’s advising helped us apply lean startup to our new mobility products and services, by rapidly testing them in the market.”
Vinuth Rai
TOYOTA“David trains our superheroes on how to rapidly validate their startup ideas in the market.”
Tim Draper
Venture CapitalistWhat Clients Say About Us
David is skilled at weaving complementary thinking tools together to meet your needs. He draws inspiration from lean startup, design thinking, agile, business model innovation and more. When David combines these with your domain experience, he creates an engaging experience where you learn by doing while also achieving your goals at the same time.
